This is honestly something I've bene wanting to do for a really long time, just haven't gotten around to it. There's a lot of details and events that happened that didn't get either mentioned or explored as well as I would've liked in the original, and now I finally feel I have the ability to give this story a bit more justice, but the main plot points really have stayed the same. I will be leaving the original up though, just because I can't bear to take it down.
Wither you read the original or this is your first time with the story, I hope you enjoy!
It had started so normally; he never could've expected the events that would change his life so dramatically.
They had just gotten back from finishing their latest mission, and Michael was trying to get some time off from Devon when Kitt noticed the large, explosive object that was coming towards the mansion at an alarming rate.
"Michael!" He'd hurriedly called through the comlink.
"Yeah, what is it KITT?" Michael replied.
"Michael, my sensors indicate-" But he wasn't fast enough as before he could finish his sentence, everything went white. Explosions rocked around him, walls and various bits of shrapnel ricocheting into his sides. It was reminiscent of being tossed around like a rag doll; like and an overeager child with its favorite toy. Finally, after what seemed like a countless amount of time, the shaking and thundering stopped. Pausing only a moment as to make sure there would be no aftershocks, he slowly eased the car forward out from underneath the rumble, an unease creeping up inside at the delay in response time for the command to execute. He would have to have Bonnie take a look at his systems later.
As he pulled outside, several circuits froze as he came upon the wrecked sight of the foundation's manor reduced to nothing but mere rubble. He ran a scan for any sign of life, a twisting, terrible unfamiliar sensation filling him when it came back with nothing. "Michael?" He called out weakly, his synthesized voice shaking. Surely his sensors were just damaged – they had to be alright, had to still be alive. A bit beaten up, sure, but still breathing, still ready to tell him everything would be alright.
His call returned nothing but silence; the emptiness echoing through him as a terrible realization tore through his core processor. A mountain of rubble, silence, and the absence of life forms could only mean one thing.
Everything he had come to know, come to love, was gone, buried. He was supposed to protect, but how was he supposed to when they were gone?
Gone.
The word ripped through him, sending his processes to a grinding halt. Gone, permanently with no hope of return. Gone, never go offer a kind word or joke ever again. Gone, leaving here m completely and utterly alone.
He had failed.
"No!" He tried to urge the car forwards, only for the engine to stall. "Come on, move!" A desperate attempt he knew, as if coming bumper to rubble would change anything, make his family magically appear alive and intact once more. The car slowly inched forwards, propelled more by gravity than anything else until it was stopped by the mansion's remains. He sat there motionless, without a way to move forwards; the car's remaining power completely drained away. A strangled sound made its way through his voice modulator as he was forced to sit, the knowledge of everything that made him who he was gone for good, searing through him as more and more of his code broke down.
Helpless.
At the very least if he had hands, he could have dug through the rubble for any sign of survivors.
Powerless.
Even if he wanted to, he couldn't push the rubble away either, any attempts to move just met with endless lines of error code.
Useless.
What was he even supposed to do, now his sole reason for being was gone? He hadn't been good enough, fast enough, stong enough -
Failed. Failed. Failed. Failed. FailedFailedFailedFailedFailedFailedfailfailfailfailfailfailfailfailfailfailfailfai
One last, strangled, broken cry -
Silence.
Hours passed, and the car did not move.
A large truck arrived, marked as a cleanup crew but headed by a man with a suspicious smile. Still the car did not move, all lights and sounds having ceased long ago.
"He was right – I shouldn't have been worried you would make it through intact." The smile only grew. "Alright, load it up before anyone else shows up! We can't have anyone else getting our prize!"
The car was loaded up without protest and without trouble onto the truck, lifeless as any other car, bearing no sign of the broken, grieving soul inside.
/
"Are you sure it's working? Looks pretty dead to me."
"It's a computer, it can't die."
"You sure? It hasn't reacted to anything."
A slow, painful, uneasy sort of awareness; only distant voices against a sea of black.
"It's just code, idiot. We just have to rewrite it and it will be good as new."
"Right, right, fine. To the boss' certifications, yeah?"
Rewrite. To change, make different.
Why?
You failed. Your fate will be none different than Karr's.
"NO!"
The world around him erupted into a blur of colors, white standing out predominantly against the once black. Two vague figures standing before him, wear what he could just make out to be lab coats. Panic seared through him as he tried to move backwards, only to find the car held firmly in place by tight chains.
"What the-"
Surprise echoed around him, but it didn't matter.
"No, stay away from me!" He had to get away, had to get somewhere anywhere -
But where? He didn't have anywhere. It didn't matter, he'd figure it out later, all that he knew was the overwhelming sensation that he had to get away, that this place was wrong -
He strained against the chains, wheels spinning and smoking as he pulled, slowly, painstakingly graining ground.
"Stop it! We can't let it get away or boss will have our heads!"
"And how would you stop a sentient car?!"
"Unplug it genius! The CPU is still exposed!"
Scrambling around, the figures frantically came closer, the taller of the two diving for the open passenger side window.
Open, why was it open?
He tried to close it, only to be met with an error. The window in question was gone, leaving nothing but a gaping hole. "Get away from me!" He yelled instead, even as he could feel the chains begin to give out.
"Hurry up!"
"I've almost got it; it would be easier if this thing wasn't trying to move!"
"Get away -" Abruptly and without warning he was forced back into darkness, robbed of all senses. It was quiet here; a soft urge pulling him downwards underneath the current, bringing with it the promise of peace and rest. He was tired, and a break from the day would be a nice change...
/
Kitt woke slowly, finding the ground much closer to him than it ever was before. He looked around to take in his new surroundings, pleased at least the picture was much clearer than it had been before; someone must have fixed his scanner. From what he could tell he was in some sort of ally, and a dirty one at that. The question remained however; how did he get here? And for that matter, why?
He tried to move, to get a better idea of where the alley was, but received no input from the car body. Even stranger, he wasn't receiving any sort of input all. No system status, no errors, no nothing. But...how could that be? He was online and functioning, yet still there was nothing, not even the normal borders to his vision where scanner ranger ended. He paused, trying to refocus his vision in an attempt to figure out what going on, only to see...an arm. It was covered in a black sleeve, but an arm nonetheless.
What? How does that even -
He tried to move once more, this time focusing on the arm, subsequently causing the hand attached to it to twitch.
What's going on?!
Slowly, he looked around, finding another arm. He tried moving it as well could only stare when it complied. He wasn't sure how to put other than perhaps 'a bit freaked out' as Michael would have put it. Michael...a sharp, twisting pang ran through him at the name. No, now was not the time to dwell on such things. Instead, it was the best to try and figure out what was going on. Slowly, a bit unsure, he put both hands palm down and pushed, rising from the cold ground as he did so. He overcalculated how much force was necessary, however, and the world turned ninety-degrees as he crashed back down, only this this time facing up towards the sky.
The mild pain that came from falling only triggered the realization of something that hardly seemed possible; he completely, unmistakably, inexorably human.
I feel like chapter one got longer, or at the very least more dramatic, haha. Chapter 2 is well on it's way to being done. These are easier to do, since the main bulk of it has already been written, haha. Still, I hope you enjoyed and I would love to hear your thoughts on what you thought! :)
-Xire