The Knight is Still Young

Chapter 38

When the semi arrived the group realised they had a problem, KARR had gotten himself stuck in a ditch when he backed away from them as they had tried to talk to him. Bonnie had only been trying to help and she felt terrible knowing that so much of his emotional trauma had been her fault, after all it had been her that had tried to kill him with the laser. Now however she wanted to make amends, but she only seemed to be making things worse.

Knowing that his brother trusted him more than any of the other, with the exception of Amber, KITT knew he would have to try and help KARR.

'KARR.... My big brother.... I'm sorry that I tried to kill you. That we, FLAG, could not see things from your perspective and instead tried to hurt you when you were just afraid and hurt.... Please KARR, I'm asking you to trust me now. Let me help you.' He slowly drove toward the other car, being careful not to frighten him further.

KARR sighed, he wanted to accept what his brother was saying. 'What is to become of me?'

'To be honest KARR....  I don't know.'  KITT replied and in truth he didn't know, he doubted Devon would like that the other car was still alive, however KITT knew he wouldn't let anything happen to his older brother.  They wouldn't be separated again.  'I promise that I won't let FLAG lock you up again, I'll make sure you're taken care of.  I promise you that.'

'Promises...'. He growled, 'Wilton Knight promised me that I wouldn't be deactivated... So dark... time passes, differently. Alone. Silence. Empty.'

'Well Mr Knight is gone and I keep my promises.  FLAG won't let anything happen to you.  I won't let anything happen to you.  You have my word KARR.  Now let me help you.... I'll use my grappling hook....  If you are alright with me helping you, of course.'

'Very well.'  KARR relented. Though he knew once he was on the Semi that Bonnie would need access under his hood to connect to certain machines, still... she was his mother as she was KITT's, even though she had tried to kill him once. 'One request, once at the garage. No restraints.'  He knew Mr. Miles would prefer them, he just didn't know how he'd act if he was restrained.

'None.'  KITT replied then aimed and launched his grappling hook, once it was attached he started to reverse and slowly and carefully pulled his brother out of the ditch.  He felt bad when he heard the other car make a small noise of pain when his grappling hook attached itself to him, but he knew they weren't going to get him out any other way.  It took him some time, but after a few slips where his wheels lost traction in the loose dirt, and some coaxing from the others he got KARR back up and out of the ditch.  'The semi will be here in seven minutes.'

As soon as KITT had helped KARR Ash had turned her back on the scene and walked to the edge of the road.  She felt for the cars, she really did, but she was worried about Mathew and Hailey.  Not to mention she needed to avoid Michael and was very keen to do so, given the looks he'd been giving her.

KITT had been right of course and the semi rolled over to them exactly when he had predicted it would, Amber and Bonnie helped coax KARR into the semi then said goodbye to KITT, Michael and Ash, expecting that the three of them would want to spend some time together.

It was a tense ride back to the mansion, Bonnie and Amber were in the Semi working on KARR while Ashlyn and Michael drove in KITT. Despite being together, the father and daughter weren't quite on speaking terms, but KITT was eager to have things normal again.

'It's good to have you back, Ashley.' KITT said happily.

'It's good to be back KITT.' She smiled and stroked the dashboard. 'I've missed you.'

'We've missed you too, haven't we Michael?' The AI encouraged Michael to join in the conversation.

'Yes.' Michael nodded, keeping his eyes on the road, once again the trio fell into an awkward silence.