-
“Beautiful,” Alan commented as they traveled along the Sailer. The view was utterly breathtaking. He watched the sky and looked at the sea below. He wondered how Flynn had reacted when he first saw it. “You were right, Kevin. You were certainly right.”
“Told you so, man,” Flynn’s voice was heard behind him.
“Where were you?” Alan asked as he turned around, only not to see anything.
“Can’t be everywhere at once,” Flynn answered. “I’m usually with Sam or Tron, but I had to go somewhere else.”
“Is something pulling you?” Alan asked. He wondered if the hereafter was trying to grab onto his friend.
“Nothing. I just need to check on everything that I made.”
“How many of these digital frontiers are out there?”
“Depends,” Flynn answered. “How many computers and networks are out there.”
“The gate closed for you before everyone got connected,” Alan answered him. He remembered the commercials with a young Ana Paquin strutted around and telling everyone about the Internet and the World Wide Web.
“Wireless connection, people communicating with each other through computers, sending mail, looking up information. How many of my ideas came true?”
“All of them.” Alan couldn’t help but to smile. “Al Gore owes you an apology.”
“Nah.”
“Nah?”
“You know I don’t like to get mixed up in politics.”
Alan laughed along with Flynn and stopped when his friend did. He looked over his shoulder and saw Tron staring at him.
“Flynn has returned,” Tron said.
“How are you feeling, old friend?” Flynn asked.
“Disoriented,” Tron answered. “Pained by guilt. I was afraid Rinzler would resurface.”
“I’m going to try and fix that,” Alan said. “With Flynn’s help of course.”
“I’d be happy to help,” Flynn told him. “Tron, Alan is going to need to see your Identity Disk.”
“Both of them?” Tron asked.
“Both for good measure,” Alan said. He wasn’t sure what he was looking for. “How is Janelle?”
“She has calmed down,” Tron said as he handed his disks over to Alan. “Why was she scared like that?” He held up his hands. “I never seen anyone react like that. I wanted to help her, make her feel better. She needed someone to be with her. Sam and Quorra came by and asked if they could speak with her, alone.”
“She and Sam used to be friends,” Alan explained. “They used to play together when they were children. They started to drift around middle school and went their separate ways in high school. They talked to each other when they came to office parties and picnic but that was about it.” He stared at the disks. “What am I looking at?” He ran his finger over the surface of one of them. Visuals of Tron fighting against various opponents and code appeared.
“Got to weed through that until you find the problem,” Flynn instructed.
“This Rinzler mode seems to become active when Tron is fighting,” Alan commented. “I just need to watch this where he gets aggressive.” He paused when he saw the fracture in the code and the bits of broken data that was floating near it. He did not write the broken pieces. “Lets get rid of these.” He tapped against the broken pieces and found he was able to pluck them out. “And just get this fracture.” He pictured the right amount of numbers and letters and ran his finger over the fracture.
Tron rubbed his head. “I feel better. I don’t feel as quite disoriented as before.”
“Good,” Flynn said.
“And this one is also clean,” Alan said after he removed some of the broken and corrupted code. He turned off the holographic imagery. “That should do it.” He looked up at his creation. “How about you sit down, take a load off and talk.”
“About?” Tron asked.
“Whatever it is you have on your mind.”
-
Sam found the container of energy in the exact same location as he was on the last time he was on the Sailer when he and Quorra came into the corrupted part. He ladled some into three glasses and handed one to Quorra.
“She is scared,” Quorra said as she followed him to space in the center of the Sailer.
Rinzler was still there, seated at the edge of the lowered section and staring down at Janelle.
“What are you doing here?” Sam asked in a clipped tone.
“Watching over her,” Rinzler answered. “She needs someone to be with her.”
“She’s got us,” Sam said. He did not trust this program to be near his old friend, even if she was one of the few who brought him back from being the enforcer.
“We are not comfortable near you,” Quorra told him. “Flynn told me stories of your heroics and I want to believe you can be that hero again, but I don’t feel that way now.”
Rinzler nodded. “I want to be that hero again. No matter what kind of warrior I become, a hero, protector, just someone to help this system again. The one thing I know I will do is to continue fighting for the Users.” He sighed. “I don’t want to be Rinzler again.”
“Maybe Mr. Bradley can help,” Quorra suggested. “He wrote you.”
“Alan said he would fix me.” Rinzler walked past him. “I’ll go speak with him.”
Sam was glad he was gone. He can now focus on Janelle and not worry about that psychotic program and on any chance that he might switch again.
“I feel sorry for him,” Quorra said softly. “He didn’t ask for that to be done to him.”
“No he didn’t,” He didn’t feel the same about Rinzler, as Quorra had. He remembered hearing the stories about his father’s adventures in Encom’s system and the Grid and probably a few he made up as well. Tron was always the hero in those stories. Sam had looked up to him and dreamed of someday meeting Tron the way most other boys dreamed of meeting Superman or the Ghostbusters.
His dream turned into a nightmare when he came across Rinzler. The fact that Tron was brainwashed into the enforcer did nothing to kill those fears.
“Janelle?” Quorra looked down into the small depression. “Would you like some energy to drink?”
“I would like some,” Janelle said. She had her legs folded and her arms wrapped around her knees. “Thank you.”
“How are you holding up?” Sam asked as Quorra handed his old friend her drink.
“A little embarrassed,” Janelle answered. “The dead shouldn’t fear anything.”
“Your body and brain are gone, but you still have your memories,” Sam said. “Imprinted into your soul it seems. One of your last memories was falling into the water. It’s a pretty reasonable fear.”
She shrugged. “A part of me wants to see what we are flying over. I bet it’s beautiful.”
“Not as beautiful as the sea in the Real World,” Quorra said after she had taken a sip from her drink. “There is no sun here. There are no trees, or grass, or flowers.”
“Maybe someone can photoshop it in,” Janelle suggested.
“What’s that?”
“An art program,” Sam answered. “I’ve seen some amazing things done with it.”
“Can we get Photoshop for our Grid?” Quorra asked.
“My sister is very good with it,” Janelle said.
“I’ll think about it.” Sam could commission Lisa Harper into creating the right kind of art work and Sam could work that into the code and add that to the Grid. His father was able to make it rain on his grid but he did not bring in the sun or the stars. His father was a programmer and a dreamer, but maybe he needed a different kind of dreamer, an artist.
“How’s life for you?” Janelle asked.
“I’ve been fixing my father’s Grid,” Sam answered. “I’ve drawn up my ideas for a few games, been working at ENCOM for a week now. I’m still riding my father’s Ducati. I’ve adopted a dog.”
“A dog?” Janelle perked up on that. She always did like animals. “What kind?”
“French Bulldog,” Sam answered with a smile. “He’s a great guy. I got him at a rescue shelter.”
“I can just kiss you for that,” Janelle said and took another sip from her drink. “Has he been neutered?”
“Yep.” Sam nodded.
“Do you make sure to take him in for his yearly check up? Does he get all his core shots, distemper, parovirus, hepatitis, rabies—“
“Yeah,” Sam was a little affronted that she was asking such questions and then he remembered what she was going to do with her life. “Janelle was going to be a veterinarian.”
“A doctor for animals,” Quorra said and nodded.
“I took a lot of different zoology classes at college.” Janelle had a smile on her face as she remembered. “I want to be able to know the anatomy and physiology of a great number of animals. I want to be able to treat dogs and cats of course, but also rabbits, rodents, ferrets, birds, reptiles, amphibians and even farm animals.”
“I thought rabbits were rodents,” Quorra said and glanced at Sam.
“Hey I’m not the animal expert.” Sam pointed at his friend. “Janelle is.”
“What else can you tell me?” Quorra asked.
“You shouldn’t pick up a frog with dry hands,” Janelle said. “Our dry skin can cause irritation.”
Sam slowly sipped his drink and listened to Janelle as she rattled off various animal facts. There were some that he knew, but there were a lot he did not. He glanced over at Quorra who absorbed the facts with rapt attention. She barely touched her drink.
“It’s so amazing,” the ISO said. “I’m sorry you died.” She did not see or hear Sam as he coughed and sputtered. “You are really nice and you know a lot about animals. You would make a great animal doctor.”
“Thank you.”
“Sam,” dad’s voice whispered behind him. “What’s going on?”
“Just chilling,” Sam answered.
“Cool,” Flynn said. “Janelle isn’t going to mind if we just talked alone? You, Quorra and I?”
“What is it about?” Sam asked. He didn’t want to leave Janelle alone.
“Just about my Grid,” Dad answered.
“I’ll tell her.” He turned to the ladies. “Q, dad wants to talk to us about the Grid.”
“Oh,” Quorra said as she stood up. “What about Janelle?”
“He wants to talk to just the two of us,” Sam said. “You’re going to be okay, J?”
“I’ll be fine,” Janelle said and sipped some more of her drink.
“I’ll mention your photoshop idea,” Sam said as he stepped out of the depression.
-
Tron had felt better after speaking with Alan and having his fractured bit of code fixed. Now that he had no worry of Rinzler resurfacing he could speak with Janelle and maybe even let Sam and Quorra know what happened.
Janelle was alone when he returned to the depression. She had an half full glass of energy next to her and she was talking to her self. She was saying sentences and some of them made sense to Tron, but he did not quite make sense of it all.
“We are on the raggedy edge?” He asked when he was standing over her.
“Oh,” Janelle gasped. “No not us. It was the characters in a television show and movie. I was just quoting what I remembered from the trailer and from the fans who quoted it at ENCOM.”
He nodded and sat down next to her. “I know of some of the different forms of User entertainment. Trailers are like commercials for movies?”
“Exactly.”
“Did you enjoy the movie?”
“I never got to see it.” Her smile faded. “I was looking forward to it. I couldn’t wait for the summer to end so Adrian and I could see Serenity.”
Tron clenched his hands. “You died during the summer.”
She sighed. “I know what happened. I know what he did to the characters and as usual I hate him and love him for it at the same time.” Her voice grew softer. “I just wish I could have seen it. There is no way for me to watch whole movies or even whole episodes at ENCOM. I can read books. I was able to finish the Harry Potter series because a few employees brought the books with them to read on break and left them overnight in their cubicles.”
“I’m sorry you never got to see this Serenity.”
“It’s not just the movie. Adrian and I were going to have a future together. We were looking forward to getting our own place. We’d start out in a decent apartment while I went to veterinary school. He would work at ENCOM. He would wait for the right moment to propose to me. We always talked about the possibility of marriage and even children. After I got my license we would move to a house and I would seek out work. At the time I still wasn’t sure what I wanted to do.”
“You wanted to be a veterinarian.”
“I didn’t know what kind I would be. Would I have my own practice, or partner up with someone or work for a chain associated with a pet store, or work at a no kill animal shelter. There were many possibilities.” She shook her head. “And I blew it because I wanted a good view of the stars.”
“Don’t blame yourself for what happened. You had no idea.”
“I shouldn’t have leaned over like that. Everyone was pretty tipsy at the time. I caused everyone so much pain, Adrian, my family, my friends, Alan and Sam.”
“Don’t say that.” He grabbed her shoulders but she shrugged him off.
“I remember the rescue team trying to bring me back. Adrian was standing over me. He kept saying. ‘You got to make it. You’re going to make it. We are going to see Serenity.’” Tears were streaming out of the corners of her eyes. “’ Don’t leave me, Janelle, I love you. Your going to be the best vet. We got the whole future ahead of us. Don’t leave me.’” She wiped away at her tears. “I didn’t want to leave him. I didn’t want to leave anyone. I saw Kathleen and Heather. They were holding each other because they were crying so hard. I tried to get back inside my body, but it just wouldn’t stick. Why couldn’t I be strong? Why couldn’t I have stayed?” She was shaking as she sobbed.
“Shhh,” Tron held her. She did not shake him off this time. “You are strong. Death is more powerful than the strongest User.” He stroked her back. “I was the one who wasn’t strong. I couldn’t defeat Clu. I couldn’t resist his hacking of my code.”
“You are always strong to me,” she spoke after a few nanoseconds. “You were my childhood hero. You are still me hero.”
“Hero’s don’t become the villain.”
“They do. Some by choice others are forced into it. Like you were.”
“Only the flawed ones,” Tron said softly. “Like me.”
“Having flaws make a person real.”
“It means I’m not perfect.”
“Nobody is perfect, Tron. Who wants perfection anyway? Perfect is boring.”
“Flynn did.” So did Clu, but Tron didn’t want to think about him.
“Well Mr. Flynn was an idiot.”
He just stared at her. Flynn was one of the smartest Users that he had met. Nothing about him was idiotic, unless she was not being serious and was sarcastic. That had to be it. She made a joke, and on a second thinking it did sound a little funny.
“Is that a smile?” Janelle asked.
“No,” Tron couldn’t contain his laughter and it came out in a small half snort, half laugh.
“Mr. Big and powerful security program has a sense of humor.” She was smiling.
“I haven’t smiled or laughed in a while.”
“You should do that more often. You have a nice smile and makes you less like a robot and more like a human.”
“Makes me more like a User?”
“Yeah.”
He stared into her warm brown eyes and smiled again. “I do feel different.” He stared up at the sky. “I’d love to show you the beauty of what we are flying though, but I know you have a great fear.”
“At first.” Janelle rose to her feet. “I keep forgetting there is nothing to be afraid of. You can’t kill the dead.”
Tron held out his hand. “I’ll hold on to you.”
“Thank you,” Janelle said as she accepted his hand.
They walked to the side of the ship. Tron pointed out several sights to her while he admired the beauty himself.
“I dreamed of visiting this place when I was a kid,” Janelle said. “I never imagined it would be this beautiful.”
“It is, although from the descriptions I heard, your world is more beautiful. I can understand why you would want to have a better view of the stars. Flynn told me how they shimmered and sparkled.”
“They do that.”
Tron’s smile grew larger. “When programs become romantic are circuitry turns violet and shimmering sparks form around us.” He looked up at the sky. “Flynn said he wanted to bring stars to his Grid. He wanted to fill the sky with love.”
“That’s beautiful and poetic.”
“I think there might have been another reason why you were afraid,” Tron said after a few nanoseconds. “You feel alive again.”
“I may feel that way, but it’s impossible.”
“You said the dead didn’t feel.” He studied her face. “They don’t taste. You do.”
“But my body is gone.”
“Something happened when you were first digitized. Something else happened when you received your Identity Disk. Something jumped from my hand into the disk. I think somehow, by some miracle it gave you a new body.”
“Impossible.”
“Janelle listen to me. Before Flynn arrived many programs stopped believing in Users. He told me that Users had beliefs. They looked up to a high power and you haunted ENCOM as a ghost and you were brought over here. There are more things in our worlds than we could imagine.”
“There are more things in heaven and earth that are dreamt of your philosophy,” she had whispered the words and stared at her hands. “Could this be real?”
“It certainly feels real.” He ran his fingers through her hair and tucked away a few stray strands.
She smiled and embraced him before she rested her head against his chest and watched the view.
-
A/N: There was a romantic scene between Tron and Yori that was deleted from the first movie. As Yori ran her fingers along his circuits they turned purple. The sparks are from the 4th draft of the script.
Janelles animal facts are true. Rabbits are part of an Order called Lagomorpha. Frogs do not like to be held by dry hands.
Not 100 percent true what breed Marv is. French Bulldogs and Boston Terriers look so much a like. For this fic verse he’s a French bulldog.
The play Janelle quoted from is Hamlet.