a_perfect_end: The players tried for a forward pass. (cold shoulder)

they don't care about my inclinations, they're not frightened by my revelations

[personal profile] a_perfect_end 2011-02-18 05:59 am (UTC)(link)
You shall not surely die.

They were halfway through a discussion of the supply issue with the main transfer points under Tron City when Clu made the mistake of saying her name.

Flynn rounded on him, snarled and tore free of his grip. "You don't understand!"

"I could! I could if you would tell me what's happening to you--what it means!" He couldn't vocalize correctly, throat drawn tight. "If you would tell me what to do!"

"I don't have all the answers!" The table cracked under Flynn's palm, glass spidering outward with the impact. The walls hummed under sudden strain. The floor itself was trembling. "I can't always be here!"

Clu didn't recoil. He advanced, slow and even, suddenly aware.

He couldn't do anything about Jordan. He couldn't do anything about Sam. But Kevin? There was a solution for that.

"I know," Clu murmured, leaning, pressing close. "I know."

He knew exactly what he had to do.

He started by fixing Tron.

-

It was always raining, on the Grid, because they had decided it must be. It was always raining, in repeating fractal patterns that coordinated exactly with the changing of the hours in the outside world. It was the first thing they achieved together. The start of a bold new synchrony that would begin here, in the inside world, and extend to the one beyond.

"You were right," Flynn said, grinning like his old self again, but sharper. Keener around the edges, somehow. "You were right all along."

It was the first day, and for the first time in a long time, it was good.

On the second day, they prioritized, and on the third, they wrote the names of every program running. Organized a database. Sorted out the stragglers. The fourth day was for tearing down, and the fifth day was for building up. The sixth day went entirely into design and deployment.

The seventh day was a day of rest, one long stretch of sleep, each in their fashion--Clu stood to one side, and was shocked, fascinated, to find that Users slept
on their spines or their sides or their stomachs in a sprawl, in the dark softnesses of beds.

Beds were awesome. Eventually they'd cover the Grid with them, but this one was adequate for its present purposes, all black sheets and close warmth. For a long time, he watched Kevin sleep. And for a little while longer, he listened, learning the slow, steady thunder of Kevin's heart beneath his ear.

The Games reopened on the eighth. On the ninth, their first opponents fell.

By midnight on the ninth day, all was right as rain.

-

Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked.


out of memory at line
END

-

And it was the best fanfic ever.
theuserabides: (Joy follows them like a shadow)

Re: they don't care about my inclinations, they're not frightened by my revelations

[personal profile] theuserabides 2011-02-18 06:24 am (UTC)(link)
/swoon
double_discs: (clu » behind darknes)

[personal profile] double_discs 2011-02-18 10:43 am (UTC)(link)
This. This is canon. Because on the inside this is exactly what CLU wants.