Glass Shatters (Re-do)

by annelea

Summary:

Matt and Katie Holt break into Sam's lab at the Galaxy Garrison and find themselves in a world they are not prepared for.
Past and present love affairs, old enemies, secret identities, and the revelation that old friends aren't exactly what they appear.
Can Tron and Sam focus on not snapping at each other long enough to be honest with their children and rescue their wives?

Notes:

So, I spent a year writing this before I started posting it.
Then, I tried changing things as I posted it.
It got away from the original direction, lost all humor, and most of the action.

I hate what was originally posted and am piecing back together everything I can from the original iteration here. It was way more entertaining.

The first chapter will be identical to the original posting, so you can skip it if you want.

Chapter 1: High Speed

“Matt, why are we here? Dad's office is in a totally different building!” Katie huffed, following her brother through the halls of a sub-level of an out building on base. “I want to know what they've been working on every night, not raid a store room!”

“Yeah, but this is where I saw them earlier,” Matt came to a halt in front of a nondescript door. “Dad made Shiro a promise that they were going to get this thing running soon. Whatever they've been up to, it's not in his office.”

“Well, do you have a key to this mystery room?” Katie prompted, pointing out the fact that it was an old school tumbler lock, not a computerized one like the newer buildings.

Matt laughed at it. He knew something his sister didn't. The old lock was a sham. The real one was hidden behind the room's number plate. He had come prepared after he saw how it was locked earlier that afternoon. Katie watched as he pulled a trick she'd used more than once, rendering a three dimensional holographic projection of their father's head for the face scan, then a second one of Sam's hand. The door locks clicked open.

“Come on,” Matt grabbed her hand, pulling her inside and locking the door behind them before turning on the light.

Katie looked around as Matt logged into the computer and initialized the external drive that was already plugged up. That had to be what they were working on, since it was the only obvious thing around.

There wasn't much in the room. The computer, desk, chair, mini-fridge, two folded up cots and bedding, and something that looked like a full body scanner from the medical wing off the main building. It was an older style, one that had been moved to storage after they got their hands on tech from other planets that worked better. “Hey, Matt...”

“Yeah?” Matt turned around, absentmindedly typing in the password into the prompt screen without reading it. He saw what she saw. “Shiro's sick again, isn't he?”

“That doesn't seem right, though.” Katie shook her head, flipping on the scanner. “We can all tell pretty quick if something's wrong with each other now. Not having the Lions hasn't stopped us from building the Bond. I would be able to feel it if there was something seriously wrong with him. He's been distracted lately, but not sick. Maybe this can tell us something.”

“Maybe it's Dad?” Matt didn't like the suggestion coming out of his own mouth, but it was a possibility Sam was in his late fifties now.

The humming of the medical scanner grew louder as they talked, going through the normal boot up process. They ignored it until it suddenly stopped. Everything was quiet. The lights were out, just a tiny glow coming in from the small windows above them.

There weren't supposed to be any windows to the outside from five floors down.

“What just happened?” Katie asked, not moving a muscle.

Matt was just as shaken as she was. He looked around, noting that the only thing left in the room was a desk and chair that were very unlike the one he had just been sitting at. “Where did everything go?”

“Oh no!” Katie groaned, climbing up on the desk to look out the window above. “Please tell me Dad wasn't finding another way to contact other realities! I don't want to deal with that a fourth time! What did you touch on that computer?”

“I barely made it past the log-in screen!” Matt yanked her off the desk, then he climbed up for a look himself. “That's a lot of people out there. What are they standing around for?”

“Dunno, but I'm guessing we'll find out eventually,” Katie started feeling around the walls, trying to find a light switch by the door first. The walls weren't exactly smooth, so, when she found a smooth patch, she tapped it, praying it was a button that would actually help.

Lights flickered on both above and below them, filling the room with a soft glow. Matt got down and looked over the room again, finally able to see a lot more than just the desk and chair. There were boxes of clothes and other objects as well as shelves near the wall farthest from the door, all organized and labeled.

Katie started reading the labels on the boxes. “Jets. Cycles. Four Wheels. Boats. Subs. Bombs. Smoke Bombs. Fresh Discs. Disc Mounts. What is this stuff?”

“Check out the clothes on the shelves.” Matt pointed to the name tags. “Quorra. Sam. Alan. Beck. Zed. Mara. Paige. Matt. Katie. Colleen. Some of those names sound familiar? Check this out, I found something called a load out list on the wall.”

Katie looked at the poster sized paper, then noticed one on the floor that had fallen. Interesting as the rest of it was, she was more curious to find her father's handwriting on the paper on the floor. It was a letter. “In case of accidental transfer by Matt, Katie, or Colleen.”

Matt snatched the paper away, skimming it. “He figured this might happen. He planned on it.”

Katie took it back, reading carefully.

Matt, Katie, Colleen,

By now I'm sure you've figured out you're not in Kansas anymore. No, this isn't an alternate reality. You're still on Earth, just not somewhere on any existing map except for one I left in Center City a long time ago.

I intended to bring you here myself, but I know all too well how easy it is for people like you to wind up here on accident like I did my first time. That's why I have stocked appropriate clothing and tools for you to use as needed until you get home and we can talk about this properly.

I have my reasons for keeping this secret for so long. It's complicated and difficult to talk about. Please just listen to what I have to say before you yell at me.

Look over the load out poster and make absolutely sure you have all of that at minimum before leaving the room. Things on The Grid can change at a moment's notice or stay the same for years. Whatever you do, if you have a mark on your upper left arm, make sure it stays covered. Don't stick around and try to make friends. Not everyone is what they appear to be at first.

Once dressed and geared up, make your way to a high place and find the light in the sky. That is your ticket out of here and back home. Come straight to me. Tell no one.

To use the batons, pull them apart, preferably to your side or underneath you during a jump. A vehicle will create itself for you to ride. You don't have a lot of time, so get there as fast as you can.

Again, no making friends. Come straight to me.

I have faith you can do this.

Love, Dad/Sam

“So... that means the other people have been here before.” Matt looked at the names again. “Maybe one or two of them are here now. Memorize the names just in case.”

“Definitely,” Katie agreed. Their father made it all sound simple. They knew better than to think anything about a foreign environment they weren't supposed to get caught in would be simple. They might have to make friends in order to make it home.

…............................................................................

Getting up the stairs, they noticed that everyone standing around outside were facing the road, not the building. That made it easy for them to slip out the door, but not so easy to follow the second set of instructions about getting to a high place. People were everywhere, including roof tops. Not being noticed was going to be interesting. The crowd wasn't paying them any mind, but if they said or did something out of the culture's norms, they'd be noticed right away.

“Greetings, Programs!”

The voice coming over unseen speakers had everyone cheering, chanting a word over and over again. “Tron! Tron! Tron!”

“Must be a local celebrity.” Katie commented, hoping only Matt would hear.

“Maybe we should stick around for this then,” Matt suggested. “If he's popular, we should know about him in case anyone tries small talk.”

The man was speaking again. “Thanks to new safeguard technology, I am pleased to announce that we can once again hold the annual circum-city lightcycle race! While on the track, lightwalls will be inoperative, discs will be non-lethal, Programs who fall from their bike at height will not derez on impact. Where's the fun in that, though? This race is not without risks. It'll still hurt. Your bikes can still take full damage. So watch yourselves, Programs. Whoever wins this one gets to face off against me in ten cycles for the title until next year. Open your batons!”

The crowd cheered and the sound of engines roared. Matt and Katie made their way to the front of the crowd. They did need to get an idea of what a lightcycle was before they tried using one, after all. Sam had left no real instructions on how to use them. Getting a clear view at last, the siblings shared a smile. Motorcycles. They could handle that.

The man standing in the street alone reached back and pulled a disc off his back, making it into a bright white light streaming up into the sky. “Ready!”

The racers revved their engines, doing a small burn out each.

“Set!” The man turned his light to face them, and they each gave their bikes two short revs.

“Go!” The man shut off the light, standing stock still as the others drove past him at break neck speed. He turned around to watch the last of them, a wistful smile on his lips. The crowd cheered and cheered, a few of them chanting again. Most of the people went running after the bikes, though, giving Matt and Katie more space to leave.

They kept their eyes glued to the man, though. He looked way, way too familiar. He looked too young. This was not right.

Katie tugged on Matt's sleeve without looking, “Matt... Matt... That's-”

“I know!” Matt smacked her hand away, adjusting his top again. Even if she didn't think about it now, he was wary about the warning to hide any strange marks on their skin. They definitely had some now. Nobody else seemed to have a glowing white symbol on their left arm like they did. “Stop messing with my clothes!”

The man caught sight of them as he walked down the street towards a car that still sat there, one they guessed was his. His steps faltered a moment before resuming a slightly slower pace. He made a couple gestures with his hand. He pointed down, made a circle with his finger, closed his fist, then turned to look at them directly. He gave nothing away in his expression.

“I think we need to get going, Pidge.” Matt took her hand and started walking backwards.

“...yyeaahh... About that...” Katie held her ground, keeping him with her. She was looking around now. Lots of people were facing them, all of them armed to the teeth with weapons like the ones they'd found in the basement. “We're surrounded.”

“So much for keeping a low profile,” Matt yanked on her hard. “RUN!”

The man moved towards them fast, yelling without the speakers projecting his voice, “No! Wait!”

Matt tightened his grip on his sister with one hand, then threw down a smoke bomb with the other to cover their escape. Katie, meanwhile, kicked a soldier in the knees to create an opening for them to run through.

“Bikes!” Matt yelled at her, grabbing a baton he carried.

Katie agreed whole heartedly. While they still had a lead, some wheels would help a lot. She grabbed her own baton and opened it like the diagram had shown. Matt jumped up and felt the cycle form around him, adjusting for his exact size perfectly before hitting the road. Katie had a different experience. She'd grabbed the wrong baton. Instead of landing on a running bike, she had an aircraft form up under her, aimed straight at the sky.

“Oh no! Wrong one!” Katie yelled, leveling out as she got a feel for the controls. One good thing, she figured as her heart rate evened out again, was that she could see the only light in the sky. Now she knew which direction they needed to go. She carefully brought the jet around to get back over Matt again, yelling at him and gesturing at the same time. “Follow me! I see the exit!”

Matt gave her a thumbs up, then put the throttle down on the bike in time to stay just behind her. He couldn't see anything from the ground, but he could rely on her without question. He felt like he was missing something important, but knew they'd figure it out when they had to.

They weren't in the clear for long.

The race's course was marked by small orange lights. Once they passed through them into the regular streets, a shimmer washed over them. They were out of the protected zone, and they had company. Something told Matt that they hadn't been spotted by a normal celebrity and his guards as several other lightcycles and jets formed up behind them.

At least nobody was shooting at them or pulling any other weapons out. That was a good sign.

Matt hit a bump hard, almost losing his grip on the handlebars. He hit a button by accident, but nothing seemed to come of it. Whatever that button was for, he picked a defective bike. That's what he thought until he looked behind him to check the distance of the pursuit.

There was a stream of light coming off the back end of the bike. The people chasing avoided it. That could be something useful. He swerved back and forth across the width of the road, spreading out the wall of light. He knew he'd lose some speed, but he could still see Katie. She seemed to figure out the special button, too, and had the same idea.

The man in white, the celebrity racer Matt guessed was Tron, made some gestures to order his men to fall back, but sped up himself. No wonder the title race was going to be against this guy. He wasn't scared to get close to the walls or the trail Matt left behind, and he was damn fast.

Faster than Matt could possibly get this bike going and still keep it under control.

Tron came up along side Matt and reached out to flip off the light trail. “Ccard, stop! It's me!”

“Dude,” Matt jerked hard into a left turn, but the man kept pace. “I just want to go home!”

“But you are home! Can't we just talk?”

“Sorry, not now!” Matt cringed as he pulled at the handlebars again, forcing the bike into a baton once more. While he was still over the street, he opened up the other baton, getting on a jet like Katie had. It climbed automatically, too, giving him seconds to figure out the controls. Flying one of these was a full body experience, but he figured he could manage.

“Nice of you to finally join me, Matt!” Katie commented sarcastically, still in the middle of trying to dodge the cage four other jets were making around her. “A little help?”

They weren't firing on her, but they were trying to trap her in with the walls of light. Matt wouldn't fire on them, but he would shoot the walls out. “Where's the damn gun controls on this thing?”

“Do we even have guns?” Katie asked, but the tip of her right wing scrapped into one of the walls, shearing it off. Thrown out of balance, her other wing took a deeper slice, sending her spinning towards the center of a large, disused arena below. “Oh, no!”

Matt dove to get under her. “Turn it off. I'll catch you!”

Katie trusted him, but she didn't know how to make the jet disappear. She gave up and jumped clear of the jet as best she could. It was breaking up into chunks, then small cubes all around her until she landed on Matt's back.

Matt felt the jet lose a few feet of altitude when she hit, just enough to knock him into the path of a wall of light. “Hold on!”

He sent his jet into a nose dive on purpose. As they went down, a new jet came up. For a brief moment, they were eye to eye with Tron again. That guy just didn't wouldn't give up. Matt looked for something, anything, that might hide them. The arena itself would be a good spot. Lots of seating, probably lots of rooms under the seating. They could hide if they could just figure out how to turn off the lines of light on their clothing and then stick to the shadows.

“Matt, what are you doing?” Katie asked, realizing where they were headed. “We need to head for the light!”

“Gotta get these guys off our tail first,” Matt skimmed over the dome and then dove into the arena, shutting down the jet when they came over an open hatch to a landed ship that looked like a softer landing than anything else in the area. It hit him then that he hadn't seen a single plant anywhere, not even dirt. It was an odd thing to notice, but it seemed significant in the moment.

“I found the stairs!” Katie yelled, breaking him out of his thoughts.

“Shut up and hurry, they're coming!” Matt looked over head. Sure enough, five lightjets were coming in through the dome's opening.

They didn't land. They didn't even come in all the way. With all of the people who clearly lived here, why was this place left to rot? What made the others hesitate to come in after them?

“Maybe coming here was a bad idea.” Matt commented, suddenly not liking their surroundings as much. Everything and everyone in the city had lights except this place. The bad guys chasing them were scared to come in, so maybe it was a good thing after all. He didn't want to get his hopes too high.

“Bad for them is good for us,” Katie replied, leading the way into another stair well heading down.

“That's not always true.”

“Let's hope it is this time. Weren't you the one who told me to shut up?”

Matt wanted to respond, but took his own advice and kept quiet. They ran through a couple halls under the event floor until they found what looked like a green room and ducked in. They could use the furniture to block the door until they figured something else out or the chasers left them alone.

“Okay, not a little space...” Katie commented, getting the feeling that the darkness went on for quite a ways. “I think we're under the main show floor.”

“You shouldn't be here.” The voice was nowhere and everywhere at once.

Matt instinctively grabbed the disc off his back, reaching for the only weapon he knew was usable. “Who's there?”

“How did you survive?” the man's voice came from a different place now. Either there was a ghost, or they were dealing with two people with very, very similar voices.

“Matt?” Katie held her disc nervously in front of her chest, tense but ready to strike anything that wasn't her brother that moved.

“Who are you?” Matt demanded, moving to get his back to hers. “Come out where we can see you!”

“You speak more like a User than a Program.”

“I don't have time for your games.” Matt scanned the darkness, trying to see anything at all.

“Then why come to the collesium?” The voice chuckled. “This place is off limits. Are you here on a dare?”

“We just want to go home,” Katie spoke up. “We didn't mean to tresspass, but someone was chasing us. We'll be on our way soon.”

“Where's home?”

“Not here.” Matt answered sarcastically.

“Through the light?”

Matt and Katie both froze.

“Yeah, that's answer enough.”

Finally, to Matt's left and Katie's right, the glow of yellow tinged light flared up in lines indicating a person standing near them. Softly glowing lights turned on overhead as well, revealing the fact that they were in a service area, large, and as big as the show floor above. Katie had guessed right. The man who had been speaking from everywhere and nowhere at once gave them a soft smile, holding his hands up in a gesture of nonviolence.

He looked older, maybe five to ten years older than their father. Something about his features seemed oddly familiar, though neither Katie nor Matt could figure out why. Something in his smile wasn't exactly friendly. The way he looked at them was very calculating.

“You don't know where you are, do you?” The man asked, keeping his distance. “Did Sam send you in here unprepared the way Alan sent him?”

They kept quiet, nerves still high.

“It's alright, kids. I know you're Users.” The man tried to calm them. “Introductions. Properly this time. My name's Flynn. Kevin Flynn in the real world. You two would be...?”

“Katie Holt. Paladin of the Green Lion of Voltron.” Katie offered up quickly. “Everybody calls me Pidge.”

Matt hissed at her. “Dad said not to go making friends!”

“Mister Suspicious here is my brother, Matt, General of the Voltron Coalition by way of the Rebel Alliance.” Katie smacked his arm. “Are you hiding from that Tron guy, too?”

“No,” Flynn smiled, looking up to the ceiling as if he could see through it for a second. “Tron is very much aware that I'm in here. We have an arrangement. You said your family name it Holt. Is your mother Colleen? Alan Bradley's daughter?”

“Let me guess,” Katie laughed derisively, “you got stuck in here looking for Grandpa Alan or something?”

“No, I got myself stuck in here.” Flynn let out a heavy sigh. “Twice. Well... technically three times now. Tell me, why are you running from Tron? He's one of the good guys again. Rinzler is dead. Tron can help you get home.”

Matt disagreed quickly. If Tron was a good guy, he really didn't want to know who Rinzler was. “That guy's off his rocker. He kept calling me some weird name and said I was home already.”

Flynn squinted at him, his old eyes having a harder time focusing. “He thought you might be Ccard.”

“Yeah, that was the name.” Matt agreed with a shiver from the strangeness of it. “And why does he look like Grandpa Alan from thirty years ago?”

Flynn crossed his arms in a huff, pacing a little. “You really don't know anything do you? Alan's a little too good at keeping secrets, I swear. Your mom didn't tell you about The Grid? I told her stories when she was little, too, just like I told my son. He remembered everything. Your mother should have remembered something. She should have told you even if she's not still friends with Sam.”

“Sam?” Matt prompted. It was a common name for pretty much every generation.

“My son.” Flynn happily took the disc off his back, holding it level with the floor and activating it in a way Matt and Katie had yet to see. Holographic images playing out in the air above it of a boy with curly brown hair. When the images switched to a young man with slightly lighter hair cut much shorter, the siblings had to do a double take.

“Okay, that's fucked up...” Matt took a half step closer. “Pidge, am I hallucinating, or is that Dad but like twenty or thirty years ago?”

Katie kept right by his side. “Look! Look at how he moved his hand just there! Dad does the same thing when he's frustrated! That's him, but like... he's here and half his age?”

Once again, she was tugging at the neck of his shirt from the right, causing short sleeve on his left to ride up. Flynn went from smiling to gaping when he saw the bottom half of an ISO mark on Matt's arm. They didn't see that, though, more absorbed in the possibility that they had just met their grandfather in the strangest place possible.

“Dad said his father died three years before I was born.” Matt commented. “He doesn't know you're here, does he?”

“Not unless Tron told him,” Flynn reached out and pulled Matt's sleeve back into place in a hurry once he got his jaw up off the floor. Matt started to jerk away, then realized with a bit of dread that a second person had seen his mark. “You two might have more trouble getting out of here than I thought. ISOs don't have the right kind of disc. You'll need a User's disc, and I don't have one anymore. The one I'm using is... borrowed. Shit... and now he's seen you, too.”

“Who?” Katie asked, looking around the room for another person and finding no one.

“Clu.” Flynn stated as if that answered everything.

“Not up to playing a guessing game here, man.” Matt prompted him to explain. “Who?”

Flynn's eyes darted around while he thought. He seemed distressed when he answered the question with another of his own. “You're absolutely certain Sam is your father? Your real, biological father?”

“Look at Pidge. She's practically a carbon copy of him, just female and half sized.” Matt gestured to his sister.

Flynn focused on her. “Show me your disc. Quickly!”

Katie hesitantly handed her disc over while Matt gripped his harder. Flynn pulled up yet another display that blew their minds. With a few swipes of his fingers, he accessed a DNA helix looking projection that was... Well, that wasn't Human. Flynn got a determined look, backing out of that display and opening another section, one that looked more like files on a computer screen. One section was clearly labeled “Permissions.” He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw a folder under that labeled “User Permissions” full of command lists.

“Good.” He handed her disc back over, then held out his hand for Matt's. “Let me see yours now. Something tells me I'm going to have to make some adjustments on that one.”

“Did you do something to mine?” Katie asked, looking at her dormant disc curiously.

“No need. Your User permissions are already fully unlocked.” Kevin took Matt's disc out of his hands quickly, going back through the same displays on it as he had on Katie's. This DNA sequence was decidedly different from hers. Flynn looked disheartened by that. When he backed out and went to the folders, there wasn't a single one marked “User Permissions” available.

Matt groaned at that. “Not fair. I taught you coding, but you get all the perks while I get nothing.”

“It's not your fault, your parents were both Programs, Matt,” Flynn sighed, creating a folder for him. “You aren't a User, not even half like Pidge, but I can grant you permissions for the portal and a few other perks you can use if you two get separated. Try to stick together, but... just in case... There. Now, get out of here. Find Tron. Make him take you home. Oh, and tell Sam I'm still kicking around in here. I could use his help again. If he doesn't believe you, tell him the code words Ram and Yori. That should get his ass back here.”

“Why don't you just come with us?” Katie asked, reaching out a hand to him. “You clearly know way more about what's up here than we do.”

“No. Tron will explain.” Flynn backed up a couple steps. “Get out of here. Clu is waking up again. You don't want to be here when he is in control.”

Chapter 2: Not a Race

Notes:

This chapter is re-written to be even closer to the original idea of the story.

Matt had a split second to realize that not only was Flynn suddenly fully young, but coming at him with a fist. He tried to block, but ended up taking the blow straight to his shoulder. The force of the strike sent him reeling backwards, causing him to trip over something on the floor (a cable of some sort?). He landed hard on the edge of a table, the same shoulder that was punched aching even more, this time from behind.

Katie tried yelling at Flynn, “Hey, man, what the hell?”

The young Flynn turned on her, this time with his own disc in hand. The edge was glowing in a not so friendly way. Katie spun to the side, stepping into him to try and block arm to arm rather than risk whatever that thing was going to do. He switched directions on her, coming in low. The edge of his disc slid centimeters from her stomach, then twisted low to make contact with her leg. Searing pain flashed across her skin as it tore open. He came around for a third attempt.

Flynn stopped himself, though, clearly struggling to go through with the strike anyway.

“Go.” Flynn told her. “This is Clu. Get out of here!”

Matt was already on that. He grabbed Katie by the back of her collar and practically drug her back into the hall and out the way they had come in the first place. They could find somewhere else to hide.

Apparently, whatever forces were keeping Tron and his buddies out wasn't working anymore. They were headed down the same flight of stairs that Matt and Katie were running up.

“Crazy guy behind us!” Matt yelled at them, knowing they were being followed.

“Duck!” Tron yelled at them, throwing his own disc over their heads.

Katie pulled Matt down just in time for Tron's disc to bounce off of something behind them, then fly back over their heads and into his hand again. Tron stepped around them, splitting his single disc into two and taking up a guarding pose.

“Skala, get them out of here. Don't lose them.” Tron called out, coming to clash with the man chasing Matt and Katie.

“Sir.” The woman closest to them nodded, grabbing Katie's arm to help Matt support her on the way up the stairs. “Stick close to me. Please don't try to run again.”

Matt heard Tron and Flynn having a bit of a not so friendly conversation as he, Katie, and Skala made their limping retreat. “Yeah. Don't want to meet any more Flynns.”

“That's no longer Flynn back there.” Skala informed him. “It's Clu. The worst Program someone like you could possibly run into. You should know better than to run into the arms of the very Program that ordered your people slaughtered. What were you thinking, Ccard?”

“First off, that's not my name!” Matt grunted as Katie slipped on a step. “Why do you people insist on calling me that?”

Katie yelled at them both. “Retreat now! Argue later! I told you we should have listened to Dad and not made friends! But no! You had to drop us down into the creepy Thunder Dome and make nice with the old man in the basement!”

“You made friends with him.” Matt corrected. “I'm the one who said not to!”

“Whatever! Coming here was your idea in the first place!” Katie came to a skidding halt. Their path out was blocked by a dozen or so figures with glowing orange markings, faces covered by opaque black masks and helmets. “Uh... you're clearly bad guys. Right?”

“Take them!” The smaller one in the lead commanded the others. He aimed for Skala, as did several of the others. Most of them, however, reached out for Matt or Katie.

Katie ducked beneath the first couple that tried to grab her, only to find herself roped up in a glowing net that tightened fast. The more she struggled, the tigher it got. Matt didn't do much better. He tried to fight, but one of the guys got him from behind, putting pressure on his injured shoulder. Matt went to his knees, screaming in pain while two others bound him with more of the glowing rope-like restraints. The last thing Katie saw before being knocked out was Skala surrounded by seven enemies, fighting hard, and two more white glowing discs piercing into a couple of the orange lit figures.

….......................................................................

Matt woke up with his shoulder feeling like broken pieces of glass were assaulting every nerve ending possible, wrists and ankles going numb, and a splitting headache. From what he could tell, though, he was in a bed. If it weren't for his injuries and being bound, the bed would actually feel quite nice, like the firm memory foam mattress he had at home.

He couldn't see much beyond the wall across from him. It was decorated with photographs of starscapes up high. Below that were shelves with little items; some of them looked like his dad's old figurines from when he was a child. Below that was a thin desk and several drawers on either side, unmarked, plain white.

Looking towards his feet, he could just make out a sitting room. No dividing wall. The silver framed fireplace at the opposite end held a strange blue flame that did not reflect off the stark white floor. If anything, it looked like the floor was giving off its own soft white light.

Behind him, another body stirred. “Matt?”

“Pidge?” Matt guessed that the groggy voice belonged to his sister.

“Where the hell are we now?” She asked, stopping her struggles when she realized she was just as tied up as her brother had been. “Is this a bedroom? I'm looking at a closet.”

“Yeah, I found the dresser.” Matt muttered. “Can you get free?”

“No.” Katie sighed.

The sound of heavy steps came towards them. The siblings looked up as much as they could to find the young looking Flynn – Clu – staring down at them with interest. If anything, their moods soured further. That smirk on his face might have been friendly in other circumstances. It wasn't appropriate here.

“So, we have another User with us at last.” Clu walked around to Katie's side of the bed. “Half a User is better than nothing. You'll get me what I need.”

Katie grumbled, “I'll get you nothing. Let us go, and maybe I won't erase you when we get home.”

“Oh, little one,” Clu reached down to stroke her hair, “you're not going home.”

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Tron shook as he dug out the debris from a gouge in his arm that was preventing his self-healing function from closing up the wound. The pain didn't make him shake. He'd had far, far worse and continued on. No, it was the anger.

Reeve should have been there. Any disturbance at the old arena should have set off alarms at HQ and sent at least a dozen more security to the location. There should have been a system-wide ping that went off the moment the entry portal was activated well before when Ccard and his friend first showed up. Tron had gotten Sam to put that in place many cycles ago, for the moments, like earlier, when Tron couldn't see the portal's light from wherever he might be at the moment.

Instead, it came down to just him and Skala. Where were the others?

When he got back to HQ, things were running as if all was normal besides the race going sideways. Reeve, Scout, and Thrace all rushed to aid Tron and Skala when they showed up, having no idea what had gone on. That shouldn't have happened at all. Those three were tied for third in command, right behind Skala and then Tron himself.

Someone had tampered with the information relays. That was the only explanation possible. But the who, why, and when were what he really needed to know now. He put them on it, getting Skala into a standard healing chamber first. She could self-heal as well, faster than most, but still not as fast as Tron. Nobody could heal as fast as he could, and that was by design. Sam Flynn and Alan One did not want a repeat of what had happened before. Only a User could actually damage Tron in any permanent sense. Anyone else would have to kill him outright.

“Sir, you have visitors.” Thrace announced from the open door to his office.

“Not now.” Tron grumbled.

“Yes, now, Program.” Sam Flynn's voice snapped him to his feet. This was not a situation he wanted to be in. He had hoped Sam would stay away until after they found a way out of this mess. “I think you have a bit of a situation on your hands. Am I right?”

“That is an understatement.” Tron crossed the distance, waving Thrace away and locking the door behind her. “The portal warning system is offline. Clu is free. He has backup, and they kidnapped a Program that shouldn't be alive and another that I'm certain is actually a User. A bit of a situation doesn't begin to cover this. Now, who's this you brought along?”

The white haired individual with the fancy arm and a scar across his nose was a tense figure indeed. He held a lot of anger in his eyes, hand itching to move for something at his side that was not there, probably a baton if he was a Program, or something called a gun if he was a User. Tron learned long ago not to assume someone wasn't potentially a User upon first meeting. He'd only been surprised by a User twice in his over two-thousand cycles, but it had happened.

“What?” The person chose attitude for his greeting. “My hair changes color and you suddenly don't recognize me?”

“Shiro, don't,” Sam tried to warn. “Don't do this now.”

“Should I recognize you?” Tron asked, getting more aggrivated.

“Forget it.” Shiro waved him off, grabbing his disc and holding it flat out. It seemed to take him a little concentration to bring up a set of memories on display. “Wow, I really am rusty. Do you recognize these two?”

Tron looked at the pair in the memory. It was a User-style memory, loose clothing and a single lightsource from above in a blue sky bathing everything in multiple colors and variations of those colors, mostly browns. So, this was a User. No, Tron didn't recognize him, but he did recognize the two people in the paused memory. He fixiated on Sam again.

“You managed to make a copy of Ccard in your world?” Tron demanded.

“Who's Ccard?” Sam asked, curious.

“That is Ccard.” Tron pointed at the male in Shiro's memory file. “And that is the friend he came with. They're the ones that got taken! Sam Flynn, we must get them back! With those two, Clu could rebuild his army so fast we can't even blink! It wasn't possible before, but now that he has overwhelmed your father he may have gained creative abilities. With the User and the coding that Ccard posesses-”

“Matt.” Sam corrected. “That is Matt and Katie. My son and my daughter. They don't know about their mother like we do. In here, they should read as Users, not ISOs or even Basics. The most Clu might try to use them for is to try to escape again. The one thing we know for sure is that, if he has them, he'll make another run for the portal.”

“Sam...” Tron held out his own disc, showing a short clip of a memory. It was Matt and Katie running up the stairs towards Tron and yelling about someone behind them. A split second later, another figure appeared at the bottom of the stairs, lined in yellow. Tron backed it up a little, pausing when the light caught on a gash on Katie's leg. The edges of a wound on Matt's shoulder glowed, showing absolutely no blood at all. “Only one of them bled.”

Sam shuffled that to the back of his mind for the moment. “Alright, so Matt got translated as a Program. Was that the last time you saw them?”

“No.” Tron put away his disc. “I got through to Flynn just enough to shove him into sleep mode. By the time I got back up the stairs, Skala was injured and trying to hold off several soldiers, and those two were being taken into the air. I don't know which direction. Skala was the immediate issue.”

“Who's Skala?” Shiro asked. It seemed like Sam already knew this person.

“My second in command,” Tron responded out of reflex. He never refused a direct order or question from a User as long as it did not contradict his core programming. “I trained her myself. Now she's in a healing chamber downstairs trying to hold together.”

“Okay, healing chambers are good things. What about medics?” Shiro wondered. “They give you a timetable?”

Sam shook his head. “The medics on hand here are not qualified to work on Programs like Skala.”

“Why not?”

Sam gave him a look, glanced at Tron, and then back to Shiro, “She's more like Matt and Katie.”

Shiro's eyes went wide with understanding, “She's part ISO?”

Tron lunged to smack a hand over Shiro's mouth fast. Shiro side-stepped him in a hurry, arms up to block out of reflex. “Shut it! Has Sam Flynn told you nothing about this system? They are supposed to be extinct.”

“I know that, Tron!” Shiro rolled his eyes. “Is it still not safe to talk about them, though? I figured it would be with you.”

“You don't know what you're talking about, User. Not at all.” Tron turned away, going to a console on his desk to bring up system reports. He scanned through disturbances around the time of the fight in the arena, as he had meant to just before Sam and Shiro were brought in. He hoped something would shed some light on the situation that he could follow.

Sam seemed to understand what was going on right away, hovering over Tron's shoulder and earning himself a dirty look for it. He didn't back off, though. “Shiro knows more than you might think.”

“He only knows whatever you told him,” Tron answered, zeroing in on a cluster of distrubance reports near the arena's outter wall, the one that faced the Outlands where Quorra had once fled with Sam. “Why did you bring him here?”

“He's an asset,” Sam replied, glancing up to see that Shiro was watching them with interest. “It's been a long time since he was in any system, but he learns fast and remembers faster. He's tough, smart, and can make split nano decisions in the middle of a fight when surrounded on all sides by hostiles. I trust him with my life, and so do the kids.”

“There may be differences here from whatever system he visited previously that can hold him back.” Tron warned, pulling up video surveilance from a couple of street corners. “He will have to learn, as you did. Even I had a few things to learn when I first came here.”

“He won't have any learning curve for The Grid except for the stuff Alan and I added in.” Sam assured. “Looks like you found the guys who took the kids. That smaller guy looks pretty distinct. Recognize him?”

“Yes.” Tron froze the image. He knew those lightlines on that frame. “That's Dyson.”

Shiro shook his head, rubbing at his temples. “I wish I had helped you derez him instead of trying to talk you out of it.”

That got Tron's head to snap up fast. “What did you just say?”

“You were right. Okay?” Shiro dropped his arms, staring at Tron. “I mean, I was right about you not killing out of revenge and all, but he really did need to be derezzed. I figured Clu would have done him in after you let him go. But, obviously, that didn't happen.”

Tron walked around the desk slowly, stalking forward with narrowed eyes. Sam worried for just a moment if he should order Tron to stop. Shiro flinched a tad, shifting his stance for a fight. That worried Sam. After what he had learned about Rinzler's first moments online, this probably wasn't going to turn out so good. Or, he hoped, it would turn out to be great.

“You can't know anything about that. You're a User.” Tron's curiosity shined through a little, despite his tone being low and almost an accusation. “There have only been three confirmed Users in this system since it's inception.”

“Yeah, well, maybe I was playing stupid earlier when I pretended not to know who Ccard was, too.” Shiro said, digging his own grave a bit deeper.

Something occurred to Tron. “You've spoken to Quorra?”

“Not since Rinzler was first made.” Shiro braced for the attack he knew was coming.

It never came. Tron stopped just out of arm's reach, studying him a bit harder now. “You're not a User.”

“Don't tase me!” Shiro took a step back, readying to dodge or block.

“No, not this time, Beck.” Tron smiled at him, no teeth showing. He held out a hand. “It's good to meet you again as a friend.”

“Yes, it is,” Shiro took his hand and let himself be pulled into a tight hug.

Chapter 3: What Future Do You See?

“Well, at least we know where they're probably going,” Sam commented, getting a trace on the rout the orange lined Programs had gone with Katie and Matt. He had learned a lot of tricks on his own, side-by-side with Alan for a lot of it, that he should have learned from his father. One of them was pulling trails from the air the way a system monitor or administrator could do from footprints or a console. “The question is what kind of an ambush we'll be walking into.”

“Or if they're even still there.” Tron followed, knowing the rout. “If it were me, I'd take them there first, set the place to explode when the next person entered, and then leave again fast.”

“Thankfully, it's not you,” Sam replied. “It's that guy Dyson. What would he do? Do you know?”

“Use it as a trap. If they really are going for the portal, the discs of Matt and Katie might not work. But, they would have to know you would come for them. If they get your disc, they have a guaranteed exit.”

Tron paced the roof of the arena, thinking about just how to deploy, what tactics would be best, how many to take along, and the possible risk factor of Clu being able to create now. There was a high chance there would be an army waiting at the base of the mountain for them. Sam was old now, the way Users got old. Clu and Dyson could both recognize ISOs faster than other Basics could. Clu through experience, and Dyson from... studying what was left after The Purge. Tron didn't want to think about that part. Ever.

“You'll have to stay here, Sam Flynn.” Tron knew very well what was coming next.

“No, I won't.” Sam disagreed fast, as Tron knew he would. “I've got you, Skala, and Shiro to watch my back. I'll be just fine.”

“Sam, you don't-” Shiro tried to take up Tron's side.

“I said I'm going.” Sam cut him off, determined. “That's my family out there. I'm not going to sit this out. Shiro, you know how much they mean to me.”

“Yeah, I do.” Shiro gave in. He'd already went through this with Katie years ago.

“Fine,” Tron knew to conceed, too. “But, don't do anything stupid. It didn't work out so well for Flynn the last time we were in a situation like this.”

“Pretty sure I was there, Tron.” Sam huffed. “Thanks for the reminder. I didn't want it.”

Shiro really, really wanted to ask what had happened to Flynn, but this didn't seem like the right time to press his luck with either of those two. “When do we leave?”

“When we have recon and a plan,” a smaller, female Program joined them, giving Shiro a harsh visual and ping scan. “Who's the new guy? His permissions come back as a mess.”

Shiro narrowed his eyes on her, giving her the same treatment. “So do yours, new girl. What's your deal?”

“How dare you!” She reached for her disc, but Tron caught her arm and held it in place by her ear.

“Stop.” Tron slowly let her go. “You're on the same side. Skala, this is Beck. Beck, this is Skala.”

“Beck?” Skala seemed to recognize his name. “You're supposed to be dead!”

Shiro shrugged, “Yeah, well, maybe I took a little more after Tron than anybody expected.”

“A little?” Sam asked, amused at the idea of it. “I'd say you out-did him on the dying bit.”

Shiro ignored him. “How do you know my name? Did Tron actually tell you about me?”

“No, I...” Skala blinked up at him a few times. “You saved me once. In Argon. I was out past curfew and about to be arrested, and you saved me. They told us who you were a couple cycles later, after...”

Tron knew why she looked to him to explain the rest. “The Renegade was publicly listed as Rinzler's first kill, as was his real identity. It worked to get Programs to fear again.”

“Deco is back,” Sam announced, breaking the unsettling moment between the other three. He approached the thin Program. “What have you got for us?”

…..............................................................................................

“Oh, what neat little tricks you have in here,” Clu hummed, contented as he rifled through Katie's disc. “I can copy some of it to my disc. Very useful.”

His fingers stilled and stiffened. Katie watched as his expression soured. Either he saw something he didn't like or... A haze of something started to appear around the lower part of his face, a gray distortion that started to solidify, then suddenly went away again. Lines began to appear in his skin, then faded just like that haze around his jawline. Clu shut off her disc and slapped it onto her back again. He stood and left for another room out of sight.

“Dyson, take over.” Clu's voice floated through the sunken hall back into the main area. “Send Cyrus to me as soon as he arrives.”

“Yes, Clu.” Dyson, the small, tougher than he looked guy bowed and waited for the sound of a closing door before straightening again and approaching Katie with a blank look. “Stand up, User.”

“Fuck you,” Katie ground out, only to get kicked in the ribs. She fell onto her side, unable to stop her fall or hold the injured spot with her hands still bound behind her back.

Dyson didn't understand the User's phrase, but he knew it was nothing good by her tone and expression. “When Clu has everything he wants from you, you will be turned over to my whims. You would do well to be a bit nicer to me. I could be a very good friend, if you'll let me.”

Katie sucked up the pain and prepared for another kick. “Sorry. Don't see a future in that.”

“Oh? And what future do you see?” Dyson knelt down in front of her, clearing her face of stray hairs gently.

Katie smiled, though she certainly wasn't happy. “It won't be long before our Dad finds out we're missing and where we are. When he does, he's bringing an army. My best friends are going to be part of that army. You don't know this, but we're actually an elete team of kick ass paladins. We defeated the galaxy's largest empire together. You and your crew are nothing compared to that. The future I see includes you in chains, if you live long enough to be put in them.”

Paladins, galaxies, kick ass, and empires meant nothing to Dyson. “So you say. You don't seem all that tough to me. If you're an example of being an elete in the User world, your friends had better stay home if they wish to live. I have fresh alphas stronger than you.”

Another figure walked in, this one with a myriad of lightlines not only on his clothes but on his skin, too. Katie would have expected another crimson lighted figure, but this guy was full of pure white lights. The smirk on his face was anything but friendly, though.

“They're coming.” The odd looking Program told Dyson. “It's confirmed. Sam Flynn is with them.”

Dyson stood back up to his full height, a bit shorter than the new guy. “Clu wants to see you. Make it fast. I get Tron.”

He bit out a harsh laugh, “That's not your call.”

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

The ride to the mountain hideout seemed both longer and shorter than Sam remembered. He'd been this way at least a dozen times since he first started coming back to The Grid. Coming here was a retreat to a last moment of understanding and clear purpose. He had his dad again, and he was going to drag the old man out kicking and screaming if he had to. It wasn't the greatest of reunions, but it was a start. Being in the old place made him feel closer to him, somehow.

It reminded him of Alan, too. They took time here together, checking out the books, playing chess, and going over the video logs and other data Flynn had left behind. It was enormous, would take decades to comb through. But, before Sam left Earth for Kerberos, he and Alan had made one last trip here to say goodbye for a while.

“Kevin found life inside a computer,” Alan smiled, then paused to cough for a moment. “Now, you get to go out into the cosmos and find the life there.”

Sam worried over Alan. The old man had a little blood on his hand from shielding his cough. “You're gonna be here when I bring it back, right?”

“I don't know, Sam. I really don't.” Alan answered honestly. “Roy thinks he knows a guy who knows a guy. I just... after your dad, and Lora...”

“Please, Alan,” Sam begged, grabbing his hand across the table, “try it Roy's way. I don't... If I come home and you're not here... I still need you. Not just for this and for Colleen, but for me. Matt and Katie, too. They need their grandpa.”

Sam never got confirmation one way or another after the war. Colleen said that Alan did go to South Dakota to stay with Roy and try the new medical stuff to stay alive. He was scheduled for a lung transplant, the last that she had heard. It was set for the same day Sendak invaded. When Colleen decided to stay with him on base, she lost contact with Alan and everyone else, too. The price for staying with her husband was to be just as cut off as he was. After Sendak's forces were destroyed, they never heard whether or not Roy and Alan had made it through.

Sam came back to the present as Tron called a halt to their progress. It didn't take long to figure out why. Looking ahead, at the patio on the ledge of what was once Flynn and Quorra's home, he could see several figures lined up, staring down at them.

“They knew we were coming.” Skala pointed out the obvious. “It's probably a trap.”

“Oh, it certainly is,” Tron agreed with her. “Sam, let Beck, Skala, and I handle this. You stay here.”

“Like hell.” Sam retorted. “I'm old, not disabled. You're going to need the advantage of a User in this, and those are my kids up there.”

“You see who else is up there?” Tron started listing them off. “Clu, Dyson, and Cyrus. You'll be killed.”

“Cyrus?” Sam asked it in the same moment Shiro moaned the name in loathing. Sam looked at Shiro, wondering what was going on there. “You know the guy?”

Shiro ignored Sam in favor of asking Tron, “As much as I hate the guy, what is he doing working for Clu? I thought he hated him as much as I did.”

“When I met him, Cyrus was one of Clu's soldiers,” Tron explained. “I figured he told you that.”

Skala was interested in answers there. “You two were friends with one of Clu's soldiers?”

“Not exactly,” Shiro grumbled.

“Beck used to be in love with one of them.” Tron threw out the information as a taunt.

Sam had no more patience for this. “Explain that later. They know we're here, and I'm not leaving without Matt and Katie. We need a game plan. Now.”

Chapter 4: Scuffle and Retreat

Notes:

Finally some more action!

“Hmm.... seems you were wrong,” Clu turned to Matt as the trio below slowly advanced to the tunnel that led to the garage below them. “Tron brought friends. Who's the new guy?”

Matt laughed, still pulling at the cuffs he was in. “You'll find out soon enough. Tron might not want to fight you, but he won't hesitate.”

“I recognized him.” Cyrus said, surprising everyone. “He looks like Beck.”

“The one that gave Tesler all those problems?” Dyson asked, amused.

“That's not possible.” Clu stated, shutting them down. “Beck, the Renegade, was Rinzler's first kill.”

“Oh, like you two killed Tron?” Cyrus jabbed.

Clu got in Cyrus' face. “You failed as well. None of us will be making that mistake this time. He'll be cubes at our feet before we leave here. Do I make myself clear?”

Katie didn't have any idea what they were talking about, but she saw an opening and took it. Clu was too confident around her. Because of her size, she had learned to fight dirty early on. He was standing close, forcused on the Program holding her, not his own crotch. Her foot connected solidly, but he didn't fall down like she expected.

That didn't matter, though. Only momentarily confused, she planted her foot in his thigh this time, pushing up off of him to bring the back of her head into Cyrus' face. Beside her, Matt pulled a similar move, stomping on Dyson's foot and twisting to bring his other leg around to kick the Program in the side.

Shiro had taught Katie how to fight with her arms tied behind her back, a scenario he figured might happen since she was the easiest to capture on Team Voltron. Matt had picked it up from spending time working with the rebelion soon after they broke him out of prison.

Katie brought up her other foot, leaning against Cyrus' chest to try and plant a kick into Clu's chest and throw Cyrus off balance at the same time. It didn't work. Clu caught her other leg and stepped back, pulling her with him as Cyrus yanked down hard on her wrists. The two of them had her on the floor before she could blink.

Matt didn't have any success either. Dyson blocked his spin kick and shoved him into the nearest wall, getting a leg between Matt's and leaning on him hard. Matt felt his face scrape against the rock wall, the sensation of his skin breaking apart like sandpaper, not like flesh. That was a new, painful, and distressing sensation. He should have only gotten a scrape and a bruise. That definitely wasn't what was happening as Dyson started sliding the left side of Matt's face against the wall a little.

“Do we really need this one alive, Clu?” Dyson asked.

“Unfortunately, yes.” Clu said. “He will have his uses to us. Don't damage him too badly.”

“And this one?” Cyrus asked, his foot on the cuffs on Katie's wrists to hold her down.

“No potentially serious damage to that one either.” Clu frowned at him. “We've been over this.”

Katie struggled a little, making a weak attempt to get free again. “What do you want with us?”

“Lock them up separately.” Clu ignored her. “Don't need them in the way for this.”

….............................................................................

The moment their heads appeared over the floor level of the common area of the safe house, Tron and Shiro were jumping the rest of the way, discs out and splitting off to their agreed upon targets. Sam waited for the lift to get all the way up. He wasn't young enough to waste energy on fancy moves anymore. Besides, his job was to talk, not fight.

Keeping to that plan wasn't really going to work out too well for him, though. Matt was pinned against a wall to his right. Katie was trapped on the floor to his left. Both were already hurt. Katie was bruised up, bleeding from a scratch to her forehead, and Matt's face was cracked, shedding little bits of glowing material like a Program would. Sam didn't give that more than a passing thought just yet. Those were questions for later.

Sam kept his eyes on Clu. In his periphrials, he saw Shiro reach out with his prosthetic hand and grab Dyson by the face, shoving him off Matt. Tron lunged straight for the man holding Katie down, missing, but stopping and turning on a dime to come back around with a disc attack.

“Hello, User.” Clu slowly approached him. “Long time. You've gotten old. Still think it's a wise idea to face me? Quorra and Flynn aren't here to save you this time.”

“I didn't come here to see you, Clu.” Sam stated, sounding far more confident than he felt at the moment. “I want to talk to my dad.”

“Daddy's not home,” Clu taunted.

“Then why haven't you already tried to kill me?” Sam countered. He could see Clu's hand twitching, trying to rise and grab his disc, but it seemed like a greater effort than he was capable of. “I know Dad's in there. He won't give up. He's stronger than you now. You're just a weak copy of what he was a long time ago. My dad is a real hero, not like you. You don't deserve to wear his face, Clu.”

Clu won the fight against the presence inside of him, grabbing his disc and bringing it down at Sam's head. Sam counted on that, grabbing the disc and wincing at the cut to his palm. Then, Clu's disc shut off, surprising him, but not Sam.

Flynn wasn't strong enough to do more than hold Clu back for short periods of time now, but he could do that much in the moment. Besides, there was another Program neither Clu nor Flynn recognized standing behind Sam, waiting for an opportunity to strike, but acting as more of a guard for the exit.

“Surprised?” Sam smiled at him. “I've learned a lot since the last time we fought, like how to manipulate discs that aren't mine for instance. Alan figured it out first.”

The truth was, Sam wasn't stopping it from being activated at all. What he did do was access the friend or foe lists in the combined discs Clu weilded and demanded a response. Both recognized him as a friend and stopped on their own. This was what Sam was hoping for the most, that Clu still had Quorra's disc. Even though the other one was Clu's, the two discs had to work together as long as they were combined. If one said friend and one said foe, friend won out. Clu would have to find other means to hurt Sam.

Clu's face flickered, the yellow of his lightlines receeding to white as his face rapidly aged. “Sam, I love you, man, but you have to end this. I can't hold him forever.”

“No can do, Dad.” Sam's chest hurt to see the far older man show up. “I'm still going to save you.”

“You can't-”

“Watch me!” Sam pulled on the disc they both held. “You're coming home. Now I know you're here, I can do it. I'll find a way. I promise.”

“Sam!” Tron grabbed him by the sleeve, tugging him towards the exit. “We have to go before those two make it back up the wall.”

“Save the kids,” Kevin insisted. “Get out of here and erase me.”

Shiro put an arm around Sams' chest, pulling hard. “We have to go, Sam.”

Sam kept his grip on the disc as he was pulled away backwards. “Dad, I love you! Don't give up! Don't quit on yourself! I'm going to bring you home!”

Flynn flickered away again, Clu coming back along with his grip on his disc, yanking it from Sam's hand with a smile. “If you bring him home, you're bringing me with him.”

…........................

Matt was surprised and relieved to see a hand fly by his face and smack straight into Dyson's. The moment Dyson's weight was off of him, Matt kicked backwards landing a hit in Dyson's stomach and helping to shove him over the ledge. The hand came back quickly, grabbing Matt by the wrist and startling him until he saw a familiar face walking up with a disc in hand to cut him free.

“Come on, Matt, we need to leave.” Shiro told him quickly, starting to guide him back inside.

The problem was, Clu was inside, having a “nice” chat with Sam, and Katie was-

“You really are one tough son of a bitch,” Tron commented, locking discs with Cyrus over Katie's head. “I'll give you that much. But to go back to Clu? Stupid.”

“Still fighting for the Users?” Cyrus asked, kicking Tron back a couple paces and stepping over Katie to advance on him. “Still perpetuating the enslavement of Programs? You're weak!”

Matt dove in behind Katie, cutting her cuffs off with his disc. Cyrus heard it and turned to grab Katie by the hair. Tron didn't hesitate to cut through his arm as Matt came around with a punch to Cyrus' face, knocking him back towards the edge. Katie slammed straight into him, pushing him over the edge and almost falling herself. Cyrus grabbed onto her with his remaining hand, trying to drag her down with him. Shiro grabbed his wrist and crushed it into little bits as both Matt and Tron held onto Katie, pulling her back onto the ledge.

“Hey, buddy,” Shiro made sure Cyrus saw him before snapping the rest of the way through his wrist and sending him to join Dyson.

Matt and Katie both saw the look of shock on the strange Program's face, shock and recognition. It seemed Cyrus wasn't actually sure it was Beck after all. Now he knew. “You?”

“Where's mister creepy?” Katie asked, getting her breath back under control, the fear of damn near plummiting to her death still keeping the adrenaline high.

Everyone turned around to see Clu and Sam inside, both of them holding a disc between them. Sam didn't have his at the ready. His hand was bleeding pretty bad, but he didn't show any signs of pain.

“We gotta go,” Shiro grabbed Matt and Katie both. “Come on, guys.”

“But, Dad-!” Katie protested.

“I've got him,” Tron told her, running straight at Sam to try and pull him away.

Shiro got Katie and Matt onto the lift with Skala, then went back for Sam. Tron wasn't making the older man budge an inch, so Shiro grabbed him around the chest and yanked hard. Shiro didn't understand it, but Tron had more experience with practiced Users. Sam had used his influence on the environment to root himself to the spot, make himself an immovable object.

Sam gave in when he heard Matt and Katie yelling at him, too. Tron and Shiro moved forward faster than they had anticipated, stumbling a couple steps as they pulled Sam backwards with them. Clu was gaining control over Flynn again. Dyson could still climb back up if he hit the little ledge part way down. Even with no hands, Cyrus was waiting farther below, still a potential problem. This was not and ideal evacuation.

Kevin must have put forth more energy, because they weren't followed into the garage. Tron grabbed whatever batons he could find, tossing a couple to Katie and Matt as they went for the exit. “We can't lead them back to the city, but we need familiar ground. Beck, take them home. I'll bring up the rear and watch your backs.”

Shiro didn't like the sound of that as much as he thought he would. “Alan One said it was destroyed.”

“It was.” Tron answered. “He rebuilt some of it, and they didn't get my place. I never gave up the location. It should be safe for now.”

“Uh, Cyrus knows where it is...”

“Then we grab his disc on the way out.” Tron said bluntly. “We can learn from that and have one less problem to deal with.”

“And derez what's left of him before we go?” Shiro asked pointedly. “Like you should have before?”

“Says the man who didn't want me to derez Dyson,” Tron huffed, walking away. “Of course we derez him this time. Let's move.”

Matt pointed down the tunnel, a very different direction than the one Tron was taking. “Isn't the exit that way? Don't we need to run?”

“Not yet, Matt,” Shiro told him, following Tron. “Tron and I have some unfinished business. Sam, take them and wait for us at the end of the tunnel. Skala, stay with them. Form up behind me when you see us coming. Don't let Clu or Dyson see you.”

Sam nodded, holding Katie up by his side. Her leg was swollen around her knee. It seemed to be taking all of her concetration to keep from screaming every time she tried to put weight on it. That wasn't good. She wasn't going to be able to ride a lightcycle or a jet.

“I'm coming with you,” Matt tried to follow Shiro, but Sam grabbed him by the shoulder, holding him back.

“No, you take your sister in this,” Sam pointed to a two seater car. “She can't ride on her own. You're hurt, too. The three of us will guard you two.”

“Dad, you can't-”

“I know more about this place than you do, Matt.” Sam cut him off. “I have way more experience than you do.”

“But your hand!”

“Quiznak,” Sam cursed, then moved to the closet Tron had grabbed the batons from. Inside, there was a kind of first aid kit that worked for Users. It hadn't been opened in decades, but everything was still inside. He pulled out a liquid that had a faint blue glow to it and poured it over his bleeding hand. “Help me wrap this, Matt. You and Katie both need to drink some of that stuff. It'll help you, too.”

Katie leaned against the wall, watching as her father's wound closed slightly and stopped bleeding. It wasn't healed by any means, but it was definitely a lot better than it had been. Once Sam was as good as he was going to get, he put some of the thick liquid on Matt's face, then handed him two small drinks, one for Katie and one for Matt.

“Listen carefully,” Sam told them as Matt downed the drink and handed the other to Katie, “I don't know where we're going, but Tron and Shiro called it home for a while. Whatever you do, stay on Shiro's ass. Don't slow down or stop until he says to. No hesitations. Do you hear me?”

“Already used to flying with him, Dad,” Katie said, annoyed.

“You're not the one driving, Katie.” Sam looked at her leg pointedly, seeing how tight her pant leg was to her knee. “We need to hurry.”

Skala weighed her options, feeling torn. “I should come with you, Tron.”

“Not this time,” Tron held up a hand to stop her from joining him and Shiro. “Those three are injured. You're the best protection they can have.”

….................

Shiro and Tron found a pile of cubes at the exit they used, a disc laying beside them. There weren't enough cubes for it to have been an entire Program. It was an obvious trap. They shared a look, wondering which one of them should spring it this time.

“Oh, so you did learn something since we met last.” Cyrus appeared behind them, hands already nearly returned.

Neither of them had the chance to wonder how Cyrus was able to do that, though. When Cyrus got their attention for a moment, a disc activated behind them. Dyson. Both opponents had survived the fall mostly intact. Both were healing on their own. They had Tron and Shiro trapped between them just inside the cave system as Cyrus picked up his disc, activating it.

“We've picked up some tricks of our own,” Dyson told them. “Turns out the ISOs were good for something.”

“Ada...” Tron realized what had happened too late. Her presence inside Culer must have given him the ability to fight against the repurposing. Quorra's piece inside Tron had given him the ability to eventually overcome Rinzler. For Cyrus and Dyson, it seemed to impart faster healing. “You incorporated Ada into yourselves without her permission!”

“We're going to take pieces of that ISO boy, too,” Dyson told him. “He seems interesting, different from the others. Do you think Clu knows?”

“I'm surprised you didn't already,” Tron pulled apart his discs, activating them both. “No matter. You won't be alive long enough to say anything this time, old friend.”

Shiro listened to the conversation, finding out there was more to learn about the past between Tron and Dyson than he already figured out. Tron had told him, after letting Dyson go when he was ready to murder him, that they had been friends, that Dyson was his right hand man who betrayed and tortured him for Clu's favor. He had told Shiro that Dyson never really liked ISOs and was wary of Tron's close friendship to one of them.

“Oh, but have you told Matt what he is?” Dyson asked. “Does he know about his brother yet?”

Shiro definitely wanted to know more about that, but this was taking too long. Clu could show up at any moment and really tip the scales in the oncoming fight. “Hey, are we going to chat about past times, or are we going to fight? I'd really like to get to the derezing part of this. Yours, specifically.”

Cyrus laughed, “Are you even capable of that?”

“I am now,” Shiro told him, breaking the stand off and taking a swing at him. Cyrus dodged Shiro's hand, but had to move fast to block his disc. “I've derezed a lot of people in the Users' world since we met last. They're harder to take down than Programs.”

“You still talk too much in a fight,” Cyrus countered, spinning around with a backfist at Shiro's face.

Behind Shiro, Tron and Dyson traded blows. Tron didn't even pay attention to Dyson's disc this time, abandoning all defense for a hard and fast offense. He paid for that by taking a few glancing blows from Dyson's disc, but he kept moving, knowing he could take the punishment already.

Dyson slowly realized what was happening as he was forced backwards. Tron was healing faster than he and Cyrus were. That shouldn't have been possible. “How are you doing this? I took her from you! I destroyed it!”

“She gave me another,” Tron smiled at him, blocking Dyson's corded disc with one of his own, slamming his second disc into Dyson's chest, burying it deep. “You won't be laying another hand on my son.”

A loud bang got their ears ringing as smoke filled the area. Tron yanked his disc out of Dyson's chest at a sharp angle, causing more damage on the way out than he had on the way in. He had to hope it was enough to end the other Program's life as he turned to grab Shiro off the ground. He'd have to find out where Cyrus was later. Nobody came rushing into the smoke as far as he could tell. They'd just have to take the blessing of the distraction and run with it, literally.

As soon as they were clear of the smoke, Tron and Shiro both pulled out their lightcycle batons and got moving back through the tunnel. Side by side, they came through the mountain to the tunnel's entrance. Sam, Katie, and Matt joined them quickly, followed up by Skala.

Chapter 5: Ccard's Resting Place

“Ugh, this place has definitely seen better days, too.” Katie commented as the group navigated through a former war zone and found a place to stop for a moment.

At one time, she bet it was beautiful. She could just imagine the domed upper floors of the buildings flowing down into the streets. Would they be solid color like pretty much everything else, or would they be many colors and patterns? Since first coming here, she had seen blocky buildings, all edged in white or blue, but the people had other color options. With the different architecture, maybe the color scheme was different, too.

“This was Arjia.” Skala came to a stop beside her.

When she stood, she did something to the handles of her cool looking motorcycle that made it disappear and turn into a kind of baton. Katie just barely saw it go from solid to a wire frame, to nothing, reminding her that this was not like anything else she'd ever experienced before. She really wanted to know how that worked!

“It was the capitol city of the ISOs.” Skala stated sadly, interrupting Katie's thoughts about the lightcycle. “It was beautiful.”

“What happened?” Katie asked, almost afraid of the answer.

“Genocide.” Sam answered, coming up to lean against the car as Matt got out to stretch his legs. “This was a city of a special kind of Programs. The kind Clu hated the most.”

“Dad,” Matt came around the car to hug Sam tight. “How did you find us? Where are we?”

“This isn't the time, son,” Sam hugged him back for a moment, careful not to touch his injuries, then turned to Skala. “Why are we coming this way? Portal's in the other direction.”

Skala frowned at him. “I guess Tron really was right about Users. Always in a hurry to leave.”

“Skala... damn it,” Sam cursed, scrubbing fingers through his hair roughly. Katie and Matt watched, curious about the sudden break in character from everything they knew about their father. “I don't expect you to understand. I wish you did, but Katie and Matt are both hurt. They're my children. I need to make sure they're alright.”

“Which is part of why we are going this way instead,” Skala pointed out. “To get them to the one place left that has a healing chamber calibrated for our kind. If you're all going to make it to the portal so you can leave and do something about this, they need to be in top operating condition, and they need to learn the basics of fighting in our world. You know we're not going to get a clear path this time. With the time limiter off on the portal, this is the best way. All other security monitors are spreading out to blanket Tron City and the surrounding area to keep it secure. They can't back us up the whole way.”

“I know that, Skala!” Sam yelled at her. He took a breath, getting himself back together. “Katie is not completely like you, though. She's like me, too. The healing chamber won't really work on her. We stay long enough for Matt, and then we leave. End of discussion.”

“So... you have healing pods?” Katie asked in the resulting quiet. “That's great! Why won't they work on me? The Altean ones did just fine without ever having a human in them before. Everybody here looks human to me.”

“Far from it.” Shiro joined them, Tron a few paces behind. “We can't talk here, though. They might expect us to come this way now that they've seen me. Tron, did they ever find your hide out?”

“Would I be bringing you this way if they had?” Tron retorted, annoyed. “You four stay here and rest for a moment. I need to do something on my own. Skala?”

“Fine,” Skala answered the unspoken questions with a curt nod. “But I get my visit on the way back through.”

“Thank you.” He gave her a small smile, one that came nowhere near touching his eyes, before turning to walk into one of the some-what intact buildings.

Shiro made to follow him anyway, but Skala got in his way. He wasn't really sure what to make of this Program. He knew now that she was supposedly Tron's latest apprentice and second in command, but she was barely bigger than Katie. Certain features in her dark skin and nearly black eyes pulled at something inside of him, like he should know her somehow, some way other than what she had described. He'd saved several Programs from The Games before The Uprising really took off and became a group effort. In that, she was nothing special.

He'd seen nothing to indicate her original function. When he tried to get a scan on her, it came back with lots of skillpacks and permissions, but none of them complete. That could just mean she was a very adept student to Tron, though. He did the same thing to her when she tried to get a scan on him. He never tried it on Cyrus, didn't think to this time, and didn't have the ability to before Able died. Scans like that were rude gestures anyway, things that only security could get away with socially if done in an official capacity. Shiro had only scanned Skala in the first place because he had just been reunited with Tron and then found out the little thing was his replacement.

That was Beck-brain talking, though. Shiro knew better than to underestimate a small figure. Most of that was thanks to Keith and Katie. He didn't admit it, but he was just as dumbfounded by their strength and tenacity as they were to find out there were aliens in the first place. Just because he took on leadership didn't mean he was done growing. It seemed he had backslid a bit since coming home.

She was an ISO, or partly ISO, he knew now. Just like Ccard, one of the very few hybrids between Basics and ISOs that were never officially recognized as existing. Only a very slim number of Programs even knew they existed in the first place. Flynn may not have even known; Shiro wasn't sure.

The one thing Shiro remembered about the one ISO he knew he had actually met was that their kind were like sponges. They could acquire skills in anything. Quorra had focused on combat and inteligence, but she had some skill with arts, and even figured out how to repair light body damage to vehicles after watching him tackle some work at the garage over the course of five millicycles. Shiro never scanned her, though.

Skala probably learned more from Tron in twenty millicycles than Shiro had in a full cycle. What she lacked in obvious strength, she surely made up for in smarts and maneuverability. Tron would make sure to teach her to use those to her advantage if she didn't figure it out on her own first.

So, right now, staring down at her, Shiro did not press his luck. If they were in the User world, it might have been a different story.

“Tron is the only Basic ever permitted into the memorial.” Skala told him gently once his expression softened with resignation. “This isn't for you. Please don't take offense. Your kind simply did not lose what we lost, what he lost. You suffered differently.”

“Alright.” Shiro backed off. He seriously needed to have some words with Tron about what had been said earlier. But, maybe he could get some answers out of Sam instead. That thought in mind, he beckoned Sam to follow him a little ways down the crumbling street. They stayed in sight of Skala so she wouldn't think he was still trying to sneak off to follow Tron.

“What's going on, Shiro?” Sam asked, confused as to why the other man wanted a word alone.

Shiro wasn't sure how to put this. “Something's wrong with Tron.”

“Tell me something I don't know.”

“No, he... he said something earlier. Dyson had hold of Matt, right?”

“Right.” Sam wasn't sure where this was going, but he would try to follow along.

“Tron told Dyson that he wouldn't lay another hand on his son. They were talking about someone else, too, a female Program, I think. He's kept me in the dark about things before, but this?”

Sam nodded, leaning against what had once been the support for a ceiling heavily. “Did Tron ever tell you about someone named Ccard?”

“Yeah.” Shiro remembered that one. It was one of the few times he'd seen Tron so determined. “He never showed me any memories of him, but I know what he was. You think he thinks Matt is Ccard somehow? Is he losing it?”

“He's not losing it.” Sam's jaw clenched hard. “He's almost right. Shiro... the kids don't know. Tron probably sees Ccard when he looks at Matt because Matt and Ccard are brothers.”

“I know that,” Shiro remembered how Sam had explained about Quorra and Colleen being the same person, kind of. “Half.”

“No.” Sam shook his head, staring down at the crumbled cubes of building at his feet. “Katie is the half sibling.”

Shiro's eyes went wide, shocked. “Matt's...?”

“Yeah.”

….................................................................

Tron made his way around and through two buildings that were still pretty much intact at a rapid pace once he got out of sight of the others. He could find his way to the memorial blindfolded now. There was something he had to know for sure.

The first time Tron had seen this place, he was fighting off shut down. The sea had shoved him out of its half-dead waters to the shore. He had seen Flynn. Flynn was gone. He had met Sam. Sam was gone. He had found Quorra. Quorra was gone. They all ran away from him, and with good reason. The one comfort he had was also something he was dreading. Clu was gone, too. The entire Grid would collapse soon, taking him and everyone and everything with it. So, he contemplated the uselessness of even trying to do anything about it at all, of continuing to survive.

You don't give up. Beck's words from the past flared up in his memory, spurring him to get off the beach and try to find shelter and energy in the remains of Arjia, the city he had been washed up next to. He found energy containers hidden away in what must have been someone's home at one point. It wasn't enough to get him back to full processing, but it was enough to clear his head a bit longer, long enough to find a more stabil shelter.

That's when he found the memorial. Well, it was partly a shrine, too. There was a raised platform, almost waist high, in the middle of the list of names carved into a wall and offerings left behind to those names. On that platform was the shattered cubes of a small Program, and that Program's disc lying in the center. When Tron broke the glass shielding to retrieve the disc, it was a move of desperation. He had lost both of his discs before pursuing the Users and ISO towards the portal. He needed a replacement soon, before he became a stray. The dead didn't need their discs anymore, so he would take this one.

Before taking ownership, though, Tron opened the memories section of the previous owner and watched them. The Program was short lived in the grand scheme of things, and Tron already knew a lot of his story.

This was Ccard's disc, Ccard's cubes. The moment he understood what he was looking at, Tron's knees hit the floor, the disc was shut off, and he cradled it close to his chest. That little Program meant so much to him before. He knew Ccard had died in the Purge, but this made it all too real, undeniable.

He was still holding the disc like that, trying to breathe through the unwanted reminder of everything he had lost, when he heard the approach of another Program. Even if he hadn't synced with the disc yet, Tron could still use it as his own in a fight.

A fight was exactly what he was going to get. The white-clad Program lunged for him, two fighting batons in hand. He was tired, aching physically and emotionally, but had been through worse. She was fast, but not fast enough, strong, but not strong enough. He didn't derez her. It was the third time in as many millicycles that he had stayed his hand from the killing blow.

A good thing he did, too, or else he never would have gained Skala as an ally.

Now, knowing Skala would keep the others from following him, Tron walked up to the same platform to see the same derezzed Program's cubes laying exactly has he had left them the last time he had been here. The glass structure around the platform was intact. Skala had fixed that after getting into a lengthy argument with Tron about whether or not he should be allowed to take Ccard's disc. Tron won the argument, not by challenging her to take it from him as he would have Beck or anyone else, but by showing her memories from Ccard's disc. Once she knew how much Tron had been in Ccard's life, how much Ccard had trusted him, she relented and fixed the glass.

But, if what was left of his son was still here, what did that mean for the Program everyone else was calling Matt?

Matt was taller than Ccard, a little broader, voice different, but otherwise looked exactly the same. If Ccard had been a User, Tron could have seen him growing up to become Matt the way Flynn's memories of Sam compared to the first time Tron met the younger Flynn. If Alan One hadn't saved Ccard the way he had slipped other Programs out of the system, where did Matt come from? Matt was clearly a Program through and through. He just-

Tron sensed the intruder before he heard them. Instinctively, he grabbed his disc and spun around to check behind himself. It was Sam. Relaxing, he put the disc away.

“How did you find me?” Tron asked, perplexed, also, by the fact that Sam had given Skala the slip.

Sam winked at him, crouching down to touch the floor. Footprints, Tron's, lit up in a pale white and faded away again when Sam stood back up. “You keep forgetting that I learned some tricks. What is this place?”

Tron turned back to the wall and platform. He knew he could turn his back on Sam now. “A way of remembering the ISOs who fought and died here. Your father generated his own resistance for a while, based here in the ruins. They made this.”

Sam stood with him in silence for a bit, biting back the questions he had about the shielded platform and bottled cubes situated here and there around it. He could guess what that was about, but wondered what posessed Programs to preserve the dead the way Users did. Then again, he knew they had grown sentemental about objects. Quorra had mentioned more than once how she missed a certain book until Sam had been able to find a copy of it for her. Then she said it still wasn't right since it was a paperback.

“Did you know any of them?” Sam broke the short silence softly.

“Several.” Tron answered just as quietly. He reached out and put a hand to the glass protecting the platform. “Did your father or Quorra ever mention Ccard?”

“Alan did,” Sam said, looking at Tron instead of the remains. “That's why I snuck in here. Matt said you called him Ccard. Shiro said you told someone they weren't going to hurt your son anymore.”

Tron let his hand drop slowly. “No, I guess he can't. Ccard's still here, safe.”

“You thought Matt was Ccard.” Sam declared evenly.

“I did.” Tron turned away from the memorial. “We should get back to the others and continue on.”

“Wait,” Sam grabbed his arm long enough to halt his progress, “I need to tell you something. It's about Matt... You're... not quite wrong about him.”

Chapter 6: Home Base

Shiro leaned on what Katie assumed was some sort of kitchen counter, toying with a glass in his hand. The liquid was almost clear, but had a soft blue glow and was a little more more viscus. His deep grey eyes stared into the drink intensely as he slowly tilted the glass this way and that, contemplating something deep by the looks of things. Knowing she couldn't hide her presence if she wanted to, she let her new limp cause a little sound as she moved closer to him and took a seat on a stool across from him.

When he still didn't look up from the glass, she spoke softly into the quiet of the room. “Hey. Dad and the others are all arguing about how to help Matt downstairs. I couldn't find a regular first aid kit anywhere.”

“There aren't any.” Shiro stated, finally taking a tentative sip from the glass.

Katie watched his eyes flutter closed as the sip became a full drink. “I guess that stuff must be good, huh?”

Shiro set the glass down easily, giving her a short lived smile. “Pure. Want some?”

“Sure.” Without waiting for her own glass, she grabbed his for a taste. It was warmer than she had expected, about the consistancy of a thin honey mead. The taste was hard to describe, maybe a bit like mineral water with a hint of lemon and mint. “Not bad. What do you think it is? Any snacks around?”

Shiro put a full glass down between them and re-filled his from the tap on the wall behind him. “It's energy. It's both drink and food here. Only a User can make solid consumables. You might be able to. With some practice.”

They sipped the glowing liquid silently for a bit. Shiro kept his head down, occasionally drawing out an invisible pattern on the counter as he continued to think about things. Katie kept her head on a swivel, taking in the bare surroundings that fit more in the early 2000s idea of modern décor. It reminded her of the styling of Olkarion's cities, blocky and utilitarian. Nothing was labled, and she couldn't figure out how anything was stored. It looked like there were some drawers, but they were flush to the wall. The only thing indicating that they were accessable was the lines of light outlining the edges. This was very different from everything else she'd had time to study so far.

The underground room where she and Matt had first entered was like this to a degree, but she hadn't really taken any time to study anything there. The shelving was open, filled with boxes that were all labled, making it look more like somebody's rather organized basement storage than anything else. Then, while she and Matt had been held captive by Clu, everything looked about normal besides the color of the fire and lack of pictures on the walls. In both places, there was some color around besides the lines of light defining things and people's clothes. Here, though, everything was a black so deep it was impossible to see without the lighted edges. Only a few hints of white here and there could be found. Nothing metalic, nothing of any other color besides the slight hue of green and blue coming from her and Shiro. It was fascinating in all it's boringness.

“So, um... you seem to know a lot about this place.” Katie prompted.

Shiro's head rose sharply, as if just realizing she was still there. “Huh? Oh. Yeah.”

“How did you find it?” Katie asked. “Did Dad bring you in himself, or did you do something stupid like Matt and I did?”

He didn't answer right away, clearly troubled by the questions.

“It's okay, Shiro. We're all human. You can admit to being a little clueless about the stuff Dad works on. I'm more shocked that you knew programs could be like this and didn't tell me and Matt. It's pretty awesome when you look past Mr. Creepy and his goons. Makes you wonder how many worlds there really are like it out there. I mean... we're inside a computer! Just think of what this could mean!”

“Pidge...” Shiro licked and bit at his bottom lip, more nervous than she expected as he leaned back against the wall behind him. “You... Aren't you at least a little concerned about finding out your brother is a Program? That your father has been hiding all of this from you?”

“Of course I am!” Katie snapped at him, then settled herself down again. “I just... I want to understand. Mr. Creepy said a lot of stuff that had my head spinning, but I don't think he was lying. This whole place is... what he said is the only possible explanation. Either we're really inside a computer somehow, or I'm having a really wicked dream right now, complete with sensations, smells, taste, the works.”

Shiro shook his head. “It's no dream. This is The Grid, a world inside a computer chip. This whole place used to take up almost half a room, now it fits in a space smaller than the palm of your hand. That part still gets me sometimes.”

“How something so small can hold something so massive?” Katie gestured to the window, indicating the mountains beyond.

“No,” Shiro looked outside for a couple seconds, then back at her. “How something so big that I've never seen the edge of it can fit onto something so small.”

She took a moment to think about his words. “I don't understand. You're saying basically the same thing I did.”

“I'm not...” Shiro took a deep breath, gripping the edge of the counter between them for support. “What I'm saying is the reverse. Pidge, this place, The Grid, it's all I knew before I met your grandpa. I was about 1300 cycles old when he saved me. Then, I lived in another system he carried with him for another 1200 cycles before I was altered to come out to the User world.”

Katie's lips parted as her jaw dropped open a little, eyes widening. She barely remembered to breathe. “Shiro, that's not... You can't be.”

“I'm a Program.” Shiro stated, voice deep with determination to force the words out. “My name is Beck. This is home. Home, home. That last city we passed through was Argon, where I worked as a mechanic before I met Tron. Well, before he kidnapped me.”

Katie wasn't sure why Shiro laughed at the last sentence. “Like he tried to kidnap me and Matt? And now we're here? With him?”

“No, he... he actually caught me.” Shiro smiled a little, remembering. “Would have been better for you if he had. Trust me, Tron's a lot friendlier than the alternative.”

“So I've learned.” Katie rubbed at her wrists, the phantom feeling of bindings biting into her skin coming back for a moment. “Shiro... I mean... This is...”

“I know.” Shiro relaxed a little. “When I first started having the flashbacks, I thought I was going a little crazy for a moment. Remember all the gifts you guys got from Allura? Mine was my memories, my real memories, all of them.”

She stared at him, hurt. “So you've known for a few years now? And you still didn't say anything?”

His head dropped again, remorseful. “Yeah. I was scared.”

“Of Clu?”

“Of you.” Shiro corrected. “That mark on your arm isn't just a cool tattoo like Lance's cheeks. It... it designates you as something I never fully understood. I still don't. Even Flynn didn't. I know it never bothered Sam or Tron, but Sam's a User and Tron's from a whole other system where variations were more common.”

Katie unconsciously rubbed at her left arm where the white mark glowing in her very skin was hidden under a long sleeve. “He called us ISOs. I don't even know what that means. Skala seems to know, but she won't tell me. She acts like Matt and I should already know. I mean... if we're really from here, too, does that mean Mom and Dad aren't our parents? Or, are they Programs, too?”

“They really are your parents, Pidge,” Shiro assured her. “Nothing about your life was faked. You just didn't know everything about their lives, who and what they used to be.”

“But... when we first met Clu, he had some kind of recording of Dad. From here. They were eating at the table in that house inside the mountain with a woman. He was a lot younger, but it was definitely Dad.”

Shiro grew uneasy again, “That was probably from Sam's first time in. Like I said, solid food structures require a User to make them here, so that was probably one of Flynn's memories. Clu must have copied it to his disc before Sam stole it back.”

“Well... actually,” Katie tapped the top of the counter nervously, “when we first met Mr. Creepy, he looked old and he was kind of nice. That's when we saw the recording, before he got younger and mean. I think... I think the old guy is either a trick or he's still in there. I mean, it's the epitome of a trojan horse, if you think about it. Hide a virus inside something that looks innocent or stuff it inside one that really is innocent.”

Shiro blinked at her for a moment, thinking. He didn't really get a chance, or even want, to look at Clu during the snatch and grab of Matt and Katie earlier. But, he still got a couple glimpses. When they first ran in, it was definitely Clu. On the way out, it was an old man with gray hair and a beard for just a split second. An idea started to form in his mind, and Katie could see it.

“What?” Katie asked as Shiro started for the door.

“I think I just figured out how to save your mom.” Shiro kept walking down the hall, towards the lift.

Katie scrambled to follow him, wincing with every step as the pain in her knee flared up again from the effort of catching up with the taller man. “What do you mean by that? What's wrong with Mom?”

….............................................................................

Matt was given a choice when they got to the mountain base. He could either use the re-built, extra re-enforced healing tank, or he could be put to sleep for some kind of operation only Sam could do. The second option included having his disc messed with. After the hours of Clu combing through it against his will, Matt wasn't really up for that, even if the next person would be his dad. The strangest thing about his choice of the healing tank was that Tron muttered something about “I win again” to Sam when Matt declaired his choice. Sam gave a hearty, over the top, eye-roll.

“You were taking bets about my choice?” Matt asked through gritted teeth as Skala made adjustments to some controls on a wall panel near the tank. “You don't even know me. You can't even get my name right.”

“Ignore it, Tron,” Sam spoke up before Tron could respond. “He gets like that when he's hurting.”

Skala added her two cents into it, “Just like someone else we know.”

“Enough,” Sam cut in again, once more keeping Tron quiet. “Matt, this is going to be a little strange. I need you to trust me. You're going to be awake for the whole thing, but you're going to be in a thicker fluid. It's going to get into your mouth, but you'll still be able to talk, have your eyes open, and everything. Remember, you don't actually have to breathe on The Grid except if you're overheating. Things don't work the same way here as they do back home. Not for you, anyway. Try to take it easy and relax.”

“Why don't I need to breathe?” Matt asked, worried.

“Because you don't have lungs anymore.” Sam's smile was a nervous one. “Think about it. Have you felt your heart beat once since you got here?”

Matt raised his uninjured arm, putting his hand to his chest to feel. Panic started to creep up as he moved his fingers to his neck, just under the jaw. “What the hell?”

“It's okay,” Sam put his hands on Matt's good shoulder and the lower portion of his injured arm. “When you go home, it'll all be normal again. I promise. Now, let's get you in-”

Matt quickly reached out to feel for Sam's pulse point, finding one. “Then how come you have one? And why did Pidge bleed, but I did this instead?”

“Your sister and I are a little different from everyone else here,” Sam explained. “We still bleed, and we still have to breathe. But, that's why you have this option and she doesn't. Katie and I can't be fixed the way you can. So, you're lucky.”

“Dad...” Matt's voice went thin, his throat tightening, “I'm scared. This is... this isn't right. I didn't even notice! How come I can still use my arm if my shoulder is like this? Shouldn't it be...? I mean, it hurts like hell, but...”

“We'll talk about it after you're better,” Sam patted his good shoulder. “Just focus on relaxing for now. I don't want to have to put you out if I don't need to. I will, though, if you want to change your mind and let me do it the other way.”

“No... No I don't want...” Matt shook his head, dropping his hands again. “That felt so wrong when Clu did that to me. I know he was worse to Pidge, but still...”

“Then take a breath and ease into the pod, Matt.” Sam directed.

“Didn't you just say I don't have to breathe here?” Matt asked, nervously trying for some humor.

“Just do it,” Sam smiled back.

Tron approached, leaving Skala to stand beside the control panels alone. “One question. Did any of them add anything to your disc?”

Matt had to think about that for a moment, trying to track back to every instance anyone other than himself had touched it. “Um... Clu, I mean Flynn, whatever his name is. He said he gave me some User permissions. I don't think there was anything else, but I didn't really check it out before, so...”

Tron looked back to Skala, “Scan for viruses. Full sweep. Matt, this will add some time, but it needs to be done.”

Matt eased back into the tank, pausing when his face was just barely still in the air instead of the strange, viscus liquid. So far, it felt cool, even a little numbing. It was comfortable, actually. Trusting that he wouldn't suffocate was a whole other issue. He hoped he was inside enough.

Tron thought not, though, putting a hand on his chest to finish pushing him inside. “Relax. You'll feel it, but it won't hurt. I know. I've spent a great deal of time in there.”

Matt could still hear Tron as if there were no liquid filling his ears. He expected it to be like being under water, but it wasn't anything like that, more like thicker air, the drop from a high altitude to a low one in the blink of an eye.

The healing process was already working before Matt was fully submerged. It was the strangest feeling, being numb and yet having the sensation of tiny portions of the gouge in his shoulder suddenly disappearing as it filled in. He turned his head a little, focusing on what he could see of the wound to distract from the fact that he was currently fully submerged inside a liquid that, by all means, should have been drowning him. He could actually see little square pieces filling in the hole, filling in the gap from the inside and working outwards. With each pixel-like chunk, he felt something like a little rubber band snap against the existing ones, but without the sting. It was both fascinating and mortefying.

Sam moved over to the control panels next to Skala, “Have something specific in mind that we need to be watching for?”

Tron backed away from the healing tank, joining Sam and Skala at the controls. “Clu and Dyson are both fond of introducing viruses. Dyson does it to disable. Clu does it to change properties. The effects are not always noticed early on.”

“You've seen it before?”

“Seen it?” Tron raised a brow at Sam. “I've experienced it first hand. We should do a scan on Katie as well.”

Chapter 7: Colleen

Phlat City

Colleen had gotten home early from work. She had the house to herself for a couple of hours and decided to capitalize on it with a long, hot soak in the bath. Katie pretty much spent all her time at the Galaxy Garrison or at Keith's place out in the desert, only coming home every two or three days to check in. Matt often split his time between home, the Garrison, and Shiro's apartment. Sam kept the same schedule as always, if he could help it, working the days at the Garrison and being home by seven for dinner and to spend the rest of the night and part of the following morning with Colleen. They were only all guaranteed to be together on Thursday evenings for family time. More often than not, that meant with Keith and Shiro, too.

Today was Thursday, and, in a few short hours, Colleen would have her house full again, full of the people that she loved and who loved each other just as much. For the moment, she needed that hot soak in the tub, though. Leaving work early wasn't entirely because she had everything done for the day. No, she had to leave early because a Frixili carniverous plant had decided to throw up on her. While the goo wasn't toxit to humans, it did leave a stain and a putred smell in her clothes, hair, and skin. It wouldn't go over well at dinner if she wasn't fully free of the goup by then.

Getting into the tub, she grabbed a citrucy bath bomb as a last minute thought and let it fizzle away in the water before leaning back to wash out her hair and scrub her face. She'd get the rest when she rinsed off with a shower. For now, it was time to relax and enjoy the moment of quiet. Closing her eyes, she let the sound of the birds outside lull her into peace. She could almost pretend she was back at home, thirty years ago. Her family, small as it started, would have get togethers on Thursdays then, too. If her mother was in town, her father always made sure to get ice cream sandwiches for dessert. Sam and Ed would roll in together with drinks for everyone, both carrying a mixture of sodas and beers. Uncle Roy would make a few bags of popcorn for himself, Colleen, and her father to share. Her mother, Sam, and Ed would graze at it, but they couldn't put down bags of the stuff like the others could and still have an apetite for dinner.

The popcorn tradition carried over into the next generation, too. Now, it was Colleen and Matt grabbing a bag a piece while everyone else just grazed from a communal bowl here and there. Ice cream sandwiches were still a favored dessert, but Colleen now knew that it was just as much for Sam as it was for her mother back then. He was always the first to complain when they ran out.

Colleen wished her parents and uncle were still around to share this with. They'd be proud of her kids. Thinking about them, Colleen slowly drifted to sleep without noticing.

Warm waters surrounded her, a push and pull of waves slowly edging her into the shallows. There was a shoreline ahead with many figures moving closer to the edge of the water. When her feet felt something solid below, she used it to toe her way closer to that shore, curious as to what they were. As she drew nearer, she could see that they were shaped like her, a body, standing on two of their four major limbs, and a head above that. Lines of white light decorated them and their white and black coverings in several patterns, but all with the basic idea of accentuating and defining their forms. There were other structures behind them, also white, towering high above, but those did not move or reach out to her as these other figures did.

As she approached the solid, dry land ahead, smiling faces reached out to help her get out of the water and join them. They bid her “welcome, sister. What do you call yourself?”

She did not have to think on that. She knew who she was from the moment she awakened deep in the waters. “I'm Quorra.”

“Welcome, Quorra,” a beautiful figure with a tall covering on her head greeted. “I am Ophelia, the first of our kind. We are all pleased to have you with us. The sea called very strongly to us all to signal your arrival. You are the beginning of a wonderful new generation.”

Though she did not understand what that meant at the time, she knew it held significance. The praise made her blush a little and look down. Never before had she encountered so many other beings at once. Raising her eyes, she kept looking farther up, wondering about this new world she was to learn. As she did, she spotted a figure high up on the side of a darkened mass looking down at the gathering alone.

“Do not fear, Quorra,” Ophelia assured. “Tron is not one of our kind. He stays back to respect our traditions. But, if you are ever in danger, seek him out. He is a friend to us. Come, let us show you your new home.”

A loud dinging noise startled Colleen awake. Her phone was ringing, but not playing a tune that indicated work, a family member, or a close friend that warranted a personalized ringtone. She shivered as she reached for her phone propped up on the back of the toilet. The water had gone cold.

Hands dried, she checked the phone. It was actually a text message, not a call. It had been so long since she had gotten a call or text from an unknown number that she'd fogotten what the notification sounded like. Curious, she opened the file.

Hey, Collie, it's me, Sam. I need you to do a test run on something in my secondary lab for me. It's time sensitive, and I can't get out of this meeting. Sorry. Can you just activate the medical scanner for me and let it do a once over on you? It's for an upgrade on image clarity. Thanks.

Colleen rolled her eyes, set the phone down, and unplugged the drain. It was five-thirty, almost time for her to start prepping for dinner. Maybe he thought she was still at the Garrison or had just left. She usually was out of the base by five-fifteen. If he was going to be late, there was no reason for her not to drive back over there and do as he asked. If she played her cards right, she could talk the kids into helping with the cooking anyway. It had been a while since any of them had pitched in, and she deserved a little break. Getting showered off and re-dressed, Colleen left a note on the kitchen counter for whomever got there first.

….............................................................................................................

Colleen froze when the room went significantly darker. At first, she figured she had done something wrong, or Sam's work caused a short somewhere that flipped a breaker. Caught between surprise and frustration, she took a step back out of the scanner. That's when she realized there was no scanner before her, but a desk and chair. Looking around, she noticed that it was actually a completely different room from the one she had entered to run Sam's little experiment. To her left were open shelves with boxes, to her right a door with someone standing in it.

Someone standing by a door.

She did a double take, blinking as the man waited. His clothes were strange, black with minimalist, white glowing streaks following the length of his arms and legs and curving at the hips and across his chest, breaking into circles near the hips and shoulders. Though it wasn't the season for it, he even had gloves and solid boots that sported similar, smaller glowing spots. She shook her head a little, trying to shake the image away. It was too similar to her dream while she was in the tub half an hour earlier, even if the pattern of light wasn't the same.

Thinking about it, Colleen realized that the walls of the room were made of the same kind of stone from the sea shore in her dream, too, almost like a black graphite. Now she knew what was happening. Whatever Sam was doing to that medical scanner, turning it on had knocked her out. She was dreaming again. This was another section of that strange world she was visiting more and more often when she went to sleep at night, the place where people called her Quorra or ISO, the place that could be peaceful or absolute terror depending on the context. She hoped this was one of the better dreams when she got to see her father or Sam's father laughing and not one of the ones when Sam's father was threatening to kill her or her father was actually in the process of attacking her.

Sometimes, Shiro or Sam would make appearances in these dreams, too, but they were always on her side if the dream turned ugly. Maybe, if this wasn't a happy moment, it could at least be like that. That would be nice.

When she woke up, she was going to kick Sam's ass for doing this to her no matter what kind of dream this turned out to be.

Setting that thought to the side for later, she turned to the waiting figure. “Hi.”

“Well, at least you're not freaking out.” He stepped into the dim ambient light of the rest of the room.

She knew him right away. Sam. Except, when she dreamed of him here, he was always younger, around when Katie was born or before. Right now, Sam was, well, Sam, all fifty-four years old, graying hair, beard, and glasses included. Something was wrong.

He paused, keeping the distance. “Okay, maybe I spoke too soon.”

“Is this a dream, or is this real?” Colleen demanded, tense and unmoving.

“If you can ask that question, I think the answer is pretty obvious.” Sam replied, cringing. “Surprise?”

She shook her head, taking a step back towards the shelves. “No! No, not surprise! This is not cool, Sam! This place shouldn't exist! I've only dreamed... How?”

///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Shiro watched as Tron paced his office at the security tower in Tron City, rapidly making it from one side to another, head bent down, hands clasped behind his back. Skala wasn't much better, once Shiro actually paid attention. She was busy organizing, and re-organizing data cards and decorations on Tron's desk. Her hands shook a little as the elevator indicator lit up for the top floor where they all were waiting on Sam, Matt, and Katie to bring Colleen. The tiny chiming of the elevator's arival had Tron right in the center of the room, snapping to attention. Skala did much the same at the desk.

Wondering what could possibly have them on edge this bad, Shiro moved to the doors so that he could be seen before either of them. He figured another familiar face might help Colleen feel a little more at ease. She certainly had to be pissed with Sam. Shiro knew Sam wasn't exactly Katie or Matt's favorite person at the moment. But, they had went with Sam to make sure their mother felt a little less intimidated by the full squad of security units Tron had sent with them as escort.

As the doors opened, Shiro's assumption about Colleen's mood was proven true. Matt and Katie looked miserable. Sam had a bit of a red spot on his cheek, kind of the shape of a hand if Shiro really looked. Colleen was fuming mad. He suddenly wished he wasn't the first one she would see upon entering the office.

“You're in on this, too?” Colleen pointed at Shiro angerly. “Is Keith hiding around here somewhere? Iverson? Who else knows? Who's hiding behind you, Shiro?”

“Uh,” Shiro moved to the side, “This is Tron and Skala.”

Colleen froze, honey eyes meeting Tron's blue. Tron, for his part, kept still and quiet, too. Sensing an issue, Skala stepped around the desk and quickly offered a hand to Colleen. Colleen didn't even look at her, continuing to gaze over her head at Tron.

Her eyes flitted over his form multiple times before meeting his again. “White, so... I guess you're friendly this time.”

“No,” Skala disagreed, glancing back at Tron, “he's agreeable at best. I've never actually seen him be really friendly.”

Shiro snorted, covering his mouth and trying not to let the laugh slip. His eyes watered with the effort as he shared a look with Sam who seemed to be pressing his lips tightly together under the same threat of reacting to an inside joke only they understood.

Tron muttered, “I should fire you for that.”

“Like you'll ever find a replacement,” Skala rolled her eyes.

He broke eye contact with Colleen to look down at Skala. “There are three candidates in the room. One of them already passed the tests. Don't tempt me.”

Colleen fought back a little smile of her own at Tron's response. In that moment, she knew he wasn't seriously threatening the small woman. There wasn't enough bite in his tone, not enough frown in his eyes. He was just like her father in that moment, like the good dreams she had of him instead of the terror filled ones. Skala huffed, going back to the desk without looking back. When she passed behind him, Tron shifted his eyes to Colleen again, a little smirk tugging at the right corner of his mouth.

Hesitantly, Colleen offered her hand to him. “I know we haven't met before, but...”

“I understand,” Tron's smile grew a little more as he took her hand in a firm, but not hard grasp. “Sam has explained that you have been dreaming about The Grid for some time now. Your daughter may have found a solution to the intrusive memories you are experiencing. If you will extend a bit of trust to us, your life can be normal again. Your cooperation will ensure an old friend of mine will rest easier as well.”

“I just...” Colleen took her hand back. “I didn't know it was real. Why do I remember this place? This room? Why do you look like my dad?”

“Honey, come sit down,” Sam advised, trying to lead her to a long couch.

She resisted for a moment, but gave in when she saw Matt and Katie take chairs near it. Though firm, the seating was actually supportive and comfortable once she relented and eased onto the couch. Sam sat on one side of her, Shiro on the other. Skala perched on the edge of the table nearest Matt, leaving Tron to continue standing.

Sam started speaking again. “Do you remember much about my dad?”

“Sam, we agreed...” Colleen glanced at her children, worried. When they moved to Nevada, they agreed that they couldn't ever talk about Kevin Flynn where others might hear.

“They know.” Sam squeezed her hand. “I need to know what you remember. It might help explain the situation.”

“Okay,” Colleen took a deep breath, thinking hard. “He was nice to me. He used to take us to the park. Dad always got into arguments with him about responsibilities at work. Um... I know he and Mom used to date before she and Dad got together.”

“Do you remember the stories he used to tell us?” Sam pressed for a more relivant memory. “The stories about Tron, Clu, Shaddox, Able, Ophelia...?”

“Ophelia was special somehow,” Colleen blurted out, thinking about her last dream. “I don't understand how. Um... he called Dad Tron. Mom was Yori. Uncle Roy was Ram. Just names from the game. That's about all I know. Are you telling me it was real?”

“I am.” Sam gave her hand another squeeze. “And there's a lot more you don't know. Stuff I didn't know either. Do you remember him talking about a miracle? Spontaneous evolution from within a computer?”

“I think so. It was in that book. I think that's where I remember it from.”

Sam's eyebrows rose a bit, hoping she would accept what he said next. “You're a part of that miracle, Collie. You're... I'm sorry, but there's no other way to say this. You're from here.”

“What? Sam, that's not right! This isn't funny anymore. I want to wake up now.” Colleen withdrew from him again.

Sam's hope died a little. He pressed on anyway, knowing this had to get over sooner or later. The sooner it happened, the sooner he could do what needed to be done. “Colleen Opal Bradley Dillinger died days before the Chinese bombed the west coast in the community hospital. Before she died, she, Alan, and Quorra worked out a way to disguise Quorra so that she wouldn't be recognized by the enemy soldiers if we were captured. They did it by creating a program with Colleen's memories and physicality to place around Quorra. You are that overlay, Collie.”

“No!” Colleed pulled away more, her back hitting the arm rest. She stood up and backed away from the whole group. “No, that's absurd! Sam, you and I were together before the war. Ed... you beat the crap out of him for cheating on me and took me home, and I never looked back! Stop playing with me. This isn't funny!”

Shiro stood up, the only one of them brave enough to try to get close to her in the moment. “Colleen, some of the memories were altered. Your dad did it to me, too, so I could blend in better. I know it's hard to understand why sometimes-”

“What do you mean he did it to you, too?” Colleen's eyes narrowed on Shiro. “You can't just alter a person's memories at the press of a few buttons.”

“You can if that person is a Program.” Shiro said softly. “Can I please show you a memory? A real one?”

She looked around the room at the other faces, seeking support and finding none. “How?”

“Watch.” Shiro reached behind his back and unlatched the open disc object there.

It looked like the ones on everyone else's backs. Then again, when she did look a second time, she saw that most of them were actually white. Only she, Sam, and Shiro had black ones. All the people who rode with them to the tower were wearing black ones. What the significance was, she didn't think to ask. It didn't matter now. Shiro had done something to his to bring up a holographic video above it.

There, she saw a vision of her father. She knew it was her father and not the man calling himself Tron here because there was gray in his hair, lines starting in his face, and he wore glasses. He held another black disc, apparently making edits to it with just his fingers in a stream of holographic code flowing upwards from the disc the way this image was from Shiro's. When he finished, he asked a blue haired girl if she was really ready to do “this.” The young woman said yes firmly, turning her back to him. With a sigh, Colleen's father placed the disc onto the dock on her back and changes flashed into place. She was no longer a young woman with hair that matched her eyes, but a pre-teen girl with shiny black hair and dulled eyes. She looked as confused about her surroundings as one could be. Colleen's father put a hand on her shoulder and assured her they would be going soon.

Shiro skipped to another memory. Colleen watched as the girl and two others paced ahead of the viewer, all following her father out of some kind of hospital where Sam was waiting for them by a van. Her father said that these were the four most promising kids the orphanage had to offer for the Galaxy Garrison and named them off. Paige Sanders, Mara Valdez, Zack Davis, and Takashi Shirogane.

Shiro changed the memory once more. This time, it looked like it belonged here, on The Grid. It looked like some kind of bar or club where the viewer sat across from the young woman from before and a guy who looked a lot like the boy, Zack. Except, Mara called Zack “Zed.” There was someone else sitting beside the viewer, another young man named Bodhi. Then, he switched it again, to a moment in what looked like a billiard hall. The viewer was having a conversation with the one called Paige. Paige was smiling and laughing, then grew serious. It looked like she might kiss the viewer just before someone else barged in and ordered her arrest.

The hell of it all was that Colleen recognized the people Shiro was showing her. Paige was a med-evac tech and pilot these days. Zack and Mara were mechanics and engineers that worked with Katie and Matt in the experimental hangar. Zack even helped streamline some of the ideas Matt or Katie came up with but got stuck on.

“This might help,” Tron offered, holding his own disc before Colleen and pulling up a memory of his own.

Colleen jumped back a little. She hadn't even noticed Tron approaching. Forcing her nerves to settle, she watched the video Tron offered. It was of Shiro, but with black hair, both arms, and no scar, just like he was before he left for Kerberos if slightly leaner instead of the bulk he now sported. The viewer seemed to be in some sort of sparring match with Shiro, pushing him to his limits and giving encouragement as well as criticism. She recognized Shiro's unique movements in it, having watched him and Matt spar in the back yard when they were younger and later on in real combat when they took on Sendak. Just like now, he did not know how to handle complements. The viewer, Tron, she now understood, commented that “Beck” always saw the good in people, their potential to be something greater, that he was able to inspire them to grow. That was definitely true of Shiro, Colleen knew.

She still didn't accept this. “Anyone can make a CGI vid.”

“Okay, fine!” Sam stood up, somehow holding a pocket knife.

Colleen had no idea where he was hiding that on a pocketless one piece suit. She got a glance at it before he pressed the tip into the back of his arm. It looked like the walls in that first room, the ground in her dream. He cut just deep enough to produce a tiny drop of blood.

“Sam, what are you doing?” Colleen grabbed his hand to stop him, but he was already done.

“Look!” Sam held up his arm, showing the red drop. “It's just a prick, Collie, calm down. You've seen me get way worse. Now, you try it. One little poke. You'll get it.”

She looked at him, wondering if he'd just lost his mind. This was rediculous.

Shiro grabbed the knife from Sam. “I'll do it. Jeeze. Watch.”

“No, what the hell are you-?” Colleen couldn't grab the knife fast enough to stop Shiro.

When he didn't bleed, she thought he stopped before actually breaking the skin. Except, instead of bleeding, hair thin cracks spiderwebbed a fraction of an inch outward from the prick point. Two seconds later, the spiderweb began to disappear from the outside in to the center.

“User,” Sam pointed at himself, then hiked a thumb at Shiro, “Program. You want to find out? Try it on yourself. You'll heal as long as it's minor.”

Colleen scoffed, jerking the knife out of Shiro's hand. “This is stupid.”

She pricked herself anyway, finding only the black spiderweb with blue glow underneath, just like what had happened with Shiro. She dropped the knife to the hard floor, not even aware of the dull clatter as it landed.

Series this work belongs to:

• Part 9 of Broken People