TRIBULATIONS
Chapter Four

It is raining, I sit a few feet from Yori and she is staring at it as though it is a miracle, she seems fascinated by the way it hits her fingers when she holds them out.

I remember that Clu had tried to turn the rain off; he had been incredibly frustrated by it, angered that it even existed - it was a mar on his perfect grid.

Yori giggles, and I turn my head to watch her smile, it is a shallow picture of how she used to smile but it is closer than anything else I have seen since she was reset.

I cannot help but recall when we first arrived on the Grid, the very first time it rained. Flynn was with us, he and I watched as she stood in it grinning, absolutely enthralled.

"It's amazing Kevin, it's..." she laughs and spins in a circle, "come out here Tron, it feels like...I can't even, come out here!"

I smile slightly and slowly walk over to her, she is right, it is amazing, I can feel each droplet landing on my skin, a cooling sensation like how your throat feels when you drink energy.

Kevin is laughing as well now and wandering out to join us, "maybe someday I can even find a way to program in the sun."

Yori turns to him confused, "what is the sun?"

"It's a star...a giant ball of..." he frowns obviously finding it hard to define this thing, "it keeps where I come from warm, and it's - oh man, it's like nothing else."

"Better than rain?" she asks obviously not believing that something could be better than this.

"Well...not better, just - different," he answers her before his lips twist into his trademark grin.

Sam and Dillinger are brought out in shackles to the center of the arena, the gathered programs are obviously confused, but they don't seem particularly angry about the users capture.

A large shuttle with yellow circuits lowers into view and lands behind us.

I wait patiently, unmoving, and the crowd rapidly breaks into puzzled whispers.

After what feels an eternity to me but in truth was most likely only a brief moment the stairs lower and the whispers get louder. Flynn/Clu steps down from the ship, he has his helmet rezzed and is dressed as though he is once again Clu, the yellow lights of his circuits are glowing maliciously in the blue light of the arena.

"Programs," his voice is amplified across the arena instantly silencing all speech, "these Users have been left to try their way of doing things for cycles, and they have failed."

The programs are giving him their rapt attention, they are used to following Clu by now, and his return is only proof that he is infallible to their stunted processes.

"They have committed crimes against the grid and as such they will be punished," he walks past the users who both seem shocked at his very existence, "I will be resuming control of the Grid, and we will return to a smooth running Grid, a perfect Grid, a Grid that cares about each and every program."

They go wild, many of them are screaming for the users to be derezzed.

Flynn/Clu holds up his hands and shakes his head, "we will not be derezzing them, instead they will return to where they came from, and Dillinger will not come back," he motions a the users with his free hand, "additionally from this point on Sam Flynn may only visit the grid while under surveillance, he will not be permitted to edit anything, create anything - without my direct say-so."

The crowd is still shouting and I glance over at Flynn/Clu, he knows what he must tell them, he has no choice if we intend to keep control of the grid.

"I know you want them to be punished, but Sam Flynn was merely a pawn played by the other user, Dillinger, who came up with and implemented the plan to reset our programs," he pauses and the crowd seems to take a collective breathe as they wait for his next words, "as such Dillinger will be reset before being sent back to his world. We will see how the user likes loosing everything that makes him who he is, I'm sure the Grid and his world both will be the better for it."

Flynn/Clu only means it as a way to control the crowd and has no intention of following through with the plan, but I have different plans, I kick Dillinger to his knees and remove the users disk, Flynn/Clu cannot stop me. To stop me would ruin his carefully pieced together plan to take back control of the grid without harming Sam, if he were to stop me these programs would surely tear his son to pieces.

"Tron, you can't," Sam begs, his voice is desperate, his face speaks of the horror he is feeling, Dillinger has been reduced to spouting off terrified nonsensical noises.

I smile under my helmet and lean towards Sam, "Tron is dead, my designation is Rinzler."

I have already copied the command required so that I could do this with ease, and without interruption. It takes a few quick swipes before the disk is ready, I do not know what this will do to a user, but I hope it will be a sufficient revenge for his crimes.

As the disk clips into place he begins to scream and then collapses forwards clutching his head. Blood drips from the users mouth, I tilt my head at the unexpected results and wait.

He drops to the ground and I examine him quickly, his chest still heaves in and out. Dillinger lives yet.

The blackguard drag the users onto the shuttle and I follow closely. Flynn/Clu is pacing the flight deck when we get in, he motions very briefly for the pilot to take off and resumes his pacing, I can tell he is agitated, possibly he is even angry with me.

"So you were just laying in wait this whole time," Sam snarls.

"I was waiting," he says evasively after a moment.

"Where are you taking us?" Sam demands leaned forward as far as his cuffs will allow.

He sighs, "to the exit Sam."

Dillenger gurgles into the floor his eyes focusing on nothing, my disgust for users is becoming steadily worse.

"Is my father alive?"

Flynn/Clu tilts his head and apparently settles on cryptic, "he is at least...in part."

"In part? What's that supposed to mean?" Sam struggled against his bindings, "what have you done to him?"

By the time the ship docks at the portal Flynn/Clu seems resigned to simply listening to Sam's anger without comment; he cannot explain the truth of the matter until we are away from the blackguard, they would gossip and then the entire grid would know the truth.

I motion at the blackguard nearest the door to open it and then begin to stride forwards.

And then there he is again, the program in white with the blinding circuits. I hadn't seen him when we were bringing the hovercraft in for a landing so I can only assume he was underneath the platform, lying in wait.

With a slight twist of my wrist the blackguard run at him and as he deals with them I put a stun baton into Sam's back until the user falls unconscious. I cannot have him trying to escape while I am dealing with this rebel.

I motion for the remaining two blackguard to protect Flynn/Clu and then run forward to join the fray.

He deals with the blackguard quickly, although he mostly seems to be incapacitating them rather than derezzing, this program views himself as a hero with a strict moral code.

I wait patiently, disks at the ready as I study the rebel program, there is something familiar about the way he looks and moves though I find I am unable to place it.

He launches an attack against me, he is angry, defiant, and uncontrolled, the program definitely has combat training, but his rage is making him unstable and weak, rage at me specifically judging by the fact that he'd stayed calm and collected while fighting the blackguard.

A loyal follower of the users obviously, if I had more time I'd educate him to the extremely fallible nature of our creators, but I haven't the time.

I slide around him and come less than a fingers width from derezzing him, he barely manages to push me back and then launches forwards again.

"Who are you?" I cannot help the question that slips from my lips; to my knowledge the only other program even close to my combat level had been derezzed cycles ago. This program has made me curious.

"You don't remember? Well I didn't expect that Tron," he halts his attack, though his disk still held up in a defensive stance - his tone is between curious and mocking.

"Remember wha..." I start to speak only to be cut off by my own command codes.

ERROR ERROR - The memory file you are trying to access is corrupt.

I collapse, I cannot stay standing the pain is far too intense to focus on anything else.

I try desperately to stop myself from loading the corrupted information but the process has already started.

SEARCHING FOR PATHWAYS

A young program beams proudly up at me.

ERROR

RESUMING PATHWAY SEARCH

The same young program stares at the ground dejected. Why don't I know his name.

ERROR

PATHWAY SEARCH...ERROR

RESTARTING PROGRAM...

Everything goes black.

By the time I resume functionality the glowing program and the users are long gone, Clu/Flynn is sitting a few feet away holding my disk.

"Give it back," I manage to rasp, my entire being feels like it's on fire, but I've been in worse pain before - I ease myself into a sitting position and hold out one hand.

"I'm just trying to find out what happened."

I scowl under my helmet, "now Flynn."

"You don't trust me," he sighs as he hands it back.

"Why would I?"

He simply shakes his head, "well at the very least your programming has already automatically shut off the pathways to whatever memory it was trying to reach."

I click my disk back into place and struggle to my feet, "you know who that program is."

It's not a question, but he answers anyways, "yes."

"But you won't tell me."

"No," he rubs his eyes and also stands up, as his helmet slides back into place he turns to face me fully, "some things are better left forgotten."

"That's not your-" my precarious grasp on standing fails and I collapse.

He grabs me and holds me up, "you need energy buddy."

"We have to wait."

"What for?"

"That," I point to a pair of recognizers flying towards us, "they must hold the portal, or we will be erased once your son reaches the users world."

I stand on the balcony of my rest quarters - Yori is inside sleeping, a constant reminder of the travesty of users. I am beginning to wonder how I ever trusted them, why I had such blind faith, I can find no answers in the slumbering Tron City that sprawls out before me.

The city is silent, and I clench my fists, that the Users are still out there somewhere infuriates me to my core; that Clu/Flynn insisted I rest before I go out to hunt them down makes the entire debacle that much worse.

The noise of someone moving behind has me spinning with my disks at the ready, but it's only Yori. She cries out in fear and collapses to the floor, huddling herself into a ball.

With a prolonged sigh I return my disks to my back and lean down attempting to comfort her. Sometimes it takes very little coaxing to get her to calm, this is unfortunately not one of those times.

It felt like it had been cycles before I gave up and hoped she would unfurl on her own, I had users to hunt down, and my time was wasted with this.

As I began to walk back into my quarters towards the front door she spoke, "what happened to you?"

The words were broken and she sounded almost puzzled at her own words, but I turned quite sharply to view her, she sat staring at me, and for a single moment I could see Yori in those eyes again.

And then she began to scream.

Author's Note: I am so very, very, very, sorry this took so long...again...but look, more! Yay... uhm...no promises on when the next one comes out, but I'll try my best.