Chapter Text
THE 1980s. WHEN YOU HEAR OF it, you think of wild hairstyles, rock n' roll, and cult classics that defined a generation, teens rebelling from parents to sneak out and interlope behind closed doors, the bright lights shining down every corridor, and the addiction to the rush.
They said in that time, bigger was better, and that case was especially true on the technological sphere. Technology was improving, and since Babbage's invention of the computer, communication and work had become defined. Email began to make the practice of writing letters almost obsolete. Websites opened up, expanding to what we now know today as the worldwide web, and applications allowed for cohesive work in the marketplace, whether to write up reports to print on fax machines, storing notes, or tasking an app to do something for you. Think of it like a genie - but instead, you get infinite wishes!
Computers also weren't just the gateway to long hours printing, writing, and applying at the workplace, but also becoming a new source of entertainment. You see, with the meteoric rise of technology also came the even-more meteoric rise of video games, something more visually stellar than a classic board game and ten times more immersive than gathering on your couch to watch a game show on your grainy TV. No. Video games placed you into your own world where you controlled your destiny, and if you had skill, you were in for a blast.
There were many video game legends of the 1980s. Atari. Namco. SEGA. Nintendo. Capcom. Their games were everywhere, bought off shelves at stores, adapted into arcade machines, which in turn led to high popularity of arcades across the world and the rise of the console, a delight for kids young and old. Yet there's one name that stood out among the rest, having a presence at arcades, stores, conferences, and conventions everywhere the eye could see, and early on, proved that nobody could match its skill.
Enter ENCOM, a video game and tech conglomerate headquartered in the magnificent city of Monterrey in Mexico. Their technology, for the time, was some of the most progressive and innovative, from tightly-guarded software systems to some of the most recognizable games still playable today. Some notable games under their fold include Light Cycle, Space Paranoids, and, arguably the most famous: TRON. All those games have one thing - or one person - in common.
Luis Villarreal.
Luis was a humble ENCOM worker with an expansive, creative mind left for his video games, and when Light Cycle was his first success, there was no stopping him from even greater success with his next game, Space Paranoids... until he hit a roadblock in the corrupt, insufferable CEO Ed Dillinger, who, jealous of his successes, fired him and took credit for his game. Though Luis tried repeatedly to hack into his systems to regain the proof, Dillinger and his behemoth Master Control Program denied him access and deleted his helpful hacking tool, CLU, and thus, he was relegated to his successful arcade in downtown, Luis'.
When Dillinger then targeted his friends, fellow software engineer Alan Bradley and digitalization scientist Monica "Mony" Vélez, Luis worked with them to infiltrate into the system and expose Dillinger's deceit. What he wasn't counting on was the MCP's powerful sentience, and it instead transported him into the computer world, what we now know as The Grid. Stuck in his own creation, Luis was forced to play deadly games to survive, and several times, almost came close to losing his life, yet with the help of Alan's protective program TRON and Mony's digital avatar Yori, he was able to breach past the barbaric tortures of The Grid and defeat the MCP.
Dillinger's deceit became public, and he was outed in shame, never to be heard of for the rest of his life. Luis, meanwhile, became CEO of ENCOM and reclaimed his credit for Space Paranoids, which only went viral upon the plagiarism scandal going public. For many years, Luis reigned as the head of ENCOM, fostering a series of software systems free for the people, computer upgrades, and, of course, video games, all while his arcade in downtown reached its peak of popularity, lines always out the door on weekends. He released TRON, based off his adventures on The Grid, and it became his most successful game to date.
Nothing, though, made Luis more happier than Mony, who had grown to be his partner-in-crime and had made aperture and digitalization all a breeze. Gone were the days where she would just digitalize oranges, and now, with assistance from Alan, she was teleporting a wide variety of objects onto The Grid. Soon, there would be humans, and Luis couldn't be prouder... as well as more in love.
In 1999, Luis abruptly retired from CEO and passed on the torch to Alan, wanting to retreat from large-scale work to focus on a more family-centric business with Mony in downtown Monterrey, and his arcade was also passed on to Alan as well, but retained his iconic branding. That same year, he and Mony married, after years of flirting, on-then-offs, and dating, making it official.
One year later, they'd welcomed a baby girl, Daniela. Two years later, they had a second baby girl, Paulina. And three years after she arrived in the world, they had a third and final baby girl, Alejandra.
Luis had created a shining legacy, and though he had passed up the millionaire CEO life and left his arcade and ENCOM in good hands, there was nothing that he'd argue would define his legacy more than TRON, The Grid, and defeating Dillinger but family.
Family, to him, was the purest gift to any legacy.
2005
"The Grid. A digital frontier," Luis, sitting in bed with his five-year-old eldest daughter, Daniela, purred with much mirth and hazy eyes. "I tried to picture clusters of information as they moved through the computer. What did they look like? Ships? Motorcycles?"
"Motorcycles!" Daniela chirped, rubbing her hands and bouncing under the covers. "Vroom vroom!"
Luis, smiling, laughed, ruffling her brunette hair. "With the circuits like freeways. I kept dreaming of a world I'd thought I'd never see. And then, one day..."
Daniela leaned forward, her brown eyes shimmering with a need to know, and in the blink of an eye, she'd figured it out.
"You got in, papa!"
"Haha! You smart girl, Dany. I got in. The world was more beautiful than I'd ever dreamed... and also, more dangerous than I ever imagined..."
"Ooooh," she cooed, clasping her hands together, fidgeting, and tilting her head, and Luis tucked her in with a kiss on the forehead before continuing.
"But I wasn't alone. I met a brave warrior. Bom bom bom bom bom bom!"
From behind his back, he raised up a blue figurine of a computer warrior, shaking him around with silly, excited noises, and Daniela, gasping, fixed her eyes on it with veneration.
"TRON!"
"And who does he fight for?" Luis prompted, causing his daughter to almost undo his efforts to tuck her in with how much she was bouncing and wriggling in her place.
"The Users!"
He chuckled, amazed that at such a young age, his daughter already had sharp memory retention... and was so much like him. He hoped his young daughter could see, or sense, his radiant pride.
"He sure does! Oh man, he showed me things that no one could ever imagine... these discs, these battles, these spectacular arenas and cycles that raced on ribbons of light..." Luis gazed around at his daughter's room, already decorated with posters of his most notable games, especially TRON, and action figurines from it. On one side, perched on a bookshelf, were figurines of him and Mony's avatar Yori (TRON would be there had he not been in his hand right now), and on the right, the red, questionable CGI figurine of the MCP with Sark standing right by him.
On another shelf, there was the early design for the light cycle, by it, an identity disc that his daughter had requested be painted in a swirling yellow. She was a literal ball of sunlight, after all... and it was perfect for her.
Oh, how Luis was trying so desperately to not tear up right now!
"And together, you, TRON, and Mama built The Grid!"
It pleased Luis in more ways than one that Daniela always credited her mother with the foundations of The Grid. Too many, these days, had forgotten about his beloved Mony's role, even if it was little and primarily done at the hands of Yori, but her digitalization process made the whole thing possible, enabling him and TRON to do the rest.
Every little step had a ripple effect on and off The Grid.
"Right. We built a new Grid for programs and Users. Now, I couldn't always be there all the time..."
Daniela stuck out her tongue at him.
"You won't be making that face when you get a job in around ten years from now," Luis teased, rubbing her chin and then her neck, and Daniela squeaked, adverse to being tickled. "As I was saying... I couldn't always be on The Grid. I have to help your mother out with our business here... and also because this world is my first home, much as I also call The Grid home. So I entrusted TRON to protect The Grid whenever I wasn't there."
"Isn't there another program that protects The Grid?"
Confused, the father of three frowned, curious as to what she was getting at, and he raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean, Dany?"
"What about CLU?"
Now that made more sense, and Luis exhaled, putting a hand on her shoulder. "Oh, CLU... Codified Likeness Utility. I'm surprised you remember him from my ENCOM days. I haven't modernized CLU, my Solecito... I haven't seen the need to bring him back since the MCP deleted him."
"But wouldn't he be a good friend to TRON?" Daniela questioned, ever intrigued, and then Luis brought himself to smile again.
He'd known his daughter had an unusual affinity for intelligence since she was a baby... no doubt, she'd taken every character in his life's story to heart. She remembered everything down to the last detail.
One day, that'd be useful when she took up his mantle.
"Perhaps. But there is also a fine line with CLU, and it is very fragile. On one side of that line, TRON would have a best buddy that'd keep The Grid under lock and key from an invasive program or a user with bad intent... but on the other side of that line, you would have a program that could let power go to his head and overshadow TRON."
Daniela gasped, having not thought of that, and she put her small fingers to her lips, her pupils dilated. "Like the MCP..."
"Exactly. Maybe, if there is ever a need for CLU, I can create a modern version of him, but as long as TRON's got The Grid covered... I think it should all be okay, eh, Daniela?"
Satisfied with that answer, she nodded, then becoming questioning, threading the bedspread covering her.
"What else is there to The Grid?"
"Well, one day..." Luis began, his tone dripping into wondrous territory, "something happened. Something... extraordinary. A miracle."
Daniela, wide-eyed with a mouth shaped like the donut pillow on her left, leaned forward again, expecting to hear the answer, beyond eager to hear it.
"What was it?"
Luis was about to hand it to her, enchanted by her dreamy face and boundless curiosity... but then, he played slight of hand, snatching it right out of her wanting hands.
"That'll have to wait for another day."
Disappointed, Daniela deflated, letting out a tiny whine, and Luis got up from the bed, warmly giving her a final kiss on her forehead for the night and handing her a squishy of a strawberry, walking over to her lamp and about to shut it off.
"Papa?"
"Yes?"
"Can I ever come with you to The Grid?"
If there was anyone Daniela was compared to, it was her father. Always, always Luis.
Paulina and Alejandra, her younger sisters, were still too young for Luis to gage where their futures were headed, but he could already glimpse his eldest daughter's, and it was bright.
Just like his.
"When you, Pau, and Ale are old enough, Dany. I promise. There's so much I want to show you. For now... work that beautiful imagination of yours. Take TRON and Yori and I on all sorts of adventures. And..."
Reaching in his pocket, Luis drew a coin and flipped it to his daughter, who effortlessly caught it in her palms, and her smile almost turned the whole mood of the room from night to day.
He let out a short chuckle.
"Tomorrow, what do you say we head out to the arcade? Wanna take a crack at my high score? First game's on me."
In a world where traditional arcades were starting to be phased out by the advent of computer games and consoles, the Villarreals had refused to abandon their roots, and often, they made a pilgrimage to Luis' for hours of quality fun.
And among the family, there was nobody that loved the arcade as much as Daniela... aside from her father, of course.
"Alright! Dulces sueños, papa."
"Dulces sueños, my Solecito."
Luis then shut the light, walking out of the room. It didn't take long for Daniela to fall asleep, arcade coin placed under her pillow, but just before the wing of the raven fell over her, she pictured The Grid and neon lights... and a perfect system she'd one day see for herself.
One day.
2015
In the thick of Cumbres de Monterrey National Park, Daniela, now a thriving, energetic fifteen-year-old, ran down the winding trail in between verdant green trees and bushes of berries and many colorful flowers, clearing logs fallen on the dirt, sending fallen leaves flying, and bouncing toe-to-toe off rocks, propelling her further ahead as she chased the familiar path to paradise.
Unfortunately... the stragglers behind her were not too familiar, and amusedly, she pulled ahead without a sweat, much to their detriment.
"Dany! Will you slow the hell down??" complained her thirteen-year-old middle sister Paulina, huffing and puffing as she tried to keep up, only to fail miserably and fall back further. "This is nature, not PE!"
"My legs hurt..." Alejandra, the youngest of the Villarreal sisters at ten, whined, panting much more raspy than Paulina, who was also holding up her smaller frame against her as they tried to keep pace.
Daniela then slowed down, smiling and shaking out her wavy brunette hair, and she stood atop a log, allowing them to get closer for just a few seconds before her grin upturned a few centimeters too wide.
They were too slow.
She lived life in the fast lane.
"Look out! There's a bear behind you!"
"WAHHHHHH???!" both screamed, running up closer to her while she put on the distance, almost as if she was running with them, but then they glanced behind their shoulders and found no such bear present. Paulina growled, shaking an exhausted fist with sweat gleaming off the wrinkles on her forehead.
"You are such a bully!"
"I almost believed you!" Alejandra added, bumbling on her stubby legs and almost tripping forward into a rock, but her middle sister caught her, and they lumbered on in a series of exhaustive huffs as Daniela, jogging backwards, put no stop on the tricks she had up her sleeves.
"Oh, I almost had you! You gotta be quicker than that!" she taunted, shaking out her hair, and when the trees begin to thin out and the terrain ahead became divided, she knew that she'd arrived at her destination and hopped onto a fallen tree, balancing herself until she reached the center.
Paulina and Alejandra then arrived in tandem, about to hurtle more complaints at her for scaring them half to death, but then, they gasped upon realizing where she'd taken them and joined her on the log bridge, staring out at, what was to her, a picture of untouched beauty.
This part of the national park had opened up into a clearing where the setting sun shimmered onto the waters of a mini lake, its waters crystalline navy-blue, sparkles dancing atop the slowly-moving waves that brushed against the shore, tinted slightly pinkish-orange and decorated by a plentiful arrangement of water lilies. At the front was a giant rock structure, and flowing from it, illuminated in a rainbow, was a gorgeous waterfall that fed the lake, forming small puffs of steam where the fall met the still.
"¡Ay, Dios mío!" Paulina exclaimed, stupefied, and her eyes glistened in the light of the rainbow, her mouth falling wide. "This is... this is incredible!"
"It's so pretty!" Alejandra tacked on, dancing atop the log bridge, and Daniela, smiling, navigated so that she stood between her sisters, wrapping her arms around them.
"I know, right? I found it recently while going on a hike... but I didn't want to share it without you guys. You deserved to see just how beautiful life can honestly be."
Alejandra squealed, enamored, and she wobbled on her tippy-toes, trying to capture everything in the moment. "I wanna stay here forever, Dany!"
"Me too. This is... hey, wait. Did you even name this place?" Paulina questioned, intrigued, and Daniela frowned, tapping against the wood of the log.
"No...?"
"Then name it! You can't let something this special stay bald!"
At that, both she and Alejandra giggled, and the eldest Villarreal sister began to contemplate, studying the way the rainbow refracted off the water and listening to the rushing of the waterfall, a smooth lullaby filling her ears with the song of nature. She heard the leaves rustle, the wind whistling through the pores of every tree, and stared up at the sunset, where the clouds had parted, and the last of the sun rays had snared the falls.
A blessing.
A gift from the Lord above.
"Heaven's Falls. Like it's God's blessing to us."
Paulina smiled, leaning onto her shoulder, her own brunette hair starting to come out of her ponytail. "It's perfect, Dany."
"I like it," Alejandra conceded, trying to lean on her elder sister's shoulder but being too short to do so, and Daniela instead settled her head comfortably by her chest, stroking through her waves of long brown hair.
For a moment, they stayed like that, drinking in the peace and the freedom of being away from home, chores, school, and life itself, and time slowed, yet not to a crawl, neither to a standstill.
All there was to it was the rush of the water, the warmth of the fading sun, and nature's serenity, the hoot of crepuscular owls, the croak of ancient trees.
"Dany?" Paulina, breaking the silence, then prompted, and Daniela blinked, refocusing herself out of the daze and into the present. "Will we always be like this?"
"Of course, chiquita. We're sisters. We do almost everything together."
"Even as we grow up?"
Grinning, Daniela placed her hand on her waist, giving her a gentle squeeze of reassurance, and she gazed out at the newly-named Heaven's Falls, confident, glimpsing the future.
Them.
The family's blood.
A legacy. She'd never felt surer.
"We're always on the same team."
"You're literally a carbon copy of Dad," Paulina quipped teasingly, nudging her, and she was nudged back with a raspberry blown.
"You're in the middle."
"And I guess that makes me Mom," Alejandra murmured, though she wasn't going to complain.
Fifteen minutes later, and night was falling, the first stars beginning to twinkle in the night sky. Not wanting to risk the trouble with their parents, the three sisters took off, and once more, Daniela took the lead, sprinting off faster than a spider monkey in the direction of home... and Paulina and Alejandra knew she was itching for her nightly ritual of coding before dinner.
She disappeared around a bend, but her sisters were in no rush, savoring the nature, the cool of the night, and the adrenaline that flowed through their veins and into their lungs. Nights like these deserved to last.
Especially tonight.
Unbeknownst to them... that very night was the final night that they'd ever see Daniela alive.