Chapter Text
Tron’s core is threatening to leap up his throat, making it harder to breathe as he runs. The bull pen is in chaos, programs running for their armor or staring out the window in horror. Tron shoves past the latter, slamming the door open. Valko is yelling behind him, but the words are moot beyond that initial “explosion” and “ bar ”. He never should have let Sam go alone!
Containment programs and medics are already on the scene and a crowd is beginning to gather as Mic and Renee’s is consumed by flames.
“Where are they?” His voice burns out of his throat, and he can barely bring himself to care how desperate he sounds. He pushes through the crowd, slipping through the barricade. “ Where are they? ”
“Get back!” A containment program shouts, struggling to keep the hose level.
“There was a program and a User inside!” Tron ignores their command. “Where are they?!”
“Tron!” Valko’s hand pulls him back, and he rounds on the program. For his credit, there’s no fear in his eyes as he stares up at the warrior. Rather, he instantly turns and points to the ambulance. Before he can say anything more, Tron is already running to it.
“Sam-”
The captain on duty looks up to him from nursing his arm, and the name dies in Tron’s throat. The captain’s head is bandaged and the left side of his face is swollen.
“What happened?” Valko asks, covering up Tron’s shocked silence.
“We were attacked.” The captain groans as a medic patches his cheek. “Some…program in a mask. He derezzed most of my men. He wanted up the stairs. I tried to stop him, call for backup, but he got to me first. Next thing I know, I’m being pulled out of the fire.”
“What about Beck and Sam?” Tron presses. At the captain’s furrowed brow, Valko mutters: “ Mic and the User .”
At that, the captain slowly shakes his head. “I didn’t see them….”
Tron has to bite hard on the inside of his cheek and turn away to keep from betraying the fear crawling up his throat. It had to be the killer, it had to be!
Valko seems to notice anyway, and hurries to catch up. “Doesn’t mean they didn’t escape.”
“Beck must have been the target the whole time…” And I let Sam go alone.
“CLEAR THE AREA!” Both Tron and Valko freeze in their tracks. Valko is the first to whip around to see the enforcer sprint around the corner of the scene, waving his arms.
“What is it, program?”
“We got an unidentified package at the edge of the scene. Next building over. We need to clear the area!”
“ Frag .” Valko hisses, before turning to the crowd. “We need everyone to evacuate down the street west in an orderly fashion. This is not a drill. I repeat, this is not a drill- where are you going? ”
Tron pushes past him and the line of enforcer programs forming. He ignores the shouts after him as he rounds the corner and ducks under the barrier. There, in the alleyway surrounded by armored programs, a box sits. One of the programs turns and jumps when they see him. “Hey! You can’t be back here!”
“What is it?” Tron asks, growing closer.
“I just said you can’t be back here! You need to evacuate in case this explodes.”
Tron cocks an eyebrow, stealing a glance at the unassuming box. Nothing was pinging his senses… “And you’re certain it will?”
“We just got here, program. We still need to examine it, and we can’t do that until the perimeter is clear and secure.”
“I’m not leaving. I have victims that have gone missing, one of which being a User , and this box could be a clue in my investigation.”
“Get back behind the barrier-!”
Tron ducks beneath the outstretched arm, slipping between the two who tried to block his path. Red tape be fragged, he needed to know-!
He only freezes when he steps in front of the box and it clicks. Someone behind him curses, and Tron can hear them scramble back as the lid cracks open. Nothing fissures. Nothing cracks or sets aflame.
So it takes the four off guard when the box screeches. It echoes from all over ( from the speakers around the city , Tron notes dimly as he slams his hands over his ears). A light flickers from the gap in the box, a hologram , static consuming the screech as an image struggles to take shape. A face finally appears, and Tron’s core freezes in his chest. That face…he knows that face.
“ Hello, Tron.” Cyrus smirks up at him. “ It’s been a long time, hasn’t it?”
“What do you want?” He growls. Cyrus laughs.
“ Straight to the point as always. How predictable. I wish I could say I was impressed with your fumbling little chase to find me. You’ve gotten sloppy, though. Lost your edge. Surely Clu didn’t dull your instincts that much. The old you would have never taken this long to find my handiwork. Wouldn’t have let a User foolishly wander into an unchecked territory alone.”
“What did you do to him?” Cyrus simply grins. “If you derezzed him, I swear I will tear you apart-!”
“ Now that’s the Tron I know. If only you had found him sooner, maybe you could have stopped all the deaths. Kept yourself from trouncing all over your failure of a copy or from running a User into the ground. However, I will give you one. More. Chance.”
Cyrus steps back from the camera. Static disturbs the view for a moment, but when it clears, two figures slump against their restraints. Something long is sticking out of one of them…out of Sam…
“ You still have the chance to save them. Turn yourself in to me, and I will let them go.” Cyrus’s grin becomes sharklike. “ The coordinates will appear after this message. You come without any weapons or guards. Or else you can forget about even finding their voxels ever again. You have one hour.”
The hologram snaps from sight, and Tron realizes the world is dark and silent. He chances a look around, avoiding the transparent expressions of the bomb squad. The screen above them that overlooks the square is nothing but static now…
“TRON!” The world blurs, yet it takes an eternity for Tron to turn and see Valko duck under the barricade. His wide eyes search the hero, filled with fear and an odd tinge of concern. He saw it. Everyone did…
“Sam and Beck are out there,” Tron says finally. He can’t look at Valko, so he returns to looking at the screen above. “Sam’s injured. Perhaps fatally. Users derezz differently yet so easily…”
“I know.” Valko’s voice is soft. “Are you planning to go out there?” When Tron nods, he continues. “This looks like a trap.”
“It is.” Tron agrees. “I know that program, and he would never give them up. Not if he knows that Sam’s a User. He’s been bent on Grid-wide destruction for ages now, and he would never let someone that powerful walk away. And Beck…” He sighs. “He wouldn’t get rid of the set when he could have us all.” Valko furrows his brow but says nothing.
There’s a click behind them, and Tron turns to see a card pop out of the box—the coordinates.
“I’m going with you,” Valko says finally, and Tron finally looks at him.
“You can’t. He said I need to go alone-”
“ Technically , he said ‘no weapons or enforcers. ’” Valko shrugs. “I’m a detective, not an enforcer. My primary directive is to seek truth, not to keep order.”
Tron bends down and picks up the card. These coordinates were in the middle of the Outlands.
“He said you were predictable.” Valko continues. “So you need someone he can’t predict.”
“Fair.” Tron concedes with a sigh and attaches the coordinates to his disk. They click, and the map blinks in front of his eyes before he pushes it to a back process. “But you don’t know Cyrus, and that’s just as dangerous. Beck and I seem to be the only ones who have survived encounters with him.”
“ Frag. ” Valko curses softly. “So nobody else knows what he’s like?”
Tron almost instantly agrees, but pauses. There is one other program that might know…
“Do you think that feed reached the jail?”
“Uh…I guess so. Why?” As soon as he asks, Valko’s eyes widen as it clicks. Tron nods in confirmation and begins walking.
“We have one more program to get.”
Paige is pacing her cell when they arrive. She stops when she spots them, fists clenched in her cuffs.
“I assume you saw the message,” Tron says as he approaches. She glares at him in response.
“You were supposed to protect him.”
Tron slows at that. “...I was.” He admits. “And I failed.” She exhales shortly through her nostrils in response and turns her back to him. “...I ask again, did you see the message?”
“Of course I did!” She spits back.
“Do you recognize that program?”
“Shouldn’t you?”
“That’s not what I’m asking.” Tron’s voice grows firm. He pauses and makes himself take a deep breath. She glances over her shoulder at him at the sound. “Counterparts often share memories, yes? So you know who that program is.”
“...I do.” She starts to turn back around. “I know what he’s capable of, what he did to Beck last time. If you don’t do something, he’ll derezz Beck!”
“I know.” Tron agrees. “Which is why you’re coming with us.”
Valko comes into sight and rapidly taps in the code. Paige’s jaw drops, and even when her cuffs are released and the barrier is removed, she’s frozen. “...What?”
“You’ve seen Beck’s memories. You know what Cyrus is capable of. But he’s never met you . To him, you will be unpredictable. ”
“You can save your husband,” Valko adds. “And I’m sure saving a User will have sway in your sentence.”
That gets her attention. She rolls her shoulders back and meets Tron’s gaze with a burning yet piercing calculation. “Well then, let’s get going.”