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Fanworks: Tron: Fics: Merging with a Memory
Summary
A reinterpretation of Tron: 1982 from the viewpoint of Clu's Bit.
Fix-it fic for a few different tragedies. Technically canon-compliant, because canon is vague as hell and I love it for that.
Daemons can be repossessed, Clu and Ram are drift-compatible, Programs can be copied and backed up.... and Bits are good for a lot of things.
Author's note:
The thought processes that led to this story come from three scenes, mainly.
1. Clu asks Bit, "Do you think we can merge with this memory?" Who knows what "merging with a memory" is, but clearly this is a scene of a Program asking a Bit for advice. (Uprising, too, has a scene of Mara asking a Bit for advice on her hairstyle.) ...Which got me theorizing about what these "Bit" creatures really are, anyway, and what their function is.
2. Ram points out Recognizers by calling out, "Those demons are coming down." Which got me wondering if Recognizers could be "daemons" in the programming sense... and just what that would mean for them and their pilots.
3. And finally... the way Ram's particles disperse when he derezzes, following the lines of the Recognizer around him. This got me thinking all sorts of thoughts that connected to the rest of the canon about Ram, Clu, Recognizers and Bits. And then, well... things just all started to fit together.
(This is..... sorta compatible with "The Greatest Little Deresolution," my other story about what happened to Ram in the Recognizer. This version of Ram does have a somewhat different perception of what happened, but-- with all the merging and diverging of memories here-- I do feel that the circumstances give sufficient explanation for that.)
- Merging with a Memory -
Bit knows something's up.
Something even more, besides the obvious very very bad thing ("Clu program detached from system"). Bit can't even begin to try and figure out how to fix that, how to get Clu back or even find out where he went.
And now there's even more stuff to figure out and it's just... too much. This whole Encom-system is too much. Too much to understand.
Bit knows that Clu worked in other systems before this. Bank balance. Phone bill. Parking tickets. Servers of a phone company and a banking company and the DMV. It remembers, because Bit knows everything that Clu knew. But it knows, still, that it wasn't actually there itself, in those other systems. Not in the form of what Bit is now.
Because this Encom-system is weird.
It does this with programs -- maybe not all programs, Bit doesn't know-- but certainly with the Clu program. It changed him when he was uploaded into here. And one of the changes, for some weird mysterious Encom-system reason, was that it made Bit.
An assistant-backup, an echo of what Clu was. Here to help him. To double-check his calculations, from a perspective just a little different from his own. Another pair of eyes.
...Bit doesn't have eyes, technically.
It sees, of course -- it perceives and processes in all the same ways Clu did-- but this perceiving and processing is not manifested as a face with eyes. The only part of Bit that is visible is the readout.
The symbol, one binary-bit of data at a time. Red spikes for no. Yellow diamond for yes. Gray ball for null. It doesn't need any more to communicate with Clu. Their minds are so alike, so well-synchronized, there's no chance of misunderstanding.
Or so it thought.
But now it can't communicate with Clu at all. Or see him. Or perceive him with any of these other senses that are supposed to be so good at working like his. All it can perceive, here, is the ground and the canyons and the dead Recognizers.
Clu is really gone.
----
Bit explores the insides of the Recognizers one at a time, finds nothing, and eventually nestles itself dejectedly into a hidden corner inside one of the most broken ones. Bit feels broken too. It doesn't want to feel any kinship with this dead Recognizer, one of those which attacked Clu and perhaps killed him. But there is more commonality than it would like to admit.
At least Bit is alive. At least.
The Recognizer is not alive. It's very dead; the life that powered it has been destroyed. Clu managed to do that before he was taken. Bit feels some satisfaction. Clu managed to do that to a lot of these Recognizers. And the pilots of them. Good riddance.
But it still seems unfair that the Recognizers and their pilots got to die together.
A Recognizer is a type of Daemon. A program made to be a helper for another program-- for the pilot assigned to control it. The two have a bond that can't just be replaced. Only the right pilot and the right Recognizer, compatible with each other, can ever fly.
They would want to die together. Either one alone would be without purpose.
Bit is, perhaps, a Daemon too. One that wasn't so lucky. One that has to go on living after its purpose is dead.
----
And this is how Bit has been passing the time-- hiding alone, feeling sorry for itself, because it now has nothing else to do, ever--
Except.... now there is something new. Something even weirder than what's gone on in this Encom-system already.
Bit is no longer the only one taking shelter in this dead Recognizer. Someone else has arrived. Sometwo. There are two new programs in here.
Or, a program and a... something. Unknown.
It looks like Clu. It even feels like Clu, a little.
Recognizing a program involves several senses, including the ones that gauge energy and read code signatures. And this one's code has parts that must be related to Clu's. Too similar. But... not the same. The rest of the code is mostly all wrong. The energy levels, and how they fluctuate-- absolutely all wrong. For Clu, or for any program Bit has ever sensed.
The Not-Clu has just walked in, carrying the other one. A math program, Bit can tell; he looks and feels like someone Clu could have met in the bank account servers. Nice friendly logical program, good with numbers.
The Not-Clu calls him "Ram" and tells him to "hang in there." Bit hopes he survives, but... he doesn't look good. Weak. Circuits dim. Hurt, dying....
Not-Clu lays Ram down on the floor, and then lays himself down on another part of the floor, and they both sleep a while.
Time passes. Bit waits, still hiding.
-----
It seems that Not-Clu wakes himself up, by accident. His hand, twitching against the panels of the floor, sets something off. Things light up. Things that were dead, completely dead, just a moment ago.
This shouldn't be happening. Bit knows it. Ram knows it-- waking up with a start, he says so, immediately.
But Not-Clu says nothing, and keeps doing it.
Light, light, light. Panels turn on. Sound, beeping, chiming, waking up everywhere. Where is it coming from? How?
Yes, a good pilot can repair a Recognizer like this, even if it's very badly damaged. But not if it's dead, every spark of life gone! And anyway it's not actually like this-- it has to be the right pilot, with the right bond to that Recognizer. How could this possibly be happening?
The Not-Clu doesn't even seem to know. He looks as confused as anyone. But also excited, like he's happy about what he's discovering--
Bit doesn't know what Not-Clu is able to sense. Maybe he doesn't even have all the senses that a normal Program has. Maybe he doesn't even know how to look for the flow of energy.
But Bit does. And it looks. And, horrified, it says a quiet, red, spiky NO to itself.
The life is going into the Recognizer. The life is coming from Ram.
Did Ram agree to this? To give up his own life force to bring back this dead machine?
Bit doubts it, because if the two of them planned this, they would both look much less confused. This is very, very definitely not Clu. Because Clu would know better than to accidentally drain someone to death to try and fix a Recognizer--
Bit would not have even thought this would work, to feed the life of a program to the lifeless render of a Reco. To possess a Daemon.
But somehow, it is working. Ram, getting weaker, seems to feel at the same time that the Reco is getting stronger. Rising from the rubble; re-forming itself from fallen pieces that join with deep, shaking impacts. The hum of power vibrates the floor.
It's clear that Ram can barely believe it either, but he can't ignore what he's feeling. His voice quavers as he questions it.
"How can you steal a Recognizer?"
Again, Not-Clu has no answer.
Instead he babbles nonsense things about Ram's weak condition, fake promises to repair him-- as if he has any idea how to do that! He doesn't even seem to realize that he's still draining him closer and closer to deresolution.
Bit flickers, restless. Should... could... Would it even help, to try and stop him?
Probably not. He wouldn't understand Bit, and he'd do the same thing to Bit, just as obliviously. And nothing would change, except one more death.
Does Bit care? Would death be better, now that Clu is gone?
Would it be worth it, risking the danger of flying into this stranger's face and trying to stop him-- if there is some small chance it may save Ram, and a big chance that Bit will just die?
Bit has been thinking life is not worth it anymore. But, now that the opportunity is here.... Bit finds that it cannot quite bring itself to override self-preservation.
Ashamed at its own cowardice, it just stays hidden, watching. Half-hoping for the moment it becomes too late-- the moment when only guilt will remain, rather than both guilt and tormented indecision.
The moment comes quickly.
Ram-- so kind, so trusting-- gives in to his weakness at last. Sits back and accepts his fate. Holds out his hands to touch the other in farewell, in forgiveness... Perhaps he simply has faith that Not-Clu is doing this for a great cause.
...Bit thinks he is a naive fool. But Bit is still sad to see him go.
Bit watches as they clasp each other's hands, and listens as Ram cries out to the Users. And then, looking up to Not-Clu like a program paying devotion in the I/O Tower, Ram murmurs, "Are you a User?"
Bit doesn't hear a reply from Not-Clu, and can't see his face well from this angle.
But he must have made some movement that Ram interpreted as Yes. The smile that breaks out across Ram's face is tragically beautiful.
....And Bit says another quiet, uncertain "No."
A User? Really?
....Well.
Bit tries to look at this objectively. Having an objective viewpoint is a Bit's job, after all. Yes or no, either way, no bias. But.. this is a much harder thing to be objective about. It's not a simple request like "can we merge with this memory?"
Technically, as far as it knows, Bit has never seen a User before. For all it knows they could be like this person. Or at least some of them could. There is no certain knowledge that rules out the possibility of it.
Would that explain why he is so similar to Clu?
Would that mean he is Clu's User? Is that how Users and Programs work?
It's the only connection Bit can imagine that could explain this. And Bit doesn't want to believe it. Bit wants to believe that Clu's User is wise, and good, and pretty much perfect.
But... this might explain a lot of things.
Things like why Clu's User sent him into that crowd of Recognizers in the first place -- far too many of them, too many of those Daemons coming down, no chance for Clu to win, and when Clu began to protest, his User just talked over him and made him keep going.
Which can't possibly have been for any good reason, looking back on it. All that came of it was capture and probably death.
Which makes no sense, if Clu's User knew what he was doing.
But does perhaps make sense... for a User like this one.
"Flynn," Ram gasps, dying. "Help Tron?" ...And then he disintegrates into bright sparkles, dispersing.
This is... several new pieces of information at once. Bit stores them all, unsure what else to do, unsure of priority.
- This User is named Flynn. That is what Clu always called his User. This probably confirms it all.
- Ram and Flynn are trying to help Tron. This may be important? Clu was aware of Tron, before. Tron is an important program, rumored to be perhaps the only one who can stop the MCP.
- Ram's body is... not being destroyed.
Breaking up into smaller and smaller sparks, yes. But they don't wink out and disappear. Instead they just slide away in all directions.... following the straight lines and obtuse angles of the Recognizer, before they finally sink into their surroundings and are lost from sight....
Bit knew that Flynn was giving Ram's energy to the Recognizer, but it had assumed that this would be only the capacity to live-- not the life of a specific person, the unique identity that made Ram Ram.
In all the deresolutions that Bit has witnessed, the visible render breaks up when the mind, the self, is lost. And it had been expecting that Ram's would, too.
Could this mean....?
Well.
If there's an answer, it won't come from Flynn. He still has no idea what he's doing. Bit is still very sure of that.
"Ram. Ram!" Flynn cries out in anguished surprise, seeing him derezz.
And he stays very still, afterwards, for a long while. His hands stay holding the space where Ram's hands dissolved into mist. Shock. Like he's only just now realized that he lost someone.
Bit can only imagine what's going through his mind. But it can't be anywhere near realizing the truth.
Bit also isn't very sure of the truth, it admits.
And yet.... Oh, there has to be some way of communicating some things to this lost, oblivious User. Things he needs to know, if he's going to get any farther here without causing more of this chaos...
Bit waits, fighting its own fear.
By the time Flynn finally gets up and returns to the controls of the Recognizer, Bit has worked up just enough courage. Pixel by pixel, it emerges from its hiding place. Halting, cautious-- it makes its way over to him.
Clu could always tell when Bit was anywhere near him, on any side. But Flynn doesn't seem to notice, not until Bit floats slightly above his head and makes a small swoop down in front of his eyes. And he jumps, startled. "Hey! Hold it right there!"
Oh, he is all wrong -- the helmet, his light line pattern and color, his facial expressions and body language and how he talks, all wrong! And yet... and yet there is still enough of Clu in him that his words take instant command over Bit, making it pull back instinctively with a rapid "Yes" of acquiescence.
Bit has to remind itself that it isn't the real Clu talking to it so harshly, and shouldn't hurt like that. Nor should it hurt that much when Flynn seems to reject the answer, snapping "What do you mean, yes?" Bit tamps down the feeling and holds strong, repeating itself.
Which still doesn't impress Flynn. "Is that all you can say?"
Bit resigns itself to this User's total lack of knowledge, and gives its answer and evidence in one efficient reply. "No."
"Anything else?"
It flickers, irritated. Clu's mind always used to be in sync with Bit's mind. Clu always asked good yes-or-no questions that made sense.
What does this "anything else?" mean? Anything else besides yes and no? Or anything else besides the No that it just said? The latter is obvious, since Flynn has already seen its Yes. But the former is such a ridiculous question for a Bit that it can't begin to wrap its mind around that interpretation.
"Yes," it answers, feeling the frustration of a communication gap for the very first time in its life.
And Flynn laughs. "Positive and negative, huh? You're a Bit."
...Something is happening.
The frustration builds, sudden, fast. An unexpected, painful twist in the center of Bit's identity...
"Yes."
But even that so-obvious, so-fundamental answer, in this rapidly turning worldview, doesn't even feel quite right anymore. What is this disorientation?
It feels like a split, like a duality deeper than Yes and No, something cleaving Bit's soul apart, all the way down to depths it hadn't known existed.
"Where's your program?" Flynn asks. "Isn't he going to miss you?"
And the disorientation becomes sickening, with that unheard-of juxtaposition.
A yes-or-no question immediately following after an open-ended one? And Bit's identity screaming on the inside... as if it somehow wants, very badly, to answer both at the same time, as if it somehow really, really should be able to--
But it is still only capable of a Bit's responses, and it answers the second question with the hollow, aching truth. Clu can't miss it! Clu is dead!
"No."
And yet, even the reasoning behind that answer feels wrong, somewhere inside the tumult of whatever's happening inside of Bit. Is Clu really dead? Is he here?
This User isn't really Clu, is he? Why is it now, all of a sudden, starting to feel as if maybe he is?
And then, for once, he says a thing that almost seems to be on the wavelength of Bit's thought process.
"I'm your program?"
The contradiction in Bit's mind reaches a crescendo. Neither Yes nor No seems fitting for that. And yet both do. And yet--
"Yes," it bursts out, the side that favors that answer taking sudden full control. But even that side doesn't quite feel that it's the right answer.
Maybe-- maybe the right answer in the wrong direction? "I'm your program" feels like a true statement, just-- not true for Flynn to say...
What in the world is happening?
"Another mouth to feed," Flynn says, laughing. And then.... things go hazy for a while.
---
Afterwards, Bit seems to remember the next few nanocycles from a slight remove, as if it was watching someone else live them.
Flynn losing control of the restored Recognizer, and panicking, frantically asking Bit for help, only a fraction of his questions being actually answerable, and--
Whatever part of Bit's identity took control then, it was a part that knew--or could figure out fast-- how this type of machinery worked, and was very very frustrated with the language barrier in conveying any of this to Flynn.
Answers that didn't feel right, but were as close as it could get. Rapid-fire series of No, sometimes more a lament than an answer. Recognizer spinning and dropping and crashing through things, Flynn clinging to the console like a crazed gridbug, and Bit zooming around in rage and terror and dissociation--
Then--
Then the bottom of the Reco's legs hit a floor too solid to break through, and Bit heard a whole new cry of pain.
Whose pain? Not from Flynn, and not from any part of its own tormented self--
--and Flynn didn't even seem to hear it. Nor the louder, louder cries of pain, as the floor sliced away the whole legs, and the center, and all but the head of the Reco-- now shrieking in anguish as it came to a grinding halt, throwing Flynn straight out the open front onto the ground.
---
Bit remembers all that, now. From a distance, but with a certain clarity.
Remembers, as it continues to hover around Flynn, between him and the still-screaming Recognizer head... the parts of its identity struggling, now, to reach some sort of equilibrium.
Flynn's attention has diverted. He has not started hearing the Recognizer's cry, and now he barely seems to notice Bit anymore, either. Ejected into this new environment, his focus is now entirely on making his way on foot, toward.... wherever he's going, to help Tron or fight the MCP or... whatever he plans to do.
Those plans don't seem to include Bit, at all. Flynn is already turning away, without even a glance back.
...If this were Clu, Bit would still follow, without even a hint of hesitation.
And part of it still wants to follow! Part of it still, crazily, feels a loyalty to Flynn. And not the same loyalty that Bit always felt to Clu, but a whole different flavor of loyalty-- something more complex, a connection between minds more different and distant than Bit and Clu ever, ever, ever were, and yet just as deep, as aching, as devoted.
It's an unsure thing for a moment. There are a few picocycles when Bit believes that its choice will hang entirely on whether Flynn asks it to follow.
But he doesn't. And perhaps that is the only thing that makes the difference.
Flynn staggers off, on his own quest. And behind him, ignored, the broken Recognizer sobs in agony.
And the decision gate closes.
Bit's spell is broken-- it zooms back inside the Reco, into familiar shelter full of unfamiliar anguish. Sympathy, maybe, propels it, although it's not sure what it can do to help here, either.
The Recognizer seems to feel its presence. It seals the panels of the front, trapping Bit inside... and this feels more like the clutch of someone clinging in desperation than a conscious choice.
Green dimness, flickering.
"Yes," Bit says to the room full of screams. It's not what Bit wants to say, but whatever words it wants are not there. "Yes. Yes." Inadequate. So inadequate.
But it forms, somehow, a chant of soothing...and after enough time, the cries gradually begin to quiet. A moment of silence passes. The Reco still feels alive, but...
"Yes?" Bit ventures, hopeful.
"You there?" It's a voice. Not Flynn's...
Oh. And now Bit knows that voice! Of course.
Ram! The program that was absorbed into the Recognizer -- and yes, Bit's interrupted thought process from that moment now resumes, in a chaotic sort of way.
"Yes," it answers again.
"Flynn?" The crack of hope makes Bit ache.
"No," it admits.
"Oh. It's you, isn't it." And there's still warmth in Ram's voice. "I... I think I saw you with Flynn, when you both were here. Bit! You're a Bit, right?"
And.... dissociation hits, again. Dizzying.
"Yes... No. Yes-No? No. No. Yes..."
"What's wrong?" Ram's voice is much too tender, too sympathetic. Bit shouldn't be the one needing comfort here.
But Bit is breaking apart inside. Yesnoyesnoyesnoyes.
Are you a Bit? It shouldn't be a hard question! But it is, and the answer is Yes and No and both and neither, and it makes no sense...
"Oh, hey, friend, don't worry." The Ram voice is so kind, so calm still, even though the strain of pain is still in it. "It'll be okay! I think I know what's happening.... and I promise, you'll be okay. Better than okay."
Thoughts divide.
Two of every thought-- every yes, every no, every unanswered question. Diverging, splitting--
Sight, the world as Bit sees it, skews into double vision. The two views slide apart, first identical but rapidly shifting, and--
And then, suddenly--
--there's just one again.
All back to normal. All at once.
Bit is Bit again, nothing but Bit-- no more duality beyond the normal yes and no. Certain. Identity unshakeable, all the confusion cleared like dispersing sparkles of deresolution.
But where did the other go, then?
The other view, the other version of its mind? It was there, wasn't it? And now it's--
Oh!
As Bit takes in its current view, the answer looks back. Golden circuits, strong steady face, eyes as familiar as life itself.
Clu is back. Clu is back--
"Yes yes yes yes yes yes yes!" The world becomes a dizzy swirl from the viewpoint of Bit zooming around its Program's head, the wildest welcome. And Clu just chuckles softly, the most enthusiasm he ever shows-- and that, too, is familiar and right.
"Seems I'm back." He looks around. "Do you know what happened, Bit?"
"...No." Bit doesn't completely know, so it's probably the closest answer. It sure doesn't know more than Clu does, right now.
"Hey," says the Ram voice, resonating from everywhere inside this Recognizer. "I think I do know. You... Well, a Bit is an assistant backup, right? I've never had one of my own, but Tron's told me about them. Like a copy of your own mind with a little different perspective, right? For another viewpoint to help double-check things. Useful idea, I always thought."
Clu nods, still looking around like he's trying to decide where to face. "Yes, it's useful. I don't understand how it brought me back, though."
"Mm." Ram seems to notice Clu's discomfort, and begins to concentrate his voice in one area, near the controller. "You ever been restored from a backup before?"
Clu turns that way, relieved to have a direction now. "No. Not in this system anyway."
"Me either," Ram admits. "Not in this system-- and this system's all I can remember very clearly, and most of it's been in the cells and the Games." As he speaks, Ram seems to concentrate himself more and more in that space, until there's not only his voice but a sense of the mass of his body. First just a sense, and then a faint glow... and then, line by line, something approaching the circuitry pattern of his former shape, vague but real, visible, standing before the controller.
And now, suddenly, it has the outline of arms and legs too-- and wild curls of hair, and enough of a face to smile. "...But Tron told me lots about the world out here. And from what he told me about backups, I'm sure that's what just happened! Bit, you brought him back because that's part of your function."
Though Ram is still translucent, ghostlike, his smile is even more beautiful than the one he gave Flynn as he died. Because this one's happy. He leans back against the controller-- a casual lean, like he already feels at home here, although there's still a tension in it like a half-hidden pain.
"I think that happened to you now because of the User. But I think it would have happened eventually, no matter what. It's one of the things a Bit is for. To be a backup."
Clu looks around... nodding, accepting it. It's how Clu works. Makes sense, so it is now part of Clu's world. Simple as that. "Okay," he says, eyes still focused straight at Ram's new-manifested projection. "And what about you?"
"I think..." Ram shrugs, giggles. "Well, this is gonna sound weird, but I think I just got backed up."
Clu tilts his head. Bit bobs up and down, a confused gray ball.
Ram adjusts his position, legs crossing at the ankles, and spreads out his hands. "Hey, I mean... Well, I can see that I'm part of this Recognizer now. Or what's left of it, anyway. And I can see that Flynn put me here. But I remember when my energy was breaking up, absorbing into the machinery... I remember more of that than I would have expected, really, since I was all just little sparks while it happened!" His hands raise up, fingers all wiggling. "But... I remember those sparks phasing through all the code of the Reco, finding their places, reassembling into what I am now. And while that was happening-- well, I'm sure I felt a... a doubling. Duplication? Being two copies of me at once, for a moment. Any idea what I mean?"
"Yes," Bit chirps out at once. Because... yes. Exactly! Bit knows the feeling--
"So.... what do you think happened to the copy?" Clu asks.
Ram shrugs, again. "I think I am the copy. Or, well, we both are-- it's just a clean split, you know? But, seems I'm the one that became the Recognizer's new mind. And the other one's more like how I was before. But I think he... um.... left." One hand extends, waving vaguely. "Like, after, um, whatever Flynn did-- I felt him pass all the way out of the Recognizer's code. I think he's out there. Probably still an energy-cloud now-- I think Flynn somehow gave him a bunch of energy, at the same time he was draining me. But I think he's gonna reboot back there on the floor of the canyon, before too long. Probably won't remember much of anything after, uh, saying goodbye to Flynn."
"Flynn..." Clu goes even more thoughtful, even more guarded, his own mind probably trying hard, still, to make sense of his User. "So.... you think Flynn did that? Copied you so you could be the Recognizer?"
Ram grins, half-shakes his head, holographic curls tossing. "I mean, I don't think he planned it all. He was doing a lot of what he did by instinct, really. Not conscious of it. But, yeah, that's what he did."
"Are you... going to be okay?"
"I'm... not all that sure, to be honest." Ram's mouth is so expressive. And now it expresses something too complex for Bit to read. "I mean, copying feels normal to me, I was written for distribution. And I don't really mind being a Recognizer, either? I'm flexible, I can do a lotta jobs well, and this actually feels pretty cool-- in principle, anyways. But..." He winces, shifting his legs a little. "I've taken a bunch of damage. I can feel what's happened to this whole Reco body, and it all... well, right now it all hurts really bad, to be honest. You think you could try and do what your programmer did? Fix me up?"
Clu stares, his face still frozen."I'm-- I'm not a Recognizer pilot."
"You're a tank driver, right? Similar skills." Ram leans toward him conspiratorially. "And you seemed to have a pretty good idea, when you were stuck in Bit's body trying to tell Flynn how to drive this thing."
"Even if I was, not every pilot can restore a Reco like that." Clu shakes his head, a small short motion. "Only the right pilot, who has the right bond to it."
"I mean... your User did kinda create both you and me, right? If that's not a bond, I'm not really sure what is."
And Bit watches Clu processing that.
Their minds are in sync again, thinking alike... and Bit knows that Clu is thinking about the connection he feels to Ram.
It's not intuitive. They've only technically known each other less than a microcycle. It doesn't seem like they should have the sort of bond that a pilot and Recognizer ought to have...
And yet, it knows that Clu's feelings say otherwise. Maybe it really is because they were both just brought to life by the same User. Or maybe it's because of the friendship that the User seems to have built with Ram over the past several micros, a connection now being echoed in his program. But whatever it is, Clu can't deny that a bond of some kind is there. He feels it. Ram feels it. Bit feels it, too. The energy of Ram pulses in sync with its own.
"Can't hurt to try," Clu says at last. "I'm not sure how to start, though--"
But even as the thought comes into his mind, there's an almost instant response.
The energy of the Recognizer -- Ram's energy, sweet helpful cooperative Ram-- surges up to meet him more than halfway, and....
And it's perfect. Bit sees the shape of it, feels the direction of the energy -- and can't help shouting out a "Yes!" of celebration.
They're an ideal match.
Clu, who can intuit the workings of machines almost as well as his creator, and Ram who's so quick and clever and always brimming with such an all-purpose eagerness to help-- their energy pulls together, strong enough to overtake any obstacles from not being designed for such a purpose. It's magnetic -- as strong as any Daemon-program bond that Bit has ever, ever seen.
Things light up. Things that seemed dead, just a moment ago. Light, light, light. Panels turn on. Sound, beeping, chiming, waking up everywhere. But this time even better, even stronger-- because this time, both Clu and Ram know what they're doing. Their power has purpose, intent-- and Bit can feel it.
Ram spreads his arms and leans way back, sighing in relief, like the pain is washing away at last, his smile radiant. This time, the pieces of the Recognizer join up like a program being reconstituted from deresolution. Even the pieces that were disintegrated, even those come back, rising in clouds of glittering dust, millions upon millions of fragments, gathering and swarming in glorious storms from all down the canyon. Even from here inside the Reco's head, Bit can tell that's what's happening-- the power of it is palpable, unmistakable.
And this time, with a deep, shivering, resonating tingle instead of just some jolts of impact, the pieces all come back together, clicking and sealing perfectly, at once, into millions and millions and millions of tiny, exactly right places.
Clu and Ram build the Recognizer anew, the Recognizer that's now Ram's body-- and this time it's right. Even the foot that was broken, the one flaw from before, is now whole, shining clean like all the rest. The entire thing glows, inside and out-- a tingling warm loving glow.
The projection of Ram at the controller is now even brighter, and he beams with joy. "Oh, nice work! Ha haaaa! Oh, thank you so much, man! I knew you could do it-- Man, I owe you, so much! -- without you I would be gone now. Dead, derezzed, deleted, just a memory!"
Clu's mouth turns up just a tiny bit on one side, the littlest smile. "Isn't that what you are anyway?"
And Ram is still on his wavelength enough to get the joke. "Ha! Well-- yeah, though technically not really. I use memory, I even use quite a bit of RAM-- but my name's short for 'Risk Assessment Mathematics,' at least that's what it says in my libraries. Not saying I understand all the words I find in my libraries, but I know they're relevant to me and they're the words of the Users. So..." He holds out his hands again, a carefree gesture. "...Well, I guess you managed to merge with me, anyway, huh?"
"What do we do now?" There's a twinkle of amusement in Clu's eyes, but his focus can't stay undirected for long. Bit can see he's getting restless. "Flynn's still out there, on his way to fight the MCP. Suppose you can function as a Recognizer now, and I can function as your pilot. Does that mean we can do something together to help his fight? To help Tron?"
"Oh, you bet we can!" Ram claps his hands. "We can fight better than anyone now-- I can feel it. You and me, we're gonna head toward wherever it looks like Tron and Flynn's gonna be, and we'll stop every Reco and every tank that's on its way to fight them. Take out every enemy in their way. Give them the best chance they could ever have!"
His translucent hands grip the controls, and suddenly mechanisms all through the Reco begin to twitch, like new limbs and joints trying themselves out for the first time. "I can do so much! Oh wow, I think I could even change the shape of this thing, make it a big fun stompy robot, wouldn't that be awesome--"
"Please don't try too much," Clu blurts out. "Not yet anyway. Don't risk breaking yourself now, when we still have so much to do--"
Ram gives a playful almost-salute, backing away from the controls with his head bowed apologetically. "...Okay, okay. Fair point. Later, then. Right now, we go out there, and we just fight for the Users with everything we've got. And afterwards we'll find them-- everyone, Flynn and Tron and Yori and Dumont and all his other friends he ever told me about, and the other me, too-- and we're all gonna have the biggest party together! Our side is gonna win, man! And you and me are gonna be a part of it!"
Bit can't hold back another delighted "yes!" Because now it feels like truth. For the first time in a microcycle, Bit has hope. For the first time in a microcycle, Bit actually trusts that things are going right again.
And Clu finally just looks straight at Ram and smiles, a grim smile, but a real one. He steps forward, hands twitching for the controls.
"Let me at 'em."
-----
-END OF LINE-
Credit for some of my inspiration: r-4360waspmajor's drawing of a Ram-Recognizer Transformer on Tumblr, posted independently around the same time as I was posting about the "daemon" theory, both of us initially unaware of each other's insights. (I swear, some of us Tron fans are just as drift-compatible as a Mech-ognizer and its pilot...)
Fanworks: Tron: Fics: Merging with a Memory
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