Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Rinzler was falling, but he could hardly process it. Something inside him, a safeguard, a fortress in his programming, was crumbling, like it had been de-rezzed from deep inside his code. If a stream of orange voxels was trailing from his plummeting body he wouldn’t be surprised, but he couldn’t tell, he could barely see amidst the torrent of old broken data fragments assaulting his system! Fight it as he might, it overpowered his senses, rendering him helpless as he freefell towards the grid.

A program beamed at him as he hoisted them onto a platform, their grid suit changing color from red to blue -

Wind whistled alarmingly around him, drowning out the sound of his grinding processors. He fumbled blindly for his spare baton with numb fingers.

A woman with strange light patterns rose from the waters and stepped onto the land -

Streaks of yellow flashed through the air overhead, diving towards him, he had to OBEY -

Grid bugs swarming a building overhead, a chunk of crashing down and shattering into voxels -

It collided with his body, hands curling tight around his wrists. Panic rose in his chest, at what being grabbed like that meant -

A mirror in the outlands, reflecting back the fight he was locked in -

Sharp pain hit his face, hit his stomach, he couldn’t move, couldn’t think, reacting would only make it all so much worse -

Glass shattered around a program in white -

Something he was clinging to desperately was torn from his grasp, and suddenly Rinzler was careening backwards, out of control. Tiny flashes of yellow burned in his vision, the grid around him spiraled, and more images battered him relentlessly, some he even recognized.

Clu smiling over him with Rinzler’s bare wrist in his grip, pressing in on one of his favorite scars - Flying over a canyon on a light cycle with that program in white - Watching the grid light up in colors as a female program leaned into him - Slicing through a group of rebels, leaving nothing but voxels and a few nanos of echoing screams in their wake -

He was ripped away from the last one as he plunged into shocking cold sea. The battle above faded, muffled by the water, and Rinzler slowed and… sank. His energy was sapped, systems overloaded by the torrent of new data after the grueling fight above, but it all paused long enough for him to realize what went wrong.

Flynn… He had seen Flynn. 

Flynn was the enemy. CLU had ordered him to take the shot, like he’d given him countless orders before, like he had always obeyed! That was his entire purpose. It wasn’t his place to question it, no matter the orders, no matter how cruel, how painful, how vile, how…

Tron… What have you become?

But Tron was dead. CLU had killed Tron, Rinzler knew that, and yet… Somehow… Those words alone had stopped him from following orders. They had effortlessly blown apart the fortress CLU built in his code. A new directive surged straight through him, and without warning, CLU’s control over him had shattered.

I… fight… For the users.

Rinzler had crashed his jet straight into him…

I obey CLU…

But why? 

It… It wasn’t his place to question… Yet here he was. Sinking. Dying… Not for CLU, but for Kevin Flynn.

Was that better?

I fight for the users…
I obey CLU…
I fight for the users…

Rinzler didn’t know the answer… But it was silent outside of his mind, as broken data fragments continued to flicker behind his eyes. The lights from the city above were distant and dim, but the water glowed with the eerie orange of his circuits, pulsing around him and… 

And the color turned white, just as his vision began to fade. Then the sea rippled above him, a shadow appeared overhead, and Rinzler crashed completely.

---

DE-REZZ!! DE-REZZ!! DE-REZZ!!

Rinzler had pinned a program to the colosseum floor, a knee in her chest and a disk at her throat. Criminal, rebel, stray, it didn’t matter. None of it mattered. CLU wanted him fighting in the games, so he did, de-rezzing any opponent who faced him without hesitation.

“P-Please,” The program spluttered uselessly. “I don’t belong here, I - I’m just an architect! I never betr-”

Rinzler slashed his disk into her neck, cutting off her words, and she crumbled beneath him. His knees fell through the space where her body had been and shifted on unsteady voxels instead. The crowd roared in his ears for a moment, then faded. All went dark, except for the scattered blue gore surrounding him, and yellow circuits walking out from the shadows.

“That was quite a show!” CLU crooned as he stopped just a few feet from Rinzler, hovering over him. 

Rinzler didn’t move, didn’t speak, didn’t even look up, but his system seized and his processors started grinding furiously. 

“Quite a show,” CLU repeated slowly. “You’re exactly what I need out there, man! Entertaining the crowd. Keeping them in line. Reminding them of their loyalties.”

Rinzler knew better than to respond to anything but a direct order, praise or otherwise. He stayed stark still on his knees, head bowed, trying desperately to push down his own racing code.

“Looks like you still have your uses after all, right buddy? Even after everything you ruined.”

The grinding noise from Rinzlers processors grew louder, even as Rinzler made every effort to stay perfectly still, to show none of the fear or weakness he knew CLU was looking for in him! But the sound gave it away, and CLU chuckled once and grabbed hold of Rinzler’s wrist. Something in him screamed to run, to fight, but he couldn’t! Not against CLU. It was against his programming, he had to obey…

“You know, I can see why you’re the fan favorite,” CLU said, and Rinzler could hear the smile on his lips even with his head still bowed and his processors grinding uncontrollably. “Your finishing move back there sure made a pretty picture. I think I like seeing you this way, too…”

Rinzler braced his knees on the shifting voxels as CLU pulled him into his body by the wrist, caught his helmet in his other hand, flipped it back, and -

Tron! Stay with me!

The nightmare stuttered. CLU’s thumb jerked painfully against a scar on his bare cheek and Rinzler tried hard to stifle the cry in his throat.

Just a little longer, we made it! I’ve got you!

Piercing light flooded his vision, the voxels under his knees shimmered away, and CLU stumbled backwards in alarm, releasing Rinzler’s wrist and his face. Rinzler fell forward, gasping for breath, and hit something solid and smooth, like glass. The pain in his scars where CLU had touched them began to ebb away. His grinding processors started to settle. He blinked open his eyes, and…

Swirling bright liquid danced around him. He had to think for a moment, but he knew what this was, somewhere deep in the back of his mind. A healing chamber… But how? CLU would never…

“Better now?” Someone asked nearby. “This chamber held you together before. Maybe it can help again.”

Rinzler whipped his head towards the voice, but could only make out a blurred silhouette from the inside of the tank. 

“You know I hope that color change means something this time,” They continued. “There’s a lot of programs out there who wouldn’t want me to do this.”

Rinzler wasn’t sure what to do with that, so he remained quiet, waiting. Calculating. 

“You crashed your jet into CLU’s,” The program said, an accusatory edge to a voice that sounded… Familiar, somehow. “You had the shot. You could have taken out Flynn, but you turned on CLU instead. Why? What happened up there?” He asked. “Did you finally grow past your programming?”

No, he hadn’t. Flynn had done that for him. He had changed him somehow, unlocked something old and broken inside of him, made it so crashing his jet into CLU’s was suddenly the only action that made any sense… 

“Nothing to say?” The program on the other side asked with a bitter sigh. “You… Saved us, you know. CLU is gone now.”

CLU was gone?

“He can’t hurt anyone else,” He continued solemnly. “The grid is free. Just like you wanted.”

Rinzler’s grinding processors rumbled in the healing waters. He didn’t remember wanting that. He didn’t remember wanting much of anything CLU made him do, it wasn’t his place to have desires, only to obey. He hadn’t wanted to de-rezz innocent programs in the games, he hadn’t wanted to hunt rebels in the streets, he hadn’t wanted to let CLU use him and hurt him when they were alone, he’d just obeyed. Empty and hollowed out of anything CLU didn’t see as useful or perfect… Though even CLU hadn’t been able to fix all the damage in his code. Rinzler was lucky that CLU found a way to repurpose him at all. 

Wasn’t that what CLU had told him? But the data fragments, on the other hand…

“Tron?”

Something flashed through his mind at that name, at that voice. For a moment he was jerked into another broken scene, glancing over his shoulder at a young program in a white gridsuit.

We’re friends… Right? The program asked sheepishly. 

Rinzler opened his mouth as if to respond, but the memory faded before he could say. He stayed suspended in the liquid for a moment, mulling it over in frustration. Whatever the answer had been, it hardly mattered now, but at least Rinzler made the connection. At least he knew who it was who had pulled him from the Sea of Simulation. 

“I’m not Tron,” Rinzler growled. “CLU killed him.”

“Sorry but CLU’s not that good,” Beck said defiantly. “I told you, I saw what you did today. You’re still in there Tron, I know it.”

“It’s Rinzler,” Rinzler snarled, lunging forward against the glass. 

“I don’t think so,” Beck replied evenly. “And CLU’s gone. You can’t answer to him anymore anyways, you don’t have to be what he wants you to be!”

Rinzler knew that. It was the only reason he was risking talking to Beck at all, but before he could say so, the healing tank began to beep. Rinzler’s eyes snapped towards the sound in alarm.

“You didn’t break it,” Beck huffed. “It’s just done all it can for you, for now. Come on. Let’s get you out of there… And don’t try anything.”

Like there was anything to try. CLU was gone. Rinzler himself had betrayed him, his creator, his master, the moment his granite hold on his programming had slipped. There was no one to go back to, no one to obey… Other than Flynn.

Rinzler’s processors ground fast at the idea as Beck opened the chamber door and he tumbled out, suddenly unable to stand being trapped in the damn thing for one more nano! Images that didn’t make sense started to swarm his head again, of someone who could only be Flynn flashing a bright smile as the road dissolved in a swarm of grid bugs beneath their light cycles, Flynn standing before a court of angry ISOs, Flynn patting the shoulder of a program with a slice missing from their head…

In the uncertainty he snatched his disks off his back, holding them tight in his fists and trying hard not to tremble, not to show any weakness in front of Beck at all! He really had been compromised, he was so much more damaged than even CLU told him, wasn’t he? CLU’s safeguards had been holding him together as much as they’d chained him to CLU’s side - 

But the visions were flickering too fast, too vivid, and he mis-stepped, tumbling forward in his disorientation. Rinzler hit his knees again and rolled onto the floor in tandem with a new memory, of another time he had fallen from the same healing chamber, collapsed on weak legs, felt his scars burning! He blinked once and found he was staring up at Beck’s face. There was a flash, and he was still looking up at Beck, but a younger version who held his hand. Reality crashed back in, the room solidified, and he heard his processors grinding.

“You’re not dying on me this time,” The older, more material version of Beck said determinedly from above. “It’s not another virus is it? The healing tank should have helped with the surface damage but… these scars were gone before… Why are they back?”

Rinzler stared up at Beck’s face, just trying to breathe, to settle his processors as the distortion stayed at bay this time. He had to make sure he was really in one place in one time and not careening through snippets of old junk. Beck waited patiently for him to recover, giving his hand a squeeze. For a moment Rinzler almost yanked his hand away, he hadn’t realized this Beck had taken it too, but he paused… And he wasn’t sure why. It was almost like holding on was keeping him here, where things were mildly less overwhelming. At first the feeling had triggered something about CLU, but CLU had never done this, so… So it was okay.

“CLU,” Rinzler rasped, not really sure why he was bothering to answer at all. “No virus.” It wasn’t like that mattered, but something else did. Beck’s face shone with anger at the words, but before he could respond, Rinzler pushed himself upright with a harsh cough. “Where’s Flynn?”

“Flynn?” Beck asked, still looking at his face in some sort of dumbstruck horror, but his hesitation cost him. Rinzler still had a disk in one hand, the one Beck wasn’t still holding, and in a single swift motion, he brought it up against Beck’s neck. 

Beck looked down at the spinning disk, a single eyebrow raised and a sorrowful look on his face, and let out a sigh. Rinzler stared him down. He could answer the question or be derezzed on the spot. Rinzler would win in a fight, even like this… Most likely, anyways.

But Beck made no move to draw his own disk, even to defend himself. “He’s… Gone, Tron,” Beck said gravely. “I’m sorry…”

“It’s Rinzler,” Rinzler seethed, not sure why the program was apologizing.

“Whatever CLU told you you were…” Beck began, but trailed off as Rinzler pressed the disk closer against his neck. “Okay, okay. I’m not here to hide anything. If you need to know, Flynn re-integrated with CLU. Neither survived it. The other user they brought in went back to what the users call the real world… They’re both gone, Tr- Rinzler. It’s over.”

Rinzler kept his disc poised to take his shot, staring down Beck, trying to discern if the program was really telling the truth but… Something told him that Beck had no reason to lie about that. The entire situation, the way Beck had saved him, had put himself alone in a room with Rinzler himself, CLU’s deadliest soldier, and was making no move to fight back… It was disarming, but maybe it meant he could be trusted. That, and the fragments he had been processing already gave him a feeling. This was someone he knew, someone he might have even been a friend before… Before something…

No, that was impossible. Rinzler pulled back his disk. Everything had just become so much more complicated, even if his processors had slowed their grinding at the news. CLU was gone, and Flynn too. No CLU to obey, no users to fight for… So…

What was his use?

What was he for?

The damage remained and there was nothing to do about it. CLU had pieced him back together after his code was tattered and rotted, rebuilding him into what CLU envisioned, to suit his needs alone. Flynn had broken him free of CLU’s control but left him with a thousand broken data shards to process and no one left to fix him. He was made to be a tool, he was meant to be used, he accepted that a long time ago. But what good was he broken and directiveless?

“Look… You don’t have to tell me what that was about if you don’t want to,” Beck said a little reluctantly, looking down to their hands. Rinzler was still stubbornly holding on to Becks, unwilling to subject himself to more memories, at least not yet. “You don’t have to do anything anymore. But even if you don’t know it, we’ve kind of been through a lot together. You’ve been trying to catch me for a long time, and I’ve been trying to get through to you. So now that you’re here, and they’re gone… I’m not leaving you alone. That’s not what friends do.”

Rinzler scoffed at that, fixing his eyes unfocused out the window at a horizon that didn’t seem to have an end, but at least that answered one question. Apparently, he and Beck had been friends. 

This cycle was making less sense by the moment, but something clicked into place in his mind unexpectedly. He furrowed his brow and pursed his lips, earning a concerned look from Beck, and gingerly turned the disk in his hand over so it lay flat in one palm, focusing on the memory from before. It shimmered to life above the disk, a little tattered at the edges, but… solid.

We’re friends… Right? The younger version of Beck said. It fizzled away before Rinzler could answer again, but he let out a sigh. The rest of the fragments still felt scattered and loose, like that shifting pile of voxels he couldn’t gain his footing on, but that one was tethered down now. It had a place, it fit, it wouldn’t hurt him, it… It was his…

Beck looked at him, somehow stunned into silence for just a few nanos as Rinzler grasped the disk firmly in his hand again. “You remember me?” He asked after a moment.

Rinzler rolled his eyes. “Vaguely,” He grumbled. That at least explained a little why the program made a foolish enough move to save his enemy, and why holding his hand felt like comfort instead of violation… He took a small breath and stowed the disk away on his back again. Beck wouldn’t hurt him. That much he knew.

“Better than nothing,” Beck said a little bit shakily, exhaling slowly and giving his hand another squeeze. “A lot is about to change, but… We can figure it all out together, now. Okay?”

Rinzler bit back a groan on instinct. This was going to be a very complicated and deeply annoying process, wasn’t it? But at least he wouldn’t be alone, since according to that memory and Beck’s insistence… He had a friend.

“Okay,” Rinzler agreed instead just to make him shut up, and closed his eyes. His grinding processors slowed and quieted, and Beck, mercifully, seemed to take the hint. Rinzler might have just come out of a healing tank but he still needed rest, and CLU wasn’t here to stop him from getting it, unless he turned up in his nightmares again.

He breathed carefully through his nose at the thought. CLU was gone, even if parts of him would always remain, in his code, on his skin. There wasn’t anything to do about that now, he would have to learn to cope…

But when he awoke from the sleep cycle next, there hadn’t been another nightmare. Beck was still holding his hand, too.

Chapter Text

Tron fell into the sea, and Beck dove in after him without a second thought.

Tron had gone against CLU. Tron had protected the users as they made their escape, crashing his light jet into CLU himself! Beck had screamed at the sight, terrified that Tron had been killed for real, before CLU’s signature yellow circuits latched on to a spot of falling orange in the air and rezzed up a new light jet, leaving Tron in freefall.

It was the first sign Beck had seen that his mentor, his friend, was still in there since it all went wrong, but that wasn’t why he dove in. That was just instinct. He’d done the same for Paige back when they were still enemies. He’d spared the black guard on the light rail on his first real mission, he’d done everything he could to save Cutler even after he had been rectified, he even fought to defend Dyson from Tron himself when he realized that his hero was out for revenge! So he couldn’t give up on Tron, he… He just couldn’t, not even if Tron himself had given up.

So Beck swam, his eyes stinging in the waters as he focused on the flickering orange glow below him. He couldn’t watch his friend dissolve into voxels in the sea, not after everything! But his circuits were fading. Beck paddled faster and -

No, it wasn’t fading… It was turning. He just barely kept himself from gasping underwater and choking on the spot. The color was changing to white.

That had to mean Tron was still in there! Beck reached out and grabbed hold of his old mentor’s arm, drawing him in. His body was limp, but he lived. Beck’s lungs started to burn. He wrapped an arm around Tron’s middle, kicked off in the icy waters, and when his head breached the surface again he gulped down the sweet, fresh air, just as an explosion tore through the sky overhead.

He hoped that meant what he thought it did. That CLU’s master plan had been foiled, maybe that CLU himself had been defeated by the users after all! But there was no time to think on it. Tron wasn’t de-rezzing, but he wasn’t waking up either.

It took time to paddle back to land with Tron in tow. It took a little longer to regain his strength enough to rezz up a light cycle and heave his friend on board, and during it, Beck noticed a couple of cracks in Tron’s code from the fight that couldn’t mean anything good. There weren’t many places he could take him. Whatever became of the fight, CLU’s forces were still out there, and he couldn’t risk leading anyone back to where Paige was hiding the remaining rebels. CLU or not, Argon had fallen, and with how many programs they lost, Beck knew Rinzler was largely to blame…

But one of the cracks along his shoulder splintered, and Beck gritted his teeth. “Come on Tron!” He urged, looking around for his options and narrowing his eyes at an inconspicuous mountain peak in the distance. “Stay with me!”

It couldn’t be too late, he had to be right about Tron, he… He just had to be! They’d already lost too many programs in a single cycle and Beck couldn’t lose one more, not like this and not to CLU. The damage it took to turn Tron into Rinzler had been extensive, but it couldn’t have erased him completely, even… Even though Tron had done it to himself.

Beck swallowed hard and swung his lightcycle around to speed off into the outlands, along a path he knew well, holding his friend tight. He couldn’t fix that anymore, he couldn’t save him from what was already done, but maybe this time, he could keep him from falling apart.

---

“We’re here!” Beck panted, carrying Tron in his arms towards the old healing chamber as fast as he could manage. “I’ve got you.” He twisted his friend around and placed him carefully inside, letting the strange liquid take his weight, and closed the door. The moment the unit powered up and the cracks that webbed up his shoulder and down his back started to knit back together, Beck slumped to the floor in a heap.

It had been ages since he was here last, hadn’t it? He hadn’t been back since his last mission with Tron. Beck took a nano to just sit there, his arms weak with the effort of saving Tron’s life and then carrying him all this way, and looked around the old safe house. Out the windows he could see Argon City, awash in orange light. The portal wasn’t lit anymore, but the air around it was littered with eerie glowing voxels and the occasional static discharge, left over from the explosion.

Just like the last time they were here.

If CLU has really captured Kevin Flynn, I have to go! Tron had bit out unapologetically. There IS no choice!

But what if it’s a trap? Beck protested.

The portal just lit up and something exploded, of course it’s a trap! I still have to try. You of all programs should know that.

Let me at least do some recon first! We can’t just go barging in-

You can’t just go barging in! I can, Tron had snarled, layering his own black gridsuit with spare batons, explosives, and a little black disk that made Beck’s stomach turn. There’s no time. If you want to help you can back me but don’t stand in my way.

Why are you packing the Killswitch? Beck asked incredulously.

A last resort, Tron replied with a dark scowl, clicking the thing in place behind his own disks. 

Better be, Beck mumbled back.

Tron had shot him a sharp look. Beck, you know what they could do. I can’t let them. If CLU were to get his hands on me I would be-

The greatest weapon he could possibly have, I know, I know, Beck said uncomfortably. But there’s got to be another way. You taught me didn’t you? Don’t you think I’d find a way to come through? To save you?

It’s not that simple, Beck.

Why not? Beck retorted. Don’t you trust me?

I trust you to make the hard decision, the right decision, when the time comes, Tron said solemnly, stepping forward with a heavy sigh and clasping a hand on Beck’s shoulder. I chose you to succeed me for a reason, Beck. You’ve surpassed your programming all on your own. You value the lives of other programs, even your enemies, and you’ve never given up fighting to protect them.

Thanks. But that includes you.

It’s more important that you be there for them. They need Tron to look to, and that’s you. It has been for a long time.

Well maybe I need Tron too, Beck had argued, crossing his arms. Ever think of that?

I have, Tron said darkly.

I-

But Becks words had been cut off as another series of explosions went off in the distance, flashes and smoke visible even from here.

We need to go. Now! Tron barked out. Come on!

Beck could still hear those words in his ears today, as he stared back out the window pane at Flynn’s Place in the distance. He squeezed his eyes shut. Both of them had been right that night. It was a trap, Flynn hadn’t even been there, it was all a part of CLU’s plan and they played right into it… And Rinzler was the greatest weapon CLU could have possibly gotten his hands on.

He could feel the rest of the memory surging forward even though he didn’t want to play it, didn’t want to remember right now, but a small beep from an incoming message helped to smash it back down. He opened his eyes and rushed to read it, eager for any distraction, especially news.

It was Paige. His heart leapt. She was still alive.

Occupation forces just moved past the clinic. They didn’t find our base. Those of us here should be safe for now, but many haven’t returned, she had written. Reliable rumors say Flynn re-integrated with CLU. They’re both gone, along with half his army. We need to plan our next move while they’re missing their leader.

Beck shook his head and re-read the message several times over. She was safe but… Who was missing? What happened to them? And if both CLU and Flynn were really dead… What happened next?

He started to type up a response but found he didn’t know what to say. What could he say? She was right, they did need to plan their next move, but for once he didn’t know where to start.

Tron would know, but… Beck wasn’t even sure how much of Tron was left. There had to be something in there of his original code, he turned on CLU at long last, he saved them, but Beck had saved the enemy now, too. 

I know what you did already, Paige’s next message suddenly popped up on the screen. 

Beck blinked twice at the screen and smacked his hand to his forehead. How do you know about Rinzler? Who saw? He typed back frantically. If word of this got out…

You just told me.

Beck stared at the screen, feeling stupid for that one. At least their messages were encrypted.

And I know you. 

He let out a sigh and smiled just a little bit, in spite of himself. Are you mad? He sent back.

I’m not a hypocrite.

Well… That was a yes, but at least he couldn’t really be in trouble for it. Paige didn’t know who Rinzler really was either, none of them did… But at least she understood.

Most of the others wouldn’t.

Beck typed out a quick heart to send back to her, then changed it to several hearts, hit send, and stowed the communicator. He had to think on this, see what sort of shape Tron was in before making any decisions, and that meant facing him, trying to help him, again. Maybe this time, though, it would be different. Beck pushed himself up on aching legs and stepped closer to the tank. It was hard to see much through the softly glowing liquid, but right away, he could tell Tron’s helmet had been pulled back. He could see the silhouette of his face, and it made something tighten in his throat. 

“Better now?” Beck asked cautiously, careful to keep the catch out of his voice. “This chamber held you together before. Maybe it can help again.”

Tron turned towards him and locked on in an instant, even if he couldn’t quite see, but the four squares making up the little T on his collarbone glowed white through the liquid. Beck stared at them. He’d seen them so many times now, always orange before, and he always knew what they meant, even if no one else seemed to put together the pieces. So many programs had been arrested or de-rezzed by their true hero and never even known it, and Beck had tried so many times to reach him, all in vain…

“You know… I hope that color change means something this time,” Beck said uneasily, taking a step closer. “There’s a lot of programs out there who wouldn’t want me to do this.”

Tron remained silent. Beck couldn’t remember ever hearing him talk after that fateful cycle when it all went wrong, but he hadn’t taken his helmet off before either, so…

“You crashed your jet into CLU’s,” Beck tried to remind him. “You had the shot. You could have taken out Flynn, but you turned on CLU instead. Why? What happened up there?” He asked tentatively, but still, there was no response. Beck narrowed his eyes at the form in the water as a million other pent up questions came to mind, but only one slipped out. “Did you finally grow past your programming?”

The words came out bitter. Beck hated even asking, he shouldn’t doubt, but it had nagged at him for so many cycles now. Why had Tron been so insistent they go after Flynn that night with hardly any preparation and no recon, fully aware it could be a trap and taking the risk anyways?! Why, once CLU got his hands in his code, had he had never seemed to fight it?! All that time during their training, Tron had praised Beck for growing past his programming, becoming something more, only for Tron himself to never even…

Beck shook his head, trying to clear the churning thoughts from his mind. “Nothing to say?” He sighed. He should have known it would be like this, shouldn’t have hoped for anything else... But whatever happened out there, whatever his programming or how much he followed it, Tron had done something different. He was still in there, he was here, or at least part of him was. “You… Saved us, you know,” Beck told him. “CLU is gone now. He can’t hurt anyone else. The grid is free, just like you wanted.”

Silence. Beck hoped the news would help somehow, but as he stared hard into the tank looking for any reaction, anything at all that told him how his old friend was feeling about this, not much happened. Only the grinding sound Tron made now grew loud enough to hear through the water. Beck frowned. Had the color change meant a damn thing or did it just mean that Tron’s master was gone?!

“Tron?” Beck pushed.

“I’m not Tron,” Tron suddenly growled, and Beck’s eyes widened. “CLU killed him.”

“Sorry but CLU’s not that good,” Beck shot back in elation! The words themselves weren’t great, sure, but hearing Tron’s voice again at all had to be a sign of something! “I told you, I saw what you did today. You’re still in there Tron, I know it!” Beck grinned.

“It’s Rinzler,” Tron snarled, hitting the glass with his hand. 

“I don’t think so,” Beck said lightly. “And CLU’s gone. You can’t answer to him anymore anyways, you don’t have to be what he wants you to be!”

The tank began beeping at that moment and Tron turned frantically towards it. Becks smile faltered just a little.

“You didn’t break it,” He reassured him. “It’s just done all it can for you, for now. Come on. Let’s get you out of there… And don’t try anything.”

Beck wanted so badly just to trust him again, but if Tron really thought he was still Rinzler, that could be a problem. He still steeled himself for a nano before opening the chamber door and offering a hand to help guide him out. Before he could even get a glimpse of his face, though, Tron practically fell out of the tank! He stumbled a moment, dazed and disoriented, and Beck reached to help, but that was a mistake. Tron snatched both disks off his back, swinging them wildly through the air and making Beck duck, then tripped over nothing and fell crashing to the floor. One of the disks rolled from his hand.

“Tron! Are you okay?” Beck asked frantically, but Tron didn’t answer. Beck gathered up his hand and looked anxiously down at his friend. Tron’s eyes were unfocused and hollow, his lips twitched, his scar… Why did he have that massive scar again?! Beck blinked at it in disbelief. It had been fixed before, CLU had done it himself when he tried to have Tron rectified, but now it was back… And his face looked different somehow, too. Younger, but with even more scars than just the one that Beck remembered! Shouldn’t CLU have been able to fix those, too? Of course Tron had been in fights but who the hell had been maintaining him?! And what was happening to him now?! He’d collapsed coming out of the tank once before and that had been terrifying, he nearly died and it took extreme measures to have him fixed! Beck took a deep breath and the realizations and squeezed Tron’s hand tight. 

“You’re not dying on me this time. It’s not another virus is it?” Beck asked with more confidence in his voice than he really felt. “The healing tank should have helped with the surface damage but… these scars were gone before… Why are they back?”

Tron just stared back at him, his breathing shallow, as his eyes slowly started to clear. Beck waited as patiently as he could manage in the tension, which wasn’t much.

“CLU,” Tron said distantly. “No virus.” 

Of course it was CLU, it was all CLU, whatever was wrong with his friend, virus or not! But this went beyond just using Tron as a weapon, this… This was just cruel.

Tron sat up and turned to look at Beck with a hooded glare. “Where’s Flynn?”

“Flynn?” Beck asked, still taking in all the marks on Tron’s face and caught off guard at the question, but suddenly there was a spinning disk at Beck’s throat. 

That was on him for not paying enough attention, or maybe forgetting this was still Rinzler right now, no matter who he used to be. Beck probably should have been alarmed or concerned but… He looked down at the disk, then back at Tron, those rigid, sharp lines on his confused, scarred up face, and all he felt was heartbreak. Whatever was twisted up in his old friends code must be causing him so much pain, even now. Tron wouldn’t hurt him, but Tron wouldn’t have de-rezzed all those programs either. 

And now, even though he had finally fought back, even though he had almost given everything to protect Flynn, Flynn had died. But Tron deserved the truth. CLU had been lying to him long enough.

“He’s… Gone, Tron,” Beck told him. “I’m sorry…”

“It’s Rinzler,” Tron spat.

Beck pursed his lips in frustration at that. “Whatever CLU told you you were-” But Tron pressed his disk closer to his neck, sending prickles down his skin, and Beck looked up in surprise. “Okay, okay. I’m not here to hide anything,” Beck said, eyeing the thing with a little more nerves than he had before. “If you need to know, Flynn re-integrated with CLU. Neither survived it. The other user they brought in went back to what the users call the real world… They’re both gone, Tr- Rinzler. It’s over.”

He held his breath for a minute as Tron or… Or Rinzler thought it over. Calling him Rinzler didn’t feel right. Tron had never wanted this. He’d even told Beck as much, that was the whole point of the damn Killswitch, so CLU couldn’t use him as a weapon!

It made Beck feel sick. He knew what he saw out there, Tron’s circuits were white again, and Beck had believed all this time that Tron could be saved because he had to! He could never give up on the idea Tron still lived, that he could be saved, but if he was wrong? What if, after the Killswitch and after CLU, there was nothing left of his old code, his old memories? What if Beck had really fucked up that badly?

Tron pulled the disk back from the edge of his neck and stared down at their hands. Tron.. or Rinzler… Hadn’t let go, even with a disk to his throat. Beck wasn’t sure what that meant, but it was better than being de-rezzing him on the spot. Before tonight, Beck knew that he wouldn’t have hesitated. There was something else too, though. After all this time not being able to see his face, maybe without his friend even knowing who he was, Tron looked confused, and… scared.

“Look… You don’t have to tell me what that was about if you don’t want to,” Beck said quietly, looking down at their hands as guilt throbbed in his code. “You don’t have to do anything anymore. But even if you don’t know it, we’ve kind of been through a lot together. You’ve been trying to catch me for a long time, and I’ve been trying to get through to you. So now that you’re here, and they’re gone… I’m not leaving you alone. That’s not what friends do.”

Becks words hung in the air. He hoped that wasn’t pushing too far, even if it was true. 

Tron seemed to consider it for a moment, then turned over the disk in his hand. A small image shimmered to life above it, an image of… Beck.

We’re friends… Right? The miniature Beck asked in a voice that sounded so much younger than Beck remembered, all that time ago. There wasn’t anything else after it, the memory cut off abruptly before the old Tron gave Beck his snarky non-answer, but Beck could hardly think. His whole heart was lodged in his throat. Tron still had that, and it meant everything! He barely managed to stammer out the question to confirm what he’d just seen with his own eyes.

“You remember me?”

Tron, or Rinzler, if he really preferred that right now, rolled his eyes in a familiar sort of way. “Vaguely,” He scoffed, returning the disk to his back.

Beck’s heart could have burst. “B-Better than nothing,” He said, unable to keep the emotion from his voice that time and giving Tron’s hand a tight squeeze. “A lot is about to change, but… We can figure it all out together, now. Okay?”

It was important that he knew that. After all this time there was no way Beck would be leaving him alone. Not after his downfall, not after those scars and hurts, never again.

Tron didn’t have much of a reaction to that, but he didn’t protest it either. “Okay,” He huffed after a nano. The grinding sound that had to be from his processors slowed and quieted into something low and rhythmic, almost soothing.

Beck looked at him with a watery grin, but his eyes were already closed. Somehow, that made Beck grin even more. He still hadn’t let go of his hand either, and with how tight his own grip was, Beck probably wasn’t going to be getting it back anytime soon.

He really trusted him, didn’t he?

The realization hit him like a light rail train. Tron, or Rinzler, had just dozed off, right here, with his shoulder pressed against Beck’s arm and their fingers intertwined. He had to be exhausted after this cycle, Beck was too, but Tron had never done that before, and he had done it almost instantly.

How much of that was him, and… How much of it was damage?

Beck exhaled carefully and closed his eyes. After everything today, after all they had been through for cycles on end, if something this simple was bringing his old friend some comfort, he didn’t mind. He would stay here all night if that’s what Tron needed to feel safe, he was tired too…

But it still nagged at him as he tried to fall asleep, as he struggled to suppress the memories that threatened to turn into nightmares in the back of his mind. Flashes of Tron racing to Flynn’s Place through the shadows, fighting past countless sentries along the way and slipping out of Beck’s sight. Spotting him again from the vents, too much time later but not too late, restrained against a table in defiant silence. There was no Flynn, there had never been a Flynn, the entire thing was a trap meant to prey on the one thing CLU knew the real Tron could never resist. Beck knew that now, and so did Tron, but Beck had found him in time to save him, just like he’d done before, just like he promised he could! The machine poised over Tron hummed to life, Beck tore the disk from his back and lined up his shot, and…

And Tron spasmed unnaturally. Beck realized in a horrible instant what Tron had just done. His friend started to convulse, corrosive black acid creeping down his arms and up his neck -

NO! He cried out in the vision, jerking forward in real life with his eyes wide open, gasping for breath.

No…

He’d been there. He’d been right there, he could have stopped it! If only Tron had trusted him to, trusted him back there the way he did now…

Then again, maybe Beck didn’t deserve it. He had never been sure he made the right choice later that night, either.

Beck leaned into his old mentor by his side with a shudder, grateful to be holding his hand tight now, no matter how many times Rinzler had tried to kill him lately. He didn’t stir, which was good. At least they were both still here. They had survived this much. Beck wouldn’t give up. And maybe in time, they’d both be able to heal from their mistakes. 

At least, he could hope. 

Chapter Text

Beck was still holding his hand.

Rinzler watched the other program for a few moments after he first woke from his badly needed sleep cycle. Even before his directives were compromised, even before falling into the sea, he had been running without rest for longer than even CLU usually pushed him to, putting down a millicycles-long uprising in the Iota sector and reporting back to CLU for one of his… his debriefings. Rinzler shut down that memory the instant it threatened to replay. After that he had entered the games, he had found the User, Sam_Flynn, the user escaped, there was a hunt, all of CLU’s grand plans, a dogfight, and…

Rinzler shook his head as if the action could clear his scrabbling code and make anything make sense like it used to, but it couldn’t. The Users had ruined everything, even Rinzler. CLU had been working to fix him for a thousand cycles worth of war, and those efforts all vanished with five simple words out of Kevin_Flynn’s mouth.

Tron, what have you become?

The clicking from his processors had been quiet for the first few nanos he was awake but that reminder sent them racing again. He wasn’t Tron, he could never be Tron, no matter what the fractured old memories shifting around in his code suggested, but none of that mattered when Flynn himself spoke and Rinzler broke. If that wasn’t bad enough, CLU and Flynn were both gone now, and they had left Rinzler drowning in a torrent of old data he didn’t understand. He barely woke up and already the pieces were rattling around under his skin again, trying to push their way to the surface.

Rinzler rezzed his helmet just to hide behind something. He didn’t want to deal with them now, he couldn’t, he had functioned fine without them all this time so when the first memory bubbled to the surface he shut it down before it could play, just like he did with CLU’s debriefing from before. Annoyingly, another rose up instead. He shut it down too, but a third surged forward with force and anxiety rose in his chest as he struggled to stop it from playing. His processors were grinding badly again, he wasn’t sure how Beck hadn’t been woken up by them, and in his effort he felt something slip past his defenses -

I didn’t want to do this, but you forced my hand, Someone said, their slimy voice causing all sorts of warning messages to flood his mind. Rinzler looked down at himself to see he was bolted down on a table with great gashes across his chest. That, at least, explained the pain radiating from every inch of his code, not that he was making a single sound because of it. He only gritted his teeth, refusing to even look the program in the eye who just spoke because something about the traitor felt hard to look at and Rinzler didn’t care to give him the satisfaction no matter what he tried.

Apparently the speaker didn’t like that. He slammed Rinzler’s head down and then yanked him back up by the hair, like CLU had done a thousand times before. Rinzler would have laughed at the meager attempt at cruelty if he was permitted to, or if a circular saw hadn’t appeared at that moment and stopped the laugh in his throat, spinning dangerously close to his eye with an eerie blue light. 

I am going to show you what it’s like… To be imperfect, the program simpered. Rinzler’s code raced, he knew was was coming and braced for it, locking his jaw shut just as the saw carved deep into his face and sheared off a swath of voxels, pain exploding from the spot on his jaw and the horrible sound reverberating inside his head -

But the scene stuttered and fizzled, something wrenched at his mind and suddenly he was staring out at the Sea of Simulation in silence, a ghostly burning sensation hot on his face where the saw had just been.

This is it, man, A different, familiar voice said, and Rinzler turned with a start, his words locked up in his throat for a moment before he realized it wasn’t CLU who was speaking… It was Kevin_Flynn. 

You know, Seneca said, “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity,” The Creator continued as Rinzler stared at him, frozen in confusion. But I put preparation and opportunity in one place, the Sea of Simulation. I had no idea what would happen...

Rinzler followed his gaze, trying to breathe slowly to settle his still racing code, even though it was silent now and the pain from before only lingered, his face intact. They were at the edge of the Sea of Simulation, at least, that’s what it had to be, but… But it was different than he remembered. The surface of the waters sparkled with the light of the portal from the other side, and the data it fed into the grid felt… Alive.

How was that possible?

But this is where the ISOs came from, Kevin_Flynn explained, even though it was only the two of them and Flynn was the enemy. No one else was there, no other allies, no one important. Rinzler stared in dumbstruck confusion, but Flynn only smiled as he continued. This is what I made, and somehow, it made them.

“It’s beautiful,” Rinzler said. The words had slipped from his mouth before he could stop them, but before Flynn could respond, something jerked in his code. When he turned his face back to Flynn in alarm it wasn’t Flynn there anymore, it was CLU, grinning at him with a particular smile that made all the warning errors that had just ebbed away bombard his processors all over again, only a thousand times worse. Rinzler snapped his mouth shut, even behind the helmet. He would be punished for that, if CLU knew, and CLU always knew, CLU already had his discs! He held both of them in his hand, staring contemptuously at the image of a female program hovering in the air above them with a triangular circuit on her chest. 

I can see what Flynn saw in her, but you?! CLU snarled down at him, and Rinzler met his eyes, he had to. Ignoring CLU would only make it worse, and he was already in one of his worst kinds of moods, pacing in a fury overhead with an insatiable look in his eye that made fear twist deep in Rinzlers code, but he couldn’t show it. He could never show it. 

After everything I’ve done for you, all the time I’ve spent fixing you, you let her get to you?! My right hand man, my champion, bested by an engineer?! 

Rinzler said nothing, he knew better and he already knew he would be punished for this, but he tucked his chin at the admonishment, just enough to show it was acknowledged without making the mistake of taking his eyes off his master. It wasn’t that simple but that didn’t matter. His injuries, his low power reserves, and the number of days he’s been at this had slowed him down, impaired his judgment, but all that was just evidence of how broken Rinzler was, wasn’t it? He knew how this game was played. He had to prove he was worth fixing again before CLU would bother, and this particular rebel was making that a difficult thing for Rinzler to prove. She wouldn’t give up or just turn herself in like he wanted, she had to delay the inevitable. All he wanted to do was get this over with and take a damn sleep cycle, not that his needs ever mattered. But she was competent, anticipating his moves, staying just out of reach and wearing him down, bit by bit, until his reserves were tapped and he was close to crashing and then…

Something happened, but he didn’t know what. That part of his memory was empty and blank, but CLU’s fury now and the warning errors flashing across his display, highlighting a chunk of voxels somehow missing from his side, told him enough. He had been on a mission, and he had failed. Thats what mattered. 

No can do, buddy, CLU continued dangerously, shaking his head as he paced, then suddenly halted and became unnervingly calm. He turned to Rinzler with that grin, that terrible, predatory grin, and Rinzler forced himself to stay still on his knees instead of reel back, to freeze in place instead of fall apart, even as a voxel fell from his side and plinked against the ground, rolling towards CLU. 

CLU let out a cold single chuckle at it and brushed it away with the side of his foot. So here’s how this is going to work. No rest, no repairs, until you fix your little mistake. Get back out there, bring me their leader and derezz the rest. I need to have a little chat with her I think, you understand, right?

Rinzler nodded his head. He understood perfectly well.

Good, CLU said in a dark undertone, closing the gap between them. After that… CLU raked a finger affectionately down the side of Rinzler’s cheek, tugging at the edges of the scar and sending his processors grinding, even though Rinzler refused to wince. The horrible grin tightened on CLU’s face at the sound. I’ll decide what you deserve. I’m a nice guy, Rinzler, so tell you what, if you don’t fuck up again maybe I’ll even -

“Tr-Rinzler?” 

As suddenly as the memories overwhelmed him, Rinzler was yanked back from them to the present, skin tingling where the old injuries had been and processors grinding as loudly as they had in the vision. 

“I guess that sound means you’re awake,” Beck yawned, finally pulling his hand back from Rinzler’s grip as he stretched his arms overhead.

Rinzler swallowed hard, scrambling internally for what was left of that paused memory and shutting it down. He knew what happened next. Unlike the old strange shards this had started with, that memory was perfectly clear, most of the ones from his thousand cycles with CLU were, but he still didn’t want to see it or feel it or relive it ever again…

“Hey, you okay?” Beck asked naively.

Rinzler looked away.

“Still tired?” Beck said softly, and Rinzler just nodded, burying the unfinished file deep in his code. It was as good an excuse as any. Beck yawned again, but rolled lazily up onto his feet and offered Rinzler his hand. “Me too,” He muttered. “Hell of a night.”

That was an understatement, but rather than voice it, Rinzler just took the programs hand and let himself be hoisted to his feet.

“Come on. I’ve got some energy drinks stored in the next room, you look like you could use some,” Beck continued. “I know I can.”

Rinzler only responded with a low grunt that almost matched his processors, which has settled back into their usual clicking since the barrage of unwanted memories subsided. He let himself be led away from the healing chamber room, through a doorway and into another part of the hideout, where the ceiling was higher and the light overhead brighter than the one he woke up in.

“Red kind or blue kind?” Beck asked, stopping in front of a clear pane in the wall, full of vials. 

“No,” Rinzler griped after a couple silent moments.

“Well, I don’t have gold,” Beck shrugged, grabbing one of the blue ones and holding it out to him, as if he did this every damn day. Like bringing enemy programs to some secret hideaway, letting his guard down and offering them resources like energy that they obviously hadn’t earned was just part of a normal millicycle for the Renegade. “That stuff is nasty anyways,” Beck continued. “You used to like this flavor… If you remember that.”

Rinzler stared down at the little glowing vial in his hand without taking it, perplexed, then shook his head.

“What, why not?” Beck blurted out, his eyebrows shooting sky high like this was some sort of shock. “Your circuits are still dimmed, you need something.”

“I…” He started, but how would he even explain it? That he didn’t deserve it, that he had failed? He’d failed CLU, he’d failed Flynn, it didn’t even matter which master won in the end because they were both dead, weren’t they? Rinzler had failed! The conflict and confusion he felt over the new or… Or old jagged shards of broken data pieces didn’t matter if he didn’t have anyone to go back to anyways, no master, no orders, no purpose, he was -

“Hey, why don’t you sit back down for a minute,” Beck interrupted again, and Rinzler realized he’d gone stiff again while his processors ground furiously. “That doesn’t sound good.”

“It’s fine,” Rinzler rasped.

“I don’t think so. Does it hurt?”

What the hell kind of a question was that? What didn’t hurt? He was supposed to hurt! Especially now, after he failed, he deserved to never have them repaired, that was the whole point-

“I want to help you, but I can’t if I don’t know what -“

“You can’t!” Rinzler snarled in pain, lunging at Beck and batting the energy out of his hand, but he didn’t even draw his discs, because… Because why? Because Beck thought they were friends? Was he really that desperate? Fuck, CLU would…

And just like that, CLU’s predatory grin flickered into his mind. It only lasted a nano, but that nano was enough and he felt himself glitch, felt that familiar fury and fear take hold. A dull ache shot up his knees as they hit the floor, his head bowed automatically and his jaw clamped shut, holding in a scream behind his teeth-

“Can you tell me what’s going on? I promise I’m not gonna hurt you-“

You really like testing me man, and I gotta say, it’s getting pretty old, CLU’s voice scraped at his code.

“Talk to me, say something,” Beck said in alarm from somewhere far away, but CLU sang right over it with horrible glee.

Ah ah ah! Your loyalty is mine, but apparently you need some help remembering that, buddy, so hold still-

“Rinzler! Come on, snap out of it!”

Then several things happened at once. CLU reached to yank his discs off his back just as his visage flickered and faded, the scream Rinzler tried to keep strangled erupted from his throat, and he whipped his discs away from CLU’s ghostly fingers in panic, activating them. His skin burned, his code raced, error messages blinded his vision and CLU’s laughter rang in his ears as he swung them through the air in a rage to make everything go away! He would cut it all to voxels if he could, all the old memories, the useless directives, the forbidden stores of energy and the rebels that made his job so much more difficult than it had to be and the humiliating orders CLU gave and everything that hurt! It was better like this, he was better, a weapon, unfeeling, nothing more, just like CLU wanted…

Then his disc collided with another, a rebel, but that didn’t matter, he’d left plenty of them a pile of voxels before when they were stupid enough to stand in his way and he’d do it again! There was nothing but CLU’s ever increasing laughter in his ears reminding him exactly what he was meant for as he twisted easily in the air, ducked a blow from the unlit disc and brought his own up against the programs shoulder, eliciting a yelp, then sank a second deep into their thigh. I obey CLU, the directive whispered. I fight for C-

THE USERS-

Rinzler froze rigid and earned himself a kick to the chest, which didn’t hurt but sent him stumbling back. It was hardly a setback, he pulled his disc back to strike again-

“Please!” Beck begged, standing on shaking legs in the middle of the wrecked room. “This isn’t you! I know it’s not, I don’t want to fight you!”

Rinzler held his shot, the conflict in his code screaming.

“It’s not you,” Beck - BECK! panted, lowering his disc and taking a limping step forward on a leg with a huge gash in it, making Rinzler nearly glitch all over again. “It’s okay, I… I’m sorry I pushed…”

No no no, not Beck, not his… his friend, shit he shouldn’t even have a friend, he only needed CLU didn’t he?! He only loved CLU?! But when more loose voxels shook loose from Beck’s damaged leg Rinzler rushed forward and caught him under the arm before he could think about that, unwilling to let him fall. 

“Thanks,” Beck said, slinging the arm around Rinzler’s shoulder and sucking in a shaky breath. “I… Knew there was a reason I avoided fighting you.”

Rinzler ran a quick scan over Beck as he held him up, but the result didn’t make him feel any better. There was more damage than just the leg. Beck was sliced up badly. He’d been a good enough combatant to just barely avoid instantly lethal damage, but he wasn’t stable, he still held his disc uselessly at his side…

“You didn’t activate your disc,” Rinzler said accusingly.

“Nope.”

“Why?” He asked, wincing a little at how strained the word came out.

“I said I wouldn’t hurt you,” Beck replied, as if that somehow explained everything.

“This is different,” Rinzler snapped. “I could have-“

“I’m okay,” Beck wheezed. 

“Liar.”

“Just need to see Paige, she… She can fix me,” Beck told him patiently, doing his best to stay upright. “Don’t worry. I’ll be fine.”

Rinzler wasn’t about to believe his friend about that in the first place, but the nano Beck tried to take another step, his leg crumbled below the knee and he inhaled with a sharp hiss.

“That… Isn’t good,” Beck pointed out stupidly.

The pang in Rinzler’s chest tightened. That was the understatement of a thousand cycles, Beck was really hurt, not even the healing chamber could rezz up an entire limb! Maybe Rinzler shouldn't care, just a day ago he would have been happy to see the Renegade derezzed himself but that… that couldn’t happen now, he couldn’t let it! He thought as quickly as his damaged processors would let him, trying to think of anything that might stabilize him, that might help.

“Where’s Paige?” Rinzler finally growled in irritation.

Beck looked up at him, surprise twisted on his face along with the obvious pain he was in, but after a few nanos hesitation, he dropped him a ping. Rinzler took a quick moment to pull it up on the map and rolled his eyes when he saw its location. They’d suspected the clinic was a hub of rebel activity for some time, but never got any concrete proof. Typical.

“Don’t die,” Rinzler scoffed, hoisting Beck’s arm up so it sat more snugly along his shoulders and wrapping his own arm around Beck’s waist, making the damn Renegade chuckle.

“I’ll do my best,” He said a little too cheerily for the circumstances, in Rinzler’s opinion, not that his thoughts really mattered. “But if this doesn’t work… It’s not your fault. Okay?”

Rinzlers processors stuttered on that statement. Not his fault. That couldn’t be right, everything was his fault, he literally attacked Beck just now, didn’t he? His discs cut into Beck’s code, riddling his body with pixelated gashes and slicing off his leg, how could this possibly not be his fault?! But instead of argue with Beck about that he focused on the first part of the statement.

“It will work,” Rinzler said stubbornly, dragging his idiot friend back the way they came.

They made it down to the garage without Beck losing any more voxels and managed to stuff what was left of him into a light runner of Becks that Rinzler rezzed up, one of the annoying modified vehicles that somehow functioned in the outlands, another thing that made the rebels and the Renegade notoriously difficult to snuff out. They peeled out of the hangar with Rinzler at the controls, whipping through the outlands, but halfway back to civilization Beck’s head drooped dangerously.

“Stay with me,” Rinzler barked automatically, and Beck jerked up with a start.

“‘Ts alright… Just tired. Gonna close my-“

“No,” Rinzler snapped, pushing the runner for more speed. “Stay awake.”

“But-“

“Keep talking.”

“Mmmmkay,” Beck muttered groggily. “If you a-say…” But he droned off. When Rinzler looked over in alarm the programs eyes were open and still bright, but full of confusion. 

“C-C-Can’t-“ His words malfunctioned, and Rinzler gritted his teeth, biting back the dread rising in his chest, the things still lurking below the surface that could compromise him all over again when Beck needed him! But Beck kept fighting with himself, trying to form some sort of words even as the gash from his shoulder splintered up his throat, and his eyelids fluttered.

Useless, CLU’s voice whispered cruelly in his head, but there was another voice, too. It was so similar to CLU’s, but with a naive warmth that CLU never had.

Nothing you can’t protect us from, it said. You keep the grid safe…

Flynn. He would never listen to what Flynn said that he was, not unless he was forced to like he had been in the skies above the sea, but he did need to protect someone, didn’t he? He had to keep Beck safe even if he didn’t quite understand why, and before Rinzler realized exactly what happened, that sliver clicked into place. He felt it snap along the edges of an empty part of his inner workings, making the gaping swath of missing code there just a little bit smaller, a little less incomplete, and the realization raced through him with a jolt.

“I -“ He started like he had before, taking a steadying breath this time, but Beck had to stay awake and Rinzler didn’t know what else to do or to say to make sure that he did. “I have old data. Like the file of… You,” He told the other program with great effort. “But it’s broken.”

“Mmm!” Beck grunted enthusiastically, screwing up his face for a second and managing to eek out a single word. “What?”

Rinzler almost smirked at the way he said it, the way he gestured with a hand like he wanted him to go on in spite of the cracks in his code, but the contents of those fragments… Well, some were fragments and some were just memories of CLU inserting themselves where they didn’t belong, but no one should ever know about those. 

“Flynn rambling by the sea,” He said bitterly. “And…”

He reached up to towards the scar spanning from his jaw up his eye, almost into his hairline, as if to touch it if it weren’t for his helmet in the way. It was difficult to explain the first one from when he woke up this millicycle. He hadn’t gotten a look at the programs face, but he knew it wasn’t CLU. CLU might have recreated those scars on him as a punishment or for fun or both, but someone else put the originals there, someone who wanted to show him what it was like to be imperfect.

It had been a stupid venture, honestly. Rinzler was never perfect, no matter how much CLU tried to make him that way. 

Beck, though, seemed to catch his intention. “Sca-a-car?” He stammered out, and Rinzler tucked in his head.

“Before CLU,” he mumbled. “There was someone else.”

Beck nodded repeatedly, but the annoying cheerfulness vanished from his face as he did. Rinzler looked at him quizzically.

“You know who it was?” He guessed, and Beck nodded even faster, even with his voice apparently locked up in his throat again. A second later he winced in pain, and Rinzler tried hard not to think about what would happen if those cracks spread any father.

“Almost there,” He grunted, flying into the mess that was Argon City. The blast from the battle had destroyed much of it but he zipped around the debris at a speed that would get a normal program detained. A steely look fell over Beck's face as they got closer. Rinzler hardly dared to say anything else, glancing over at his friend every couple of nanos to make sure he was still awake, until finally they swung down an unassuming alleyway Rinzler had definitely investigated before and came to a stop outside a set of unremarkable doors. There still wasn’t time to waste. He derezzed the light runner and caught Beck under the arm again in one motion, hefting him towards the doorway with his processors grinding in distress over the Renegade, of all programs. They only made it a couple of steps before the doors burst open and a trio of programs with green circuits hurried out.

“Gridbugs, his whole leg-“

“I’m rezzing us a stretcher.“

“You’re such an idiot,” One of the two female programs said worriedly, pushing past the others and cupping Beck’s cheek gently in her hand. Rinzler scanned them all quickly for their tags and found that was the one called Paige.

Beck grinned guiltily up at Paige and tried to speak again, but she cut him off.

“Don’t talk, for users sake, you’ll make it worse! We’re taking him to bay eleven. I’ll tend to him personally,” She addressed them all seriously. The other two agreed, pulling up the stretcher, and one tried to pry Beck from his grip but Rinzler snarled at them.

“I’ll do it,” He bit out before they could touch him. They might be medics but he couldn’t tell how competent they were at their jobs by a simple scan and he was not risking one of them damaging Beck any worse! Beck had said Paige would fix him, so Paige could, but the others were out, at least until Rinzler was sure they could be trusted. 

One of them gasped but Rinzler ignored it, focusing on getting Beck lowered safely onto the stretcher so he didn’t jostle his injuries. Beck gave him a grateful pat on the arm as he let himself lay flat.

“Isn’t that…” The other program whispered.

“It is,” Paige said sourly. 

Rinzler stiffened, but Beck’s eyes went wide and he pushed himself back up, shaking his head and grabbing hold of Rinzler’s hand for them to see.

“Lay down,” Rinzler snapped at him.

“Beck thinks they’re friends,” Paige translated in a voice thick with sarcasm, but Beck nodded enthusiastically before flopping back down on the stretcher.

“Friends?!” One squeaked.

The other shook her head, staring at Rinzler with a look that seriously put her at risk of losing a limb herself. “His circuits…” 

But the growl building in Rinzler’s throat was cut off as Paige pushed the stretcher firmly forward and Beck tugged Rinzler’s hand along with it. He didn't bother giving the gawking programs another glance as they marched briskly past several small bays draped in sleek white curtains, quickly turning into the one Paige had mentioned before, Bay 11. She rezzed a curtain of their own with a flick of her fingers on a data pad and turned to Beck with white hot glare.

“I should really wait to fix your voice last so I can have the chance to tell you just how stupid this latest stunt of yours was!” She scolded him, snatching his disc when he offered it and pulling up the readout with narrowed eyes. Several places in his code were lit up in red. Even on his own, Rinzler could tell how much of a mess that was. “But you already know that, don’t you? And you’ll tell me you know the risks, it’s worth it, remind me where I came from,” She went on as Beck’s face crumpled, looking up at her with big doe eyes she seemed intent on not meeting as she fiddled with his code. “Yeah, I’m right aren’t I? See? I know you, you don’t even need to talk!”

She pulled Beck upright and pressed his disc into his back again, and suddenly the edges of his crumbling leg smoothed out and the splintering cracks up his throat knit back together. Beck slumped forward and let out a breath of relief.

“But I’m not that mean,” Paige sighed, dropping her head into a hand and closing her eyes. “You’re stable. It’ll take much more time to spin up an entire leg.”

“Paige, I-“

“We’ll talk later,” She told him. “Alone.”

Beck ducked his head and swallowed hard, nodding once, but looked back up cautiously after a moment. 

“What?” Paige huffed.

“Just…” Beck started, squirming a little under Paige’s intense gaze, but he looked from Rinzler to Paige and that same stubborn look from earlier settled on his face. “He saved me, Paige.”

“After you saved him.”

“So we saved each other-“

“No I just saved you. Idiot,” Paige said crossly from the corner of his bed. “You had another half-milli if you didn't move and make it worse at best.”

A shiver went through Rinzler’s code hearing that. He still didn’t understand why it should matter, why he should care, he’d even known Beck was in bad shape before the medic confirmed it but the idea still felt…. bad. Very bad. Rinzler nodded in grim agreement with Paige. “I hurt you,” he croaked out, staring hard at the floor.

“See?!” Paige cried. “Even he knows it!”

“And then he got me here. To you, to fix me,” Beck said pleadingly. “It was an accident, I promise. Things are different. And you’re right, this is worth it, just… Give me a chance to show you, okay?”

Paige crossed her arms over herself and went quiet, lips pursed as she glanced between the two of them, so for a few nanos the only sound was Rinzler’s clicking that blended in with the other pieces of equipment in the clinic making beeps and clicks and whirring sounds of their own. 

“I believe you but… Things… Aren’t going to go back to normal, Beck. And you getting hurt isn’t going to change that,” She said heavily, as if every word was a deliberate choice. “I have other patients, I’ll get back to your leg later on. Just… Consider yourselves even, now. Please.” 

The implications of that made something unpleasant prickle at Rinzler’s code, but Paige leaned down and planted a little kiss on Beck’s forehead that made a smile spread across his face in spite of it all. Beck closed his eyes and leaned into it for a nano before she pulled away, shooting Rinzler a last warning look before parting the curtain and leaving the pair of them alone.

Before Rinzler could analyze that interaction too deeply, Beck gave his hand a reassuring squeeze, even as the smile fell off his face.

“Even,” He chuckled to himself under his breath, so quiet Rinzler could barely hear it. “Not even close.”