Chapter 1

"Uh, Beck?"

Beck glanced at his mentor. "Yeah? What is it?"

Tron narrowed his eyes. "There's a lightcycle in the Outlands."

"Oh? Let me see." Beck looked at the screen that overlooked the Outlands and zoomed in on a high-sped, lit up object. Of course, it was a lightcycle. "Hmmm…there's a lightcycle in the Outlands."

Tron rolled his eyes. "I just said that." Tron walked over to the big screen and pulled up a few files and did some stuff that Beck could barely understand. "I'm looking at their energy readings, but I'm not picking up a signature." Tron turned off the screen. "Whoever's out there certainly doesn't want to be identified."

Beck rolled his eyes this time. "No duh. I wouldn't want to be identified either."

Tron studied Beck's face for a while. "I zoomed into her image just enough to know that she's a girl." Tron stole a glance out the window. "You know Argon and its citizens well enough to know who is new around here. I need you to find out who this program is and find out why she's here."

Beck frowned. "What if she's just an ordinary program who just wanted to avoid a train ride?"

Tron raised an eyebrow at Beck. "Why isn't she on a public road?"

Beck studied the ground for a while. "Um, she likes to challenge herself?"

Tron rolled his eyes and looked out the window again. "Argon is the most troubled City on the Grid at the moment. Anyone who's coming at this time is looking for a fight. I need you to find out who she is and what she's doing in Argon."

Beck sighed. "Fine, but I'm just saying: She might not be interested in fighting a revolution, let alone our revolution. She's probably just…visiting a friend or something."

Tron narrowed his eyes. Beck sighed in defeat and walked towards the elevator. "Fine, but if I turn out to be right about all this, I'm going to say: 'I told you so!'"

Tron kept looking out the window. "That's fine with me, Beck. That's fine with me…"

Beck ran outside and drew his disk, disguising himself in Tron's disguise with white circuitry. He took a running start and rezzed his bike. It might take a while to catch up with this rider, because she is skilled.

When they were about halfway to the City, she glanced backwards. Beck might have mistaken, but he could've sworn he'd heard her sigh in frustration and curse. Beck rolled his eyes and kept his usual pace behind her. He knew she couldn't go any faster unless she wanted to overheat her bike's engine.

When she reached the edge of Argon City, she slammed on the brakes and turned her bike back into a baton. When Beck got closer, he saw that she was wearing a mask. He decided to put his on too before he also turned his bike into a baton.

He might be going mad, but the girl that he was chasing was actually growling at him right now. Okay…that's not strange at all…

She stood and stared at him for a while. "Why were you following me?!" She eventually asked.

Beck shifted uncomfortably under her gaze while he thought of something decent to say. "Well what were you doing in the Outlands all by yourself?" Beck asked, smirking under his mask.

His question took her aback. "I…I just don't like trains. Going through the Outlands seemed like a good option for me."

"You realize that there's a road?"

She groaned. "There's a road? Wow, why didn't I realize that?" Beck frowned. She really didn't know that there was a road. She actually thought that Argon was that remote?!

She stared at him for a while longer. "You followed me for a reason. What are you? A warden who watches over the Outlands to see if any weakling needs help?" Beck was about to answer but she held up a hand. "Don't answer that!"

She rezzed her bike again and looked at him again. "And…don't follow me again!" He couldn't help but notice the anger and irritation she had in her voice. "It's…almost creepy!"

She drove away without looking back. Beck kicked the ground with his boot and smirked, rubbing the back of his neck in embarrassment. "Now, I'm going back to the hideout to tell Tron: 'I told you so!' Why does he never listen to me?"

He pulled out his baton, but stopped and stared when he saw the poster. It said that Paige was wanted again. It wasn't explained why she was wanted, it just said that she was a traitor to Clu. "Huh, wonder where Paige is now." Beck rezzed his bike and headed back to the hideout.

…

Paige slept well, but it wasn't peaceful. She had the nightmare several times during the night. Clu had her prisoner and he kept slashing her with his disk (especially in her left arm like before), torturing her, and beating her continuously. It was awful. It was hard to wake up. It was terrifying.

Thankfully, Paige didn't scream anytime during the night. She was silent, which made it even worse for her that she couldn't get the sound of her misery out.

When she finally woke up to the sound of knocking on her door, she sat up and rocked forward and backward, telling herself that it was just a bad dream and none of it was real. Even that didn't reassure her.

Her left arm was throbbing from the injury it had before. Paige looked at it for a moment, but her vision was still mildly blurry, so she couldn't get a good look at it. I thought I fixed this! Why is there still a reminder that it was there?! There should be no trace! Paige shook her head in confusion and stood up.

Whoa! Too soon! Got up too soon! Her head felt dizzy and empty so she plopped back onto the bed. Emi knocked on the door. "Paige, are you okay?"

Paige looked at the desk next to her bed. It also had an 'Unlock' button. Paige pressed it to let her in. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just…had a bad dream."

Emi walked into Paige's room raised an eyebrow in concern. "It must've been bad."

Paige looked up at her. "Why? How is it showing?"

Emi inhaled sharply and sat down next to Paige on the bed. "For starters, your eyes show fright." Paige frowned. "Next, your bed's a mess, showing that you've been thrashing out a lot." Paige glanced at the sheets that are now tangled up. "And…" She looked at Paige's left arm. Her eyes widened. "What happened to your arm?!"

Paige didn't expect that question. "What?" She glanced at her arm, which showed a new injury that she never had before. "There used to be an injury in that very spot, but I fixed it! Why is there another one?! I didn't get hurt during the night time…did I?"

Emi pursed her lips and looked around. She fixed her eyes on the side table, then her eyes flickered down to the floor, which now had several stray pixels scattered. "You must've hit it really hard off the side table last night. It's a rational explanation for your…new injury."

Paige sighed, drawing her disk and accessing her code to fix the damage. Emi got up and cleaned the pixels up off the floor. Emi grabbed her walkie-talkie and made sure it was on channel one. "Hey, Dallas! Paige and I are going to be several nanos late. We…" She looked around the room. "We had a little…inconvenience."

The talkie was silent for a while, and then a static sound came out. "Okay. Don't take too long. You guys need to be downstairs in 10 nanos, max!"

Emi put the walkie-talkie away and started tidying up Paige's bed. "We have 10 nanocycles at the most before we have to get downstairs." Emi looked at Paige and smiled. "I'm supposed to explain protocols and so-fourth to you this cycle while we're working. For starters, if there's a problem, your running late, or any kind of inconvenience, you report it to Dallas immediately!"

Paige nodded. "Got it."

Emi grinned. "Good. Now grab your talkie and anything else you might need and let's get down to the main floor. We don't want to be late! Even though we technically are!" Paige smiled a little. Emi seemed like a very good friend already. Kind and caring, funny and humorous, and very smart.

Paige followed Emi out of her room and the door slid shut behind them. Paige typed in her combination to lock her door again and then followed Emi into the elevator. During the ride down, it stopped on floor 3. Emi grinned. "Nice! We're riding with Jay the rest of the way down!"

Paige lifted an eyebrow. "What? Who's Jay?"

The doors opened to reveal a handsome (but not Paige's type) guy. He grinned at Emi. "Jay's here!" He shouted.

Emi giggled. "Yes you are!" She smirked at Jay. "You're running late too?"

He nodded and looked at Paige. "Another Noob?"

Emi elbowed him playfully. "Be nice to Paige, Jay! She's my new best friend!"

Jay grinned at Paige and held out a hand. "Hello, Paige. I'm Jay and I'll be working on the field with Emi and…you?" Paige nodded and shook his hand. Jay grinned. "Well then, let's see what you're capable of on your first day."

Paige smirked. They all thought that this is her first time ever being a medic. She shrugged. Maybe I just look younger again with this appearance? It was only her old haircut and medic uniform that she changed back to normal like it was back before Tesler found her.

"Alright, Jay," Paige began. "I'll show you what I can do."

…

Ally woke up and smiled. This cycle will be awesome! She got up and out of bed to look in the mirror. She remembered taking her mask off last night before she went to sleep.

She frowned and her eyes widened when she saw her appearance. Her eyes glowed brighter, but other than that, her eye color remained unchanged. Her outfit was still in disguise. Ally drew her disk and changed it back to her Alpha Uniform.

What to do this cycle. First thing: Put on your mask and go look for Chad. Ally's mask slid back over her face and she walked out the door. Where is Chad's office? Ally scanned the hallways, but didn't know where it was. She walked around a little more and shrugged. I'll find him later. She turned and entered the Medical Center.

She stopped and grinned when she saw Chad talking to another medic. Ally ran over to Chad and tackled him. "Chad! Oh my gosh! I've missed you so much!"

Chad looked surprised to see her at first, then he chuckled and patted her shoulder. "Missed you too, Alpha. We need to talk in privacy."

Ally got off of Chad and let him lead her to where his office was. When she got inside, Chad shut the door and leaned against his desk. He sighed and looked at Ally. "Al, I know what you've been doing in Argon while you were in hiding."

Ally gasped. "Sky, that traitor! He told you didn't he?!"

Chad frowned and shook his head slowly. "No…Skipper didn't tell me. It was all over the Alert System!"

Ally groaned and smacked the back of her head against the wall. "Well I never got caught. I got away every single time."

Chad shook his head. "But you were supposed to be hiding, not skipping through the city drawing attention to yourself every time you round a corner! What part of 'going into hiding' did you not understand?!"

Ally shrugged. "All of it." She answered.

Chad sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "How's your mental status?"

"Oh for crying out loud, Chad! I thought you forgot about that!"

"Well, I did for a while, but now you're stepping out of line a little bit. I think it has something to do with your mental problems."

"I HAVE NO MENTAL PROBLEMS! I'm fine!"

Chad lifted a hand to calm her down. "Easy now, you don't have to shout." Chad stood up and rested a hand on Ally's shoulder. "We don't have to test if you don't want to. It's not bad enough to require it."

Ally sighed with relief. "Thank you! I knew you'd eventually realize that I'm not crazy."

"Dear Alpha, of course you're not crazy. I never said you were. I said that you simply might have some minor mental problems."

"That's just another way of saying that I'm crazy or psycho!"

Chad sighed. "Listen Alpha, the point is: You have to keep yourself under the radar and try not to attract attention to yourself."

Ally nodded. "If we're done here…then can I leave?"

Chad nodded. "You're dismissed. Go about your business."

Ally saluted Chad and walked out of his office. Now that I think about it, I guess I never really missed him. Ally rolled her eyes under her mask and headed for the Medical Center again. She nodded at the black guard at the door, who immediately let her pass and she walked through the door and into the hospital.

It was a mess. There was equipment scattered across the floor, there were lots of patients that needed urgent care, and there weren't many nurses in the hospital. Ally ran over to one. "What's happened?! I was only gone for several cycles! Now I see patients in critical condition."

The medic shrugged. "I don't know, Alpha. Some of our best medics are missing. I don't know what's going on."

Ally frowned. "Well I'm here now. Let's start with the patients that are in the worst condition." Ally and the rest of the medics got to work and started with the most injured patients and worked their way to the less urgent ones.

It took a long time, but when they were done, Ally cleaned the tools off of the floor while the nurses walked around, making sure that all the patients were stable.

Ally sat down next to another medic taking a break. "Um, I heard that there were medics missing. What happened?"

She looked at Ally with a confused look, but then realized that she wasn't there the whole time. "Oh, right. You went into hiding for a while. I thought Chad explained what happened. That's why he wanted to speak with you, right?"

Ally shook her head. "No, it must've slipped his mind."

The medic sighed. "Right after you fled with Skipper, we sent out a squad of guards."

"The ones you sent without disks?"

"Yes, we couldn't risk having them captured and letting Clu find out all of our plans and secrets. Anyway, the guards didn't hold them off very long, and that's when Clu's forces raided the area and ransacked the rooms and offices for our plans and information."

Ally frowned. "Did they find programs that didn't get out in time?"

She nodded. "Clu found some of our medics that didn't evacuate in time and took them hostage. They're either dead now, repurposed, or they're still being held captive."

Ally frowned. "I feel bad. I wasn't there to defend those medics that were captured."

The medic sighed. "Oh, Alpha. None of it was your fault. Besides, we had to get you out of there otherwise you would've been captured too."

Ally nodded. "I suppose you're right."

The medic's eyebrows arched with concern as well. "And, dear me, Alpha! When was the last time you had a shot of energy?!"

Ally glanced down at her dull, slightly faded neon green circuits. "Um…five cycles ago?"

The medic got up and walked over to an energy dispenser. "You need energy to keep going, pronto! I'm actually amazed that your system didn't fail you after at least five cycles without it! Usually, your system would quit on you after three cycles without energy." The medic held out the glass to Ally. "Drink, now."

Ally smirked. "Okay, take it easy. I'll go to my room and…recover from my lack of nutrition." The medic nodded. Ally turned and left the Medical Center and heading for her room.

The door opened and closed noiselessly behind her and she sat down on the bed. Ally removed her mask and rubbed her eyes. What's the Grid becoming? She stared blankly at her energy drink. "Maybe I should talk to Evelyn about this. She's always been a good friend. She might know what I can do."

Ally stood up. "Oh, forgot my drink." Ally sipped the glowing blue liquid until the glass was empty. She put on her mask and left her room, carrying her glass back to the Medical Center where she got it.

She dropped off the glass and walked up a set of stairs to the exit. When she got outside, she immediately started running, but she didn't see Sky. The moment she rounded a corner, she crashed right into him. "Ahh!" Ally landed on her bum on the ground. "Sorry, Sky."

He sighed and got up. "It's okay, I felt sleepy. You woke me right up." He grinned and offered her a hand to help her up. Ally gladly accepted. "What's the rush, where are you going?"

Ally shrugged. "Just wanted to go for a walk. Then I can go blow off some steam in the training room or something."

"Oh, is it okay if I join you?"

"Of course you can join me. You have to the right to go where you wish."

Sky smirked. "I'm actually surprised that Chad let you go for a walk alone…or were you trying to escape?" He lifted an eyebrow.

Ally giggled. "Actually, I didn't tell Chad that I was leaving. I just walked out the door."

"More like: 'you ran out the door'." Sky chuckled.

Ally pushed him playfully. "Must you twist my words?"

Sky grinned. "I'm only speaking the truth; what really happened."

Ally looked at her surroundings and took off her mask. Whenever she went somewhere new, everything looked the same. She sighed. "I've got to know the streets of Argon better. This is a labyrinth to me."

Sky shook his head, grinning. "That's why I carry I map." He pulled out the holographic map and studied it. "We are here." He gestured to an area on the map with his finger. Ally nodded.

He pointed to another spot on the map. "Base is over there. So if we walk in that direction." He pointed a finger down another alley. "It should be a straight shot back." He looked at Ally quizzically. "We are heading back now, right?" Ally nodded. And followed him in the direction he pointed at.

Ally, with her mask still off, walked next to Sky down the road. "You know, I think I should admit that you're the first program in the Resistance Movement that I actually think is fun and well behaved at the same time. You're a great friend."

Sky smiled at her. "Thank you, Alpha. That… really means a lot to me."

Ally grinned at him. "You're welcome."

Sky looked at her and lifted an eyebrow. "Am I also the first program in the Resistance Movement that you actually showed your face to?"

Ally pursed her lips and shrugged. "Yeah, pretty much."

Sky rolled his eyes. "Wow, I feel so privileged."

Ally elbowed him. "You should."

Sky chuckled. "Come on, I'll race you to the training room."

Ally grinned and put on her mask. "I accept your challenge."