This is my first Knight Rider fanfic and it's going to be a lot different than usual due to the time frame and plot, so please be kind. Also, this is based on the original KITT and KARR from the 1982 series. Give it a look up, it's super cool (a lot cooler than the 2008 series in my opinion) and lasts 4 seasons.

Hope you enjoy!

Crickets chirped in the distance, and the sky was dark with cloud cover as a figure wearing a baggy black hoodie, military grade backpack, jeans, and steel-toed tennis shoes crept through the private property. The hood was pulled far over her face, effectively covering her sparking eyes and shading the rest of her features in a deep shadow. Her muscles were rigid and her vision sharp as she trained all her energy into being completely aware of her surroundings.

The mid autumn air was fairly cool this early in the morning. No one was moving about save for a few guards who were easily avoided along with the security cameras. As impossible as it seemed, she knew where just about everything was and would be at F.L.A.G headquarters. She couldn't afford not to. Otherwise this quest would be, in every sense of the word, a failure.

Knowing where the guards and cameras were in the mansion was unnecessary, as she had no intention of going inside. The pass keys she snatched this morning were all she needed. Before now, for a week, she had been posing as security while staying at a hotel ten miles from here. Using a rental car, she came by every day to gather, arrange, and plan information accordingly while keeping an unpleasant emotion pressed as far down into her heart as possible. It wasn't one she could use to focus on her goal, but it certainly helped her gumption.

Being sure to stay out of the light of outdoor lamps and out of view, the figure stealthily made her way to the garage. Compared to the rest of the headquarters, this was the most secure area. It was farther away from the mansion and currently fenced off. The door to the building was most likely locked too. Not a surprise considering what they were hiding. However, there was no one guarding this side at the moment. There were only a few cameras, of which she studied all the blind spots before attempting the break in.

Despite new management practically taking over F.L.A.G and calling the shots, the security still wasn't anywhere near as tight as back home. This was only 1995 after all. None of the technology she knew existed yet, and what did exist wasn't a hundredth as proficient. Child's play actually. And good thing too. After spending months learning how to dodge security in her own time, doing the same here was a piece of cake.

Strapping down her dark backpack, she launched herself onto a stretch of chain link fence in the dark. It rattled, but only slightly as she climbed up and over. Then she dropped back to the paved ground on solid feet, grunting with the effort to remain steady. After straightening herself and giving a quick glance around, stretching her hearing to make sure no one was coming, she walked over to the door and used both pass keys. A swipe of a card, a code punched into a number pad, and she slipped inside unnoticed.

Geez, it's dark in here, she thought grumpily as she pulled a small flashlight the width of a pen out of her pocket and switched it on. It wasn't the darkness itself, but rather the lack of sleep and urgency to get out as soon as possible. Every minute that passed was another minute closer to working hours when the "demolition crew" would come waltzing back in here to continue with their task that she wished hadn't started at all.

The garage was a wide space roughly the size of a public school's gymnasium. Full of tools, machines, and blueprints scattered about between stainless steel work benches, two or three chairs, and the concrete floor. Some of the machines stood taller than her, and the outer edge of the area was so tightly packed it was difficult to navigate around without bumping into something. Some of the tech was only slightly below par, or average, according to what she knew in her own time. Though it wasn't worth sneezing at. None of this junk was. Nothing she saw even came close to what she was looking for. That is, until she managed through the maze to the main area, which was vacant of unnecessary clutter.

The flashlight shined on the hood of an old vehicle, clearly nothing but a shell of its former self as it sat paused in the middle of being stripped down and out of everything it used to be. The black exterior didn't hold the same life it used to, and there were actually several scrapes and dents from workers prying the hide apart. So many terminal scars on what used to be a thing of beauty, life, power, and refinement. No matter how many times she imagined it before, it still didn't prepare her for this awful sight.

Taking a deep breath and exhaling with a heavy sigh, she approached the car and ran her hand over the smooth prow. She could see the scanner strip was already removed, which likely meant at least half of the engine was gone too. And as she took a glance inside the open window, the dashboard was reduced to nothing but cut wires and empty plugs. Even on wheels there was no way this vehicle would ever move again. Long before it's been turned to scrap metal, it was already gone. Like the soul had been ripped out of it.

Which….wasn't all that inaccurate.

Her brows furrowed as she took another weighted breath, aching painfully at how the car was being treated like nothing more than a random, expendable piece of hardware. Nothing, no one, deserved a fate like this. It was akin to mutilating a body after dying. Insult to injury, as well as disrespectful.

"Poor guy…" she breathed sadly, resting her hand on the roof of the cabin. There wasn't a need for gloves to keep her fingerprints from appearing on anything. It didn't matter when she technically didn't exist yet. She was practically invisible. "You certainly didn't deserve all this, did you?" And from the very people you cared about and worked so hard to protect, she added silently to herself.

Looking at the car a moment longer, she stepped away, slung her backpack off her shoulders, then began rummaging through the boxes nearby while holding the end of the flashlight. Anything and everything she recognized as necessary pieces, she placed in the backpack. Circuit boards from the dash, the buttons to go with them if they weren't missing, etc. It didn't take long for her to also find the scanner strip and the voice modulator.

The more she looked through, the angrier she got. I can't believe they…that jackass, did this. She was referring to Russell Maddock, Devon Miles' recently acquired partner. How he ever convinced the head of Knight Industries this was even remotely acceptable was beyond her. At this point the lot of them pissed her off, and not just because no one could seem to handle these parts with the care they deserved.

But…she couldn't focus on that. As she looked through what she gathered so far, she knew there were still a few things missing. The most important parts. Where were they?

Picking her head up, she shined the flashlight around the room. On the far side, there were a few boxes sitting on a metal table with computers set up along the back. Chords were plugged in and coming out of them, but they weren't attached to anything at the moment. Though, perhaps they had been to something packed in the boxes?

She hustled over to the table with the backpack in hand and set it carefully on the floor while she opened the boxes and looked through them one at a time, adding all the necessities to the collection of others.

A sigh escaped her, mixed with annoyance and relief. Sure enough… In the boxes were the disassembled pieces of the processing unit, the memory chip and its compartment, everything that made the car behind her who it used to be. Including the AI unit, which gave off a dull red glow like the pulse of a fading heartbeat. How terrible it must be, to go from such an advanced and gorgeous vehicle that was someone's friend, to a pile of circuitry discarded at the bottom of a cardboard box to be taken apart and lost to the wind.

Turning the AI unit over in her hands, the anger and sadness she was feeling still bubbled beneath the surface. However, she also felt a great deal of relief now, making her touch gentle and her eyes soften as she brushed her thumb over the light. This is what…no…who she had come for. Her personal rescue mission.

The small unit was still warm, and she could detect a faint hum from the circuits in spite of having been disconnected from the main processor God knows how long ago. It was the first good sign she had seen all day, and a tiny smile graced her expression. "Don't worry…" she said quietly. "I won't let them do this to you anymore." She zipped the top of the backpack shut with one hand and opened another pocket in the front.

Inside was another AI unit, which she collected from its own vehicle's wreckage little more than a week ago. Unfortunately, aside from it there wasn't much she could salvage. But there was just enough to work with and rebuild from.

Yellow and green lights on the first unit flickered and blinked as she tucked the second into the pocket and zipped it closed. From a side pocket, she briefly retrieved her cell phone to check the clock. Almost 4:30 am. If she was going to get back to the rental car and go without being seen, she had to leave now.

Putting the phone away and brushing her hand over the front pocket, she thought, We're all getting out of here. To a better time and place than this. I just hope you'll forgive me.