Part One "MICHAEL!!!!!" He could feel the heat all around him. He could feel his protesting ribs, his arms trapped beneath him, the weight of his body pinned by charred rubble and burning debris. "Kitt?" His own voice was so weak he could barely hear it. //Kitt// More frightening than the explosion, more painful than his injuries, was the static darkness in his head. //Kitt Kitt Please// //Mi // It wasn't right. What he was hearing was distant, and when he tried to reach mentally for his partner, he couldn't. Couldn't reach, couldn't get close. //Kitt Kitt are you ok// //Ca Mi Ca// //Kitt please Please Stay with me// //Ca Mi// //KITT// ~ "What are you reading?" Nick looked up at the dark dash. "Why?" "Michael Knight likes to listen to music when he and Kitt are on the road." Lowering the book, he regarded his partner with an expression that was part curiosity, part suspicion. "And? So? But? Therefore?"* "I could locate a radio station to your liking." He couldn't quite believe what he was hearing. "You don't have a stereo." "I have several spare channels; I could easily use one of them as a tuner." "That's it. I'm throwing them out as soon as we get back. They're having a bad influence on you." For a second he thought Karr wasn't going to take the bait, and smiled when he heard, "You wouldn't." "No point, is there? When you're constantly in touch with�" The car swerved suddenly, left then right, all over the thankfully otherwise empty road. Nick's book slipped into the footwell as he sat up to grab the steering wheel. "Karr?" Slamming his foot on the brake overrode Karr's control and they skidded to a halt at a thirty-degree angle to the edge of the desert road. "Karr, what the fuck happened?" When he didn't respond, Nick tried an alternative approach. <Karr?> <Kitt. Something's wrong. He's gone. Nick!> <Got his last known location?> <Programmed and set> Reaching for the fallen book and dropping it into the passenger seat, Nick turned the Stealth around. ~ The devastation was lit in strobing red and blue by the lights of the emergency vehicles. They stole across the silky black skin of the car as Nick got out and looked around, taking in the only two details that concerned him right at that moment. An ambulance was stopped to his left, close to what remained of the still-smouldering shell of the building. Two hundred feet or so away from the destruction, at the end of a long path of uneven scores and deep, ugly furrows cut into the stone-covered, weed-strewn track, the modified black TransAm was upside down, resting on its roof. Nick was surprised the wheels weren't spinning, but then maybe Kitt had run out of power, or maybe he'd accepted the futility of his position. <The ambulance?> <Michael Knight. He is unconscious but his vitals are strong, he has two cracked ribs, cuts and bruises and some minimal third degree burning. He will live.> "Excuse me�?" Nick turned, flashed a smile at the police officer, and produced from his pocket the FLAG card he'd stolen from the offices at the mansion last time he'd been there. "Nicholas Rosemont, Foundation for Law and Government. The man over there is another operative and that," he pointed at Kitt, resisting the urge to run to the other car, "is the Foundation's flagship. I need to know what happened." The officer looked at him with eyes full of suspicion, but still he nodded. "We don't know for certain yet, but best guess right now is that your friend left his car just in front of the building and went snooping around the back. When the building exploded, with - according to the fire chief over there - the blast focused at the front here, he was thrown a few feet back, and the car was tossed over to where it is now." Leaving them separated. Worse, leaving Kitt unable to physically reach his partner. <Karr?> <_Kitt? <_K a <_Kitt? What's wrong? <_M i Karr took a logical guess at what his brother was trying to say. <_Michael Knight has some injuries. There is an ambulance here. I've scanned him, Kitt, he isn't badly damaged. I think you might be. <_J a n <Karr?> <Nick, Kitt has sustained some considerable damage. Our link is� broken.> <What?> His partner sent nothing but a warning and that in itself was enough. <Okay, okay. Any idea how to get Kitt back on to his wheels?> Nick approached the distressed car, running his hand down the length of Kitt's dusty, dirty, but undamaged skin, feeling what was invisible to the human eye - the stress tremors running through the specialised body. "Kitt, it's Nick. Can you hear me?" "Ni... wh� Mi�." "Okay, sounds like the connection to your voice modulator has become disconnected. We're going to get you back the right way up." <Call Bonny> <Already done. She'll meet us at the warehouse after she's been to the hospital> <Thanks> Karr rolled up to him. <I need room> Nick backed up, watched as Karr completed some silent and, apparently, disjointed communication with Kitt before tucking his prow under the upturned hood of the TransAm and slowly proceeding forward, edging himself under the heavy car until his fender was pushing against the windscreen, carrying on forward at a slight angle, easing Kitt up until he was standing precariously on his driver's side. With a smile, and with Karr preventing Kitt from falling back, Nick reached up, grabbed a hold of the front wheel, and pulled down with all his strength. The TransAm dropped to all fours with a thud. "Kitt?" "Ni..." <_Kitt? <_K a <He is unable to respond properly. There maybe connections that have become disconnected.> "Pop the hood, Kitt. Can you do that?" After a couple of seconds, a click told him that he had access to the engine compartment, a true show of trust, and Nick lifted the hood and peered inside. His eyes sought out the CPU and its position answered all his questions; either the force of the initial explosion or the impact of the ground over and over until the car had come to rest had knocked the CPU out of alignment, disconnecting it from the sensors, wires and pickups required for the links Kitt had with his own internal functions. Perhaps it had knocked the two links out too. Nick swore softly under his breath. If Kitt's link with Karr was damaged, what if his link to the implant in Michael's brain was too? What if they'd been separated? Nick knew first hand, more times than he liked to recall, the shock of the dark emptiness left in the mind when their wasn't an AI connected. Reaching under the hood, Nick carefully took a hold of the sides of the CPU casing, mindful of the live sensor on the top, and shifted it back into its correct position. There were no trailing wires, no dislocated cables. He could only hope�. "Kitt?" "Nick! Michael's been hurt! I can't� I can barely feel him!" "It's okay, Kitt. He's okay." He looked up as the ambulance drove off. "He's on his way to hospital." Immediately the TransAm's engine fired up. "No, Kitt, wait! We need to�." It was pointless. Nothing was going to stop Kitt from tailing the ambulance carrying his partner. Nick slipped into the Stealth which immediately turned to follow on his brother's tail. "Any improvement to your link with Kitt?" "No. His words are disjointed. They don't make sense." Nick could hear the disturbance in Karr's deep tones; he was worried, upset, scared even. "I think his link to Michael is in the same state, which means he's all but cut off from both you and his partner." <Nick> <We'll fix it. We have to.> He didn't really want to imagine what Kitt's state of mind was right now, didn't want to think about what would happen if the link had sustained permanent damage. ~ Kitt brushed a tendril of himself over the black space where Michael's presence usually glowed with an amber hue. It was splintered, a web of orange cracks where previously solid colour had, by way of its brightness, told him of Michael's proximity. Recently they'd used the link for a deeper intimacy than they'd ever shared, found that by focus and concentration, by blotting out the rest of the world, they could touch one another in a way that felt physical - like a stroking of Kitt's preceptors, like a caress over Michael's skin. But it was gone - Michael was gone. Only� not gone. Lost - distant - like a telephone call made over a satellite link. Kitt could feel a shadow of his partner lurking way back behind the cracked place where the link usually shone bright, but he couldn't push through, couldn't reach him. And his link with his brother too was damaged, like a bad broadcast, a weak radio station signal, parts of words missing, what was left not making sense. He was cut off from Karr, cut off from Michael. Worse. When the explosion - a bomb he hadn't detected? - had gone off, he'd been thrown like any old debris into the air, chucked so far across the dirty track, deposited on his roof so that not only couldn't he reach his partner through the link, he couldn't get to him physically either. He could recall with clarity his useless, helpless scream into the burning silence that had followed. Even the Comlink hadn't been able to give him access to the man whose voice, whose reassurance he'd so desperately needed to hear. Now everything he had was in the back of the ambulance he was following. He was suddenly more aware than ever of Michael's mortality, and of how his whole life - his whole existence - was so dependent on a single human male. Viciously holding back the terrible fear that was creeping around the edges of his consciousness, threatening to overwhelm, he concentrated on the ambulance, the route, and re-aligning the functions that had been taken off line by the jolt of the explosion. ~ Michael woke to a blinding pain at the back of his head and he knew in a moment what it was. It felt as if the implant itself was on fire and he recalled the impact of the building blowing up in his face, the heat of the fire as he'd lost consciousness, Kitt's name on his lips. He cracked his eyes open, his head pounding with that simple movement, and saw Nick sitting on the edge of the bed he was lying full clothed on. "You're in A&E. You've got a couple of cracked ribs, burns on your arms which they're about to treat, a minor concussion�." "Fuck that, Nick," Michael interrupted him, edgy and with good cause, "where's Kitt?" "He's still there. He's taken some slight damage but he's fine." "He's not fine, believe me. He's like� fire in my head." Nick shook his head. "The link's malfunctioning." Screwing his eyes shut, pressing his fingertips into his temples, Michael groaned softly. "Make it stop, please," he muttered without hope. "I'm sorry. I don't know how to. We need to get you and Kitt back to the warehouse, only then can we take a look at what's working and what isn't." Michael immediately pushed himself up, elbows locking. "Then let's go." Lightening fast, Nick reached out a hand and pressed it flat to his chest. "No. You're staying right where you are until they've treated the burns." "I don't care�." "I know you don't now. I know the pain from the link's obliterating everything else, but if they don't treat those burns you know the consequences. When we fix the link, broadcasting that kind of agony to Kitt isn't going to help the situation, is it?" However much sense Nick was making, it was difficult to accept it, to pay attention to it. Carefully he touched the link again, mentally calling Kitt's name, and the response was like an electric jolt. He wasn't sure if his cry was out loud or just in his head, but he felt Nick's hand on his shoulder. Backing away from where his partner's bright light usually broadcast safety, love, and recently so much more, Michael tried to accomplish the impossible; to not think about what was happening. ~ Karr sat physically at Kitt's side in the underground hospital car park. The TransAm looked as dark as he'd ever seen it; windows blacked out, scanner track unlit. It was uncomfortable not to have his brother's presence with him. Since their link had first stood completely there had only been a small number of occasions on which they had lost that connection entirely. Of course they blocked one another; when either or both pairs were on their own cases and when Kitt and his driver required privacy. The relationship between Kitt and Michael Knight now was something Karr still didn't understand, but he didn't have to. His secondary concern after Nick's safety was his younger brother's wellbeing and he knew without question that Knight would never cause Kitt intentional harm. There were no blocks now. It was obvious that Kitt was trying to communicate. Partial words were coming through, but nothing definite, nothing that made any sense. Strange then that he could feel the desperation of the other AI; the terror and pain, presumably from his separation from his driver, were bleeding through. And a thought occurred that Kitt might not have the ability to re-align the link, but maybe he did. He regarded the dark place where his link to Kitt sat in his CPU. If he was wrong he would surely make the situation worse. He might damage the link beyond repair, might damage Kitt further or cause himself harm. His own connection to Nick was separate, standing strong, and although he'd erected a light block, he could feel his partner's strength mingling easily with his own; perfect compatibility. He dropped his block for a second. <I'm going to try to reach Kitt> <How?> The fluid response came back without pause; this was second nature to them now. <By forcing myself into his CPU through the link> <You said the link was broken> <I think it requires realignment> <And you can do that without harm to yourself or Kitt?> <I don't know until I try> He felt Nick's mild frustration and put the block back in place, turning his attention to his brother. <_Kitt, if you can hear me, I'm going to try to break through to you. Don't panic, little brother, just stand back <_K a d t h t y r f o n k There was a frantic nature to the stream of random - or maybe not so random - letters coming through. Karr didn't know what to say so he said nothing. He drew extra power from his packs and gathered it up into the equivalent of an electrical surge, wrapping tendrils of his own self around it, spinning it, faster and faster until it crackled painfully through him. And in that nano-second he launched himself and it at the link. Kitt's scream washed over him, and he was vaguely aware of Nick yelling something at him, but when the surge died down he found himself deep inside his brother's CPU, his own dark presence mingled with Kitt's bright white one. It wasn't that he could hear Kitt, not in words, but he could feel him everywhere, almost a physical part of him, his own immediate reassurance merged with Kitt's fear and distress, and all Karr could do was stay there, hugging in a way, quickly trying to make sense of where he was and how he'd got there. Very, very slowly, Kitt started to disentangle himself from his brother - not completely - but at least so it was clearly where one of them ended and the other began. Karr Everything will be all right Kitt Trust me I've lost Michael You haven't He's alive and well The link is as ours was Michael needs to break through as I did I will tell Nick Karr too backed off a little, leaving part of himself with Kitt while he moved back through into his own CPU. To find Nick's overwhelming presence awaiting him, relief flooding them both. ~ <Nick, this is all very flattering but I've only been gone a few minutes> <An hour, Karr> Nick's tone was grating; he had a migraine to give all other migraines a run for their money. <You were gone. Completely> He gave that time to sink in. <I am sorry. I didn't realise> <Did it work?> Was it worth it? <Yes. I know what Knight must do to reach Kitt. But apparently, he must be careful> It took Nick a moment or two to work out what Karr meant by that. But he worked it out soon enough. Karr's success had meant him leaving his CPU completely, and apart from the separation shock it had subjected Nick to, that was okay, because one CPU was much the same as another. But if Michael's consciousness somehow left his mind in the same way� what would happen then? Was it even possible? He glanced up at the beige curtain pulled around Michael's bed, cutting him off temporarily as the nurses dressed the burns on his arms. He didn't have a choice. Michael would try anything and everything he could to get the link back, picking at it like an old scab until he either succeeded in breaking through on his own or hurt himself and Kitt with his attempts. So he waited, wondering if a hospital was perhaps the best place to be for what they were going to do. ~ When Michael finally escaped, Nick was waiting to walk him to the elevator. That in itself was odd. In this not unusual situation, Bonnie would be the one to keep the vigil, whereas Nick would either remain with Kitt - depending on the cause of the problem - or return to the warehouse. This time Nick had sent Bonnie on to the warehouse, and he remained behind. Michael wasn't sure he liked this changed in what was essentially routine for them. The moment they were in the elevator, Nick turned to him. "Karr's broken through his link with Kitt." Michael felt a momentary and absurd stab of jealousy, quickly shoving it to the back of his mind. "You need to do the same." The doors slid open and they stepped out into the cool air of the underground parking lot. Karr and Kitt were side by side, with at least three empty spaces either side of them, as if they'd been dissuading other people from parking too close. "You just need to be careful. When Karr broke through it took so much power, so much energy, it threw him all the way into Kitt's CPU, separating us. When he returned, he told me he'd only been gone a couple of minutes. For me, it was more like an hour. And I don't know why that happened, I can't even take a guess at this stage. But if you do what Karr did�" "�I'd die." Nick shrugged. "I don't know. There's something else you should know. When we found Kitt, the car was on its roof." As soon as they reached the two cars, Michael put his hand on the black roof of his partner, hoping Kitt still had access to the SensorNet, hoping he could still bring it on line. "I'm here, Kitt, and I'm fine. We're gonna be fine too." The door opened under his hand and he slid into the driver's seat. "Just back to the warehouse, then we'll sort this out, I promise." He resisted the urge to flinch at the distant but intense feelings he was gleaning from his partner. He understood them, shared them. Hadn't he promised Kitt that they would never be separated again? Whoever had rigged the building, however they'd rigged it so Kitt's scanners didn't pick up the danger; this was meant to do the damage it had done. No explosion was going to destroy Kitt, and placed as the explosives had been, the chances had been high that Michael wouldn't have been in its direct path. "Is one of you fit to drive?" In answer to Nick's question - maybe the only one he could give - Kitt fired up the engine. They headed back, controlling the car in the strange symbiosis they'd slowly developed over the years, piloting it together. Michael had one hand on the wheel, the other rested gently over the sensor on the steering column. He had no idea if Kitt could still feel him; there wasn't any sense of comfort in the myriad distant emotions seeping into his mind. "I'm here, Kitt," he told his partner, talking ceaselessly, his only clue as to whether Kitt could hear him had been his apparent answer to Nick's question in the parking lot but it was all he had. "I'm here, Beauty, and I'm fine. And I know how desperately you would have tried to reach me. I know Karr's broken through to you and as soon as we get back to the warehouse I'll do the same I swear." The desolation - his own veiled thinly with Kitt's - brought tears to his eyes and he blinked them free so that they ran over his cheeks. He stroked his thumb harder over the sensor, wanting Kitt to know he was there, wanting more than anything for Kitt to know that he wasn't alone. But of course he wasn't alone. There was Karr. Karr who had the connection that was Michael's by right, Karr who was sitting close to Kitt now. Karr, who so long ago had tried to kill them. He could feel his partner desperately projecting so much that if the link was at its usual strength, even just the constant background it rested at, it would all be overwhelming. But Michael could barely pick up the meaning of it now. He closed his eyes briefly, knowing Kitt would keep them safe, and tried to relax, tried to push aside petty jealousies he'd experienced since first finding out about the link shared between the two unique AIs. "I love you, Kitt." He choked on the words, tears in his voice. This was all too much. Their contract with the Foundation was up by a matter of months, they were freelancers now. And more importantly, they belonged only to one another. "I'll always love you." The sight of the warehouse was a more than welcome one. He parked the black TransAm in its usual spot and pressed the button that stopped the engine. He could see Bonnie coming towards them but she wasn't what they needed right now. "Lock us down and darken the windows, Kitt." He was heard and understood. The car wouldn't open now to anyone from the outside. "Kitt, according to Nick it took all of Karr's strength to realign the link between you two. I'll be honest with you, Beauty, I don't know if this is going to work. But I'm not going to give up, not until ours stands too. There's one thing I need you to do. I need you to monitor me. If I seem to be� dying, you open the car and alert Karr and Nick." He immediately sensed Kitt's panic. "It's okay, I promise." He explained about Karr having left his CPU. "I have absolutely no idea if it's even possible but just in case�." He trusted Kitt to comply. Even if he hadn't mentioned it, he knew without a doubt that Kitt would do everything in his power to save his life if something went wrong. "Okay, Kitt. I apologise in advance if any of this hurts you." Michael closed his eyes and taking a deep breath, he gathered himself, drawing on the strength that had kept him fighting through so much pain, so much death, disappointment and disillusionment. He pulled around him the steel facades that had kept him alive all this time, living out another man's insane fantasy, and he made himself into a bullet, a clutch of strength and power, knowledge and emotion. Using everything he'd learnt over the years he'd been linked to his partner, he threw himself against the dark patch in the back of his mind where Kitt should have been. It felt like falling down a long, black tunnel. As he realised something was happening, realised something was changing, he had the bright lamp bulb moment, a moment of foresight, to extend a piece of himself back and grab on to himself, to who he was, what he was, something he'd done in the worst moments of Kitt's nightmares just after Jennifer Knight's disguised attack at the Foundation. The next thing he knew was a white light streaked with grey enveloping him, drowning him; terror and loneliness and warmth and depression and desire. Everything Kitt was came to him, such perfect beauty, such perfect love, that he let go, lost himself, sinking into his partner, letting the essences of who they were join into one. Michael Kitt I love you I love you too Beauty so much So very much Michael knew he had to back away, take at least a part of himself back. But Kitt's hold was incredibly strong. Come with me Not leaving you Remember what I said about dying Kitt immediately released him, panic thrumming through him like a chord on an E string. Michael backed up, keeping a tight hold of Kitt, amber and white twisted around one another as a surge of electricity shot through him and his body cramped. "That's it!" Michael pulled in a lungful of air like fire. He could feel the hard concrete beneath the flooring he was lying on. He could hear Nick and Bonnie above him, next to him, relief and tears in their voices as she called his name and he gave instructions to Karr, instructions he didn't catch as he murmured a 'thank you' and dropped back into Kitt's now shallower embrace. //Michael// There was a smile there, one so happy, so bright, Michael felt like he was staring into the sunshine. //Kitt// //I did as you asked// //saved my life again// //that�s what I'm here for// //no Kitt, you're here to love me, for me to love, never forget it never// //you have my word// |