Chapter 7

For over a minute Kevin kept up compressions. "Come on, Katherine..." he muttered before trying breaths again.

She lay on the stone tile, her face ashen, her lips white. "Come on! Don't give up!"

He started compressions again and her body jerked. She started coughing violently, her whole body shaking. She curled up on her side and Kevin patted her back.

"KITT?" she croaked.

He smiled faintly. "Wrong again. Welcome back."

Dustin hurried out onto the patio and knelt down next to Kat. He had a med kit with him. Diana was right behind him.

David watched the commotion from the third floor balcony. His hands were gripping the railing so tightly that his knuckles were white, blood oozing from the injury on his right hand. He didn't loosen his grip till Kat started breathing again.

xxxXXXxxx

K.I.T.T drove back through the ruined iron gate. His left headlight was smashed. It flickered erratically. His gait was uneven since both tires on his right side were flat.

"KITT!" Carmen shouted, running through the front door. "Santo infierno! ¿Qué le pasó a mi bebé?"

He stopped in front of her and his weight leaned to one side. "Don't worry. I'm still in one piece." His left headlight died. "Mostly."

She put her hand on his hood right over his scanner bar. She leaned her face close to it, her expression grim. "Who did this to you?" Her voice was a low growl.

"KARR."

Her eyes widened. Her free hand clenched into a fist, her nails digging into her palm. "Yo romperé ese hijo de puta de diferencia..."

"Where is Kat? I'm afraid my Forward Looking Infrared scope was damaged in the fight. My communications signal has been jammed as well."

"She's still in the back. Dustin is with her."

"Excuse me. I should go to her."

"No, you stay here. You're in no condition to be doing any more moving. I'll go and check up on her for you." She turned away and hurried through the side gate.

As soon as she was gone David marched out the front door. "Report." His expression was intent, his voice cold.

His windshield displayed several panels of information, including two video feeds. One from a front camera and one from a rear camera.

David braced both hands on K.I.T.T's hood as he studied the video playback. His blood ran cold. "Is that KARR?"

"Affirmative. Detailed analysis revealed that he's using the Camaro that he dismantled when I was captured. The one at the factory is a forgery."

"That's why Diana's test for the Molecular-Bonded Shell was negative," David mused to himself. "I was afraid of this."

"After the unknown man reached KARR, I was unable to continue my scan of him. KARR has something that's capable of blocking my systems. He's also upgraded the weapon systems in the Camaro."

"He shot you with a rocket?"

"That was how I lost my headlight. The laser took out my tires."

David looked over the damage to the front of the car and his frown deepened. His phone buzzed in his pocket and he put it to his ear. "Bring him out." He shoved the phone back into his pocket.

Pierce exited the house. Jason was a step behind, gun drawn. Pierce's hands were behind his head. "Jason, come on," he said irritably. "You know me."

"Orders are orders, Caddell."

"Oh so it's 'Caddell' now?" Pierce glared at David. "What the hell is going on here?"

"Why don't you tell me? The only people that knew we were here are those within FLAG."

"I've already told you. I'm not the leak."

The two men stared each other down. K.I.T.T studied the situation carefully. Pierce was the first person who would notice a fault in his programming.

"He's lying," K.I.T.T said. Both men looked at him in surprise. "He's failing my voice stress analysis."

David turned back to Pierce and narrowed his eyes. "Put him in the van." His voice was edged with frost. "We're going back to FLAG tonight."

Jason nudged Pierce's back with the nose of his gun. "What!?" Pierce looked at him and then back at K.I..T.T. "Come on!" He turned to David. "You can't do this!"

"You can go quietly, or in restraints," Jason told him.

After Jason led Pierce away, David focused on K.I.T.T. He studied the car for a long moment, his expression inscrutable. "Are you going to be able to make the trip back on your own?" he asked finally.

"If I can get two new tires I should be fine."

"KITT." Kat stood by the gate, leaning on Diana.

Dustin was behind them, looking fraught. "You shouldn't be moving."

Kat waved a hand at him and walked over to K.I.T.T. "Thank goodness you're okay," she said in relief. "When I couldn't hear you I thought-" Her voice broke.

Diana helped her walk over. Kat braced one arm on his hood and bowed her head. "I'm so sorry KITT. I wasn't there to protect you."

"Isn't that my line?"

Her hair hid her face. A single tear hit his hood. "I wanted to go look for you, but I didn't know where you were." Her shoulders trembled. "I thought you might have been captured, like the last time."

"Please don't cry, Kat. I'm fine."

"If something were to happen to you again..."

"Don't cry for me, Kat. Everything about me is easily replaced."

"Not everything." Two more tears hit the metal. "You're a car, yes. Your brain was created in a lab, I understand that. But that's not the only things you are. You're my friend, too." She lifted her head. Her eyes were determined. "After everything we've been through, every scrape we've pulled each other out of, I can't think of a better friend to watch my back."

K.I.T.T was silent. He had no response to her words.

"We should get your tires replaced and head back to FLAG." Kat's smile was weak. "Vacation is over."

"This was a short vacation."

"Well, we'll just have to try again another time." She rubbed his hood. "After everything is settled with ROOC and KARR."

"All right. In the meantime you should rest." His driver's side door opened. "You're currently suffering from three fractured ribs."

She sighed. "Stop X Raying me all the time. You're gonna give me cancer." With Diana's assistance she climbed into the front seat. K.I.T.T closed the door and reclined her seat to a comfortable level.

"I wouldn't have to if you would just tell me when you're injured."

"I can't. You always worry too much." She put a hand on the wheel.

"By 'too much' do you mean 'not nearly enough'?"

Kat laughed, then put a hand to her side. "Oh, ow."

xxxXXXxxx

While two more tires were being retrieved from the garage by Thomas and Keth, Carmen approached David. Her expression was outraged. "Why is Pierce in the back of the van?"

"We're going back to FLAG," David replied smoothly.

"No, I mean why is he handcuffed in the back of the van?"

David studied her face. "A minor security issue. I'm just being cautious."

Carmen folded her arms over her chest. "Pierce is the last person to cause a 'security issue'."

"There you would be wrong." His expression was cold. "This does not concern you."

"Like hell it does!" she snarled. "You let him go this instant."

David spread his hands out. "If it turns out that I'm mistaken, then I will be more than happy to release him. Until that time comes, he stays under lock and key."

"God you're such an ass!" She turned on her heel and walked away.

He pulled his phone out of his pocket. He needed to send Charles a text updating him on the situation. "You act like I don't already know that..." he muttered.

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F.L.A.G Underground Facility

(A/N: For full effect, play the song 'Hate This and I'll Love You' by Muse while you read this last bit)

Keth and David escorted Pierce down the hallway. Pierce's wrists were bound behind his back with plastic ties.

This section of F.L.A.G was deserted, as it only housed three rooms. Each room was empty and the walls that faced the hallway were made of glass created using palladium alloy and coated with a bio-nano skin.

They stopped outside the first room. David placed his hand on the glass and a screen came to life under it. His hand was scanned and the door slid open.

Pierce studied the small room before him. It was brightly lit and contained a cot against one wall, a small table, and a chair. In the corner was a small metal hatch marked 'toilet'.

Keth pulled out a pair of wire clippers and cut the plastic ties. Pierce rubbed his wrists as he looked at David from the corner of his eye. Keth nudged him in the back and he walked into the room.

He turned as David removed his hand from the glass. The door slid closed. The two men stood on opposites of the glass. Pierce glared at David impotently. David looked back at him with a cold expression, then turned and walked away. Keth followed behind.

Down in the Main Lab, K.I.T.T sat on his stone circle. He was done reporting to Charles and it was time to begin his search.

The first thing he did was infiltrate every server in the Main Lab. K.A.R.R's attempt on the servers the last time had been the equivalent of a car thief with a brick. K.I.T.T ran on Pierce's OS, so he knew all of the security faults and back doors in the programming, and he discovered ones Pierce didn't even know about. He had a full set of lockpicks that didn't leave a single scratch.

Once he was done with the main servers, he moved on to Cold Storage. This took a little longer, as Charles had created a basic A.I to protect the servers. Corrupting it only took a few seconds.

As he had expected, the whereabouts of the Knight Industries Two Thousand wasn't on any of the servers. He'd have to wait till the excitement of recent events died down before he could question Charles himself.

In the meantime… perhaps the Crawler could be of some help.

The Crawler was a more sophisticated A.I than the one protecting Cold Storage, but it was miles away from K.I.T.T's capabilities. He seized it. It struggled weakly, but was soon taken over.

Now K.I.T.T had access to the algorithms that the Crawler used to mine and analyze data collected from the internet. If his predecessor was indeed still out there, then surely someone would have seen it. Everyone was carrying a camera with them nowadays.

Now he just had to wait.

xxxXXXxxx

A/N: After all this time, this episode is finally done! I hope you all enjoyed it. Please do tell me what you think! Reviews make me write faster!

Here's a question for you guys: "What's your favorite ship?"

We're rapidly approaching the end of season 1 (just four more episodes! -ish). Will there be a season 2? Well, that's up to you guys, too. If you want it then I'll write it, just let me know after the finale.

In the meantime, definitely go check out my profile. I updated it with links to my Facebook, etc.