Okay, before I start, I just want to say THANK YOU to everyone who read and reviewed my story! Your suggestions have helped. *hugs* Sorry the chapters are so short.

As always, Michael Knight, KITT, Wilton Knight, Bonnie Barstow and Devon Miles (and the mystery woman towards the end of the chapter) don't belong to me. All other characters (including the dog) do.


McKenna's face went white as a sheet and she felt the blood run cold in her veins. "M-missile?"

But Michael seemed calm. "Get in," he ordered his daughter, rushing to Kitt. "McKenna! Get in the car right now!"

Feeling as though she were about to be sick, she quickly pulled Leya towards the car, got in, and put Leya in the backseat. She shut the door.

Michael grimly shifted into drive. "You hang on tight," he muttered to McKenna and Leya.

"Dad?" McKenna gasped as he spun Kitt around and headed straight for a wall. "Dad, are you crazy? We're going to –!"

It was too late and they burst through the wall of the warehouse. McKenna screamed and threw her arms up to cover her face as pieces of siding and timber fell all around them. For a moment the car was lost in a cloud of white dust.

Then the sound of rain pelting the roof and the turbine engine roaring jerked McKenna back into awareness, and she realized that they had somehow made it out alive. She gasped and whirled around. The wall was now a crumbled mess behind them.

Leya barked in alarm.

"How did we do that?" McKenna gasped.

"Later," Michael muttered, pressing Kitt faster. The car obediently responded with a smooth leap that made the speedometer jump to one hundred miles per hour. "Right now, we've got to get away from the storage building before it explodes."

McKenna felt herself trembling.

In a moment a white-hot flash and a noise that went beyond deafening overwhelmed McKenna's senses. She tried to scream, but her voice was lost in the roar of the explosion. She was aware of the car shaking and the boom echoing around her, and then everything was silent.

Leya's frantic barking broke the darkness that had momentarily overcome McKenna. Too shocked to hush her dog, McKenna dared to look behind them. She felt her stomach lurch again as she stared at the destroyed, flaming wreck where the warehouse had once stood.

Michael had brought the car to a screeching halt after the explosion. He turned to McKenna and grabbed her shoulder. "You all right?" he demanded.

"I'm fine, I'm fine!" she insisted, unable to keep a little tremble out of her voice. "Just…kind of surprised."

Michael turned to Kitt. "Kitt, you okay?"

"Yes, Michael. And you?"

"Yeah, partner, I'm all right," Michael muttered. "Scan the area. See who fired that missile."

A reading showed up on the monitor on Kitt's dashboard. "There is a car just leaving in scanner range, Michael," he reported instantly. "I'm running the plates right now."

"Good work, Kitt," Michael muttered. "Tell me when you get anything." He shifted into 'drive' and began pulling them away. Everything was quiet for a moment. Then Michael spoke again. "Kitt," he said quietly. "Check your audio banks to see if you picked up anything."

"Right away, Michael."

There was a squealing sound as Kitt rewound the recording, and McKenna grinned. "Seriously," she laughed. "Where did this car come from, a science fiction movie?"

Michael grinned at her. "Yeah. And Wilton Knight was the director of it."

"He means the director of FLAG, I assume, as I am certainly not from any science fiction film," Kitt put in dryly, but his voice held a smile. "But I do have something in my audio banks. And I have the information on the license plates, as well as the men who own the car. Their names are Mack Payne and Corby Grant, two arms dealers who run a weaponry store approximately fifty miles North from here." The faces of the two men showed up on the monitor.

Michael glanced at the plump-faced, blond man and the skinnier, dark-haired man and nodded. "Great job, partner. Go ahead and play the tape for me."

A rough male voice played over the speakers. "Whatever the boss has against that thing, he's sure willing to take a risk to make sure it's destroyed for good this time."

"This time?" another male voice answered the first one spitefully. "Last time, we never even came close to destroying it. All we had to do was deactivate it. Then he goes around yelling at me for not destroying it in the first place."

"Well, this time, the job will be done," the first voice said determinedly. "The Knight 2000 is going down for good."

Michael's face paled as he quickly switched off the recorder. "Okay, that does it," he grumbled. "If someone's after you, Kitt, you're staying with me. I am not about to lose you again."

For some reason, McKenna was a little touched at the concern and care she heard in Michael's tone. But Kitt didn't seem to hear it.

"Michael, that would me taking me off of Foundation property purposely," Kitt protested. "It's called stealing. You should leave me behind."

"Hey, you think we're gonna walk away now?" McKenna scoffed. "I don't know about you two, but I'm pretty interested at what those guys were trying to do to us!"

"McKenna," Michael said in a low voice. Then he turned back to Kitt. "All right, Kitt. Your choice. I'll leave you here if you want me to. I can walk away right now, right here…"

Kitt hesitated. "Again?" he said in a quiet voice. There was a pause. "I'm sorry, Michael. I…it's just been so long…" Another pause. "You may take me home. I won't say anything more against it."

Michael shifted into drive. "Thanks, partner," he murmured.

The drive home was quiet. McKenna glanced back only once. "We left the car," she said softly.

"That's okay," Michael said so quietly that she could just barely hear him. "We'll come back for it later." He didn't say anything else.

After a while of driving down a pretty road just outside a little downtown area, Michael turned up a private drive that led to their house, a medium sized one-story cottage. It was the last house on the block before they hit a dead end.

The modest-looking brick house stood about forty feet from the road and ten yards from the road. The front yard was slightly overgrown, but overall in good shape. The flowerbed beside the front door was well tended to, and everything was tidy. The neatness showed mostly McKenna's mother Bonnie's efforts and work.

Michael pulled Kitt into the attached two-car garage and turned to his daughter after setting Kitt in park. "McKenna, why don't you take Leya inside and feed her?" he asked quietly.

McKenna sat straighter, slighted, and was about to protest when she realized that Michael probably needed a little time alone with his old partner to heal the schism that seemed to have come between them. She reluctantly called to Leya, and led the dog out of the car and into the house.

Neither Michael nor Kitt spoke a word at first. Finally, Kitt's hesitant voice broke the silence.

"Why did you leave me alone, Michael?"

Michael bit his lip. "Kitt, the night before…your deactivation, Ethan Lowry sent me to a meeting in New York. He said that he couldn't make it because of personal issues, and he wanted me to take his place. I'd done that for Devon in the past, so I agreed, but I had to leave town immediately, without saying goodbye to you. Lowry called me the day after the meeting when I was getting ready to return home to tell me that you were destroyed in an explosion while on a run with another FLAG employee. You've got to believe me when I say I was heartbroken, because I was, Kitt. I would never, ever, do anything like that to you. You've always known that. We're friends and partners and we look out for one another. But sometimes…" He broke off and sighed instead.

"But I heard your voice," Kitt whispered. "If it had been a trick, I would have scanned it. But you were there, you were telling me it would be all right in the end, and then I was betrayed."

Michael felt a stab like a knife in his side. "No, Kitt! I swear, swear to God that I had no idea what was going on. You've got to know that if I could've done anything to save you I would've in a heartbeat. I just don't want anything else to happen to you." A flash of uneasiness came over him, and Michael hated not being able to fully express how he felt.

When Kitt next spoke, there was evident pain in his voice. "I want to believe what you're telling me," he murmured haltingly. "But I know what I heard. I'm not sure what I think now."

"Please, Kitt," Michael pleaded. "Just trust me for a little while until I figure out what's going on."

For a few seconds, there was silence.

"I know what you're feeling here," Michael continued softly. "Believe me, I know all too well. But you know you can trust me."

There was another brief pause that lasted only for a few heartbeats. Then Kitt replied, "Yes. I do."

Michael swallowed a sigh of relief. "So trust me now, partner. I'm going to find out what happened; you can count on it. But I need your cooperation, and in order for that, I need your trust."

"I want to believe you, Michael. I can't tell you how much I do. But I can't simply forget how hurt I was when I heard your voice betraying me. Wouldn't I have scanned, or at least detected any recording or trickery they tried to play on me?" His voice now held just a note of desperation. Michael realized that Kitt was once again looking to him for reassurance like before, whether or not he realized it himself.

"I don't know," he replied thoughtfully. "Even if it had been made of lead, you probably could have detected it."

"But that's what I mean. I want to believe you, but I just don't know how else it could be. It's all so confusing."

Automatically, Michael put a comforting hand on the dash. "Hey, don't you worry. Whoever did this to us are gonna get a piece of it." He nodded solemnly.

"I believe you on that, Michael," Kitt said dryly. "And…and I trust you. I know that if you say you didn't do it, you mean it. I'm sorry, Michael."

Michael grinned. "Thanks, pal," he said as he gave the dashboard a rub. "Don't worry, I'll find out who did this to us. You can count on it."

"So long as it doesn't involve any more thievery or more explosions," Kitt grumbled.

Michael couldn't help a burst of laugher. "Since when were you against explosions?"

"If I know Bonnie, she won't be happy that we've already crashed through one wall, had to escape from one bomb, had to save her daughter from certain death, and started a new investigation, all within an hour of my being reactivated. I have to admit, I'm not exactly looking foreword to facing her, Michael."

Michael paused and glanced back at Kitt. "By the way, have I told you yet how nice it is to have your optimistic personality back?" he teased.

"Not yet, Michael," Kitt replied. "But I knew you would, given enough time."

As Michael chuckled and turned around, he heard the garage door slam shut. He glanced up to see Bonnie, eyes wide. "Kitt!" she cried.

Michael leaned over towards Kitt. "On second thought, maybe I'll join you in running from the fireworks," he muttered under his breath.

She sighed in relief and jogged over to him. "Is that really you?" she laughed. "Oh God, Kitt! We never thought we would see you again. Are you all right? Everything in place?"

"Bonnie, he's fine," Michael laughed. "He's just fine, I promise. Just a little dusty and shaken, that's all."

"Michael, I have not been 'shaken' by anything, actually," Kitt insisted. "If you mean that explosion, well, we've gone through worse."

Michael grimaced. "Yeah, don't remind me."

"Explosion? Why am I not surprised?" Bonnie groaned in mock defeat and covered her hands with her face. "What am I going to do with the two of you! You manage to find trouble everywhere you go!" She glared at Michael, a glint of exasperated affection in her eyes.

He shrugged innocently. "At least we didn't do anything to start it this time," he objected weakly.

Bonnie rolled her eyes and jogged back over to the house. "Kitt, don't go anywhere. I'll be right back as soon as I get some equipment."

"Yes, Bonnie," Kitt replied willingly.

Michael followed Bonnie back into the house, casting one more glance at Kitt. He trailed her into her workroom, where she began gathering some of her tools and testing devices.

She glanced up at him as he followed her into the room. "While we have a minute, maybe you can explain what exactly happened?"

"Yeah, uh…" He grimaced and let out a sigh. "I was up at the Foundation to meet Peter…"

"Yes?"

"And McKenna took Leya into one of the old warehouses near that field across from the mansion. Kitt was in there, deactivated and gathering dust. Be thankful our daughter is inquisitive, or else he might not be here at all."

She rolled her eyes without looking up from her work. "I know where she got that from. Continue."

"Kitt warned us that there was a missile targeted for the warehouse. We decided to help 'em out and took down one wall to get out of there, and we were pretty far away when the warehouse blew. I promise, the only thing that was damaged were my eardrums from Leya barking so loud."

"I'm checking him nonetheless." Bonnie turned and shot him a curious look as they headed out the door again. "Then, this means that Kitt isn't really supposed to be here, right?"

Michael nodded slowly as he walked beside her back out to the garage. "It was a close call out there today, Bonnie. I won't risk losing him again in case FLAG actually wants him destroyed. He's staying here for a while, and the fact that he's safe is going to remain a secret for that time."

Bonnie shared a soft smile with him as they paused outside the door to the garage. "I know you mean it when you say it like that," she chuckled as she gave him a little kiss. Then Michael went back inside as Bonnie left to check on her Kitt.

Meanwhile, in a dark and rather grungy office room, three men were having a conversation. Two of the men were standing in front of a desk, and the third man was leaning in a chair. His stylish dark hair and neatly pressed gray blazer seemed out of place in the small, poorly maintained room. The only decorations in the tiny office room were a few photographs hanging on the walls. Two were of the beach or a sunset, but the third one was a photo of a woman. She looked to be in her late twenties or early thirties, and her curly, long dark hair hung loosely around her shoulders. This particular photo was highlighted by the only source of natural light in the room, a dirty window. The sunlight filtering in clearly showed her good looks and sly smile.

The two other men standing nearby were much less elegantly dressed than the dark-haired man. Both were dressed in a white t-shirt and jeans.

A smile lighted on the dark-haired man's face as he looked at the two men standing in front of him. "You're sure it's been destroyed, Mack?" he asked. "Absolutely certain?"

"Yes, sir," Mack said respectfully, shooting a glance at Corby, his companion. "There isn't any way for him to hide now. Everything in that old warehouse is in smoldering matchsticks."

"Good," the dark man said, nodding slowly as he leaned back in his chair. "Now that the car has been done away with, I can finally get my hands on Michael Knight." His fingers gripped the table with hatred. "Finally, after so many years, I will avenge my beloved's death once and for all."


Can anybody guess who the woman in the photograph is? I'll give you some hints - we know her from season two, and she appeared in two episodes.