A/N: AUish… Set during Tron: Legacy. Tron/OFC

I'd originally posted this story back in mid-2011, but after rereading it, I came to realize that there was so much more I wanted to include and things I wanted to fix, some of the spelling errors making me cringe, so I took it down temporarily to rework it. And now it's back!

A lot of the spelling and grammar mistakes have been corrected, and just about each original chapter has some new dialog and descriptions and whatnot, but the plot of the story has not changed. Looking at it now, I strongly believe that it has been vastly improved. I had informed followers of this story that I was going to add more chapters, but what I've done instead is extend some chapters with "new scenes" by 1,000 words or more because that flowed more in my opinion and just fits better. Any chapter that has been extended to any significant degree will be listed as an "extended chapter" in an A/N.

Disclaimer: I do not own Tron.

"This had better be important," Juno Strider muttered as she drove to Flynn's Arcade.

It was four in the morning and she had been sleeping peacefully until Sam Flynn called her, asking her to meet him at the arcade as soon as possible. She certainly hadn't been thrilled at being woken up so early when she had to be up at eight in order to have time to shower and eat before following through with her schedule. Along with grocery shopping – her fridge was nearly empty – the most important thing she had to do was make the long drive to the airport to pick up her older brother, Marcus, on leave from the Marine Corp for a while.

Everyone in her family had been in the military, and Marcus was the only family she had left. Her father, a Marine, died when she was one, killed by a land mine. Her mother, a pilot in the Air Force, died four years ago when her helicopter crashed. Marcus was a Marine but was thankfully still alive. She hoped he would stay that way for a very long time.

A few days ago he told her that he was going to be coming back to the States for a while, so she had to be awake to make the rather long drive to the airport to pick him up at one in the afternoon. Though she was excited to have him stay with her for a week before he returned to his own place a few blocks away, she was going to have to leave at eleven and wouldn't be back until around three. Given that she would want to spend the rest of the evening catching up with her brother, she would have to take care of her grocery shopping and making sure the guest bedroom was ready before she left to go get him. Eight in the morning was the latest she could be up by. By all rights, she should still be in bed sleeping, but Sam was her friend, a brother to her, and so she'd sacrifice her time to sleep to help him out.

It sounded like he needed it.

A page from his father's arcade.

It seemed completely impossible, but Sam had been serious when he said that Alan had received one. He hadn't lied to her before so she seriously doubted he would start now.

Pulling her silver Camaro over near Sam's motorcycle, she sighed and looked at her reflection in the rear-view mirror. It was painfully obvious that she'd just woken up a short while ago. There wasn't an ounce of makeup on her face – normally she wore black eyeliner and black eye shadow to enhance her emerald green eyes – and her long blond hair was a bit wavier than she liked it to be considering she typically straightened her hair after waking up but didn't take the time to do so this time. The only things she took the time to do were brush her teeth, run a brush quickly through her hair, and change into dark blue jeans, a dark green t-shirt with a black leather jacket over it, and boots.

Sighing at her less than perfect reflection, she took her purse from the passenger seat and twisted in hers to shove it under the numerous shopping bags in the back, not seeing the need to bring it in with her. She stared at the shopping bags filled with clothes, shaking her head.

Her best friend, Cindy, had dragged her out shopping before work yesterday and she'd bought three shirts, a few pairs of jeans and skirts, shoes, bra and pantie sets, as well as some new clothes and shoes for her brother since she'd accidentally donated a few of his he left behind at her place to good will, mistaking them for her ex-boyfriend's clothes. By the time she got home from work, she'd been exhausted and chose to wait until morning to bring everything in. Leaving the bags in the car made it look like a wreck.

Deciding that she'd spent enough time in the car, she turned off the engine and climbed out, locking it before looking at the arcade in front of her.

For a moment she just stood there, looking up at the sign above the arcade, remembering the times she'd gone there as a kid, when she met Sam. The sign had been so bright, beckoning both kids and adults to come in and lose themselves in the gaming universe, to bring the arcade to life. It didn't seem right for the sign to be so… dead looking.

As if rectifying that problem, the sign suddenly flickered to life and she started a bit before noticing that the door to the arcade was cracked open.

Figuring that Sam had turned on the lights, she went on in and was nearly overwhelmed by the familiar noise of games and one of her favorite songs was playing – Separate Ways by Journey. It was the same and different at the same time. All the games were the same, the music the same, but everything was covered with plastic and the place was filthy. Instead of the scent of french fries, hot dogs, and popcorn filling the air, an unpleasantly musty smell lingered in the air.

Ahead of her was Sam standing before one of the games, holding up the plastic.

"Brings back memories, doesn't it?" Juno asked, coming up next to her friend as he studied the condition of the game.

"Yeah, yeah it does." Putting his arm around her in a half hug, Sam gave her a squeeze. "Thanks for coming."

She shrugged. "Who needs sleep?"

"You didn't have to come, you know."

"I know, but I did." Brushing away an errant strand of long blond hair, she asked, "So, explain to me how exactly Alan was paged when Kevin's office number has been disconnected for years."

Breathing out a sigh, Sam just shook his head. "I really don't know, Juno. That was one of the reasons why it took me so long to come here and check things out."

She arched a brow. "When did Alan tell you about the page?"

"Well, I pulled the prank on ENCOM at about nine-thirty, spent a while at the police department before I bailed myself out." He did the math in his head before shrugging. "It was around twelve by the time I got home and found Alan there waiting. So, yeah, it was probably twelve when he told me about it."

"Twelve? It's after four, Sam! How come it took you so long to decide whether or not to come here?" Juno questioned, irritated that he couldn't have decided to come earlier when she'd actually been at least half awake.

Covering a game back up, he sighed. "Worried about what I'd find, I guess."

An ache settled in her chest, irritation fading just a little, and she wrapped her arms around him middle. "The most it could be is some asshole playing a mean joke on you and Alan," she pointed out quietly.

"You're probably right," he agreed, but sighed heavily, arms tight around her. "But you never know."

Though he didn't say, she knew he was hoping to find his father, or something hinting to where his father was, or even just some evidence that he was dead or alive. And he she was, giving him an attitude because he was uncertain about coming and had to think about it for a few hours.

"Sorry I got snippy with you," she apologized tiredly.

"It's cool. I wouldn't expect anything other than snippiness from you when you wake up. I pity any guy who's ever stayed the night with you," he chuckled.

"Hey!" She pulled back and poked him hard in the chest. "I'm not that bad."

"Last time you stayed at my place you slapped me for waking you up too early."

"I like my sleep!" she protested, but she knew that she wasn't a morning person and had a tendency to be a bit temperamental for a while after waking up.

He just smiled at her and gave her a pat on the back. "Come on, sleeping beauty. Help me look around."

"What exactly are we looking for?" she asked as she started wandering around the place.

It took him a minute to answer. "I'm not really sure. But that page didn't come out of thin air. Someone had to have sent it."

"You think they're still here?"

"No, they're probably long gone. Just look for anything out of place."

That was hard to do considering she hadn't been there for years and couldn't remember what was even in its right place. For all she knew things could have been moved around. Everything was dusty and covered with plastic, not to mention there were cobwebs everywhere. Of course it would be easy to tell if someone else had been there recently as there would be shoe imprints in the dust on the floor. At least then they would know that someone had been there at some point. But as she looked around, she saw no sign that anyone had been in there.

A game with neon green lights caught her attention and she moved the plastic away, a small smile coming to her face. She used to play the game all the time when she came to Flynn's with Sam. As she recalled, she'd always beaten Sam each and every time. He would then challenge her to a game he was good at and beat her constantly. It all evened out in the long run, she supposed, each of them having a game they were good at.

Covering up the machine again, she got back to the task at hand and continued to search for… well, for whatever looked out of place while Sam checked his father's office.

Idly, she began humming in time with the lyrics to Separate Ways.

Nothing caught her eye and after a while she just slumped back against a random game. Everything was fine, dirty, but fine. Maybe she could find the time to come back and clean up the place a bit. It seemed insulting to Kevin Flynn to have the place looking bad. It would be a waste of effort though. No one would be coming to visit the arcade again.

"Dad and I played that game all the time," Sam said suddenly and she looked up to find him walking towards her, looking at something behind her.

"Huh?" She stared at him, ceasing her humming.

"The game you're using as a backrest," he said, looking past her. "I use to play it all the time with him."

Frowning, she looked up at the barely readable sign above her.

TRON.

"Oh, yeah, I remember. Your dad acted like a little kid when he beat you. Or anybody for that matter," she said with a smile. "You'd think he'd won a million bucks."

Sam returned it, but it didn't reach his eyes. "He loved his games."

"That he did," she said, nodding in agreement.

Stepping away from the machine, she pulled the plastic away and found the game to be playing a demo. Two characters on light-cycles, one blue and one gold, were racing around. It had been one of her favorite games, but Sam and Kevin were much better at it than she was. Probably because they played it together nonstop. She remembered sitting in a chair she dragged over to watch them play, eating some french fries and giggling at their reactions when one of them lost, and smiling when they cheered if they were playing a team game and won. The memory alone made her heart ache. Kevin may not have been her father, but he'd be the closest thing she had to one. His disappearance hurt her almost as much as it hurt Sam.

Shaking away the memories, Juno asked, "Did you find anything?"

"No, you?"

"No." Putting her hand on his arm, she added softly, "I don't think we're gonna find anything, Sam."

"You're probably right," he admitted a tad reluctantly. "I don't know what I was even looking for."

"Closure?" she offered.

"Maybe."

"Let's just go. You look like you could use some sleep." She tugged on his arm but he didn't budge.

"In a second," he said, digging around in his pocket, pulling out a quarter. "I want to play one game. For old time's sake."

Giving a small nod, she went back to standing beside him, wanting to watch as he played the old game. Just like old times.

Staring at the quarter, he looked a little reluctant to put it in the machine, and for good reason. It was the quarter his father had given him the night he disappeared. Sam had said to her once that Kevin told him "the first round was on him" and tossed him the coin. Ever since he kept it in his pocket, tucked safely away from the other change. Perhaps giving it up was the first step to truly moving on.

He glanced at her and she gave him an encouraging smile.

Swallowing, he placed the quarter in the slot, and watched as it fell out onto the floor near Juno's boot.

Sam rubbed the back of his neck, disappointed. "Must be broken."

"Yeah," she murmured, bending down to pick it up. Picking it up, something caught her eyes and she brushed her fingers against some indentations in the floor. "Sam, check this out."

Kneeling down beside her, he examined the marks then looked at the game curiously. Rising to his feet, he ushered her back as he grabbed hold of the side of the machine and pulled. It screeched in protest but moved to reveal a small door.

The two were equally surprised to see the door. Kevin Flynn was a bit strange, no doubt about that, but this was a different kind of strange.

Sam pulled out his flashlight and stepped through the doorway, motioning for her to follow. It was dark and she held onto the back of Sam's leather jacket more for reassurance than guidance through the dark. The place was creepy and looked almost like a dungeon. At the bottom of the stares, they came to a door and found some keys in the lock. Sam turned the handle and found that the door was unlocked.

They hesitated, both curious to find what lay in the room but reluctant to find out at the same time. Hell, for all they knew there could be a body lying on the other side! Juno did not want to find a corpse, let alone Kevin's corpse.

Taking a deep breath, Sam turned the door knob and walked inside. Juno stayed back, waiting for him to say it was okay to enter.

"Son of a gun," her murmured and waved her inside, casting the beam from his flashlight around the room.

Coming in behind him, the young woman stared at all the strange objects and the gun-like thing off to the side. It looked like a laser gun or something that she'd expect to see in a sci-fi film, not in the basement of an arcade.

"Your dad had way too much free time on his hands," she commented.

"You're telling me," he agreed, taking it all in.

She went over to a board on the wall and found multiple photos pinned to it. Most were of Sam – both with and without his dad – but there were a few of her and Marcus. One photo in particular made her smile sadly, and she ran her fingers delicately over the withered photo. In the photo, Kevin was sitting back on the couch in his office above the arcade with one arm around seven-year-old Sam and the other around six-year-old Juno while Marcus – ten at the time – took the picture. Though her mom, Amanda, wasn't in the picture, she remembered her leaning against the desk smiling at them while they smiled brightly for the camera.

It was taken a week before Kevin went missing.

Sighing, she looked away from it, but swore to take it with her before they left.

Sam walked over to a bare table that was covered in a thick layer of dust. For a moment, he just looked at it, and then wiped away some of the dust, revealing a computer screen.

Standing beside him, she frowned. "This place hasn't been touched since '89. Isn't this a little too advanced for that time?"

"Too advanced was never in my dad's vocabulary," Sam stated, taking a seat in the equally dusty chair and wiping away some more dust. "If he thought it was remotely possible, he'd find a way to make it so." He tapped a button and the computer reacted. The fact that it was touch screen surprised Juno even more.

Going into tech-mode, Sam started typing away, searching for answers that may or may not be hidden in the machine's memory. All the while she didn't say a word and allowed him the time to sort through the stuff he was looking at, only understanding some of it.

She'd gone to school to be a bartender and landed a good job in a night club, but her minor had been in computer science because she enjoyed working with computers. Sam had taught her great many things about computers such as hacking, repairing, and whatnot, and she was far better than the average Joe. But while she was good with computers and a very capable hacker, Sam's talent with computers made her skills look like that of a first grader. There was no comparison.

"Let's try 'backdoor'," he murmured to himself, typing a few things in.

Curiosity getting the better of her, she asked, "What are you doing?"

"I'm trying," he began, typing something in and smiling at the result. "To hack my way into this thing. And I think I might have just gotten in. Now… what were you working on, Dad?"

Leaning over to see better, she read out loud, "Laser Control. Think that has something to do with that thing?" She turned to look briefly at the sci-fi laser gun.

"I have no idea," he replied. "Let's find out."

"Are you sure you know what you're doing?" she asked, looking back at the screen. Something didn't feel right and she didn't want him pressing too many buttons.

Sam was already accessing the file. "Nope."

"That's reassuring," Juno grumbled.

Acknowledging the command, the computer began beeping and there was the sound of something powering up. Nervously, Juno spared another glance at the laser, but it seemed perfectly fine. She figured it was just the computer and turned back to the screen, and read, "Aperture Clear? Yes or no?"

Looking up at her from the chair, Sam reasoned, "We've come this far. What's the worst that could happen?"

That was one of the worst things on the planet, but he had a point. Coming down here to just turn back seemed like a waste of effort.

With a determined but nervous nod, she said, "I guess we select 'yes'."

Giving her a half smile, he went back to the screen and tapped "yes".

Suddenly the powering up sound intensified, accompanied by new sound behind her.

Juno turned just in time to see a bright light coming from the laser gun before everything changed.

Coffee keeps me awake to write, but reviews keep me motivated to write!