Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Able's gone.

The words repeated in his head like a chant nonstop and no matter what he did, whether he would try to think about something else, do some research to distract himself or even take a ride through the outlands on his light cycle, they never stopped. Though, after a few cycles, he'd grown used to it.

Tron stood by a window, staring down at the view of the city and its vibrant blue glow, along with a slight orange hue that leaked in from Tesler's base.

Across the city, just barely visible, Able’s Garage could be seen. It used to be one of the brightest buildings in Argon, making it easy to point out but ever since 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 night, it had become dimmer, as if its life had gone right along with Able’s and it now blended into the rest of the cityscape, making it just another building.

Tron bit his thumbnail, waiting for Beck to return from his mission. He had sent him to Argon Square to search for Cyrus's disc.

He initially planned on sending him to the docks, but Tron felt that it would be too much for Beck to handle this soon.

He laid off from giving him any difficult missions. With all that had happened in so little time, Tron really didn't want to overwork Beck, so he stuck to assigning him a few small tasks here and there.

The past few cycles had been hard on Beck. Not only did he somewhat witness Able's death, but his friends blamed him for it too. Tron was surprised by how well Beck had been taking everything, surprised that he was even able to go on a mission at all. Tron insisted that he take a break, but he refused.

The door opened. Tron stopped biting his nail and looked over his shoulder to see Beck standing in the doorway.

Tron was so lost in thought that he didn't even notice his light cycle approaching the hideout.

Beck looked different. His shoulders sagged, his usual facial expression was replaced with a frown, his eyes were half-closed, and he had poor posture. The young program who used to walk through that door full of determination and confidence was now awash with grief.

Tron hated seeing Beck this way. His mind told him to comfort him and at least ask him how he was holding up but the only thing he could say was, "Did you find it?"

Beck sighed. "No, I searched everywhere. I found the bomb you attached to him but… no voxels or disc."

Tron took a deep breath. Ever since that night he had been skeptical about Cyrus’s death. No normal program would be able to survive being electrocuted to the extent that Cyrus was, then again, Cyrus was far from a normal program. The odds of him being alive were just as high as the probability of him being dead.

"Do you think he's still alive?" Beck asked, bringing Tron back to reality.

"The chances that Cyrus survived are slim to nothing. His remains were probably spotted by some guards and disposed of."

"But wouldn't they have disposed of the bomb as well?"

Tron paused for a moment then huffed. "It’s very likely that he’s dead but there’s still a chance that he could be alive. Just in case, we should prepare for the worst."

Beck nodded. "Right. Is there anything else you need me to do?"

"No. You can go ahead and take the rest of the cycle off." Tron said, walking down the steps.

"The rest of the cycle? Are you sure?" Beck said, baffled.

"I think right now you should be spending more time with your friends. You're all hurting, and you need each other more than ever."

"I guess you're right... but what about you?"

"What about me?" Tron said, stopping in front of him before folding his arms.

"You've just been awfully calm about this whole situation."

𝘏𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘸𝘦 𝘨𝘰 𝘢𝘨𝘢𝘪𝘯

Tron had a feeling that Beck would bring this up again. Ever since they first met it seemed like he always tried to get into his head and get him to talk about how he felt. On any other cycle, Tron would give Beck a warning look to try and get him to stop, and on any other cycle, Beck would stop. Though now, Tron's death stares didn't seem to phase him anymore.

Tron unfolded his arms and walked away back towards the steps. Beck rolled his eyes and quickly followed him.

𝘐𝘴 𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘭𝘺 𝘵𝘳𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘪𝘨𝘯𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘮𝘦 𝘢𝘨𝘢𝘪𝘯?

"You have yet to shed a single tear about it." Beck said, walking up next to Tron.

Tron still faced forward and walked up to a screen filled with files and images. He tapped on a few different things, continuing the work he had taken a break from earlier.

"So?"

"𝘚𝘰? Able was one of your closest friends and now he's… now he's gone. Doesn't that bother you?"

"I've lost many friends during my runtime." Tron replied, not taking his eyes off of the screen.

"Yeah, but this is different! You've lost most of your friends to repurposing. At least they’re alive. There's a chance you might be able to see them again and help them, but Able is dead. Tron, you're 𝙣𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧 going to see him again."

Tron stopped his work for a moment, taking in that last sentence. 𝘛𝘳𝘰𝘯, 𝘺𝘰𝘶'𝘳𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘨𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘦𝘦 𝘩𝘪𝘮 𝘢𝘨𝘢𝘪𝘯. It repeated in his head. As if 'Able's gone' wasn't enough.

Tron continued. "What exactly is your point here, Beck?"

"Wha- I just explained it to you!" He huffed. "My point is you just lost a very important friend. You've known Able longer than anyone. I just don't understand how you can sit here and act like nothing happened."

The two of them sat in awkward silence for a long moment. Beck opened his mouth to say something but was interrupted by Tron turning off the screen.

Tron sighed and made eye contact with Beck for the first time since the conversation started. "Look, the truth is, I really don't know how to feel right now. To be honest, none of this feels real. Believe me Beck, I want to be upset, but I just... can't."

Beck looked down. He understood what Tron meant. Just a few cycles ago, he had felt the same way, like nothing was real. Like he was just stuck in a bad dream, hoping he’d wake up the next Cycle to Able lecturing him about sleeping in again.

"It could be that it just hasn't hit you yet." Beck explained. "That's how it was for me. You're probably still processing everything that happened."

"Maybe." Tron said softly.

Beck took a deep breath. The two of them stared out the window for a few long micros, taking in the view.

"Sorry for being pushy earlier. I was just worried." Beck said.

"It's alright, I appreciate your concern. But like I said, you should spend some more time with your friends at the garage."

"I've already spent plenty of time with them. I think you're the one I need to be spending more time with."

"I'm fine Beck, really. Go and be with your friends. If I need anything, I'll let you know."

Beck responded with a nod then headed back toward the door. Tron watched the young mechanic walk toward the exit with a warm smile before shifting his focus to the window again. Just before he left, Beck looked back at Tron. Something deep in his code told him to stay and to chat with Tron a little longer, but he looked away and left.

Tron watched Beck speed towards Argon until he wasn't in sight. Then, without thinking, he moved his eyes toward the docks, just barely visible in the distance.

The voice in his head stopped and his mind went clear for the first time in cycles, and now, all he could hear was one question.

𝘚𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘪 𝘨𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦?

He shook the thought out of his head. He wasn't ready, and even if he was, the scene was probably all cleaned up by now. There was no point in looking.

Tron stared for a little longer, then turned and began to walk away.

----------

Tron laid in his bed with half his face buried in his pillow, waiting to drift into sleep mode. He felt glad that he didn't have to deal with that voice in his head anymore, but now he dealt with this sudden urge to go to the docks.

He tried his best to ignore it. He shifted onto his other side and took a deep breath through his nose, attempting to fall asleep again.

𝘔𝘢𝘺𝘣𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦'𝘴 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦. 𝘈 𝘤𝘭𝘶𝘦. 𝘌𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘪𝘧 𝘊𝘺𝘳𝘶𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘥𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘰𝘳 𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘷𝘦. 𝘕𝘰, 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘱 𝘪𝘵. 𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘵. 𝘊𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘥. 𝘎𝘰 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘭𝘦𝘦𝘱.

...𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘧 𝘪𝘵'𝘴 𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦?

Tron opened his eyes then pulled his covers off of himself abruptly. He sat up and rubbed his eyes. Great, now he really wouldn't be able to sleep. He glanced around his room without reason, then got up.

He walked over to the window overlooking Argon, which was dimmer now that the curfew was in effect. He looked at the docks again and finally gave in to his urge.

He undocked his disc and pressed a few buttons, when he docked his disc, his stealth suit began to take its form, covering his normal attire.

He made his way out of the base then rezzed his light cycle and drove off toward the docks.

----------

The area had been completely shut off from the public. Large, orange barriers surrounded the whole place, along with some sentry guards patrolling the area. Tron wondered if the occupation was still investigating the scene, and this all but confirmed his suspicions.

Tron rezzed his helmet and began sneaking over to another set of orange barriers, carefully avoiding any passing guards.

The task was more complicated than it seemed. Stealth was one of Tron's specialties, but with the area being so open, he didn't have many things to climb up on or hide behind. For the most part, he just had to run and hope he wouldn't get caught.

Tron finally reached the second set of barriers. He took a few steps back, taking note of how high the barriers stood. They weren't very high, but any typical program wouldn't be able to jump over them.

Suddenly, Tron heard a set of heavy footsteps getting closer to him. One, no, two sentry guards were heading in his direction. The closer they got, the clearer their deep, devilish voices became. He had to think fast.

Without hesitation, Tron jumped over the barriers and landed on the other side as softly as possible. He hid behind one of the barrier posts as the two guards passed by.

"I still don't understand why we have to come back here every night. I mean, a program died, who cares? Programs die every cycle."

"Tell me about it."

The occupation's lack of respect for the lives of civilian programs made the energy in Tron's body boil. The military used to serve and protect programs, but now they don't give two flying grid bugs if anything happened to them. Tron quietly huffed, focusing on the task at hand.

Just as Tron took a step forward, he bumped into something. He shook his head and looked to see a sentry guard standing in front of him.

"Going somewhere, program?"

Tron didn't respond. The sentry gripped onto their light staff with both hands.

"You are in violation of curfew, and are not auth-"

Without warning, Tron kicked the sentry dead in the face. Their armor did nothing to protect them from the force of Tron's kick. They landed on the ground with a thud, knocked out cold.

"Anyway," Tron mumbled under his breath. He took a few steps forward to look at the scene.

What used to be a crane was now a large pile of scraps and damaged code. It was nothing that Tron hadn't seen before, but something about it made him feel uneasy, like he just wanted to get out of there. Usually, Tron would assume that it was just his natural security instincts kicking in, but this was different.

The top of the crane had been completely demolished; only half of it was still standing. Some of the damage had landed in the water while some of it made it onto the pavement. He occasionally moved some scraps around with his foot to see if he could find anything, but he found nothing.

After a while of searching through the debris, he found something. It looked to be a piece of one of the bombs. He picked it up and studied it for a moment. It was a piece of the bomb's screen, where the countdown would've been displayed. As he was digging through the scraps a little more, he found more bomb pieces... and something else.

Tron froze, staring at what he had found.

It was a disc.

Only half of it was exposed. The other half was buried underneath more scraps. He tried to reassure himself. Maybe an unfortunate program was standing too close when the explosion went off.

He reached for the disc, his hand shaking as he grabbed it. He stood up and looked at the disk for a long moment and prayed that it didn't belong to who he thought it did.

When he pressed a button the disc turned on. His eyes slightly widened. The disk projected a holographic silhouette of Able's head.

His mind went blank. He felt no emotion. All of his experiences with Able flashed before him. A near lifelong friendship, taken away from him all because of some maniac that he once trusted.

Tron clenched the disk in his hand. He understood now how he felt. Out from his sea of denial, of avoidance, of pretending everything was okay even if it wasn't... came a new emotion.

Anger.

Chapter Text

He walked through the hallway as fast as he could, hoping that Tron wouldn't be too mad about him being late.

Tron may have told Beck that he would go easy on him for a while, but lately, that hadn't been the case.

Tron had been getting on him a lot about not being on time and even snapped at him occasionally.

It seemed Tron had entered a new phase.

The door opened, Beck took a deep breath before he walked through and looked over at Tron, who inspected the bomb pieces he found back at the crane sight.

“What took you so long?” Tron said, without looking at Back.

“Sorry, I got caught in a traffic jam on my way here, but I came as quickly as I could.”

“Why didn't you just take the tunnels?”

“Well it… wasn't the first thing that came to mind.” Beck said with a bit of edge in his tone.

Tron huffed and shook his head. 𝘖𝘧 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴𝘦 𝘪𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴𝘯'𝘵.

“But I'm here now, what do you need me to do?”

Tron picked up one of the pieces and looked at it. “I haven't really been able to figure anything out about these bombs. I know there's something there but I just can't seem to put my hand on it.”

“Is there anything I can do?”

“I feel like we'd be able to figure out more if we took them apart; study how they work. I don't really have the skill to take them apart myself, but you do.” Tron explained.

Beck walked up beside him and looked at the pieces. “Disassemble the bombs, see how they work, and gather information about them. Seems simple enough.”

He pulled out some tools and immediately got to work. “I'll see what I can do.”

“Good.” Tron stated before walking away.

“If you need anything I'll be in my room.”

----------

Tron sighed as he walked into his room. He pressed a button on the wall, closing the door behind him.

He put a hand on his neck and felt his scar which surprisingly felt a little sore. It usually didn't hurt unless it grew past his eye, and yet, despite only being about halfway up his left cheek, it hurt.

𝘖𝘥𝘥.

He ignored it for now, assuming that it was probably due to stress. He went over to his bed and sat down. Maybe relaxing a bit would help ease the pain.

Tron took a deep breath then faced his nightstand. On top of it laid the disc he found along with the bomb pieces at the crane site.

Able's disc.

“Usually I'd go to you to help me out with a project like this, but it seems like Beck can handle it.”

He chuckled softly. “You taught him well.”

It was strange, ever since Tron found Able's disc, he'd been talking to it as if he were talking to Able. He thought it was weird and would even try to reassure himself at times that he wasn't crazy.

Though, despite thinking that his actions were weird, he didn't stop. Oddly enough, he found comfort in talking to the disc. Sometimes it would actually feel like he's talking to Able.

Tron laid back in his bed and stared at the ceiling for a few nanos, thinking about what he wanted to say next.

“I remember when I told you how he always relied on that multi tool to repair things, and then you said ‘Well, I would teach him more techniques if he would actually show up to work.’ Then you gave me a look.”

Tron closed his eyes and let his body relax. It was at that moment he realized that he hadn't slept in almost two full cycles and all the exhaustion hit him at once. His eyes felt heavy, his body fatigued, and he even felt a small wave of nausea kick in, it was as if his body warned him that if he didn’t rest soon, he’d face the consequences for not doing so.

Despite his body’s demands, he fought to stay awake, telling himself that there was more to be done around the base but before he knew it, he drifted into sleep mode.

----------

He opened his eyes, staring at the ceiling, still in the same position he fell asleep in.

Tron woke up comfortable, for the first time in what seemed like forever. It's a good thing he took that nap his body had been begging for the past couple of cycles.

He slowly sat up, letting his legs dangle off the bed and stretched out his arms.

Outside the window, Argon City was dim, It was nighttime.

Tron wondered how long he'd been sleeping for.

He got up and walked out of his room.

All of the lights in the base were still on, leaving Tron a bit confused. Usually, when Beck left for the night, he turned everything off and locked down the base for him.

Considering everything was still on, and the base had not yet been locked down, Beck must’ve still been there.

Tron looked over to where the bombs were but noticed that they were gone, along with Beck. He must have moved into another room.

It took Tron looking through a few rooms to find where Beck was. He was over by a large table, all of the bomb pieces were disassembled and separated just like Tron wanted. Beck had his head down on the table with a tool still sitting in his hand as if he’d fallen asleep mid way through his work.

Tron walked over to him, taking a look at all of the pieces spread out on the table. It was impressive the way they were organized. Everything from the biggest parts to the smallest ones were individually spread out and each unique part was separated into its own group. He’d never have the patience to do such work by himself.

Tron put his hand on Beck's shoulder and gave him a little shake. “Beck.”

Beck was still sound asleep. Tron shook him a little harder.

“Beck.” He said a bit more firmly.

Beck shot his head up, causing Tron to pull his hand back instinctively. Beck looked around for a moment then noticed Tron standing next to him.

“Tron. Sorry, you just caught me a little off guard.”

“I see you've disassembled the pieces.”

“Yeah, it was a bit of a challenge, but obviously not impossible.” Beck said in a yawn, stretching his arms back.

Tron looked at the table. “Did you find anything?”

“No, I've been studying these things for micros and so far I've got nothing.”

A twinge of frustration came to Tron. How did Beck research those pieces for micros only to find nothing? There had to be something.

Tron took a deep breath and pinched the bridge of his nose. “So you did all of this research for nothing?”

Beck simply didn't have an answer for him. He just sighed and looked at the pieces spread out in front of him.

“Maybe if you hadn't fallen asleep you would've found something.” Tron mumbled.

Beck glared at Tron.

𝘏𝘦'𝘴 𝘥𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘵 𝘢𝘨𝘢𝘪𝘯.

There have been a few moments recently where Tron would say something to start an argument. Most of the time, Beck couldn't tell whether he was actually frustrated or if he just wanted to argue for the sake of it.

“Look, I'm sorry. I'm doing everything I-”

“Well you're not doing enough.”

Beck closed his eyes and took a deep breath, then looked at Tron again. “How do you know that there's even anything to find in these things?

“I just know that there is. I don't care how long it takes you, I want you to find out what it is.”

“I'm not gonna sit here for micros looking for something that isn't there. Face it, they're just bombs, and there's nothing special about them.”

“I know there's something there, and it will be found, even if it means looking for it myself.”

“You want to take a look and do all of this hard work yourself? Be my guest! If you're going to treat me like this, I won't do it anymore!”

Tron just sat there, giving Beck a stern look.

Beck grabbed a duffel bag sitting nearby and carefully put the pieces inside. Tron watched with his arms folded.

When Beck was done, he closed the bag and put one of its straps over his shoulder.

“I've got more tools I can use back at the garage so I'm gonna head there for a bit. Maybe you should take this time to cool your temper.” Beck said as he walked towards the door.

As soon as Beck left, Tron rolled his eyes and headed back to his room.

----------

Tron paced around his room, doing all kinds of hand gestures while he vented about the small argument he had with Beck earlier to Ables disc.

“Take the bombs apart and figure out how they work. What is so difficult about that?”

Tron stopped in front of a wall, staring at himself in its reflective surface and rested his hand on it.

He sighed. “I just want some kind of lead, is that too much to ask?”

“One of the things I used to tell you was not to push Beck too hard. He's just one program and there's only so much he can do.”

Tron recognised that voice all too well. He looked up to see a reflection of Able standing behind him.

“I know, but-”

“He's young, and he has to carry the burden of being your successor.” Able continued.

Tron stayed silent, not really knowing how to respond.

“He'll get it. You just gotta give him time.”

His frustration came back to him in an instant and he shook his head. “But during a time like this we don't have much-”

Tron turned to face Able only to find that he wasn’t actually there. He looked around his room. He was alone, talking to himself.

“I think you should let Beck take a break.”

“No. I don't want him to stop until he finds the information that I want.”

“For once, can you just take my advice?”

“Stop talking to me, you're not real!” Tron yelled, banging his fist on the wall.

Suddenly, he felt a sharp pain in his neck. He grunted in pain and put a hand on his scar. His sudden outburst caused it to grow a bit more. He took a few deep breaths, calming himself down before walking out of his room to head for the healing chamber.

----------

Beck sat in Able's office with the bomb pieces on the desk. He had a tool in his hand, using it to inspect the piece he was currently working on.

He sat back in his chair. He still didn't find anything. All of the research that he’d been doing just didn’t add up.

He put his hands on his face and groaned. “What am I doing wrong?”

The office door suddenly opened. Without thinking, Beck jumped over the desk and stood in front of the pieces, attempting to hide them from whoever came through the door.

Zed walked in, holding a small box and stopped once he saw Beck casually standing by Able's desk.

“Oh. Hey, Zed.” Beck said, trying to hide the edge in his voice.

Zed gave Beck a look of suspicion and closed the door behind him. “What are you doing in Able's office?”

“What are 𝘺𝘰𝘶 doing in Able's office?” Beck replied.

Zed walked over to a table and placed the box down. “Oh, ya know, I was just… that's none of your business.”

“Okay, then what I'm doing isn't any of your business either.”

Zed looked Beck up and down then walked up to him. “Are you hiding something?”

“No...”

“Are you sure?” Zed said, trying to look behind him.

Beck moved in front of him. “Positive.”

Every time Zed tried to look behind Beck, he’d move in front of him until Zed eventually shoved Beck out of the way to see what he was hiding.

Beck stood there nervously, hoping that Zed wouldn't recognize the pieces.

“What are these?” Zed said, raising an eyebrow.

Beck sighed in relief, glad that he didn't have to explain himself to Zed. Though he still had to think of some kind of excuse to tell him.

“They're bomb pieces. The occupation sent them here to be disassembled and looked at. They want us to see if we can figure anything out about them.”

“Oh. Well, why are you doing all the work by yourself? You know, there's 216 other mechanics that work here too.” Zed said, pointing back with his thumb.

“I know, but most of them are sleeping so I figured I'd start working on them now. Get a good head start.”

“Hm, I guess that makes sense. I can help if you want.”

“Oh, uh-”

Before Beck could finish speaking, Zed picked up one of the tools on the desk and started working.

𝘞𝘦𝘭𝘭, 𝘢𝘭𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘯.

Beck watched Zed work. He picked up the pieces one by one and examined them carefully.

“So of all places to work, why work in Able's office?” Zed asked.

“I dunno, surprisingly, I feel more comfortable when I work here. I don't know why, but I just do.” Beck said, leaning back against the desk.

“I understand. I like to come in here too, it gives you a feeling that Able's still here, like he’s watching over you.”

“Yeah… So, did you find anything?”

“Yeah, these definitely aren't normal bombs. In fact, I don't think they're bombs at all.”

Beck looked puzzled. “What?”

“You see, normal bombs are made out of celinite which is a flammable material but these are made out of dolonite which, unlike celinite, is nearly bomb proof.” Zed explained.

“Huh. How did I not notice that?”

“Also, there's nothing in these things that would cause them to explode.”

“Well, if they're not bombs then what are they?”

“I'm not sure. Pretty strange if you ask me.” Zed said, grabbing his chin.

“This is… great! Just the information that I needed.” Beck said with a bit of excitement.

He put the pieces back into the duffel bag he used to bring them. Zed might’ve been dumb at times, but there was no doubt that he was one of the best mechanics at the garage.

“Thanks Zed, you're the best!” Beck said before leaving in a rush.

Zed waved to Beck as he left. “Anytime!”

The door closed, and Zed stood by himself.

“Now what did I come in here for again?”

----------

Tron sat in his healing chamber, thinking about what that hallucination of Able told him before. He opened his eyes and stepped out.

As soon as he stepped out, he rubbed his eyes and walked over to a nearby window, looking out at the view of the outlands. He then looked at his reflection and noticed something odd.

Despite being in the healing chamber for a few micros, his scar barely healed. It looked almost the same as it was earlier.

He went behind the chamber and opened a small door, pulling out a container of energy which was almost completely full.

Tron put the container back and closed the small door. He walked back over to the window, trying to figure out why the healing chamber wasn't working.

The door opened, Beck walked in, Tron saw his face full of determination. Did he find something?

“I'm assuming you got some kind of lead?” Tron asked.

“I do.”

“Good, what did you find out?”

“So, Zed decided to help me look at them-”

“You let Zed help you? Wasn't he one of the friends that was involved in the incident?” Tron said, cutting Beck off.

“Yeah, well, I didn't do a very good job hiding the pieces from him but thankfully he didn't recognize them. But anyway, he helped me look at them and found out that the bombs are made of a bomb proof material And that there's nothing in them that could cause them to explode. This means that the bombs aren’t actually bombs.” Beck explained.

Tron sat there for a long nano, scrutinizing him and Beck's determined look faded into worry.

“... That's it?”

“Yes?”

“You didn't find anything else?”

“No, but I at least found something.”

“Well, that ‘something’ isn't enough. Keep looking.”

Tron walked toward the door to the main room.

Beck stood in disbelief. Tron had been waiting all this time for some kind of answer and the moment he gets one, he rejects it? He felt frustrated, no, he felt angry. He'd been working so hard only for Tron to throw his hard work out the window again. Beck finally had enough of Tron's attitude.

“Hey!”

Tron stopped and turned to face Beck, who was walking towards him.

“I didn't do all of this work just for you to tell me that I'm not doing enough! I've spent what, two whole cycles working on these things and you have yet to give me a single thank you!”

“I just want you to find what I'm looking for,” Tron snapped back. “Is that too much to ask?!”

“Users, Tron do you even know what you're looking for?!”

Tron stopped and thought for a moment. What 𝘸𝘢𝘴 he looking for? He had Beck doing all of this research to look for something, but what was that something? Information about Cyrus? Coordinates leading to his location?

“Well?” Beck said, looking for an answer.

“I...I don't know.”

“𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘥𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸? So then all of this was for nothing?”

“No.”

“So then what was all of this for?”

“I…” Tron huffed. He couldn't give Beck an answer.

“What, what is it for Tron?! What is so important inside these things that I have to find?!”

“Something! You have to find something!” Tron yelled.

“Why?!”

“Because if you don't find the information that I need I can't make Cyrus pay for what he did to Able!”

Beck paused and looked both confused and surprised. Tron wanted to make Cyrus pay? Wasn't Cyrus dead?

“That's what this is about? 𝘙𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘨𝘦,” Beck slapped his palm on his forehead. “Please tell me this isn't gonna be another Dyson situation?”

“It's not.”

“Tron, how do you know Cyrus is even alive? We both know he's dead, and even if he were alive, trying to get revenge on him isn't going to get you anywhere.”

“I can't just let Able's death be in vain.”

“You're right, but you can't act recklessly and get yourself into the same situation as last time. It's not what Able would want you to do.”

Tron considered Beck's words for a moment, then clenched his hand into a fist. “How do you know what Able would want?! I've known him longer than you've been alive!”

“Able was my friend too!” Beck yelled back.

“Well, you didn't know him like I did! NOBODY knew him like I did! And I know for a fact that if he were alive he would be proud of what I'm trying to do for him!”

“Look at yourself, Tron, do you really think Able would be proud?!”

The room went silent. Beck didn’t even think when he made that last comment. He could tell by the look in Tron's eyes that he took offense to what he said.

Before he could say sorry, Beck was struck by a hand right in the face. Tron slapped him. The impact left him feeling a bit dizzy.

𝘋𝘪𝘥 𝘩𝘦 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵... 𝘩𝘪𝘵 𝘮𝘦?

Beck sat there, processing what had just happened. Tron felt immediate regret after hitting him.

“Beck, I… ”

Beck held up his hand, letting Tron know that he didn't want to hear it. He fixed his posture and walked away toward the door without saying anything else.

Tron stood there, alone.

𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘸𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘮𝘦!

----------

Tron paced around his room once again. This time, it seemed as if he was on the verge of a mental breakdown, his breath heavy and his heart pounding.

He looked at Able's disc. “I-I didn't mean to hit him, it just happened! I don't know why I did it!”

“Yes you do.”

Tron looked at the wall, the reflection of Able standing there again.

He looked away. “I told you to stop.”

“Why did you hit him, Tron?”

“Well, I… ”

“Why?”

Tron didn't give him an answer. He just looked at the floor.

“I'm not gonna stop asking until you give me an answer.”

“I don't… ” Tron sighed. “I'm just… angry. You were the one I would usually go to when I needed to get my emotions out, but you're not here when I need you anymore.”

“You've got Beck.”

“I know.” Tron said softly.

“Instead of letting him help you…”

“I've been taking my anger out on him.” He finished.

Tron walked over to his bed and sat down, burying his face in his hands. He thought about everything that had happened in the past cycle then looked at Able's disc.

“I know one thing you would definitely want me to do is... apologize to him.”

Tron took a deep breath then got up and walked out of his room to look for Beck.

----------

The door opened and Tron walked in. Beck looked at the pieces, doing his usual work on them.

Tron felt nervous, he didn't know what to say.

“Beck.”

Beck looked away from the pieces and looked back at Tron, but he didn't say anything.

“I… wanted to apologize about before. What I did to you was wrong.”

Beck looked at the pieces again.

“You've been working so hard on these pieces and Instead of giving you credit, I've been taking my frustration out on you. You have every right to be upset with me.”

Beck looked back at Tron again, this time with an empathetic expression. “It's okay, I understand. You’re still grieving and you don’t really have a lot of programs you can go to to let your emotions out.”

“Yeah.” Tron said softly.

“But you've got me.”

Tron looked at Beck.

“Tron, you know you can always come to me if you need anything. Just as much as you're here to help me, I'm here to help you too.”

Tron walked up to Beck and put a hand on his shoulder. “Thanks Beck.”

Beck gave him a warm smile.

“So did you find anything else?” Tron said, looking at the pieces.

“Not at the moment, though, it's safe to say that these aren't bombs.”

“If they're not bombs then what are they?”

“I don't know, but I'll find out eventually. I'm gonna do a bit more research before I head out.”

Tron thought for a nano. “Actually, how about you take a break? You've been working on these things for a while.”

Beck looked at Tron. “Are you sure?”

“I’m sure.”

The two of them walked toward the door, having a casual conversation for the first time in cycles. The door closed, leaving the room empty and quiet. All of the pieces were left as they were.

Until the silence was suddenly broken as one of the pieces began to spark.

Chapter Text

“TRON!”

He stopped his work and bolted down the hallway without a second thought. The urgency in Beck's voice alone told him that something was wrong.

He caught himself on the door frame just before he could run into it. “Beck, are you alright?”

Beck stood there frozen, facing the table in shock.

He pointed to it. “The pieces, they're… ”

Tron looked and gasped. All of the pieces were sparking and dancing across the table as electricity pulsed through them.

“What did you do?” Tron walked over to Beck, eyes still transfixed on the pieces.

“I don't know. I was just doing what I normally do, and they suddenly started doing this.”

Tron stepped forward, reaching his hand out to touch a piece but pulled it back.

𝘔𝘢𝘺𝘣𝘦 𝘪 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥𝘯'𝘵...

He ignored his thoughts and reached out again.

“Be careful,” Beck said from behind him.

Tron looked back, giving Beck somewhat of a reassuring look that he knew looked fake without having to look at his own face. Just before his finger could make contact with a piece, the pieces all began to group together.

Tron stepped back. “What the… ”

Beck walked up beside him. “What's happening?”

All of the pieces connected one by one like a puzzle. They were putting themselves back together with sloppy precision and all Beck and Tron could do was watch.

Eventually, the pieces stopped. There was no more sparking. Nothing was moving. It was silent.

Three bombs were laid on the table. Two damaged, one perfectly intact.

Tron and Beck went over the table, speechless.

“How… ” Tron lightly brushed his fingertips across one of the damaged bombs.

After a split nano, the screens on the bombs illuminated, creating three small beams of light. Tron stepped back until he was at Beck's side, watching as the light from the bombs fused together to create a screen.

The screen went static, then a program appeared.

Tron scowled. The thin smirk, menacing eyes, and unnatural light lines that decorated the program's face were all too familiar.

“So. You did it.”

Beck furrowed his brow. “Cyrus…”

“I didn’t think it would be necessary, but I put this recording together just in case you managed to save Tron and your friends, which I highly doubt you did. Regardless, I thought I’d explain to you how my creations worked.”

“Why would he…” Beck whispered to himself.

“I know what you're thinking, why would I do something like that? Well, consider it a reward for winning the game.”

Tron and Beck exchanged glances then returned their focus to the screen.

“I may have called them ‘bombs’ when the game began, but those devices I put on Tron and your friends were only detonators for the canisters of energy I hooked them up to. I made it so that when the countdown on the detonators finished, they would send a wave of electricity to the energy canisters, overpowering the energy inside and causing them to explode.”

“What?” Beck mumbled.

“I also managed to wire the detonators together. Whatever happened to one detonator, would happen to the other two. One little slip-up in trying to disable them would’ve left you and all the victims derezzed.”

Tron felt his expression slowly change from confused to angry.

“And that code key I left you to disable the detonators? That wouldn’t have worked for your friends in the crane. I built that just for Tron because I knew you’d pick him over them. As I said, you’re very predictable.”

Beck looked down, clearly disappointed in himself.

“You couldn’t hide how important Zed and Mara were to you, and your dedication to the revolution was evident enough. Just a few well-chosen words and I was able to involve them alongside Tron to set up your impossible choice. See, once you find a program's weak spots, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘨𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘪𝘵𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧.”

Tron’s eyes dropped to the floor, and he clenched his hands into fists.

“Now, I'm sure Tron is watching this with you, Beck, so this next message is for both of you. If you’re seeing this now, just know that the game is not over. I have bigger plans for The Grid, much bigger than the ones you already know. I will come back, just you wai-”

A light-staff slammed onto the table, destroying one of the bombs and scaring Beck half to death. Cyrus's voice became distorted, and the screen disappeared.

Beck took a big step back as Tron lifted the staff again, destroying the other detonators. He repeatedly hit the table until all that was left was a pile of broken code.

Tron stopped, out of breath. He put his light staff away and put his hands on the table, resting his weight on it.

Beck kept his distance. The security program was tense with anger, but it faded away as quickly as it came.

“... It should have been me.”

Beck looked at Tron. “What?”

“I should have been the one who died that night.”

“Tron… no.”

“If I had just killed Cyrus when I had the chance none of this would have happened. You were right… My lie put everyone in jeopardy.”

Beck didn’t know what to say.

“Able didn't deserve to die because of 𝘮𝘺 mistake.”

Beck walked over to Tron and went to put a hand on his shoulder. “... Tron.”

Tron moved away and walked toward the exit.

He stopped. “You can go ahead and get rid of the pieces. We don't need them anymore.”

Tron left the room, closing the door behind him. Beck stared at the door, then looked back at the broken pieces and sighed.

----------

Tron sat on his bed, processing everything Cyrus said in his recording. He looked down and took a deep breath through his nose.

𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘨𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳.

Something about that line gave Tron a bad feeling in his code. He and Beck were still recovering from Able's loss, the thought of Cyrus suddenly making his next move made the old security program feel uneasy.

He looked at Able's disc, which still sat where it usually did on the nightstand. Tron grabbed it and held it in front of him for a moment.

He turned it on and tapped on a few things to access Able's memories.

Able was an old-timer, one of the oldest programs on The Grid. Like Tron, he was brought from the old system, so he had a lot more memories stored in his disc than the average program.

Tron wanted to visit the memory from when he and Able first met, but it would take forever to get to it, considering they met so many cycles ago.

Instead, Tron decided to look at Able's most recent memories.

While scrolling, he found Able's last memory, the crane explosion. Tron stared at it for a while, debating over whether he should watch it or not.

His finger hovered over the memory.

He was close, so close to tapping on it, but he moved his hand away and closed his eyes.

𝘕𝘰... 𝘐 𝘤𝘢𝘯'𝘵. 𝘐'𝘮 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘺.

Tron opened his eyes and scrolled away from it. He felt a small wave of relief wash over him.

He scrolled a little further and stopped at another recent memory.

The last time he ever saw Able. It was just after they got back from their mission in Purgos.

Tron tapped on the memory, and it began to play out.

---------

“I must admit, I didn't think you could fight the way you did back there.”

Tron and Able walked into the main room of the hideout. The sound of the main door opening alerted all of the lights to turn on as they walked in.

Able looked at Tron. “What makes you say that?”

Tron undocked his disc and started to go through it's settings. “Well, uh, you know. You're just a little… old.”

“You're one to talk.” Able stopped and folded his arms.

“I'm not that old. Not as old as you at least, considering you're from the Old System.”

“You're from the Old System too, you bitbrain!”

Tron chuckled and docked his disc. His stealth suit disappeared, and his normal attire took its form.

The two of them approached the front of the room. With an unspoken command, a giant screen appeared before them.

“Were you able to gather any important intel on the device?”

Able held out a chip toward Tron.

He grabbed it and raised his eyebrow. “What is this?”

“Every program that worked on the device was given a chip with its blueprints. We were supposed to give them back when we left but I may have ‘forgotten’ to return mine.”

Able gave Tron a smirk.

Tron held out the chip, and a holographic box formed around it.

“𝘋𝘰𝘸𝘯𝘭𝘰𝘢𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘱 𝘥𝘢𝘵𝘢... 𝘥𝘰𝘸𝘯𝘭𝘰𝘢𝘥 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘵𝘦.”

The blueprints of the device appeared on screen.

Tron looked at Able, impressed. “Good work.”

He tapped on the screen and read through some of the details. “Thanks again for doing this.”

“Ah, it was the least I could do.” Able said, waving it off.

“I'm sorry if it caused you any trouble.”

“No, no it's fine. Felt nice doing undercover work for you like old times.” Able said, giving Tron a light punch in the arm.

Able looked at the screen and sighed. “Well, I better get back to the garage before the curfew starts.”

“Right. If or when Beck is back, can you send him my way? We're gonna have to discuss what to do about this device.”

“Of course.”

Able walked to the door. Just before he left, he turned back around. “One more thing...”

Tron turned around.

“Make sure you use that healing chamber, and I don't mean once a cycle. I built it for a reason, you know.”

“I know, thanks for the reminder.”

“You’re welcome, 𝘰𝘭𝘥 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦𝘳.”

Tron let out a half chuckle as Able left the hideout.

----------

The disc turned off. Tron looked at it for another long nano before returning it to its rightful place on the nightstand.

He laid back in his bed and closed his eyes.

𝘐 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘣𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘺 𝘴𝘦𝘦 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘉𝘦𝘤𝘬'𝘴 𝘥𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨. 𝘏𝘰𝘱𝘧𝘶𝘭𝘭𝘺, 𝘩𝘦 𝘨𝘰𝘵 𝘳𝘪𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘱𝘦𝘪𝘤𝘦𝘴 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘐 𝘢𝘴𝘬𝘦𝘥.

𝘐 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘱𝘶𝘵 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘣𝘦𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘮𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘵... 𝘪𝘯𝘷𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘨𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘰𝘯...

𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘤𝘦.

----------

He slammed onto his chest, knocking the air out of his lungs. He gasped for air and tried to get up, but his strength wasn't there. Tron looked forward and tried to focus his vision. He saw something in front of him.

The bomb that was on his back. It still had Beck's multi-tool attached to it.

𝘐 𝘮𝘢𝘺 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮 '𝘣𝘰𝘮𝘣𝘴' 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘨𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘨𝘢𝘯, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘤𝘦𝘴 𝘐 𝘱𝘶𝘵 𝘰𝘯 𝘛𝘳𝘰𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘧𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘰𝘯𝘭𝘺 𝘥𝘦𝘵𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘴.

Before he could come up with a plan, something gripped his hair and forcefully pulled his head up, he yelped in pain, gritting his teeth.

“Tell me I deserve to be your successor!” A raspy voice screamed into his ear.

“Call me…”

Tron's head was then slammed into the ground. He tightly closed his eyes then opened them. He could see Cyrus standing over him in the corner of his eye. Cyrus came close to Tron's ear again, so close that Tron could feel his heavy breath beating against the side of his face. “…Tron!”

“... Never.”

“SAY IT!”

Tron had his hand on the bomb. Without thinking, he grabbed the multitool’s handle and shoved the bomb onto Cyrus's chest.

At that moment, Cyrus's face went from being full of evil to immediate panic.

Tron looked him dead in the eye. “How predictable.”

He snapped the multi-tool in half. The bomb attached itself to Cyrus and began to activate.

𝘐 𝘢𝘭𝘴𝘰 𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘸𝘪𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘵𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘴 𝘵𝘰𝘨𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳.

Cyrus got up and put his hand on the bomb. He backed up. “No… no!”

The bomb activated, sparks of electricity spread all over Cyrus's body, and he screamed in agony.

Tron sat and watched, satisfied but also horrified.

𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘵𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘰𝘳, 𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘸𝘰.

The more Tron listened to Cyrus screaming, the clearer another voice became.

It was Abel's.

He was yelling, no, 𝘴𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘨.

Just like Cyrus.

Tron looked around. The screaming became louder and louder. he clasped his hands over his ears and closed his eyes.

When he opened them, he saw Cyrus standing over him again. He had the bomb attached to him. Tron had his hand on the multi-tool.

𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘵𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘰𝘳...

Without controlling himself, Tron broke the multitool.

𝘏𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘸𝘰.

The electricity came back, the screaming came back. And suddenly, Tron saw the crane explode.

---------

Tron yelped as he lurched upward. He put a hand on the back of his neck, taking a moment to catch his breath.

He looked around. He was in his room.

𝘐𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘢 𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘮.

Tron rubbed his face and took a deep breath.

𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘮 𝘴𝘶𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦?

𝘞𝘩𝘺 𝘥𝘪𝘥 𝘐 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘮?

𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘶𝘭𝘵𝘪-𝘵𝘰𝘰𝘭, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘰𝘮𝘣𝘴, 𝘯𝘰, 𝘥𝘦𝘵𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘴, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯...

Tron shook his head and whispered to himself. “Stop it.”

He got up and walked out of his room.

----------

A small roll of thunder came from outside. Tron stood by the window with his arms folded, watching the pouring rain.

The door on the other side of the room opened, and Beck walked in.

“I'm gonna head back to the garage for the night. Do you need me to do anything before… ”

Beck looked at Tron. He looked down, more down than usual.

“Hey, are you alright?”

Tron turned his head toward Beck but didn't say anything.

Beck walked over to Tron and stood next to him. “Are you still upset about what happened before?”

Tron sighed. “I just can't help but feel like I could have done something to prevent what happened that night.”

“Tron, you know there's nothing you could have done.”

“But if I was just a little stronger I would have-”

“There's nothing you could have done, Tron.” Beck placed his hand on Tron's shoulder.

Tron looked down and closed his eyes.

Beck thought for a moment then looked at Tron. “Is it alright if I spend the night?”

Tron looked at Beck and raised an eyebrow.

“I think you could use the company. Besides, I get the next cycle off at the garage.”

Tron looked out the window again. “Sure.”

“Do you have an extra room?”

“Yeah, it's a little cluttered though. I need to move a few things out of there.”

Tron walked toward a door, Beck followed. The door led to a hallway.

Beck almost wanted to laugh. He'd been working with Tron for so many cycles, yet he still hadn't seen every room in the hideout.

𝘗𝘳𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘺 𝘣𝘪𝘨 𝘣𝘢𝘴𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘮.

Tron stopped at one of the doors, and it opened. Inside was a whole ensemble of boxes and a few random things. Underneath all the boxes was a nightstand, a few shelves, and a bed.

Beck looked around. “Where do you want to put all of these?”

“Just put them in the room next to this one.”

Beck grabbed one of the boxes and got to work.

Something caught Tron's eye when he went to grab a box. There was a picture sitting on the bed. Tron picked it up and examined it for a moment. It was a picture of him and Cyrus.

He felt a whole slew of emotions as he looked at it. Part of him felt almost happy, but rage quickly started to build up in him.

He looked at Cyrus.

𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘨𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘪𝘵𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧.

His dream came back to him. The screams, the crane, then he thought about the scars on Beck's wrist.

𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘥𝘪𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴... 𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘩𝘶𝘳𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮...

Tron clenched his jaw and without thinking, he chucked the picture at a wall and it shattered.

Beck ran over from the other room. “What was that? Are you alright?”

Tron stared at the wall for a nano before shaking his head and he looked at Beck. “I… accidentally dropped something.”

“Oh, what was it?”

“I'm not sure, but whatever it was is broken now.”

“So what was this room supposed to be?” Beck grabbed another box.

Tron didn't say anything. He just picked up a box and headed toward the door.

Beck huffed. “You know, ignoring my question is only going to make me more curious.”

“This room used to belong to Cyrus.”

There was a bit of a long pause. Beck knew that Cyrus had to have stayed somewhere while he worked for Tron, but the thought of Cyrus once having his own room within the base was never the first thing that came to mind.

Beck shifted uncomfortably. “Oh... I guess you just use it as a storage room now?”

“Yeah… I don't like to come in here though. It brings back old memories that are best left forgotten.”

Beck looked around the room again, then looked at Tron. He could tell that he was just as uncomfortable as he was.

Beck walked up to Tron and took the box he was holding. “Here, I'll deal with the rest.”

“But-”

“I got it, Tron. Besides, I think you should spend some time in your healing tank. Your scar is starting to look pretty bad.”

Tron put a hand on his scar. He hadn't noticed just how much it grew since the last time he went in the chamber.

Tron took a deep breath. “Right, I'll go do that.”

He left.

Beck stared at the door for a while. Beck grew more concerned about Tron every cycle. Even though he had his moments, Beck could tell that there was still a lot of emotion bottled up inside him. He looked at the ground and noticed some broken glass. It must have been what he heard earlier.

He walked over to the bed and moved some small boxes off of it. He tilted his head. A few pictures were sitting on the bed. He looked at them for a nano, then looked at the shattered glass on the floor.

Beck picked up one of the pictures. It was a picture of Tron, Cyrus, and Able, all smiling with their arms around each other. For some reason, Beck couldn't look away from the photo. Tron smiling was a pretty rare sight to see.

Beck sat on the bed and stared at the picture for a while.

----------

Tron touched his scar; it still wasn't healing, at least, not at the rate it normally would. Usually, Tron would be concerned about something like this, but he wasn't.

He could only think about the dream he had, and the monologue Cyrus gave in his hologram.

It haunted him.

Tron closed his eyes, attempting to focus on his scar.

𝘚𝘦𝘦, 𝘰𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘢 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘮'𝘴 𝘸𝘦𝘢𝘬 𝘴𝘱𝘰𝘵𝘴, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘨𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘪𝘵𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧.

Tron opened his eyes and walked out of the chamber.

He rubbed his scar and sighed, then went to his room.

----------

He was on his bed once again, with Able's disc in his hands, debating over which memory he wanted to see next. Something about constantly looking at Able's memories made Tron feel bad. Deep down, he felt what he was doing was almost disrespectful, but for some odd reason, he couldn't stop.

He scrolled through the memories, looking at each of them.

He then came across 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 memory again - the last memory.

He didn't know what to do. He wanted to scroll away from it, but he couldn't resist the urge building up in him. He needed to know, what were his final moments like? What did he say? What did he do?

He tapped on it.

The memory played out just like the rest, and it started off looking normal.

----------

With a few taps, the bombs were disabled. Able felt a wave of relief wash over him. He almost thought that he wouldn't be able to shut them down.

“Got it!”

Mara looked back at him, still concerned. “Able, you still haven't told us how we ended up here!”

“Yeah, who did this to us?” Zed added.

Able carefully removed the bombs from Zed and Mara's backs. “With all that's happened I-I'm surprised you haven't figured it out already. The program who attacked you is-”

Able heard the bombs whirr to life. He looked down, and before he could react, they activated.

He cried out in pain as the bombs sent electricity pulsing through his body. He tried to let go of the bombs, but he couldn't. It was like he’d completely lost control of his body.

The canisters of energy began to glow, and he knew at that moment, they only had a few nanos before they would blow. He heard Zed and Mara crying out to him.

He looked at them and yelled with all the effort he had, “RUN!”

They ran and before Able could accept his fate, the canisters of energy exploded.

----------

The screen went dark. All Tron could do was stare. He exhaled deeply. He didn't even notice that he had been holding his breath the entire time the memory played out.

For some reason, he couldn't stop thinking about the hologram of Cyrus.

𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘵𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘰𝘳, 𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘸𝘰.

Tron rewound the memory to just before the detonators activated again.

He watched it play out: the detonators suddenly activating, Able screaming, then the explosion.

He rewound it again.

And again.

The more he watched the memory, the more it all started to piece itself together.

Tron breaks the multi-tool. The detonators destabilize. Whatever happens to one detonator happens to the other, 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮 𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘢𝘵𝘦. Cyrus gets electrocuted, Able gets electrocuted… the crane explodes.

Tron froze in complete shock from his sudden realization. Abel's disc fell from his hands and it was at that moment he realized who was at fault for Able's death.

He felt his heartbeat elevate. His head pounded, his ears rang, and he clutched his head from the agony. He clenched his teeth.

The only thing he could hear was the sound of his own pulse pounding in his ears and voices screaming in the back of his head.

The room around him spun and he began to lose his balance. He backed up, holding his hand out behind him, hoping to catch himself on something. He fell back Into a nearby shelf, causing the trinkets it held to fall off and hit the floor.

He fell on his knees and shook his head. "No... No!"

He kept screaming. The voices kept going.

“Tron?!”

Beck barged into the room, face wrought with concern.

Tron froze in place, his breath elevated, his hands trembling.

Beck looked at the broken shelf and its contents spared across the floor, along with Able's disc. “…what happened?”

Beck quickly went over to him and knelt in front of him and put his hands on Tron's shoulders. “What's going on?”

Tron didn't respond.

“Come on, Tron, talk to me. What happened?”

Tron couldn't bring himself to look Beck In the eyes. He softly spoke. “That hologram of Cyrus mentioned that all three bombs were connected in some sort of way. If something were to happen to one bomb, it would happen to the other two. When I attached that bomb to Cyrus, I broke the multi-tool you used to stabilize it, and it activated… so did the other two.”

Beck's eyes widened. “W-what are you saying?”

“Cyrus didn't kill Able… 𝘐 𝘥𝘪𝘥.”

Chapter Text

Beck always enjoyed going on a good stealth mission but not when it required him to crawl through tight spaces.

The ventilation system in Tesler’s ship was just barely big enough for a program to crawl inside. The worst part was that every little move he made echoed throughout the vents, making sure everyone in the ship knew of his presence.

In order to get from point A to point B, he had to be quiet and patient. He crawled slowly, making sure not to make too much noise. Once he went a bit further, he reached his destination.

In front of him was a small cube hovering over a small pedestal.

Beck took a deep breath and pulled out a cube that looked exactly like the one in front of him.

He slowly brought the counterfeit cube next to the real one. “Alright Tron, hope this idea of yours works.”

With all the speed he could, he switched the cubes then tightly closed his eyes, expecting to trigger the ship's security system, but to his surprise, nothing happened. No lights flashing, no sirens blaring in his ears.

He sighed a breath of relief then began making his way toward an exit. Like he did before, he crawled quietly but his determination to make it out of the base undetected distracted him from a loose vent underneath him and he fell through and hit the ground with a loud thud.

He put a hand on his head. “Ow,”

He looked forward, seeing a pair of orange neon lit heels in front of him, he slowly looked up to see Commander Paige standing above him.

She looked down and tilted her head. “Oh, you’re back. For a while I thought you’d finally given up.”

“Nope,” He got up and dusted himself off. “And I’d love to catch up but I’ve got places to be, so…”

The moment he tried stepping around Paige she grabbed his arm, twisting it behind his back and pinned him to the wall with her disc in hand.

“What’s the rush, I don’t see why we can’t talk for a little longer.” She ignited her disc.

Beck sighed and with a few moves he was free of Paige’s grip. He had just barely enough time to dodge her disc flying his direction. He deflected it using his own. She ran toward him and attempted to kick him but he blocked her. Just when he thought he had an advantage she punched him dead in the face, knocking him to the floor.

She walked over and folded her arms. “Seems like your little break made you rusty.”

Beck kicked her knees out from underneath her and ran off, not bothering to respond with a smart remark like he usually would.

He ran, and after turning a few corners he was in the main hanger. The alarm began blaring and he huffed. “Just when I thought I’d get out of here unnoticed.”

The main doors were beginning to close, without a second thought, Beck pulled out a light jet baton but before he could activate it a disc whacked it right out of his hand. Beck backed away from the disc instinctively and clutched his hand with the other, checking for any damaged code. The disc wearled back passing Beck who followed it with his line of sight.

Commander Pavel snatched his disc out of the air in an almost graceful manner and smirked. “You’re leaving already? But you just got here.”

A group of black guards ran up behind Pavel, awaiting his orders, he pointed to Beck. “After him!”

They all darted in his direction, he got into a fighting stance and the first guard to reach him got hit with an elbow to the face before he could lay a hand on him. Beck's movements were precise and swift, within a few nanos he took down the entire squad.

He wearled around, looking at the ship's main entrance. The doors were about halfway closed. He looked over at where he dropped his light jet baton but it was gone. He looked at the door again then looked around the floor almost frantically until he heard an all too familiar villainous chuckle.

“Looking for this?” Pavel held the baton up and shook it. Before Beck could react, Pavel grabbed his disc and charged at him.

Over the cycles, Beck caught on to the different techniques his enemies would use when they fought. Tesler was aggressive and usually relied on his arms for combat, Paige was precise and smart about the moves she made, Pavel on the other hand didn’t seem to have any strategy or technique. When he fought, he fought as if he were letting every ounce of rage out of him, his aim was always for the kill. Due to his unpredictability, he wasn’t an easy program to fight.

After a few punches and dodges Beck attempted to kick him but Pavel grabbed his leg and rammed his elbow into his knee. Beck cried out in pain for a brief moment before Pavel landed a punch right in his face, knocking him to the floor.

Beck propped himself up on his elbow and grabbed his knee, gritting his teeth.

Pavel knelt down. “Aw, your skill seems to be lacking Renegade, perhaps all that killing you did a while ago has worn you out.”

Pavel chuckled and memories suddenly flashed before Beck's eyes.

𝘏𝘦 𝘬𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘥 𝘈𝘣𝘭𝘦...

𝘏𝘦 𝘥𝘪𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴! 𝘏𝘦 𝘬𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘥 𝘈𝘣𝘭𝘦!

𝘞𝘦𝘭𝘭, 𝘺𝘰𝘶'𝘳𝘦 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘥𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘦𝘯𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩!

𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘥𝘪𝘥𝘯'𝘵 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘩𝘪𝘮 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘐 𝘥𝘪𝘥!

His head began to ache and as every memory played out in less than a nano, he cried out, grabbed his disc and swung at Pavel.

Pavel fell back with a hand over his cheek. Beck got up, being careful not to put too much weight on his injured knee. His eyes widened as he saw Pavel staring at him in shock with a bright orange gash on his cheek.

Beck shook his head and grabbed his baton from Pavel who was too stunned to notice. He made a running start but his leg gave out underneath him and he fell. He looked at the doors, they were almost closed.

He punched his thigh. “Come on leg, work!”

He got up and ran again, this time doing everything he could to ignore the pain. His light jet rezzed and he flew towards the exit at full speed, just barely making it out before the doors finally sealed.

He looked back at Tesler’s ship and took a deep breath, pulling out the data cube. “Boy will Tron be happy to see you.”

He put it away and flew towards the hideout.

—————

The moment he stepped through the main door Beck felt a chill go up his back, the hideout’s atmosphere had an uncanny feeling to it, not to mention, it was a bit dimmer than usual.

Tron stood by a window, looking out at the scenery of the outlands. He looked at Beck's reflection in the window, noticing that he was walking up the steps a bit slower than usual.

“Did you get it?” Tron asked without facing him.

Beck pulled out the cube and tossed it in his hand. “Yep, your counterfeit cube idea worked like a charm.”

𝘚𝘶𝘳𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘭𝘺...

Tron turned around and Beck handed him the cube. He inspected it for a long nano.

“Though, now that we have it, how exactly are we supposed to open it?” Beck asked.

Tron looked at the cube for a little longer than began twisting different sections of it. Beck watched, almost captivated by the security programs work. After a few more twists and turns he pressed a button in the middle of the cube. Small yellow sparks emerged from it and it opened, laying out hundreds of security codes before them.

Beck folded his arms, impressed. “You know, for a security program you seem to know a lot of hacking techniques. Didn’t think they taught you that stuff in basic training.”

“They didn’t.”

Beck raised an eyebrow. “Oh, well, who taught you then?”

“Clu, believe it or not.” Tron took a few steps forward, studying some of the codes.

“Clu?” Beck scoffed. “Where does a program like that learn to hack?”

“Clu was originally programmed for hacking. When he was rewritten Flynn used some of his original code, because of this he possesses hacking abilities and knowledge. Back when we were still friends he taught me a few tricks; told me that they might come in handy, and they do.”

“Hm,” Beck looked down for a brief moment before Tron closed the cube.

He tossed it over to the screen, it stopped mid air and a holographic box formed around it. “We’ll study it later.”

“What?”

For almost as long as Beck started working for him, Tron had made it very clear that he wanted that data cube and was very eager to study it. For Tron to toss it to the side as if it were another small task was… odd, very odd. Not to mention, he went through a lot of trouble to get it, and he had the limp to prove it.

Beck watched as he walked down the stairs toward his room. After sitting there for a few nanos, he huffed and shook his head, following him.

Beck stopped at the doorway of the room and looked around, Tron hadn’t bothered to clean his room. The floor was littered with broken glass and old trinkets that once sat on a shelf on the wall as well as other projects he had yet to put away. Tron laid in his bed, his back facing Beck.

Beck folded his arms and shifted uncomfortably. “So, uh, when do you wanna start studying the cube?”

“Later.” Tron said without facing him.

“Yeah, I know but how long until later?”

Tron shrugged.

Beck looked around aimlessly, trying to think of what else to say. “I think it would be best if we start looking at it right away, all of the security codes in there could give us a huge advantage over-”

“I know, Beck. Don’t worry, I’ll go through it later.”

Beck leaned on the door frame. “Are you feeling alright?”

“Yes?”

“Are you sure? It seems to me like you’re going through another phase.”

Tron looked back at Beck, bewildered. “What? What do you mean ‘phase’?”

Beck took his weight off the door frame and sighed. “Look, you’ve been acting really off for a while and I’ve been noticing that these strange emotions you’re feeling have been coming in like these waves.”

Tron raised an eyebrow.

“I did some research and apparently it’s very common in programs that are going through grief.”

Tron shifted onto his back and put a hand behind his head “What are you getting at here, Beck?”

“You’re not ok Tron, you haven’t been for cycles.”

“I appreciate your concern but I’d really like to get some rest.”

𝘙𝘦𝘴𝘵? 𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦𝘯'𝘵 𝘥𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰𝘥𝘢𝘺!

“Forget it.” He muttered, pinching the bridge of his nose.

Tron looked over at him, the sight of the stressed mechanic put a worried expression on his face.

Tron sat up and sighed. “Look, I’ll do some studying while you’re at work.”

Beck looked at him.

“You’re right, that cube gives us a big advantage over the Occupation, studying those security codes should be our top priority.”

Beck smiled. “There you are, Tron, I was wondering where you’ve been. Promise you’ll get some work done?”

Tron let out a half chuckle. “I promise.”

“Alright, I’ll be back once my shift is over. Let me know if you find anything interesting.”

Beck left the room and the door closed behind him. Tron sat alone for the moment, letting Beck's good mood spread to him and he took a deep breath then shifted his eyes to his night stand and just like that, the good mood faded. He stared at Able’s disc and felt a wave of guilt come over him.

𝘖𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘢 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘮'𝘴 𝘸𝘦𝘢𝘬 𝘴𝘱𝘰𝘵𝘴, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘨𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘪𝘵𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧.

Tron felt his heart skip for a moment and closed his eyes putting a hand on his scar, it was sore and it was getting bigger.

—————

Back at the garage, Beck sat next to a bike, examining its code. He pulled out his multi tool and pressed it against the bike’s surface, revealing its internal structure which was heavily damaged.

Beck's eyes slightly widened then he took a deep breath. “It’s nothing you haven’t worked on before, Beck.” He muttered.

He pulled each part out one by one and repaired them to the best of his abilities.

𝘚𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘸𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘬 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘨𝘰𝘵 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰. 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦'𝘴 𝘴𝘰 𝘮𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘥𝘢𝘮𝘢𝘨𝘦, 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘥𝘰 𝘐 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘵?

𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘧 𝘪𝘵'𝘴 𝘣𝘦𝘺𝘰𝘯𝘥 𝘳𝘦𝘱𝘢𝘪𝘳? 𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘐 𝘥𝘰? 𝘋𝘰 𝘐 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘨𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘶𝘱 𝘰𝘯 𝘪𝘵?

... 𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘧 𝘩𝘦'𝘴 𝘣𝘦𝘺𝘰𝘯𝘥 𝘳𝘦𝘱𝘢𝘪𝘳?

Beck huffed and shook his head then rubbed his face, he couldn’t focus, his mind was moving too fast.

“Still working on that bike.”

Beck jumped and looked back, it was Mara.

“Oh, hey Mara. You’re already done with your shift?”

“Yep, I only had a few things to repair and they were easy fixes. I thought I’d come by and help you out since you’ve been working on this bike for a while.”

“Oh, no it’s ok, I’m just… tired” Beck said through a sigh.

Mara tilted her head. “You know, you’ve been pretty distracted lately.”

Beck was staring off into nowhere for a few nanos before shaking out of his gaze to look at her. “Huh… what? No I haven’t?”

Mara sighed and knelt down beside him, activating her protective gear then got to work on the bike. “Come on Beck, talk to me, what’s going on?”

He hesitated for a moment. He couldn’t tell her about Tron but at the same time he didn’t want to lie to her either. He knew that if he were to say ‘it’s nothing’ she’d give him one of those glares and keep prying at him until he finally broke. It wasn’t hard to come up with an answer though. The source of everything that was going on at the moment was Able’s death, something that Mara had also been going through.

Beck put his tools down. “It’s just been… hard without Able around, you know?”

“Yeah…” She said quietly.

“I know I haven’t really talked about it much and I’ve been trying to ignore it but it’s just been getting to me lately, you know. Like, the more I ignore it, the worse it gets.”

“That’s grief for you.” She said through a small chuckle. “Trust me, I tried working through the pain too. I tried to ignore the fact that Able is gone and that it's The Renegade’s fault, but when I saw that that wasn’t working, I started talking to the others about it and it helped, more than I thought it would. I think it can help you too.”

Beck sighed. “How do you know?”

Mara put her tools down and looked at him. "Look around, Beck. Everyone in this garage is grieving over Able's loss. The reason we've been staying on our feet is because we've all been supporting each other, not just as coworkers, but as friends."

He looked down.

“And when…”

He turned his head toward Mara. Her face pained. “When Bodhi was killed, you were the same way. When you were recovering, me and Zed were by your side the whole time because we knew you were closer to him than any of us.”

Beck clenched his jaw and closed his eyes, looking down without a reply.

Mara put a hand on his shoulder.

"Beck, we’ll always be here for you. You may not be here all the time but you’re still just as important as everyone else. Just like last time, me and Zed will walk you through every stage one step at a time."

“Thanks Mara.” Beck gave her a warm smile.

“Of course!”

Silently, they both worked on the bike together until it was finished.

Mara got up and spun the multi tool in her hand. “That should do it.”

“Thanks for the help.” Beck got up, pain pinching his face the moment he put weight on his bad knee.

“No problem, are you alright?” She said, helping him up.

Beck removed his protective gear. “Yeah, I just hurt my knee the other cycle.”

Mara tilted her head. “Why don't you take the rest of the cycle off.”

Beck gestured behind him. “But I still have two other vehicles I need to-”

“It's ok Beck, we’ll handle it from here. Take some time to rest.”

“Thanks Mara, I owe you one.” Beck grabbed his light cycle baton and headed for the exit.

Zed walked up beside Mara, arms folded. “Where’s he going during business hours?”

“I gave him the rest of the cycle off.” Mara smiled.

Zed shook his head, baffled. “Wa- well what if 𝘐 need to take the cycle off?”

“Go back to work Zed.” Mara chuckled.

—————

Back at the hideout, Tron sat on his bed with Able’s disc in his hands. In the distance, he heard the main doors open. He looked up quickly. Odd, Beck was usually at work around this time. Tron felt a wave of paranoia hit him. He put Able’s disc down on the nightstand quietly and got up a bit quicker than his body anticipated. He felt a sharp pain from his scar. He sharply inhaled through his teeth and put a hand on his scar. He took a deep breath, letting the pain fade away. Once it was gone he slowly stood upright and left the room.

He didn’t see anything in the main room but he heard what sounded like someone tampering with his screens… and the data cube. Quietly, he undocked his disc, slowly making his way toward the stairs with his disc up ready to strike.

𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘨𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳.

His heartbeat elevated and he gripped his disc tighter. He waited next to the stairs for the perfect moment to strike. As soon as he heard someone coming down he jumped out in front of them and ignited his disc.

“Woah Woah! Tron it’s just me!” Beck screamed, shielding himself with his arms.

Tron put his disc down and sighed a breath of relief. “Beck?! Users, I could have derezzed you! Shouldn’t you be at work?”

“Yeah b-but I got the cycle off.”

Tron sighed, docking his disc.

“I also wanted to see how you were doing.” Beck said, relaxing his arms.

Tron pinched the bridge of his nose. “Just announce that it’s you next time, alright?”

Beck chuckled but even that couldn’t hide his shaken demeanor. He mentally collected himself. “So, what did you learn from the data cube?”

Tron froze.

“Tron, have you gotten 𝘢𝘯𝘺 work done on the data cube?”

Tron scratched the back of his head. “I, uh… was gonna get started on it soon.” He said dumbly.

“Started? You mean you haven’t worked on it at all? What have you been doing this whole time?”

Tron didn't say anything.

Beck huffed. “Tron, you can’t keep doing this, the more you slack off the more behind we-”

“I’m not slacking off!”

Beck fell silent after the old security program’s sudden outburst. “Oh? Well then what are you doing exactly?”

“I’m…” he couldn’t bring himself to answer his question.

“You’re what?”

Tron looked to the side. “I’m… recovering.”

“Recovering? Really? You’re using your grieving as an excuse to not get important work done?” Beck said, frustrated.

Tron looked at him, offended.

“Look, I get it, it’s been-”

“No, Beck, you don’t.”

Beck looked at him, unfolding his arms.

“Do you have any idea how many sleepless cycles I’ve been through?” Tron continued. “The emotional troubles that I’ve been dealing with? On top of that, having to live with the fact that 𝘐 was the one who ended Able’s life?”

Beck didn’t reply.

“I’ve known Able since long before The Grid was even thought of. He was my emotional support, my escape after everything fell apart and now he’s gone because of 𝘮𝘺 mistakes! Don’t you EVER sit here and tell me that I’m using my grief as an excuse!”

Beck was silent for a beat.

“… You can’t dwell on what happened forever, Tron, at some point you’ll have to move on.”

“Able’s gone! He’s not coming back! So unless you have some way to bring him back and somehow prove that I’m not the one who killed him, I’m not moving on!”

Beck huffed and closed his eyes. “So this is what you’re going to do? You’re gonna put everything on hold over something that you can’t even fully prove?!”

Tron turned around, heading for the door.

“I know it’s easier said than done, but you have to move past this. Tron, think of the Uprising!”

Tron stopped. “Don’t bring the uprising into this.”

“Why not?! Clu isn’t gonna wait for you to move past your grief! He’ll keep fighting until the whole Grid is under his control! Tron, you have to move on!” Beck paused. “You say the good of The Grid always comes before your own. Why aren’t you taking your own advice?”

Tron sat there, quiet and for a moment. Beck thought he had finally gotten through to him until Tron clenched his hands into fists. “Well that’s easy for you to say, you haven’t been struggling nearly as much as I have!”

Beck scoffed. “You don’t think I’ve been struggling?! Able was my friend too! You're not the only one grieving Tron, so stop acting like it!”

“𝘐 knew Able better, 𝘐 have been going through far worse than you have! I was Able’s closest friend, you were just another employee! Don’t sit here and act like you know how I feel!”

The room filled with silence.

Beck opened his mouth but the words died on his tongue. How could Tron say such a thing after everything he’s done for him, after everything he’s been through? He couldn’t think, not here.

“…I…I can’t be here anymore.”

“What?”

“Ever since that night, you have been a different program!”

“No I haven’t!”

“Oh really? The real Tron doesn’t push me away every time I try to help him, and when I need him, he's there! He doesn’t invalidate how I feel to my face! The real Tron doesn't break a promise! And he doesn’t act like some selfish old bug!”

Surprised by Beck's outburst, Tron stayed silent.

“I have missed countless cycles of work, I’ve missed so many opportunities to be with my friends, and I have risked my 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘦 to help you! How could you treat me like this?!”

Tron just sat there, he didn’t know what to say.

“You’ve become a bitter old program who only cares about himself.”

Beck began to walk away then stopped just before walking out the door. “Everyone’s right, Tron 𝘪𝘴 dead.”

Beck left, and Tron sat alone at a complete loss of words.

—————

Beck drove through the outlands toward Argon. He kept his eyes in front of him but suddenly his vision became blurred and blue. His eyes were welling with tears. He quickly wiped them and revved the engine, speeding up.

—————

Tron stood alone in his base, in the same spot he was in during he and Beck's argument. Beck’s words began to repeat in his mind. He put his hands on his head. “What is wrong with me?”

He heard a raspy voice behind him. “Looks like I’m not the only one you failed.”

Tron spun on his heel only to find that no one was there. He looked around frantically and undocked his disc, preparing to fight. He heard Cyrus’s chuckle from another corner. Without hesitation, he chucked his disc toward it but it hit a window, cracking it.

“Tron…”

He turned around, Able’s reflection shown on the wall, holding a broken multi tool.

“Able…” Tron said softly.

Able looked at him. “You killed me…?”

Tron shook his head. “No… No, Able I didn’t know. I didn’t-”

“Why?”

“I didn’t mean to! Please I…” he put his hands on his head. His breathing elevated and he paced around the base.

The voices in his head grew louder and louder.

𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘨𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘪𝘵𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧

“No!” Tron ran to his room. The door closed behind him and he leaned back against it. Too much, it was too much for him to handle. The grief, Cyrus, Able, Beck, the voices.

𝘛𝘳𝘰𝘯 𝘐𝘚 𝘥𝘦𝘢𝘥.

Tron hunched over and screamed at the top of his lungs, so loud, that everything stopped.

He opened his eyes, breathing heavily. He stood upright and walked over to the wall and leaned on it, looking at his reflection.

Everything was quiet but just when he thought it was all over he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his scar. He grunted and hunched over, putting a hand on his neck. The pain got worse, and worse until it became unbearable. He left his room and made his way through the hideout, leaning on the wall until he got to his healing chamber. He made it, and there it was, the healing chamber, right in front of him. He took a step forward but his feet gave out beneath him, he crawled the best he could toward the chamber until he had no more strength. He desperately reached his hand out toward the chamber and with the little strength he had left, he cried out. “Beck!”

His arm dropped, limp on the floor, and everything went black.

——-

Once Beck got to the garage, he went to his room ignoring any greetings from the other mechanics as he passed by. He kept his head down, hoping no one would see his energy stained eyes. When he got to his room, he shut the door behind him and leaned against it, letting himself slide down into a sitting position.

He rubbed his face then pulled his knees up to his chest, his injured knee ached in protest, but he ignored it, putting his arms over his knees and burning his head in his arms.

He sat like that for a while. Letting the silence soothe his mind. He took some deep breaths and closed his eyes, letting himself relax.

“Rough cycle?”

That voice…

He opened his eyes and slowly looked up to see Bodhi staring down at him. He stared back at him in disbelief..

“Wanna talk about it?”

Beck looked down and rubbed his eyes, making sure they weren’t deceiving him.

“Come on, tell me what’s on your mind. You know you can always talk to me.”

Beck looked at him again. “Bodhi…”

Bodhi gave him a warm smile.

“I…” He sniffled, rubbing his nose. “I got into an argument with one of my friends.”

Bodhi took a seat next to him. “About?”

“He’s just… ever since Able died he hasn’t been the same. I’ve been trying to help him but he just keeps pushing me away and when I tell him how I’m feeling he puts me down. I couldn't take it, so I left and I don’t know if I should go back or not.”

“I see, are you guys close?”

“… Yeah… we're very close actually.”

“Leaving must have been hard?”

Beck didn’t respond, he just sighed and put his head down.

“Do you think you made the right decision?”

Beck closed his eyes. “I don’t know… if he doesn’t want my help then maybe he should just help himself.”

“Do you truly feel that way?”

Beck looked at him.

“You know deep down that he can’t do this without you… and you can’t do this without him either.”

Beck slowly nodded and wiped his eyes. Bodhi put a hand on his shoulder, giving him a reassuring look. Him and Bodhi sat alone in silence for a while.

Beck chuckled. “Even in death, you’re still giving me pep talks.”

Bodhi laughed.

“What do you think I should do?” Beck said, looking at him.

“I don’t know, that’s a decision you have to make for yourself.”

Beck looked down.

“Why don’t you sleep on it.”

Beck took a deep breath before scooting closer to Bodhi and rested his head on his shoulder. Bodhi rested his head on Beck’s and they sat that way for a while. He closed his eyes and allowed himself to drift away.

Beck opened his eyes to see he was in the same position he was in earlier; sitting against his door with his knees up to his chest. He looked around, Bodhi was nowhere in sight.

It was a dream…

Beck stretched his arms. He felt better, he felt rested, even his knee was no longer aching. He relaxed in his spot and looked out his window. He could see Tron’s base out in the distance.

Beck got up, grabbed his baton, and left his room.

——-

The room was silent for a good nano, the only thing that could be heard was the rain pattering against the roof of the garage and the soft murmur of thunder in the distance.

Able poured a glass of energy then looked back over his shoulder, his face full of concern at the sight of his wounded friend. He sighed and walked over, holding out the glass of energy to him.

Tron grabbed it. “Thanks.”

Able folded his arms as he watched the old security program down the glass of energy a bit faster than he expected. He looked out the window at the rather depressing weather then finally broke the silence.

“So… this new friend of yours, he’s a defected soldier?”

Tron put the glass down. “Yes, he aided me in my escape.”

“Are you sure you can trust him?”

“I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for his help.”

“Where is he now?” Able said, unfolding his arms.

“Out gathering intel.”

“Hm…” Able looked out the window again then back at Tron.

“Do you know if the others are ok?”

Tron undocked his disc and began going through its settings. “No, if I had to guess, they’ve either been derezzed or captured by Clu.”

Able leaned back against his desk. “What about Flynn?”

“I don’t know, he ran off when Clu ambushed us. Hopefully he made it to the portal.” Tron looked out the window at the small gleam of light coming from the portal afar.

Able thought for a moment. Tron’s calm demeanor bewildered him. He had wounds all over him. His city was overrun and he lost all of his friends. He thought that Tron would at least be a little upset about his situation but he just sat there, messing with his disc settings, devoid of any emotion. Able couldn’t help but be worried about it.

“You seem awfully calm about all of this.”

Tron stopped messing with his disc and looked at him, raising an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”

“I mean exactly what I said.” Able folded his arms.

Tron didn’t say anything, he still sat there, looking at him, confused.

Able huffed. “Tron look at yourself, you can barely stand on your own! On top of that, you’ve just lost 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 and you’re not even batting an eye.”

Tron looked at his disc. “I don’t have time to dwell on what happened. There’s nothing I can do about it now.”

“What’s with you and this whole ‘tough program’ persona you’ve put on?”

Tron rolled his eyes.

“I know you Tron. I know you like bottling up your emotions because you think it’s the right thing to do but it’s not. What happened this cycle is 𝘥𝘦𝘷𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨. You can’t sit here and act like nothing happened.”

Tron kept scrolling through his disc settings.

“Tron… It’s ok to be upset.”

Tron stopped and looked at Able, he felt a jolt go through his body, it was such a small sentence and yet there was something about it…

𝘛𝘳𝘰𝘯! 𝘛𝘳𝘰𝘯 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘺 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘮𝘦!

He heard a voice, who is that?

𝘊𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘰𝘯, 𝘛𝘳𝘰𝘯!

Is that… Beck?

The memory faded and he opened his eyes, his vision full of blur. His whole body was numb and he couldn’t move. There was a soft ring in his ears and he had trouble breathing.

“Tron!”

His vision cleared just enough to see Beck hovering over him.

“You’re going to be ok…”

His vision began to tunnel.

“I’m here…”

Everything went black…

—————

He opened his eyes, slowly regaining consciousness. This time, there was no ringing in his ears, his body was no longer numb and he could see, well, sort of. He was in his healing chamber, the plasma was denser than usual. He reached up and touched his cheek. His scar finally healed back to the way it normally was.

A voice came over the intercom. “𝘋𝘦𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘮𝘢 𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘺”

Everything around him became clear again, and he saw someone standing at the door on the other side of the room.

“Beck.”

Beck gave him a half smile. Tron stepped out of the chamber but the moment his foot hit the floor his ankle gave out.

Beck ran over to his side and grabbed him. “Woah, take it easy. You’ve been out for a while. It’ll take a nano for you to regain your strength.”

“How long was I out?” Tron asked, putting a hand on his head.

“Two cycles.”

“Two cycles?” Tron said with slight surprise.

Beck chuckled. “Yeah, guess your body really needed some rest.”

Beck stayed by Tron’s side until he was able to stand on his own. “I came back to the hideout and found you on the floor. Not gonna lie I… thought you were a goner for a moment.”

“I would have been if it weren’t for you.”

Beck smiled but it quickly faded away and he looked down. “Tron… about what I said earlier…”

“It’s ok.”

Beck looked at him.

Tron took a deep breath. “You had every right to be angry. I’ve… I’ve been a real jerk to you. I made everything about myself and ignored your pain. You were just as close to Able as I was. Closer, even, I mean, he practically raised you, and your friends blame you for what happened to him, I can’t imagine what you’ve been going through.”

Tron took a few steps forward and put a hand on his shoulder. “Beck… I’m so sorry.”

“Apology accepted.” Beck said with a slow nod.

Tron took his hand off Beck's shoulder and walked toward the door. “Well, I better get back to work and you should head back to the garage before curfew starts.”

Beck stood there, confused. After all of that he was just gonna walk away as if it didn’t happen?

“Wa- uh… wait!”

Tron looked back over his shoulder.

“It’s… it’s been a really rough few cycles. Maybe you should, I dunno, sit and let yourself process everything before you go back to doing your work?”

“I appreciate it, Beck, but I’m tired of dwelling on what happened. You’re right, it’s time to move on.”

“Tron… It’s ok to be upset.”

Tron stopped, he looked at the wall and saw Able standing behind him in his reflection. He slowly turned around to look at Beck, his face held a warm expression.

Tron closed his eyes, unsure of how to respond. It’s ok to be upset, that’s exactly what Able told him all of those cycles ago but rather than taking his word he brushed it off. He wanted to do it again. No, not this time. It’s about time he took Able’s advice. Tron looked him up and down, unsure of what to do but instead of hiding his emotions, instead pushing Beck away like he'd been doing for all this time, he slowly walked over to him and pulled him into a tight hug. Tron buried his face into Beck's shoulder and wept, finally letting out all of the pain. Beck felt himself get emotional and he hugged Tron back, just as tight, rubbing comfort circles on his back.

Tron collected himself and pulled himself out of the hug. He wiped his eyes then chuckled softly. “Look at me.”

“You know, for a while I thought it was impossible for you to cry.”

They both laughed.

Tron looked at him. “Thanks Beck, for everything.”

Beck warmly smiled at him then nodded.

Tron looked out the window toward Argon. “You should go home before curfew starts.”

“Actually I was thinking of staying to help you study the data cube.”

“Are you sure? it’s gonna take a while.”

Beck shrugged. “Hey, if I’m patient enough to babysit you I’m sure I'll be patient enough to do anything.”

Tron chuckled and put a hand on his shoulder as they both left the room.