AN: Whoop whoop and we're back. Warning, this chapter is from Rinzler's POV, and he's kind of having a terrible life, so… there's more rape. And torture. And brainwashing. Somebody save my son. From me.

Enjoy!

Rinzler knew of the existence of a resistance. A small band of misled, corrupted programs, siding with the User over Clu. He didn't understand why they chose that. Clu was the path to perfection. Why would they choose to be imperfect?

Rather than choose to be slaves-

ERROR

It didn't matter. They opposed the Luminary. Therefore Rinzler's ongoing task was to destroy them.

Cold. Simple. Brutal.

He was good at that.

Clu wanted them to know about Rinzler. Wanted them to be afraid of him.

His existence was purposefully revealed to a traitor in the city, setting it up so the traitor would see Rinzler in combat and go running to the resistance and the false creator about it.

He didn't mind. Rinzler liked it when they were afraid of him.

Once Rinzler's existence, rank, and ability became public knowledge, rumours started circulating about him. He kept an eye on them, just in case, and found he had mixed feelings on them.

Some people thought that he was a secret copy of Clu. Flattering, but no.

Some people thought that he was actually a User. Insulting, and no.

Some people thought that he had been the one to derezz Tron.

That rumour was Clu's favourite, considering the way he had burst out laughing when he first heard it. And sure, spending more than a picocycle of thought on the name Tron caused a stack of error messages to begin blaring in his mind, but that rumour was his favourite. It made Clu happy. When Clu was in a good mood, Clu didn't want to hurt Rinzler just for the fun of it.

Rinzler liked Clu in a good mood.

There is a woman attacking him.

She doesn't explain her motives, and Rinzler doesn't need her to. He's been having a long micro-hex, and extended tracking missions have kept him from the arena. It's been too long since he's had a good fight.

Derezzing her will help.

She's good, but she's not Rinzler. Like all the others, her movements are predictable, even if there's something oddly familiar about her. She's defeated easily, her disk sent flying off somewhere else, and she is knocked to the ground, breathing heavily.

Rinzler raises a disk to derezz her, and-

And for the first time she manages to surprise him, screaming in fury and launching herself at Rinzler, sending both of them down onto the ground as she smashes her fist against Rinzlers helmet, uncaring of the damage she is causing her own hands.

He is struggling to get her off from the awkward position, when his helmet smashes, glass fracturing away, revealing his eye, and then his entire face as the broken helmet derezzes automatically.

She freezes.

"Tron? What-"

The program doesn't get the chance to finish the sentence, before Rinzler's disc smashes into her face, derezzing her instantly.

Yori.

Oh Users no not Yori

Something is wrong. Rinzlers ears are ringing.

nonononoNONONOYORINOTYORI

Something is wrong.

WHAT HAVE YOU DONE YORI NO USERS NO YORI

He needs… he needs…

YORI

He needs Clu.

Staggering, Rinzler leaves.

His protocols state that he is never to be seen without a helmet by anyone except Clu. He sticks to unused routes back to the Throneship, ensuring he isn't seen. His helmet hasn't rezzed back yet, and he doesn't have the stability to do it manually. His mind is a screaming mess, and all he can think of is Clu, get back to Clu. Even his fragmented errors are calling for him to return, albeit with rage instead of desperate need.

He makes it back to his Luminary's quarters unseen, and sends a message to inform Clu of that. Unsurprisingly, Clu is there quickly, clearly concerned over the amount of distress that had been embedded in it.

HE DOESN'T CARE ABOUT YOU HE'S WORRIED HE'LL LOSE HIS SLAVE

"Where's your helmet?" Is the first thing he asks.

"a-a-attTTTacked. GooOOONE." Rinzler drags out, his vocal glitching worse than usual. Clu frowns.

"Disk."

Rinzler grabs his disks, ready to present it, when-

HISFAULTTRAITORLIARMONSTERTORTURERRAPISTDIDTHISTOME

KILLHIMKILLHIMKILLHIMKILLHIM

And the glitch overwhelms him.

The last thing Rinzler knows is him - not him - lunging at Clu, disks ignited and aimed to kill.

Tron wakes up in a cell, bound and restrained. His last memory is trying his best to murder the Users damned monster that had caused Yori's death, and then Clu getting his hand on Tron's empty disk port, forcing a hard shutdown.

Fuck.

He screams in frustration, broken vocal coding grinding painfully as he does so, and gives a token struggle against the restraints. Nothing changes, as always.

It's not the first time Tron's fought his way to the surface, and so far it's always ended with him bound in a cell, and Clu tearing him and his code apart until Rinzler takes over again, and then burying the memories for good measure.

Clu enters the cell, and Tron growls in fury, well aware that he probably seems half feral. Which is, again, Clu's fault, considering he was the one that mutilated Tron's throat. With the effort that talking is now, he reserves it for when it's needed.

Words are not needed to express his loathing for Clu.

"Still moody, Tron? I had a look at your memories while you were out. It's a shame about Yori."

Tron snarls, and lunges forwards. If the restraints hadn't been there, he would have torn Clu's head right off. As it is, his movement is quickly aborted, drawing a raised eyebrow from the admin, as he begins walking in a slow circle around Tron. He can't turn his head to watch.

"Oh, don't be like that. Personally, I would call you better off. After all, she didn't seem too fond of you anymore. But don't worry. I'm not going anywhere."

At the ending of the sentence, Clu wraps his arms around Tron from behind, in a mockery of affection. Tron decides words are needed.

"D-d-dooOOn't… wa-a-a-ant… yooou." He spits out, doing his best to twist away from Clu's embrace.

"That's not what you said a few microcycles ago." Clu says, voice low and mocking in Tron's ear.

Tron flushes at the reminder. While Tron had been raped during his initial imprisonment and recoding, it had been a nasty surprise to discover that he was still somewhat aware while Rinzler was in control – and painfully aware of Clu taking gleeful advantage of his enforcer's hardwired obedience.

"N-NooOt me-e-e."

It's hard to get tone across with his vocal glitching, but Tron's an expert at making sure somebody knows exactly how much he hates them. It's a gift.

Clu backs off slightly, and runs a hand along Tron's disks, the touch unwanted and possessive.

"We can fix that."

Unlike the previous times Tron's been recoded, he now has the grief and fury over Yori to help him fight it.

He holds out longer, but it isn't enough.

Rinzler does not remember his last mission.

Clu tells him it had to be deleted from his memory. Clu tells him he had a severe glitch, and spent the last cycle being repaired by him.

Rinzler is fixed now.

Rinzler is grateful.

Rinzler returns to normal duties.

He feels better.

His thought process tends to be mechanical after he's repaired, but it reboots back to its usual capacity after a while. Which is good, because with his vocal subroutines damaged the way they are, it's honestly not worth it to speak unless he absolutely has to. So contrary to popular belief, there's actually plenty of things happening in his head at a given moment. None of it ever makes it into words, that's all.

Which is for the best, because some of his thoughts are ones he shouldn't necessarily have.

Primary example being his current circumstances.

Because Clu is touching Rinzler, derezzing his helmet and suit, taking him to his bed, and Rinzler knows that interfacing with his Luminary should be a treasured, honoured moment.

All he can really think about is the fact that he strained his leg something awful after being surprised by a rain-wet landing surface earlier that microcycle, and he's had insufficient rest periods all micro-hex, and all he wants to do is put a heating pad on his leg and go have a good, long shut down. Preferably for the next ten cycles. Luminary or not, Rinzler does not want to be interfacing, or even interacting with anybody right now.

But Clu wants to interface with Rinzler right now and 'no' is not a word Clu tolerates Rinzler using. So he lets himself be pushed onto the bed, lets himself be held down, lets Clu push roughly inside of him, lets the Luminary use his Enforcer like a poorly made 'entertainment' program. Wraps his arms around Clu once his arms are free. Cleans him off when he finishes.

And, because any form of no is unacceptable, Rinzler makes sure that his expression and his eyes read nothing but devotion and adoration the entire time. His mask isn't hiding his expression now. Covert eye-rolls will be detected and met with extreme violence right now.

Afterwards, Clu gets around to what Rinzler was initially called to his chambers to discuss, his inputs on the movement of the armies. It's routine. Rinzler has better things to do, and the earlier events have made his pre-shut down routine longer, as cleaning himself will be necessary. Unless he wants to sleep with Clu's release still inside of him, which has happened a few times, and is disgusting.

When they finish discussing strategy, Clu returns to the bed for another round, thankfully gentler this time. Afterwards, Rinzler is allowed to go.

Finally. There's a heating pad and a glass of energy in his room, and they're just what he needs right now.

Clu has informants in the rebels, of course. They're far too trusting for their own good, and it isn't exactly hard to slip a recitified program in their ranks, even if the program in question needs more elegant edits than a normal drone. It makes perfect tactical sense, even if some deep, buried part of Rinzler recoils in revulsion at the idea. Probably another glitch.

But regardless of Rinzler's personal feelings on the matter, this means that when the rebels get a hold of plans for the armies movements for the next hex, Clu is immediately informed.

He's not happy.

Neither is Rinzler.

It's for different reasons.

Clu is pissed. Furious, even. He yells at Jarvis, tears half of the Generals a new one, and when all of that is over, turns his attention on Rinzler.

The Luminary spends half a microcycle working out his frustrations on Rinzler. It's miserable, as always, but Rinzler has other things on his processor. Sure, the pain is distracting, but half a microcycle is a long time to spend in Clu's bed, and Rinzler is well practiced at letting his thoughts wander away from it all, responding automatically to the occasional orders Clu deigns to give.

Clu doesn't care how the rebels got the information, just that they got it. But Rinzler knows exactly when Clu and him worked out the information. Knows that whoever had overheard it would have also heard Rinzler and Clu interfacing.

Rinzler doesn't know why, but the thought of someone knowing that – seeing that – fills him with horror and revulsion. He doesn't have much, but he has his pride. …Occasionally. He occasionally has his pride.

Clu's degradations are one thing, but witnesses of them…

The knowledge of it is almost as torturous as what Clu is doing to him.

Finally, finally, Clu pulls out of him for the last time, and rezzes his suit back on. He has the generosity to walk away to the window, and stare pensively down at the city, as he likes to do, allowing Rinzler to lay on the bed and attempt to pull himself back together. He's given a few microcycles, before Clu remembers his enforcers is still on the bed, exhausted, injured, and thoroughly debauched.

"Get back to work." Clu snaps, not bothering to turn around.

Rinzler rezzes his suit and helmet back on, and leaves as quickly as he can without running away. It's at a bit of a limp though.

He visits Clu's personal medic, a stoic man who never questions Rinzler's many mysteriously acquired injuries. After he's repaired, he replenishes his energy, and gets to work.

Fortunately, Clu never specified what exactly he should be working on, just that whatever tasks he has on stand by in his list, he should go and do. That usually just means that Clu doesn't want to see him for a while.

And Rinzler has work to do.

It's going to be a long process, tracking the infiltrator. Probably enough to keep Rinzler busy and out of Clu's sight for the micro-hex.

He gets to work.

When he finally tracks down the infiltrator's signal, they're riding through the outlands on their lightcycle. Rinzler does the natural thing, and tackles them straight off of it.

As they roll, he hears the infiltrators lightcycle derezz somewhere, but he doesn't really care about that, busy ensuring that he ends the roll on top of the smaller program, pinning him down with a disk at his throat.

The program glares for a moment, before he realizes exactly who is attacking him. He freezes, eyes going wide, and seems to attempt to shrink back into the ground. It's a satisfying reaction.

"You're Rinzler, right? Nice to meet you, can you let me up?" The program says, voice only shaking slightly. It's an admirable effort to hide his obvious fear. Shame it doesn't work.

Rinzler tilts his head.

"Y-y-you sssAAw." He forces out, for once pleased about his vocal glitch, as the program is clearly intimidated.

"Saw what?" He tries, voice squeaking slightly. Rinzler isn't in the mood for playing around.

"M-m-mE. Cl-C-Clu. Yyou ha-ad the informa-mation. Thhaaat he-e sAid. A-aftER i-i-i-i-iinterface."

The glitching is worse from Rinzler's stress, but that's alright. The program goes pale, and his eyes dart around the area, as if there's any possible way he could escape.

There's not.

Even if something about him is... weirdly familiar.

Not the point. Rinzler is going to interrogate the program. He's going to find out who else knows what he saw. And then he'll derezz him. No matter much the thought repels him.

"If Clu already knows that I saw, why don't you just follow your orders and derezz me?" The program snaps, mustering a glare.

Rinzler locks up for a moment, some deep, instinctive level of his code screaming in horror at the thought of killing the program.

He re-calculates his plan.

"N-not o-ordERS. Ju-ust me."

The program stares, blinking slightly in surprise.

"Wait. So. Clu knows the information got out. He doesn't know that I did it, but you know. And you… didn't tell him. But just hunted me down on your own to interrogate me. Not over the classified information I got… but over what I saw in the process." He says, eyeing Rinzler carefully.

Rinzler gives a single nod.

"I didn't tell anyone about it. What you were doing. Just because you're the enemy doesn't mean it's my business who you choose to interface with." The program continues, voice slightly soft. There's a trace of pity in it. …No. Compassion.

Rinzler's skin crawls from it. Kindness feels wrong. Foreign. Unfamiliar.

"…So, if I'm not getting derezzed… can I go now?"

He hesitates, unwilling to let the smaller man leave for some reason.

"I…. kn-know yoU…" Rinzler says, trailing off in some hope that the other program will elaborate.

"Ram. My name is Ram."

Ram. The name sounds right. Familiar. Safe. Friendly.

Rinzler nods again, and gets up. Clu doesn't know that this program leaked the information. Rinzler doesn't need to derezz him. He was here for personal reasons the whole time anyways. He can afford a rare show of mercy.

He gets off of Ram, and puts his disk back with its twin. He takes one last look at Ram, before pulling out his lightcycle and leaving. Ram fades out of sight behind him.

Rinzler pauses before returning to the city, and re-sorts his memories, pushing the encounter to the back of his files. Clu won't be able to see Rinzler's memories of the encounter unless he does a full examination, and as long as Rinzler stays on top of the glitches, that isn't going to happen.

He just needs to keep it together. That's all.

He starts following Ram around.

He's not sure why. Something about the other program makes him want to stick around. Rinzler doesn't bother being stealthy, but keeps his distance. Ram notices him about half of the time, and is brave enough to openly acknowledge Rinzler when he does. Not brave enough to approach though, which is smart. No matter what Rinzler might want to the contrary.

And then Ram does approach.

Rinzler sees him coming, obviously. The program isn't even trying to be stealthy, with the way he waves, and openly broadcasts his climb up the tower. Out of sheer curiosity, Rinzler stays, letting him approach.

He's not sure what to say when Ram reaches the top, so he just watches silently.

"Hello. Noticed you following me lately. Is this Clu, or just you?" Ram says, voice oddly cheerful, given the subject matter.

"…J-juUst me. Ra-am."

As soon as he's done saying it, Rinzler is well aware that it's a fucking awkward sentence, but it's not worth it to correct himself. Ram seems to get the point, the point being that Rinzler remembers him and isn't actively hostile right now.

"Alright then. Can I ask why? I mean, not that the company isn't nice, but it was a little terrifying at first."

Rinzler's opinion of Ram goes up slightly. It's good that he knows enough to be frightened when Clu's enforcer starts following him around.

"D-don't know. F-f-fe-eelt li-iike I shOUld?"

Ram nods a bit, either in understanding or agreement. Rinzler can't tell which.

"Hey, that's okay. Just for the record, when I wave, that means that I don't mind if you come over to talk with me. Just sayin'. You seem like a busy program, and with those vocal glitches I'm guessing you don't have a lot of people to talk to, and everyone needs some conversation now and then."

Speaking in response to that doesn't seem worth it, so Rinzler just hums quietly in acknowledgement. Ram seems to take that as encouragement, as he starts to ramble away, for some reason about the moral implications of two programs in quarantine turning on each other. Rinzler has no idea where the subject came from, but Ram seems happy enough, and interacting with someone that isn't Clu or Jarvis is… nice. Almost like a break. So he sits back and lets Ram's chatter wash over him.

After a while, he receives a message from Clu, summoning him in to receive orders. Rinzler's head snaps around towards the throneship automatically, and Ram trails off into a concerned silence.

"MUU-uust go. Be-be-beiING ca-aaalled." He says in explanation, before leaving for the throneship. The last thing he wants to do is annoy Clu by taking too long.

Rinzler's… whatever it is he has with Ram lasts for longer than he expected. Rinzler holds off the glitches for three full cycles, longer than he ever has before.

And then it all comes crashing down.

Ironically, it's because of the lack of glitches from Rinzler.

Rinzler is called into Clu's quarters, with the reason why not provided. This is standard.

"You've been unusually functional lately. Disks." Is what Clu opens with, holding out an expectant hand.

And, ever obedient, Rinzler hands them over. Watches as Clu skims through his surface code. Accesses the deeper parts. Goes into his memory.

Watches as Clu discovers Ram, and replays every single one of their meetings.

By the time Clu is finished, Rinzler is shaking. Clu does not hand the disks back.

"You've been in contact with a rebel." He says, voice deadly calm. "You've been in contact with a rebel, and hiding it from me."

Rinzler doesn't reply, frozen in fear with what's about to happen.

Clu gives a disappointed sigh, and stands.

"I expected this behaviour from Tron, but you?"

Rinzler gives a full-body flinch at the name, glitches rising up and turning his vision to static.

Clu takes advantage of Rinzler's episode, and moves in, sending Rinzler into a hard shut down.

He blacks out to the sight of Clu staring down at him, face cold and uncaring.

Clu says that Rinzler's been glitching for the last three cycles.

Clu says a rebel influenced Rinzler's code.

Rinzler is fixed now.

Rinzler is grateful.

He feels better.

Clu says the rebel doesn't know Rinzler was fixed.

Clu gives him orders.

Rinzler follows them.

He goes to the rebel.

He gives the rebel the ambush location and leaves.

He reports back to Clu.

Clu is proud.

Clu says he did well.

Rinzler is grateful.

The rebel goes to the ambush.

Rinzler is ordered to stand back in the battle.

The rebel handles the guard.

The rebel moves to attack Clu.

Rinzler's protection programming kicks in.

He stops the rebel.

Clu is proud.

Clu says he did well.

Rinzler is grateful.

The rebel is placed in the games.

He makes it to Rinzler.

He lasts longer than most.

He still dies like all the others.

For a long moment after derezzing him, Rinzler stared at the pile of voxels, some distant part of him screaming at the sight, and his rumbling hitching in response to the faint distress.

And then Clu's summons tugs at his processor, and he turns to leave. Back to the throneship. Back to Clu.

Rinzler does not think of the rebel again.

Rinzler is fixed now.

Rinzler is grateful.

Clu is happy.

AN: "Hang on GJP, how the hell did Tron's love for Ram save him from Rinzler for so long, but Tron's love for Yori couldn't do shit?"

Well, it's all about the circumstances. Yori attacked Rinzler with obvious intent to kill, and didn't let up until the killing blow was already in motion. Security programs have very good fight-or-flight reflexes, and Rinzler is almost always set to fight. The overriding danger of mortal peril was enough to keep Tron down until the danger went away, and it didn't go away until Yori was dead. Rip. Wheras Rinzler confronted Ram on his own terms, and held the upper hand the entire time. Rinzler felt perfectly safe confronting Ram, so the fight reflex never kicked in, so Rinzler was able to be influenced by Tron's protective feelings towards Ram.

As for why Ram knew who Rinzler was immediately, and Yori needed to see his face… Ram was prison buddies with Tron for fuck knows how long, and learned how to fight from him. Yori wasn't in those situations. Married or not, Ram saw Tron fight way more than Yori, and knew what his style looked like more. Plus, when you're involved in a fight instead of just a spectator, there's less time to analyze who your opponent reminds you of. Sorry Yori.

For the record, 'the moral implications of two programs in quarantine turning on each other' translates to Ram asking "If two programs were in quarantine and one of them derezzed the other with a rock, would that be fucked up or what?" because Ram is accidentally meme trash.

Yaaay made it all worse. Nothing about this is fun. You should all read my other Tron Legacy story, Ghost in the Machine, which has less Ram, and more Rinzler! Rinzler with a slightly less fucked voice. I mean, it's still fucked, but I didn't feel the need to express in the text how fucked it was. My point is, it's got a happier ending than this one, so yeah. Read it!

And review this one! I am a trash goblin!