-
Sam stared up as Rinzler was about to pounce on them with both disks extended and ready to slash down at him. Sam was ready to raise his at just the right minute.
Another disk flew out, aiming for Rinzler’s feet.
Rinzler shifted himself at the last second, missing having his feet struck or cut off, but his landing was less than graceful. He tumbled along the ground and pulled himself into a crouch, poised to attack again.
“Get away from them,” Ram shouted and threw his disk again.
Seeing Ram must have gotten through to their fallen friend. He did not attack. He tried to dodge away but did not move fast enough. The disk struck his helmet, knocking it off.
“Tron,” Sam called out as he raised his arms. Out of the corner of his eye he could make out Legion attacking the soldiers. “These are your friends, Ram and Yori. You love Yori.”
“Ram,” Tron repeated the name and blinked. “Yori, we were, we are together.”
“You shouldn’t have told him that,” Dad’s voice was heard behind him.
“What do you mean?” Sam asked and looked over at the two programs as Ram helped up Yori to her feet and pulled her close. They way they stared at each other betrayed their feelings. “Ah shit. Why didn’t anyone tell me these things?”
“Lies,” Tron growled out as the red light flashed in his eyes again. “All lies. Yori doesn’t love me. She loves him. She always loved him.” He growled again as he leaped into the air and spun his body around while he threw his disk down at the two lovers.
Sam threw his disk. He watched as it struck against Tron’s, knocking it off course. He waited for Tron to land before he jumped on his back and tried to force him down.
Tron was a better fighter and he was stronger. He bucked Sam off and stuck him with his fist.
Sam grunted as he felt the program’s fist collide against his jaw. The pain was fierce and the force was enough to nearly knock Sam onto his backside. He looked up and stared in the eyes of the corrupted program.
“Stop,” Dad’s voice was loud enough that it even made Sam’s ears hurt. “Don’t you dare hurt my son.”
“Lies,” Tron snarled. “Lies, lies, lies, lies.” He clawed at the air. “There are no Users, there never were. Osiris created me and I serve him. I fight for him.”
“You will die for him,” Legion growled and ran up them. He snarled as he swatted Tron aside. “You fight for the one that has hurt me. I will hurt you.” He raised his fist to strike down on Tron’s head.
“Legion, stop,” Janelle shouted and stood in between Tron and the SBM. “He’s a friend. It’s Tron.”
“Janelle, get away from him,” Sam cried out. He doubted she would get through to him.
“Tron?” Legion blinked. “Why is Tron helping the one that hurt me?”
“They did bad things to him,” Janelle explained. “They might have hurt him, messed with his mind and made him like this.” She turned to Tron. “Hey big guy.”
Sam stared at Tron who was frozen once again. The corrupted program stared at Janelle with constantly blinking eyes.
“J-J-Janelle?”
“It’s me,” Janelle said. “You are the strongest program that I know. You can fight this.”
“She doesn’t know what she is getting into,” Sam said. He barely watched as Legion tore through the remaining members of the enemy soldiers. His glanced darted towards Yori and Ram. The female program’s eyes were filled with tears and Ram had his disk ready.
“Yes she does,” Dad said.
“She had just been restored to life. Why would she want to risk it?”
“The same reason you would risk it for Quo—Sam, the ship.”
Sam didn’t know why his father was using such a simple distraction tactic but he looked and saw someone fall from one of the windows and onto the ground.
He ran up to the fallen program. He hoped that his father was right and that Ram, Yori and Legion would be enough to keep Tron or rather Rinzler from hurting Janelle or anyone else. To his surprise it was Regor. The program remained unmoving but he didn’t de-rezz.
Sam crouched over him and gingerly touched his hands and chest, not sure on what he should be looking for.
“User,” Regor gasped.
“Easy,” Sam said.
“You thought I was dumb, dumb enough to fall out?”
“I don’t think you fell,” Sam answered. He was certain Regor had pissed off Osiris to the point where the tyrant decided to push him out. He noticed a half section of an Identity Disk was next to him. “You fought against him?”
“Had to. He’s crazy. He’s willing to fight against our Users. Osiris has to be stopped.” The glow in his circuit pattern was fading.
“We will take care of him.”
“I believe in you.” His words came out as a dry whisper as his body de-rezzed.
Sam rose to his feet and glared at the window where Regor had fallen. He took a deep breath and raced up the stairway into the ship.
-
Rinzler stared at the female program. Her name was Janelle and there was something in the back of his head that said she was a friend and a User, but that couldn’t be true. Users do not exist.
“Remember how we met?” Janelle asked. “You rescued me back when I was just a soul with out a body.”
“Rescued,” Rinzler repeated the word as he stared at her face. He could see her face several times in his mind. There was a place with music, on a solar sailer, with someone reciting strange words, riding on a light cycle, in the middle of a disk game, drinking energy from a spring, putting on armor, and the first time he saw her.
Some of them have always been angels and others are the departed souls who watch over their loved ones.
“Flynn?” Rinzler asked. He could hear his voice in his head and he heard another voice.
I fight for the Users. It sounded like his own voice.
I watch over them. That voice belonged to her.
“Janelle, you are a guardian angel?” Rinzler asked.
“When I was a ghost?” Janelle asked.
I died, d-erezzed as you say. The only thing left is my ghost, my soul.
“You died.”
“And I came back.” She grabbed his hand.
Lies, lies, lies.
Rinzler closed his eyes. He was not going to hear it, not now.
“I died and you brought me back. I will help you bring you back. We all will.”
LIES, THEY ARE ALL LIES. YOU ARE RINZLER. YOU FIGHT FOR OSIRIS.
Rinzler screamed. “Out of my head.”
“Tron, please,” Janelle spoke.
Rinzler shook his head. He stared at Janelle and past her. He could see several more programs running up to him and his soldiers.
“Enemies,” Rinzler growled and stood back up. “You are all the enemy of our master and savior. I fight for Osiris.” He brought one of his disk’s down and cut through the armor and outer material of the program.
“Janelle,” an older program cried out. “Tron stop it.” He had the same voice as Rinzler.
“That’s your User,” Flynn told him. “Alan made you.”
“Alan?” Rinzler stared at the older program and then at the shoulder of Janelle. “Alan-one is my User?”
LIES. ALL THE ENEMY DOES IS LIE.
Rinzler cringed at the words and stared at Janelle. He saw red liquid trickled down. It was blood. Programs did not bleed.
“Oh Tron,” Janelle gasped as she stared at him with tear filled eyes. “What have you become?”
Rinzler reeled back. He heard the same words before and he remembered who he was looking at. He was staring at Flynn, his friend. He said he fought for the Users, but they didn’t exist. No, they were real and they bled and Janelle was one of them. Alan, Sam and Flynn were Users and he had attacked them.
“Janelle,” Rinzler said as he stared into her eyes. “Get away from me. Get Alan away from me”
“I’m never going to leave you,” she told him.
“We won’t leave you,” Alan said. “I got something that will help.”
“Leave before I hurt you again.” Rinzler told her
“I’m not going.” She refused to budge.
“You must.”
“Won’t.”
“Why?” Rinzler closed his eyes as he shouted the question.
“Because I love you too much to leave.”
He opened his eyes and saw that she had her hands clamped over her mouth and her eyes were at their widest. She didn’t seem to notice that Alan was doing something to her disk that was still attached to it’s back harness.
FIGHT THE ENEMY. TAKE HER TO OSIRIS. OBEY YOUR MASTER. WHO DO YOU FIGHT FOR?
Rinzler clawed at the ground. He refused to touch his disks. He looked at Janelle who said she loved him, him a program and she was a User. He glanced at Alan, at Ram and Yori. He looked at his friends and who they were fighting for. He remembered how they fought in the past, against the MCP. He remembered fighting against Clu, being defeated and how he tried to fight what Clu had done to him.
“I fight for the Users!” He raised his head to the sky as he shouted at the top of his lungs.
“Tron, take this,” Janelle said as she held out her own disk to him. “This will help you.”
Rinzler grabbed the disk with a shaking hand. The second his fingers wrapped around it he felt a jolt of energy that shot through him and into his body, such beautiful energy. The voices in his head melted away before all he saw was darkness.
-
“He’s going to run out of soldiers if he keeps this up,” Sam said after he had finished de-rezzing another group of soldiers. He had made his way through the ship to the doorway of where he believed Osiris was. “This isn’t going to be easy.”
The room was nearly empty save for a small bar, a lounger and a screen. Osiris was standing in front of the window looking out.
“Recognizers are bringing more of my soldiers,” Osiris said. His voice was distant. “I see them in the sky, but on the ground it is different. I see more of my troops fighting their army, but they are losing, not all de-rezzing, losing what I have done to them.”
“I guess this means that you have lost,” Sam said as he marched straight up to the program.
“I think not,” Osiris said as he spun around to face him. His hair was disheveled, teeth were bared and eyes were wide open with a wild look in them. “As long as I am still around I have not lost.”
Sam shook his head. “At this point you don’t even have Seabiscuit’s hope.”
“My armies are coming.” Osiris clenched his hand around his own disk and the remaining piece from Regor’s. “I have broken through the firewall.” He took a step towards Sam. “I have reprogrammed the warrior back into Rinzler, who know serves me.” He took another step toward’s Sam. “What do you have, User?”
“Friends,” Sam said before he raced towards him. He jumped in the air and was ready to pounce down on the viral program.
-
Tron heard the sounds of battle echo around him as he came to. He opened his and waited until the images stopped shaking in double forms before he sat up.
“How are you?” Alan asked. He had both of Tron’s disks in his hand and looked like he was trying to see if there was any other damage he could repair.
“I’m well,” Tron answered and smiled at Janelle who was sitting next to Alan. “I am beginning to re-think the staying behind plan.”
“That may be for the best,” Alan told him.
“What’s going on?” He rubbed his head. “How did you cure me?”
“Adrian came through,” Janelle said. “The five programs gave us something that would prevent infection and it cleans up any corruption of any other program.”
“Hooray for our side,” Tron said. “Flynn is here?”
“At times,” Flynn’s voice told him. “I’m also with Sam at others and also with Quorra. I can’t be everywhere at the same time.”
“Where is Quorra?”
“She’s fighting,” Alan said and pointed to where the ISO was using her disk against another of the guard, but she wasn’t killing it. She only smacked her disk against it’s back, into it’s own disk. It caused the corrupted program to have their lights glow the brightest before fading to light blue.
He turned around and watched as Arc tumbled through the air and land on one of the helmet’s of the enemy and smack it with his disk before he catapulted back into the air and landed on another guard.
Even Legion had been given the gift. He grabbed members of the black guard, picked them up and smacked their disk’s with his fingers.
“Where is Sam?” Tron asked.
“He went to face Osiris,” Alan said
Tron turned to Janelle. “Janelle, I need to ask you something.”
“It’s about what I said isn’t it,” Janelle sighed. “Sometimes emotions take contro-“
“Shhh.” He placed a finger on her lips. “I wanted to ask you if you thought Osiris still wanted you.”
“I think he does,” Janelle said. “I’m not a hundred percent sure.”
“Sam is going to need our help.”
“What are we going to do?”
“Follow me,” Tron instructed and ran towards the ship along with the restored User.
Two guards ran in front to block off the entrance.
Tron was about to toss his disk, but he didn’t have to, another disk cut off the enemies’ weapons.
“Shouldn’t be too hard,” Janelle said and kicked against the knees of one.
“Not at all,” Tron agreed and struck out the other guard with his fist. He grabbed onto the disk of the guard and watched how it glowed, followed by the change in the color of the circuitry on the armor.
“Who threw that disk to help?” Janelle asked.
“I know who,” Tron said as he saw a familiar program doing battle against one of the enemy. “Thank you, Ram.”
As they made their way through the ship, Tron had worked out the plan in his head. He just hoped it would look believable.
“Stop,” he said when he and Janelle reached outside Osiris’s room. There was a guard lying on the groud, unconscious. Tron placed a hand on the guard, closed his eyes and concentrated. He thought of himself as Rinzler, pictured himself as the obedient enforcer for tyrant programs. When he opened his eyes his circuit lights were red.
“Tron?” Janelle whispered.
“It’s me. I need you to pretend that you are my prisoner.”
She nodded and handed him her disk.
“Thank you.” He secured it and grabbed pulled her arms behind her and held her by the wrists. “In here.” He stepped inside the room.
“Let me go,” Janelle cried and tried to look over her shoulder at him. “Please, Tron.”
“My name is Rinzler, program,” Tron answered.
“God damn it,” Sam said. He had been fighting against Osiris and both he and his opponent were winded and low on energy. “Let her go.”
Tron waited until Sam had run up to him before he punched the User in the gut.
“Good,” Osiris said with a smile. “You are my best man.” His smile grew wider. “And you will be my best woman, my dear.”
“Never,” Janelle said. “I don’t know where you come off thinking I would ever be in to you, Dirofilaria immitis.”
“You have quite the mouth on you,” Osiris said. “I know Users tend to do such interesting things with their mouths.” He leaned down and was met with a slap to the face.
Tron growled and shoved Janelle to the ground. “You do not talk to him like that.”
“And you do not harm what is mine,” Osiris growled.
“I am sorry,” Tron said as he bowed down in front of him. “I do not like seeing any harm befall you.”
“I understand,” Osiris said as held out his hand. “You make a wonderful enforcer. I’m glad I have you to serve me.”
Tron grabbed the outstretched hand and looked up. Without a single word he grabbed a disk and slammed it into the chest of the tyrant.
“What?” Osiris gasped as he stared down at the disk that was half embedded into his form.
“Game over,” Sam said.
“No,” Osiris said as he clawed at the disk. “I have won. I conquered this system.” His eyes turned back as he sparked. His lights were fading. “My game continues.” The words were choked out as his body crumbled into thousands of tiny glass cubes and formed a glittering pile on the ground.
“Good riddance,” Sam said.
“Sorry about hurting you,” Tron said.
“You were under his control for a bit,” Sam told him. “Not your fault.”
“I meant just now.”
“That was nothing.” The male User ran up to the window. “How are they doing?”
Tron followed him and looked out. He saw much more freedom fighters than he did black guard. He saw them as they continued their way through the city.
“We are winning.”
“Still have to get all the soldiers in the rest of the system,” Sam said.
“I think we can do it,” Janelle said.
“That won’t be a problem at all,” Tron said. He felt an arm around his shoulder and realized it was Sam’s. He smiled at his friend while he grabbed onto Janelle’s hand.
-
A/N: Dirofilaria immitis is the Latin term for heart worm.
Almost done, just a few more chapters left. Thanks to all who faved, reviewed and added this story to their alerts.