Tron: Deliverance

START PROJECT?

Alan-One listened again for a few long moments. So long that Tron started to wonder what was being said. Alan-One's brow drew down and his lips pursed.

"She...remembers that program, yes" Alan-One said hesitantly.

Tron waited for him to say more but he stayed silent. Then he perked up and looked towards the door. Tron looked up as well, sensing multiple figures coming towards the main room.

Sam Flynn was the first to enter. His face seemed, troubled? Conflicted?

"Hey, Uncle Alan, Tron" Sam Flynn started. He rubbed his chin for a moment "We finally managed to give Aunt Lora access to some of the files from the basement but...." He looked at Tron "There's something you need to see"

"Me?" Tron asked, perplexed.

"Probably you too Alan, if you want to come. I heard Aunt Lora giving you the rundown. Everyone else will stay up here. It'll be sorta crowded down there with all of us"

Alan-One looked at Tron, his face a complex mix of emotion.

"Ill come" He said, powering down Tron's discs and rising. He handed the discs back to Tron.

"You're not at 100% yet but once you bring them online my patches should settle in place" Tron took the discs and holstered them, feeling the familiar rush as his discs and code synced. Then he shuddered a bit, feeling the code in his chest and neck shift. Slowly, ever so slowly his inner processes sped up and the pain receded. He gasped slightly and slapped a hand over his chest. It was strange, to be without the pain. Bits of it was still there, The scar along his jaw remained and he still felt that aching creep of malware in the deep corners of his code. But the change was enormous.

"Feel any better?" Allen-One asked hopefully.

Tron stood easily, marveling at how much smoother his run times were. His passive sensors shot outwards. He swore he had a bit more range than before he had been infected. He coughed a laugh.

"Much better" He said, giving his creator a slim smile.

"Good, then lets go see what Flynn left us" Alan-One responded, his expression a bit more guarded than it had been for most of the cycle. This made Tron uneasy, but he shook the feeling off and followed his Creator from the room.

Both users were very quiet for the elevator ride down, making Tron even more curious about what they were going to see. They made it to the sub level and Sam Flynn strode forward, powering up a work console. An image of Flynn flickered to life and Sam Flynn fast-forwarded  the message. He look over his shoulder at Tron.

"My dad left a final message for me and Quorra. You don't need to hear all of it but there is one part you'll want to hear"

Sam Flynn stopped the recording and played it. Kevin Flynn spoke, his face much older and his manner much slower and more deliberate than he had been all those cycles ago.

"In this room are two programs in stasis. I met them in the old Encom system. They are the second biggest way I failed Tron, aside from getting him killed" Flynn began speaking about Ram and Yori. About how he had spent cycles trying to revive them. About how there might be a chance that users Lora Prime and Roy-K might be able to bring them back.

Tron had to put his hand on the back of the chair in front of him to hold himself up. He grit his teeth, to hold in the surge of sadness, confusion and just the edge of what felt like hope.

Yori and Ram alive again? Could it be possible? Could he let himself believe it was possible?

All those cycles ago when Flynn had told Tron about the attack on the Encom server, that was the one and only time Tron lost his temper on Flynn. Tron had sunk into anger and despair when he heard the news. And he had snapped when Flynn had started to talk about bringing Yori and Ram back.

Even when Ram had fallen the first time in the old system, he had not been the same when Roy-K had rewritten him. He had no memory of Tron and their adventures. But Flynn had been adamant to include the newly written Ram and eventually Tron had come to care for him as a friend all over again. But he had known in his core that the new Ram was not the same program. Just like if Flynn rewrote Yori and Ram now they wouldn't be the same programs. They wouldn't remember anything.

Tron had told Flynn so, railing at him, lashing out at him in grief. Just rewriting and replacing his friends would not fix everything. It might be that way for Users but it couldn't be that way for programs. It would dishonor the programs and their memories to just replace them like spare parts.

Tron looked at the files Flynn left and gasped. It seemed Flynn had taken his words back then to heart. He hadn't just tried to rewrite Yori and Ram and their functions. He had reassembled and restructured their shattered memory files. He was trying to bring them back entirely. But he hadn't succeeded.

Tron dropped his head, his face down to the floor. For hundreds of cycles Flynn had been down here, painstakingly trying to put Yori and Ram back together. Even when he thought Tron was dead.

That was the part that surprised Tron the most. Flynn had thought he was destroyed, yet he had still tried to bring them back. He had cared. In ways Tron had never quite expected. Flynn had cared for them.

Tron felt a warm hand fall on his shoulder. He looked up, surprised to see it was Sam Flynn. He attempted to pull his features into something less broken. Composing himself.

"Tron, Lora and Roy have these files and they're ready to work on putting these programs back together. But we want your permission. They're your friends. If you just want to let them rest then we'll respect that. But if you'll let us, we'd like to help"

Tron stared at the User for a long few moments. Completely at a loss.

His choice?

How could he choose something like that?

Alan-One stepped forward, he looked up at Flynn's image for a long moment then turned his saddened face to Tron. "Im not even surprised Flynn would pull something like this. Taking one last crack at fixing everything. But Sam's right. Frankly, this decision should have always been yours. If it helps, Lora and Roy are two of the best programmers I've ever met. If anyone can make this happen. Its them"

Tron stared at Alan-One for several long moments. He was utterly lost on this. He didn't know if he had the strength to hope and then lose again. But, Flynn had tried. He had tried for so long to honor Tron and his wishes for his friends. Tron's shoulders sagged and he sighed.

Tron moved to one of the stasis tubes. It lit with blue light and he saw a pale figure, made of luminous lines of code. Code he recognized.

Yori.

He missed her, he missed them both. Though it had been over a thousand cycles since he had seen them. He had lost many other programs in that time. Programs he had considered his friends. But somehow it had always started with these two. This loss. This failure.

He pressed his forehead against the tube for the barest moment, finally finding the strength to speak.

"Yes. Please. If you can. Please fix them" he said, half in relief and half in resignation. He was deciding to hope again. Hope that maybe what was broken could be made whole.