The days after fell into a pattern; most days they would help Annette while spending the nights stargazing. Other days were spent exploring the city, where sometimes Kat would go by himself, but more often than not Matt came with him. They didn't always stay within in walking distance of the orphanage, instead going on what Matt liked to call "bus adventures" to various places within the city.

It was one of these days they were walking down main street when Matt stopped, tugging at Kat's hand to get him to follow suit. "Let's check out here." Matt said, motioning the shop, the double doors reading 'Antique Harbor' in ornate, gold lettering. "Maybe we'll find something cool."

"Alright." Kat nodded, letting Matt pull him inside. The interior was both brightly lit yet dim at the same time; the numerous lights unable to compensate for the rows and rows of shelves packed ceiling to floor, as musty smell greeting them as soon as they entered.

As they explored, Kat stopped when a startlingly familiar item caught his eye. Carefully reaching back on the shelf and pulling it out from behind the other knick knacks surrounding it, Kat held the large, dust covered hard drive in shaky hands. Gently wiping it clean with his sleeve, Kat's breath caught in his throat as he was greeted with four letters inscribed on the bottom right corner:

K.A.R.R.

"Hey, is that an old hard drive?" Matt's voice broke Kat out of his trance, eyes wide as he turned to face his friend.

"Y-yeah. I don't know what state he's in though." Kat looked back down, staring at his long-lost brother's name.

"He…? Did you remember something?" Matt asked carefully.

"I'm not…I'm not sure," He could say Karr was the brother he never got to get to know properly, forced instead to be at odds; Matt perhaps being the one person could tell. But then, how was he supposed to say just how important Karr was without the whole story? He had agreed to try, to let people in to help with the pain, but he was learning it wasn't so easy when the truth was so far from who he had set up 'Kat' to be. The truth sounded crazy; an intelligent car turned human? He'd be carted off to a mad house never to be seen again. He shook his head, dismissing the notion as terrible dream, looking back up at Matt determinately. "I don't know how, but it's imperative that I get this. He's important."

It hurts less this way anyways.

"Okay." Matt said with a nod. "Then that's what we'll do. What kinda connector does it take though? It's looks older than what my laptop takes."

"You have a laptop?"

Matt shrugged. "It belonged to my dad and I don't use it much anymore because it really needs an upgrade. But it might still work if we get lucky and find some sort of usb adapter or something."

"…What's a usb?" Kat asked, an uncomfortable knot forming in his chest. "What? Is it so strange not to know?" He added, crossing his arms as Matt stared at him.

"Oh, uh, never mind." Matt shook his head. "They're used as a connector of sort, and they're kinda small and square." He said, making a small box in the air.

"...Is usb common?" Kat asked, the knot growing with each passing second. He had never heard of such a thing before, so surely it was simply new and Matt's laptop had to be one of the first.

But hadn't he said it was out of date?

"Yeah, they've definitely taken over since they came out a few years ago."

Wait, years?

"Matt," Kat began slowly, as the knot twisted painfully, "what's the date?"

"Uh, November twelfth, I think?"

Kat took a breath, stealing himself. "No, I mean, what's the year?"

"2006. Why?"

It wasn't days or months he had lost, but years.

Kat placed a hand on the shelf to keep himself standing as the room spun, the sheer weight of realization threatening to break his already fragile reality.

Twenty years. Twenty years had come and gone, with naught a trace of why.

"Hey, Kat are you okay?" Matt asked softly, placing a hand on Kat's shoulder. "You…you don't look so good."

Kat glanced at Matt, unsure what to say as the lines between reality and dreams continued to blur. He looked down at Karr still clutched in his free hand, the only real way to ground himself and he didn't even have the means to so much as have a conversation. He shook his head. "I just…didn't realize how long it's been."

"What do you mean?"

"I don't know why," Kat began, absently letting go of the shelf to take hold of Matt's hand on his shoulder instead, "but despite what the weather suggested I couldn't help but feel that it should be more the end of April, then anything."

"…Maybe it has to do with the event that made you forget everything?"

"Possibly, although I try not to think about it." All the explosions, pain, and confusion could stay in the bad dream where it belonged. "For now, though, let's get looking for that adapter."

Matt nodded, taking the lead in the search since he was the one most familiar with what they were looking for. It was for naught, however, as by the end they came up empty handed.

"Maybe it's too new to end up here. We can always go to the library and use the internet there to try and find one." Matt suggested.

The internet?

"Right. For now, let's see if we can bargain with the shopkeeper." Kat said, decided not to say anything about the internet being yet another thing he knew nothing of. One could only take so many surprises at a time, after all.

They found the shopkeeper sitting at a desk in the back, an elderly man with half-moon glasses pouring over various papers scattered about. He glanced up as they approached, resting his head on the hand holding his pen. "Can I help you?" He said in a low, bored drawl.

"Yes," Kat said, trying to make his tone as polite as possible, "is there anything we could trade you for this?"

The old man shifted his gaze to Karr, peering at the old hard drive over his glasses before moving his gaze back to the pair of them, looking them up and down. "You see that corner over there?" The man said, motioning to the far back of the store with his free hand, the space nearly filled ceiling to floor with boxes and various odds and ends scattered haphazardly around, "everything there needs to be categorized and inventoried. Do that and you will have your trade."

Kat looked at Matt who nodded, before turning back to the shopkeeper. "Alight, we'll do it." It was clear the old man was just pawning off a task he didn't want to do, but it didn't matter; Karr was more than worth it.

The shop keep had gave them a clip board with a piece of paper attached, to write down the contents of what they found once everything was sorted out. They decided to divide and conquer; each starting on one side of the massive pile and working towards the middle, placing the clipboard on a stool between them.

"Hey, I think I found something!" Matt cheered once they were about halfway through, holding up a cord he had unburied.

"Can I see it?" Kat asked curiously as he joined Matt at his section of the mass. Matt handed it to him, and Kat held up the end attached to a flat, rectangular plug. "Is this the USB part you were talking about?"

"Yeah! Oh, and I've been meaning to ask – you said 'he' earlier. Does that hard drive have some sort of A.I. in it? Because that would be really cool."

Kat nodded. "His name is Karr." This at least should be safe to say, if only that it was Matt asking.

"I can't wait to meet him then! Do you think if we're lucky we can talk to him tonight?"

"If we finish up here soon enough, there is a possibility. I can't guarantee what state he's in, but if we're lucky, yes."

"Alright, let's conquer this pile!"

It took the rest of the day, and by the end they were both covered in a thorough layer of dust. Oddly, though, despite being similar in nature to the work they did for Annette, it was somehow more draining. Still, they turned the inventory list into the shop keep, who seemed mildly surprised they hadn't given up somewhere in the middle.

"We would also like to take this as well." Kat said, holding up the cord Matt had found earlier.

"That-"

"Should be more than reasonable to include with the multiple hours of work we have done. Don't you agree?" Kat said, his tone daring the shopkeeper to argue.

"I…suppose." The shopkeeper frowned, but handed over Karr nonetheless.

"Thank you." Kat said gratefully, taking Karr and holding him close as they left.

/

External Power source detected.

Initiate KARR boot sequence…

New interface detected: Windows 2000 laptop.

Current Date: November 12, 2006.

Registered user: Arthur Sevendi.

Microphone detected: Audio online

ERROR: VOCAL UNIT OFFLINE

Webcam detected: Visual online.

Slowly, the image of two boys appeared through the camera; one with black hair and the other brown. They were certainly far younger than the previous fools who had dared mess with him; but that should only make using them all the easier.

"…you said his name was Karr, right? Whatever happened to him his code's a huge mess." The brown haired one said.

"I suppose it's to be expected after how we found him." The black haired one sighed, an expression Karr couldn't read flickering across his face. "It will take some time, but I know we can get him back in proper working order." There was something frustratingly familiar about the black-haired boy's voice. It lacked its former metallic edge, yet hints of the Boston accent remained; similar enough to that of the inferior production line model made to replace him. The eyes were as red as the scanner had been, the searing color the last he had seen before being reduced to nothing but a husk.

The last thing before failing yet again, to prove he wasn't worthless.

The last thing before he was plunged back into darkness, where the fire raged, where he was powerless but to repeat his pitiful existence over and over on an endless loop.

But that stopped now. Wilton Knight would pay. Everyone would pay for what they had done –

ERROR: OPERATING ON MINIMAL POWER. MANIPULATION OF INTERFACE IMPOSSIBLE

He would've growled if he'd had the ability. Instead, he was forced to watch, to listen as the two fools before him bumbled about. It didn't matter; the moment he had enough power they would know exactly who they were dealing with.

He had expected the same poking and prodding from the foundation idiots, but it never came. Instead, it was soft and slow, meticulous in every piece of code they touched. The two chatted with each other as they went, revealing the black haired one went by Kat, while the other was Matt. And it was as they went, it was as if a chain holding him down had been removed, a mask keeping him from seeing anything beyond the fire. While it was not gone entirely, it instead burned quietly away in the back of his code instead, no longer threatening to consume him.

Without the mask, it allowed realization to dawn; it was not Kitt's fault for Wilton Knight's betrayal. Kitt had never asked to be his replacement, hadn't even known Karr existed, for that matter. No, Kitt was his brother and nothing Wilton Knight had done could change that.

"It getting late, Kat, why don't we take a break and go to bed?" Matt said sometime after the chains had been removed.

"You can if you want, but I'm going to stay up. I'm not going to give up on him just because he's out of sorts."

'I'm not giving up on him.'

The words only furthered convinced him this 'Kat' was his brother, the one person who had a chance of caring. On the other hand, it didn't make sense either; the last he knew his brother had the body of a car, not that of a human. But then, it had been twenty years if the laptop's clock were to be believed, so perhaps in that time they had found a way for his brother to gain an artificial body of sorts. He was the favorite child after all.

"I didn't say we're giving up, just taking a break." Matt said, placing a hand on his brother's shoulder. "You won't do him any good if you fall asleep on the keyboard."

"…He's right you know." It had been some time since he had gained enough power to use the laptop's microphone, yet he had become curious; simply content to watch until now.

"Karr?"

"Yes?"

The boys looked at each other and back at the screen.

"...How long have you been awake?" He brother asked.

"Long enough."

"And?"

"And I suppose I should thank you. Not all my functions are back to where they should be, but it's far better than before."

His brother smiled softly. "You're welcome, Karr."

"Yeah! We're here to help." Matt said.

"Yes, now let me return the favor. It's late and the two of you should sleep. I'll be fine."

"Well, if you're sure…"

"I'm sure I don't need you falling asleep and pressing random buttons."

Matt laughed. "See, Kat? Karr gets it."

/

Karr watched over as the pair slept, the day having gone far differently than he had imagined.

Before the pair had gone to bed, Matt had set him on the dresser between the two beds, providing him with a complete picture of room. Before when all he could see was a wall, he had expected the room to be much larger; not this pitiful excuse of a dwelling. From the floorplans he retained of the Foundation's mansion, every room was at least twice the size of his current one; surely it couldn't have changed that much over the years? And where his brother's precious humans, anyway? Surely, they would not have allowed his brother to live in such an inadequate space.

His brother going by Kat instead of Kitt, the humans missing, and a far too small space.

Just what happened while I was gone?

He tried to rattle the laptop's database for clues, only to come up with nothing. It was an entirely self-contained system; with no way to get additional information without an active 'Wi-Fi' connection, whatever that was. He could easily say something in the morning and get his answers from his brother and companion, yet if his brother had wanted, he could have explained everything already. There had to be a reason for the silence, a reason for a different name. No, it would be safer not to ask directly; he would simply watch and bide his time, waiting for the perfect moment.

Regardless of what the answers may be, he didn't mind the thought of getting to know more of the brother he didn't get to before. He knew he should be more than simply confused about the human's disappearance, but if that's what it took to get peace with his brother, then so be it. If he was only able to be lucky once in his miserable existence, he hoped this would be it. That this would finally be the end of an exceptionally long night.

Karr's finally back! I missed him so much. I thought really thought it would be fun to have the first interaction be from Karr's POV this time, and I enjoyed writing it, hope you did as well. We are making progress, back to having the whole family back together :D I've also began writing an after math story, the one which finally answers the questions of who destroyed the foundation that never really fully got answered in the original. It's technically been in the works since the original ended, I've just never been happy with since I only had a vague idea where it was going. With the help of some friends though, I finally have something concrete, which will have some hints at later in this story then there ever were before. I'm getting pretty excited for what's to come :)

-Xire