A Beacon of Light In The Darkness
A Tron/Tron 2.0 fanfic by
Kia Purity

Disclaimer: So, I have no idea of the whole story for Tron 2.0 but I'm winging it as much as I can. (Even though the game isn't out yet... I still want it. ><;) I'll probably have a /totally/ different fanfic by the time the game is out. :P I don't own anyone but Caila! O_o;  Yes, I used to own a Commodore 64.... and now own another one. :x

"Hey?"
"What?"
"YOU THERE." The girl pointed in the general direction of her best friend. "What are you daydreaming about?"
"Just video games!"
"Right, you still want to play video games?"
"Nono, I mean design them!" The boy glared back at her. "Why are you giving me the fifth degree when you know this already?"
"Sorry, but I'm just teasing. Don't be mad at me." She laughed as she sat down next to him on the steps.
It was just a beautiful sunny day for these two best friends who were just still in high school, just hanging out as usual.
"Since you gave me the fifth degree... so."
"Hey, yes, of course, I want to mess around with computers." She grinned, proud of the fact that she was able to collect several computers over the years. Her most prized possession was a commodore 64, one of the best computers of the 80's.  Although, she'd like to get a golden commodore 64 or the prototypes 65... she was still happy with what she had.
"You scare me." He couldn't really forget how many computers there were all over her house... not to mention the fact that she kept the c64 in her bedroom. That, alone was enough to qualify her as a nut case.
"Thank you, Jet."
"You're welcome, Caila."

Caila scowled as she glanced at the monitor of the computer that she was trying to repair in a shop that she had gotten an internship with.  The computer was very much unwilling to cooperate and she knew the problem was not with the hardware, but with the stubborn software.
"Damned Microsoft! Why do they have to program like utter crap?"
The blonde with wild blue streaks in her hair cursed loudly as she tried to resist the temptation of smashing the computer to pieces.  However, she resigned to sighing and being forced to file up a report citing that it needs a reformat rather than having anything fixed. Reformats were always the perfect solution.  Unfortunately, it was used too much.
How ironic. She came to work at the office for the sole purpose of hardware, not software.
A thought kept poking at her that she had forgotten to check up on her best friend.  Caila stretched and scribbled on the sticky which was now on the tower, with the proud letters of: REFORMAT.
She turned around and went over to her small office... not much of an office, but a computer and few papers scattered here and there.  Also, there was a phone sitting on it for her as she picked it up, dialing the numbers to the infamous building known as Encom.
The answer to her call was a voice mail with a familiar voice.  She looked rather startled at the voice mail because Jet was rarely away from his computer... when was the last time she talked to him? Hell, she was still trying to hook him up with this one girl who had a crush on him in high school.
When Caila turned her head back to her computer and her eyes widened out in shock.

Help me... system-wide failure imminent... Caila.

The screen went black as flashes of lines and various geometric shapes appeared across the screen.  Then the monitor flickered back to normal as if nothing had happened.  Caila shook her head, feeling rather spooked about it.  She secretly wondered if the stories that she had heard from Flynn about his adventures in the computer were true after all...?  At that time, she really believed it, but she was only a kid. Could there be programs living in the computers?
"No, wait, getting ahead of myself. I need a break from computers."
She stared at the screen in awe. Huh? She moved the cursor over the hyperlink that appeared on the browser that seemed to lead to Jet's web cam at his work.
Click.
The browser loaded the proper files to display the web camera. Something wasn't right. The camera only showed a background consisting of shelves of videogames and manuals.  Where was Jet?
She got up and walked over to the clock where she slipped a piece of paper in it while pulling the lever at the same time.  Ah well, she did need a break from her job.  She quickly replaced the paper back where it belonged as she reminded to herself that she would have to make up the hours on the weekend.

Getting by the security was no problem, after all, she was only best friends with Jet.  Hell, Encom was very familiar to her because this was where she loved to visit all the time in her childhood.  She fingered her visitor's tag as she raced up to sixth floor to where Jet's office would be located there.
"Hey?" Caila called out in the empty hall as she walked through it. "Jet?"
Odd... the halls were unusually dark as she turned around and put her hand on the knob.  This wasn't good. It was slightly warm to the touch.  He was here.
She shoved the door open, staring down at the empty seat with the sticky on it.  The sticky seemed to be displaying a message of "Cai- Something's going on. My father's missing."
Hey, wait, so Jet was going on a mission to find his father? She knew that they weren't exactly close, but... isn't it only natural to be worried? Right?
She guessed that the next clue would be in Alan's office which was located in the laser bay room... little did she know what was waiting for her in there.

The door opened easily as Caila frowned. "Loose doors?"
She stared down at the monitor that was displayed before her along with the most insane mess that she'd ever seen.  Neither of them were slobs, but... this was too much.
"User Cai..."
Caila turned around at the voice, realizing that it came from Ma3a. "Ma3a! Where is Jet?"
"Jet?"
"Yes! Where?"
"Inside."
"What?"
"The computer."
"...how? What?"
A flash of light struck Caila as her molecules started to disappear by pixel by pixel. (Pixel abuse!)  The pixels disappeared inside the machine, sending the poor user on one of her adventures that she never thought she would ever experience in all of her life.
She could feel herself tumbling down something that resembled a tunnel.  Darts of lights and grids passed by her as she broke free of the tunnel.  Suddenly, she started to feel very disembodied... like she was floating in the air as beams of lights rose upwards.  Finally, she was able to position herself much clearly as she passed through one of the grid clouds into the blue light.
The pixels exploded everywhere as her new body started forming.  Blue lines surged all over her body, emitting life as her once green now blue eyes looked up at the yellow grids of Ma3a's face for the first time.
"I hadn't expected to bring you here... but..."
"Ma3a... what is this?"
"You're still a user... but you're in the form of the video game warrior."
"Unreal... just unreal." Caila shook her hair which was now mostly light gray with electric blue streaks.  At least the streaks didn't change.  "I'm actually inside a computer? I'm experiencing what Flynn did? Wow."
Ma3a frowned. "I know you need to adjust to your new surroundings. However, you're supposed to find Alan-2."
"You mean Jet?"
"Yes."
"Great. Do you have any clues?"
"Not quite. I have mapped out where he was before he took a detour. After that, I can't find him."
"Was it you who called me for help?"
"Negative."
Caila looked surprised. Ma3a was probably capable of getting inside her computer, but... she had a firewall locked in place on her computer.

"Do you think she'll come?" Jet looked at the feminine form before him. "I hope I didn't scare her with the message."
He had imagined that Caila would have ran out of her office to find him and kick him for scaring her.  He wondered how she would have reacted to the sticky that he left behind on his chair.
"From what I know of your friend, there's a 75.6% chance."
"Thank you, Mercury."
He stepped away from the I/O tower, trying to figure out where his father had gone to.  He didn't like having to destroy several corrupted civilians that were trying to attack him.  No doubt, he would have to figure this out later, but he had a nagging feeling that a certain person was behind all of this.  There was a fair amount of tension going on with F-Con trying to buy out Encom and the rumors about it.
Mercury followed him, trying to figure out the user, but it wasn't easy.  He was struggling with internal conflicts while at the same time trying to find out what had happened to his father.
Where was he?

This world was just /too/ unreal for her.  Flynn described everything about the computer world... accurate.  Although, his adventure was only 20 years ago and things change.  She had expected to see Recognizers but there was nothing resembling that description as she went on her way, mentally recalling the map that Ma3a had shown her.
She walked to over to what seemed like a network of rings shaped around a exit.  Before she could take the step towards to the exit, a cluster-like being zoomed out of the air and started to float around her.
"...what the?" Caila eyed the cluster. "A bit?"
"Negative. Byte." Byte answered.
"Oh, so upgraded or just totally new?"
"New."
"Figures." Caila sighed as she walked through the exit as the surroundings changed.
This was where things were going to get dangerous from now on.  Viruses, corrupted data, worms, Microsoft... wait, Microsoft? Blasted things were everywhere, it seemed.
"Great, what a day. Getting a spooky message from my computer... and now this." Caila muttered, rubbing her head. "Could anything get worse?"
Suddenly she recalled that F-Con wanted to buy Encom and she had ran into some users the other day who said that F-Con wasn't what it seemed.  The fact that Alan was also missing and F-Con's desire to acquire Encom.
The pieces instantly fit the puzzle in a second and Caila realized just how much trouble Jet had gotten himself in.  This was more trouble than the time that Jet played a prank on everyone by rigging the arcade machines to "Free Play". Needless to say, he didn't get in trouble with Flynn...after all, he did have a sense of humor!
"JET!" Caila yelled in despair. "Byte! What's going on?!"
Byte only made a confused noise in reply to Caila.
"...F-Con is behind this, aren't they...?" Caila muttered as she exited the firewall with Byte on her trail.
She let out a yelp as she saw so many routes leading in various directions.  She didn't know what to do now but call up the map from her memory.  She was going to have to follow Jet's steps... if he was the one who contacted her... then she should get to her computer and start from there!
"How am I going to deal with this! I'd love to have a light cycle!"
Byte screeched at her.
"What?"
Byte moved off in a different direction as Caila followed after, curious as to what the floating spherical being was up to.  Certainly, the spherical being wasn't happy with this user because users are supposedly superior and powerful. Well, this one was confused and lost and wasn't even showing off her user power at all.
In the background, a young woman about Caila's age could be seen whining at a program that had both red and blue circuit lines along with a Commodore logo shining brightly.
"But, C64! I want a lightcycle!"
"NO!"
"Recognizer?"
"NO!"
"Tank?"
"NO!"
"Umm... solar sail?"
"Kia, no."
"Damn! An inverted traffic cone?"
"Where would we find one anyway? Kia, we're getting off track here."
Caila stared in surprise at the two. "Who are you?"
"Oh, I'm Kia. This is C64. We're sorta lost."
"I see..." Caila nodded slowly as the two wandered off.
Byte screeched again as Caila snapped to attention and chased after the spherical being.
"What?"
"How about if we move now?"
"YOU CAN TALK?"
"Pssh." Byte made an annoyed noise and flew off while Caila chased after the annoyed sphere. "I can speak more than just few words! I know where your user friend is!"
"You do? Come on! Tell me! I'm sorry! I don't know how to react because..." Caila stumbled over her words and she clenched her fists angrily. "I'VE NEVER BEEN INSIDE A COMPUTER LIKE THIS! I've only messed around with the hardware and a bit of software, but not LIKE THIS!"
Byte sighed.