Chapter Text
The Renegade, Beck, barely refrains from imitating the whooshing sounds produced by his lightcycle. It was tempting, the whir and whum sounds in addition to the skrrs and whooshes when Beck tried an especially risky move. The only thing stopping Beck from muttering the onomatopoeias was the fact that he was the Renegade, and the Renegade didn’t have time to do things that were childish.
“ Whir, errrr, whoosh !” Beck whispers to himself, leaning his vehicle into a sharp turn, just barely skimming a cluster of boulders. Beck grins, congratulating himself on the flawless execution of the turn, proceeding to maneuver other more devious tricks, simply because he can.
The barren, monochromatic wasteland speeds by in a boring, uneventful manner. Tron had told him that he wouldn’t be needed today, but there was no work to be done at the garage, and time was passing too slow for Beck’s taste. Besides, Tron probably has something for Beck to do, the work never seemed to really run out.
The lone lightcycle rides farther and farther from the relatively (compared to Tron City) small city of Argon. Beck shakes his head, wondering how no one has managed to see him sneaking off to Tron's base. Beck frowns, already knowing what Tron would say about it.
“You’re getting too relaxed,” or maybe, “the rebellion is counting on you.” With the additional phrase, “You should know better by now.” Beck rattles off all of the possible words in a shaky imitation of Tron’s husky voice.
“Maybe I have gotten too relaxed.” Beck frowns, revving his lightcycle faster, the speed helps him think. Another part of Beck’s mind tries to convince him otherwise.
The occupation is the one getting lazy, it’s no one has caught me yet.
Beck wrestles those excuses away, he might’ve been able to think like that when he was just a mechanic. Now, programs were relying on him, he has responsibilities. Programs look at The Renegade as someone they can rely on, someone that’s untouchable, invincible from the Occupation, and CLU’s power. “ I need to be that program.” Beck reminds himself duly. A frown stays fixed on his face, as much power and justice comes with the Renegade’s role, sometimes he wishes he could go back to being just Beck the Mechanic.
A shudder goes through the program, thoughts like that always tore him down to his core, made him second-guess himself. Beck shakes off the feelings, pushing them into the deep recesses of his coding. He’d revisit them later, but not for a while.
The air whipping against the young program’s face slows to a soft touch, then to an undetectable force as Beck arrives at the very much “dead” hero’s base, a hideout inside of a tall spire of mountain that is fairly close to Argon city. Beck shakes his head, grinning, it’s unbelievable how close, yet so far, the Occupation was to finding Tron.
Beck walks into the secret entrance of the base, feeling a thrill of excitement. Once the rebellion destroyed the Occupation, Tron wouldn’t have to hide, he’d be welcomed as a war hero.
The glass-like floor of the building lights up as Beck walks down the entrance hallway. His mentor was around, somewhere. For a while, Beck entertains the idea of trying to sneak up on the older program, just to surprise him. The idea is quickly dropped, once Beck realizes that the chances of taking a disk to the face are concerningly high.
Beck opens his mouth to call out to Tron when he hears something suspicious. Beck drops into a lower stance, a habit now. He creeps forward, hand inches from his disk. The mechanic strains his ears to decipher the sound. It sounds like...talking. The quick voices are coming from the main room, but it’s too far away for Beck to hear any of their words.
“Assess your surroundings.” Beck mumbles under his breath, reciting Tron’s previous instructions. The program casts a quick glance around the bare hallway. There is no sound of a struggle so far, upon listening even more carefully, Beck picks up that the tone of the voices aren’t hostile. Tron is definitely one of the programs speaking.
The Renegade groans under his breath, wishing he was a security program so he could run further analysis. Beck takes that thought back instantaneously. If he was one, he would’ve been under CLU’s control a long time ago.
Impatience, as usual, gets to Beck before long. “Glitch it,” Beck growls, sprinting into the main room, hand ready to draw his disk.
Shock temporarily freezes his limbs when he sees who else is in the room. Beck stumbles in shock, confusion overwhelming his senses. Thousands of thoughts race through his mind, all of which contribute to his confusion. Beck cries out to warn Tron and sloppily throws his disk to injure the other program, but not to derez.
Lieutenant Paige leaps from her chair, avoiding the disk by a voxel’s breadth. Tron whips towards Beck, a thoroughly annoyed expression on his face. Paige looks shocked, stumbling farther backward as Beck’s disk ricochets off a pristine wall, then the weapon speeds back towards Beck, who catches it and holds it ready in his fist.
Paige moves to draw her own disk, the habit also pounded in her through cycles in the military. She’s only pacified by a warning motion from Tron, who turns to face her, anger blazing in his eyes.
The bright, white lighting from the floor illuminates the stressed stances the three programs stand in. “Beck!” Tron’s harsh voice cuts through the tension with practiced calmness laced with anger. “Bless the Grid, I thought I told you to stay in the garage today.” The older program growls, his hand relaxing, moving it subtly away from his own disk’s dock.
Beck’s gaze is firmly fixed on Paige, so many emotions and thoughts run through him that he focuses on one. Anger. “What is she doing here?” The mechanic yells, gesturing at Paige. “She’ll derez us, or report us or-”
“Beck! Stand down or leave until you can face this calmly.” Tron reprimands him sharply, calculating Beck and Paige’s stances. The tension lasts for a little while longer, though it feels like cycles for the programs.
Paige stands in stunned silence, looking from Beck to the floor, unable to look at Tron who casts a glance towards her. The warrior program casts a glance towards her, debating something internally before striding to Beck. “Now, let me explain this solely enough for your thick skull to understand.” Tron growls, guiding Beck into the hallway, out of sight from Paige but not too far.
Beck takes this all in, adrenaline rushing through his code. Beck tries to take in as much information as he can, eventually giving up and focusing on trying to control his emotions. The younger program opens his mouth to say something, but decides against it, waiting for Tron to say something.
Tron leads Beck a little bit farther before turning to face him. “It seems that I need to go over some guidelines again.” Tron snaps with a glare that could kill the strongest gridbug. “Harming innocent programs makes us no better than CLU. In the future you should take to remembering that.”
Beck freezes, taken aback by Tron’s chastising. “She knows I’m the Renegade now. And she’s part of the Occupation! She’ll find a way to derez you.” Beck bursts out quickly, interrupting Tron.
“I’m the one talking right now, program. If you had taken more time assessing the situation like I tell you to, you would’ve realized that she wasn’t hostile. Also her lightsuit wasn't military orange.” Tron growls with a temper that Beck rarely sees, much less been on the receiving end of.
Beck frowns, startled that in his shock he had barely noticed Paige’s suit glowing a medic-green instead of the angry orange color of the Occupation. “But-”
Tron doesn’t let him speak, interrupting him with sharp precision, “But, Renegade, ” Tron uses the title like a weapon. Beck winces, crossing his arms and looking at the floor, scowling. Tron notices and softens his voice slightly, “We were just talking, a harmless activity.”
Tron releases a weary sigh, “You don’t need to worry about me, Beck. I may be wounded, but I can take care of myself.” An underlying tone of frustration still lingers in his voice, but Beck can tell that Tron was calming down. The program settles back in his stance as if inviting Beck to speak.
“She’s tried to capture and kill me several times.” Beck states, keeping an eye on the hallway leading to Paige. “I’m sorry though, I shouldn’t have attacked like that.” The program dips his head slightly, embarrassed.
Tron nods once, “Follow me,” The older program starts walking farther from Paige.
Beck furrows his brow curiously before jogging after Tron. “You’re going to leave her unsupervised? Isn’t that dangerous?”
Tron doesn’t answer and keeps walking, leading Beck to a training room. Once Tron decides they’re a sufficient distance away, he turns to Beck. “I thought you had faith in her.” The older program remarks.
“Yeah,” Beck mumbles, “that was before she knew I am the Renegade.” Beck shifts uncomfortably under Tron’s gaze, trying to pay attention to the conversation while simultaneously wrestling with his own thoughts and feelings.
“Still Beck, I’m disappointed in you, that was no way to act in a situation like that. You could have derezzed her.” Tron warns, casting a meaningful glance at the younger program. Tron turns and faces a window facing the bleak expanse of wasteland, “You need to be prepared for situations like that. I hope you’ve learned from this.”
Beck tries to speak, but can’t find the words, looking out the window himself.
Tron sighs, continuing his train of thought. “It’s okay to be caught off-guard Beck, though I wish you weren’t, it happens.”
“You still haven’t told me why she’s here.” Beck asks cautiously and looks in Paige’s direction, unable to stop himself.
Tron shifts his posture to stand up even straighter, a feat that Beck didn’t think was possible prior. “Tesler was going to derez Paige after Lieutenant Pavel caught her freeing innocent programs that were going to be sent to the games. As it turns out, she’’s been doing this for a while.” Tron explains, brief and to the point. The program continues, glancing up once to see Beck's stunned reaction.
“She escaped capture and ran away using a stolen lightcycle, her leg was injured when she escaped. I found her near the base.” Tron pauses, allowing the first part of the story to sink in. Tron searches Beck’s face, accumulating the details of the younger program’s response to the information.
“I interrogated her,” Tron continues. Beck starkly remembers when Tron first interrogated him, right before he became the Renegade. A slight smile twitches onto Beck’s face for a second.
“Apparently she had seen you driving to the base before and she thought that it could be a lead on the Renegade. Once she realized that it was, she planned to derez you as a way to redeem herself to Tesler.” Tron has a certain tone in his voice that promises a future conversation about not letting others see him.
Beck starts, casting a worried glance towards the direction of Paige, “Tron that means we could be in danger.”
Tron raises a hand and Beck falls silent. “I've talked to her, she won’t be derezzing anot of us anytime soon, but I will be keeping a close eye on her for a while.”
Beck’s hesitance still shows, being worried about him or Tron getting injured. The rebellion was still fairly fragile, if the Renegade or Tron were defeated, it might decrease their chance dramatically.
“Don’t worry Beck, I addressed and fixed some hazy spots of her past. I doubt she’ll be trusting Tesler anytime soon.” The older program tries to reassure Beck, turning to face him. “It’s a risk, but one we will have to take.”
Beck frowns, using the momentary silence to try and wrestle through his emotions. Anger and confusement on why Tron would risk so much, also excitement, Paige might be on their side now. That could be the start of something new. If she deserted to their side, how many other programs could?
Tron speaks again after a moment of silence. “I know this will take some time to get sued to, considering she's tried to kill you, on Tesler orders.” Tron adds when he sees Beck’s worried expression.
“She’s on our side now, Renegade. Treat her like it, I think that you two could become great friends over time.” Tron places a comforting hand on Beck’’s shoulder, a rare gesture, before walking towards the main room. Beck falls into place behind him, following the older program.