Disclaimer: Tron Legacy and all related characters belong to Disney.

Title: Precious Red

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Clu ran his finger over the smooth surface of the User’s Identity Disk with grace and care. He was not worried about scratching the surface. That was not why he did that. He was in awe that he came into such a rare possession even though his plan was working to his satisfaction. This was what he wanted and he wanted to examine the disk with as much dignity as possible.

“Now let’s see what we have here,” Clu said as he activated the disk. His eyes lit up at the same instance as the disk while the projection was played. He watched as the holographic image of the User’s head was replaced with various facts, playbacks of memories and stats. “Come on.” He did not want his impatience to show. He watched as the knowledge of various data and code appeared. It was clever, it was close but it also was wrong. It was not the algorithms that he wanted or needed.

“Sir?” Jarvis asked. His right hand man could always sense when something was amiss, as did Rinzler, but the powerful program did not say a word and only increased the volume of his soft growling.

“Not the right one,” Clu said in a defeated sigh and handed back the disk to Jarvis before he took a good look at his captive.

Alan Bradley glared back. The aged User was ecstatic to see him when he was first brought in but happiness was replaced by confusion, disappointment and anger when he realized that Clu was not Kevin Flynn.

“You do not have to be too upset,” Clu said to him while Rinzler grabbed Alan’s disk from Jarvis’s hands. “I have some use for you.”

“Where is Kevin?” Alan asked as Rinzler placed the disk back on Alan’s harness with great care.

“He’s around,” Clu said as he circled his prisoner. “Kevin Flynn is a bit of a mystery to us all these cycles.”

“What have you done to him?” Alan demanded. His suit and armor was almost identical to Rinzler’s. The only difference besides color of illumination was that Alan had a bit more circuitry than Rinzler. There were lines connecting the curved dashes on his chest to his hips. A single bar from the middle of his arms all the way down to his wrists and from knees down to ankles. The emblem on his chest was different. Three dashes making an odd triangle and one underneath it as well.

“Your friend has gone corrupt,” Clu explained while he paused near Alan’s right arm. “I tried to help him. I tried to fix him, but it was too late. He disappeared from where I could give him the care that he needed.” He noticed a bright crimson droplet.

“You are lying.”

“Not at all.” He had no intention of derezzing his creator those megacycles ago. He would have subdued him. Fixed his code so that he would see the truth about the ISO’s and they would go back to building the perfect system together.

Clu grabbed Alan’s arm and held it up. His eyes fixated on the bit of red that clung to his suit. He ran his finger over it, collecting the rare liquid onto the tip.

“What are you doing?” Alan asked.

Clu did not respond. He stared at the miniscule bit of the red that he had gathered into his finger. It was the liquid essence of Users. Flynn had once called it blood. It had always fascinated him when his creator was injured. Instead of forming glowing fractures there would be a slight cut that would drip out the rich scarlet fluid.

He remembered how he helped wipe it away, how some of it had dripped onto his own hands and how it beaded along the back of his skin. It had felt warm and a bit sticky, but what he remembered the most was the taste. It had a bitter flavor a hint salt and a rich metallic tang.

Clu could feel three pairs of eyes on him as he continued to study the tiny amount of blood as he rubbed it across his fingers. He did not care what they thought. He continued to rub until it was spread out to where he could no longer identify the color, only could see it from the sheen from where the light reflected from the moisture. He brought his thumb to his tongue and licked. The pleasant memories from indulging on the flavor had returned to him. Alan’s blood was a bit different, but tasted just as succulent. He licked again at his fingers before he sucked until he could only taste the leather mesh of his gloves.

“Sir?” Jarvis asked as his forehead wrinkled in surprise.

Clu held up one hand before he pulled off his own disk. He grabbed Alan’s wrist.

“What are you-“Alan’s question was cut off when Clu used his disk to cut into the back of his hand and his words were replaced by gasps of pain.

“Shhh,” Clu ordered the User to be silenced. “Not to deep.” He stared at the cut as the beautiful red trickled out. He swiped again at the back of Alan’s hand, and again just above the knuckle of his slender and short finger. He watched as the blood beaded and seem to crawl down the surface of the glove.

He snatched Alan’s other hand before the User could pull away and repeated with a few more cuts onto his hand, through the leathery material of the glove and into the skin. He ignored Alan’s protests as he continued to slice away and create more rich red lines that dribbled down his fingers.

Clu did not count on Rinzler to suddenly grab at his wrist and pull him away from the User. His attack dog’s growling grew even louder as he raised his head and tilted it in disapproval.

“Rinzler, back down,” Clu ordered. There was no way the program’s original code and directive would resurface. He had saw to that but he had never taken in account that being in the presence of the User that created him would somehow get through to him.

Rinzler’s volume lowered and he stepped back. His head returned to hanging in perfect subversion.

“That’s better,” Clu said before he turned back to his prisoner. “They were just shallow cuts.” He stared at the slender streams of blood as they continued to trickle down the fingers of his captive. The bright red stained the circuits, turning them red. It was almost as if the User had sworn allegiance to him. It was a tempting idea but now he wanted to see the true white brilliance shine through.

Clu ran his tongue across the back of Alan’s gloves, lapping up the crimson trails. The flavor was more robust, the tang was sharper now that it was fresh. The flavors danced across his tongue. Pleasure coursed down through his very being as he continued to lick up the salty metallic flavor.

“Hmmm,” the pleasure induced moan came from Alan.

Clu smiled before he continued to lap up the blood from his circuits, clean the fiery and pure white from the red. He savored not only the flavor but the moans and gasps coming from the User. He ran his tongue over the cuts, gathering as much of the blood as he could.

“H-h-how,” Alan gasped.

“You don’t know?” Clu asked. His voice came out in soft rumble. “I will show you everything.” He placed his hands on the User’s shoulders and pulled him close. “And you will give me what I want.” Before Alan could protest he bit down hard on his lower lip, releasing more of the precious red. Clu ran his tongue over Alan’s lips before he pressed his own mouth against the soft lips of the User. He will make sure his new captive will have enough time to heal but he will play with him again in the same manor, again and again since Alan was his to keep.