Chapter Text
This wasn't supposed to happen.
Beck thought he had been careful. He had stopped taking off his mask while working as the Renegade. He didn't change out of the suit until he was sure he was alone or out of the city. He had managed to even school his features to never give away any inkling of his opinion on the Renegade.
But it hadn't been enough. Somehow, someone found out.
The guards came for him just after the beginning of the work cycle. He had still been buzzing off the high of hanging with Zed and Mara the previous cycle. Even with the Occupation crowding everything, he had been able to forget about everything for just a minute.
All work paused as the Recognizer landed in front of the Garage. The mechanics watched as the sentries marched down the ships, led by both commanders. Pavel took in the gaggle with a barely hidden smirk. Paige…she searched the crowd silently. Her eyes finally found Beck from where he had risen next to his station and narrowed.
"There." She pointed at him, and all eyes swiveled to him with murmurs. The sentries converged on him instantly, shoving his coworkers out of the way.
"Beck." He heard Able's voice a distance away. A warning.
Beck held up his hands as he took a couple of steps back, showing fingers instead of fists. "Is something wrong-?"
He broke off with a grunt as they plowed into him. His back slammed into the bike he had been working on before he was flipped over. His arms were jerked behind him and he felt the cuffs snap over his wrists. "Hey!"
"Based on the testimony of a true Argon patriot," Pavel announced, more to the garage than to him, "you are hereby arrested on suspicion of being the Renegade!"
Gasps rippled through the crowd. "What?" Beck tried to redirect his panic when it pinched his voice. "I'm not the Renegade!"
"I find that hard to believe." Pavel scoffed. "After the mercy the benevolent General Tesler gave you by letting you survive the Games, this is how you repay him?"
"What?" Mara's voice choked, somewhere behind him. He tried to turn to find her, but a guard shoved his head down against the bike.
"His disc will tell us the truth." Paige stated, before turning to the others. "Back to work, programs!"
The guards hauled Beck to his feet to follow the two commanders. Everyone knew, they knew everything.
Didn't mean he had to go down easy.
He dug his heels into the ground when the guards tried to pull him along. His protest made them stumble. He jerked back, but they quickly recovered with a tight grip. "Let go of me!"
"Beck!" Someone screamed his name. He isn't sure who.
They pulled him upright again. He began to squirm, throwing elbows and trying to stomp on boots. Something cracked over his head. Spots danced in front of his eyes as something trickled down his hairline. The world tilted and blurred between white, blue, black, and orange. He felt his feet drag along the floor as they took him into the recognizer.
"This…is the Renegade?"
Beck's head still throbbed, but he was able to focus his glare at Tesler's unimpressed face. The general considered him, a prosthetic finger tapping against his temple.
"Am I supposed to know who this is?" Tesler asked.
"His name is Beck, sir." Paige answered. "He's a mechanic from Argon Park."
"A mechanic?" Tesler scoffed and reclined in his throne. "I expected someone far more impressive than some beta."
"He's not just some mechanic." Pavel simpered. "Perhaps you remember him from the Games. He was the one you allowed to go free."
Tesler straightened at that. His eyes narrowed. "Him?" He rose to his feet. "I should have guessed as such." In moments, he was in Beck's face with a fist in his hair. Beck gritted his teeth with a grunt, but otherwise kept his expression neutral. "You thought you could outsmart Clu? Outsmart me? You stupid program."
The code loss must be short circuiting Beck's mainframe, because he slurred. "You can't prove anything."
"Oh I can't?" Tesler's grip tightened on his scalp, tugging painfully on the open wound from his arrest. He looked up to the two commanders. "Show me his disc."
Paige was the one to slip it off of Beck's back. "When we first probed his disc, his memories were blocked by a firewall."
Good. Tron's defense held up.
"It took some time, but I was able to crack it. This memory should be proof enough."
Frag!
Tesler let go of his hair and he couldn't help but slump over. He chanced a look up to see his past self blow up the statue, fight his way out of the city, meet Tron…
Tesler finally shut his disc down. He was silent, but his gaze was stormy.
"Assemble a team for the Outlands and contact the Luminary. Clu will be pleased to know we have found Tron."
"No…" Beck muttered.
"Keep him alive. But barely."
"No!" That finally got Tesler's attention as Beck tried to push himself to his feet. "Leave him alone! You can't do that-!"
He broke off as Tesler's arm shot out, grabbing him around the neck. His head slammed into the ground again, and the grip kept him pinned.
"You are in no position to demand anything!" Tesler thundered, and his grip tightened. "You are nothing but a deluded mechanic who thought he could fool everyone! But you failed! And now everyone will see what a failure you are."
The hand around Beck's throat continued to crush him. Spots were returning in his vision, and he felt his core begin to stutter and fail…
And just as quickly, the grip relented. Air rushed back into his systems, his own gasps loud in his ears as his vision slowly returned. He hated how he curled in on himself, how loud he vied for air.
Something clattered to the floor next to him, rolling a couple times before trembling to a stop. His disc slowly came back into sight as his vision cleared. "Gather everyone in the square by the end of this cycle, and get him out of my sight."
Two hands hooked through each of his arms, dragging him before he could get his feet underneath him. He faintly noticed Paige pick up his disc and follow as Tesler settled back onto his throne, no longer looking his direction.
The square's crowd thundered all around him, the sea of indiscernible faces looking down at him. The floor underneath him was cold, uninviting. Between that and the taut ropes stretching him three directions, his back ached from the tension of holding himself up.
"Programs of Argon, I want to thank you all for your attendance of this magnificent occasion, and for your cooperation." Tesler's voice boomed. "Thanks to you, the Renegade has been captured and unmasked! As you can see this, program is no Tron, but just a pathetic attempt at a lie!
Fortunately, the citizens of this outstanding city rose to their civic duty. After today, peace will return to Argon, and the Renegade will be no more!"
The crowd roared at that. Beck searched among them for a familiar face. Would he find Mara's pity? Or Zed's smirk or horror? Or Able's grief?
But he couldn't find any of them. Only strangers looked back at him.
"Goodbye, Renegade!"
The lights of the square flickered out, and the crowd hushed. After a long moment, everything flooded back on, and the squealing of tires joined the screams.
His back began to stretch, leaving the floor beneath him. The tugging in his arms and legs began dull, but quickly began to burn around the joints. Beck bit his lip with a choked groan and squeezed his eyes shut. The pulling didn't stop.
His left shoulder finally dislocated with a loud crack, and pain jolted through his body. His eyes shot open with a scream, fueled by the dislocation of his right. The crowd's cheers crescendo with the bloodlust.
His middle began to hurt. He chanced a look down to see the fracture lines spreading across his shell, growing deeper and darker. Tears sprang up at the sight, and he forced himself to look up to the dark sky above him, as if a jet would shoot down to save him.
But the sky remained just that. Dark, and empty. He couldn't kid himself. Tron was probably captured and on his way to Clu. Zed and Mara and Able have abandoned him.
He's truly alone. No one is coming to save him.