a/n: there's no real order to any of these chapters, or even the events within the chapters. it's more of a stream-of-consciousness type thing. you remember something, which reminds you of something else, and so on and so forth until you realize you've somehow gotten the events of your own life all out of order
Michael was torn. On the one hand, he wanted to be there at Bonnie's induction ceremony; there was nowhere else he'd rather be than celebrating his friend's achievements. On the other hand, he would have preferred to be anywhere else. Helios's induction ceremony was nowhere near as bad as some of the Foundation functions he'd been required to attend, but he still hated it. At least he didn't have to wear a tux, he consoled himself.
Had Bonnie not wound up at the center of the whole mess, Michael might have enjoyed nosing around, trying to figure out just what was going on here. Then Bonnie had been kidnapped and drugged. Mind control drugs, Deauville had said. The bastard had stripped Bonnie of all autonomy, turned her into his puppet. Deauville demanded that Michael hand Kitt over or Bonnie would die. Deauville said he wanted Kitt, so he probably had plans for Kitt, plans that required Bonnie. Reluctantly, he gave Deauville Kitt's keys. There had to be a way for them to all make it out of this mess alive.
The next time Michael saw Bonnie and Kitt, he was staring down the barrel of a proverbial gun. Bonnie had reprogrammed Kitt to obey Deauville, and right now Deauville was ordering Kitt to kill Michael. Michael didn't know what else Bonnie might have been ordered to do to Kitt, but it was obvious that Kitt's programming no longer prevented him from taking a human life. Even then, Michael could see that Kitt was fighting against the foreign coding. Ordinarily, Kitt didn't hesitate to jump into action. It took prodding from both Bonnie and Deauville to get Kitt moving. The car lunged forward, but even as Kitt declared that he only obeyed Graham Deauville, he stopped short.
Michael knew jack shit about computers and couldn't even begin to grasp the complexity of the AI before him, but Michael knew Kitt. He knew in that instant that, no matter what else Bonnie might have done to Kitt at Deauville's command, there was enough left of his partner and dearest friend to fight. So he buried all his fears and uncertainties deep and leaned heavily into the strength of that bond. Deauville may have been a mad genius, but Michael doubted he knew enough about Kitt to have Bonnie wipe Kitt's memory. As long as those memories were intact, Michael knew he had a chance.
Kitt seemed to have forgotten who he was, so Michael started there. If he could get Kitt to remember who he was, the rest would be easy. Each time Deauville or Bonnie ordered Kitt to kill Michael, Michael countered with bits of their shared history. Michael knew all too well the damage Kitt could do. His flesh-and-bone body didn't stand much of a chance against an ordinary car, much less the nigh-indestructible Trans-Am threatening him now.
Kitt lurched the car forward again. Michael winced as the prow slammed into his shins but stood his ground. Kitt hadn't gone through with it. He'd stopped before he could do any serious damage. Kitt backed away from Michael even as Deauville swore and urged Kitt to kill Michael.
Michael trained his eyes on Kitt's scanner. It was his only insight into Kitt's mental state. It had tracked more slowly than Michael had ever seen since his reprogramming. "C'mon, Kitt," Michael pleaded softly, empty hands outstretched. "It's Michael. You know who I am and you know who you are. You're my car, my partner. The best friend I've ever had." Michael didn't care who else heard him. "And I know you can't kill me, no matter what your programming is telling you right now. You're not a killer, Kitt. You never have been." The scanner slowed to a near standstill. Michael knew he'd gotten through to his friend. "Come on back to me, Kitt. Please." It was all up to Kitt now. The scanner had frozen now. It flashed solid red several times, like someone shaking their head to clear it.
"Michael, I can't kill you. You know that!" Dizzy with relief and adrenaline, Michael shot a cruelly triumphant smile at Deauville. He'd be having a long talk with Kitt later, but right now he had to get Bonnie back. At least she wasn't trying to kill him.
"Alright Bonnie," Michael began. "I don't know what Deauville's been telling you, but you gotta listen to me now." He approached her cautiously. He didn't think she was armed, but it never hurt to be careful. "It's Michael, Kitt's partner. We work together. You… you enjoy yelling at me for knocking Kitt's circuits out of alignment. You didn't talk to me for almost a week when I brought him back with seaweed in his engine. You're my friend, too, Bonnie." He reached toward her, gently placing a hand on her shoulder. She flinched away from him, and he pulled his hand back. "C'mon, Bonnie." What if Deauville's mind control drugs caused permanent damage? What if Bonnie couldn't come back?
Tense minutes slunk by as Bonnie seemed to fight through the haze of the drug. She drew in a deep, shuddering breath and looked around her. Michael bit his lip and held his breath. Was she okay? She turned slowly to face him, confusion and terror plain on her face. Oh gods, she remembered what she'd done while drugged, didn't she? "Michael?" Her voice shook terribly.
"Yeah, it's me, Bonnie," Michael said, quickly closing the gap between them and pulling her into his arms. She slumped against him, sobbing. She was back. Michael had his family back. They'd be okay, the four of them.
. . .
Michael waited until the last tech left the garage before letting himself in. Bonnie would still be with Devon, who refused to let her out of his sight. That she didn't tell Devon to back off told Michael all he needed to know about how she was coping. Right now, Michael needed to talk to Kitt.
One of the first things Michael had really taken to heart about Kitt was that the AI felt things deeply and personally, despite his protests. He handled failure incredibly poorly, worse even than Michael himself. Michael doubted Kitt had been programmed that was. He wondered what had happened early in Kitt's development to have left him so neurotic. On bad days, Michael wondered if his callous treatment of Kitt at the start of their partnership had anything to do with it, at best worsening Kitt's neurotic tendencies and at worst being the cause of them.
"Hey buddy," Michael said in greeting. No response. Shit. Not that he'd expected this to be easy, but it was gonna be downright impossible if Kitt wasn't willing to acknowledge him. He'd originally planned on having this conversation from the driver's seat but decided against that. Instead, he dragged an office chair over from one of the workstations and sat a few feet in front of Kitt. The Trans-Am remained totally dark. Briefly Michael wondered if Kitt had somehow been removed from the car. Maybe there had been some damage to his circuitry that required his removal. "Blink once if you can hear me." Kitt's scanner flashed solid red as it always did when he first started up before settling into a semblance of its usual rhythm. Michael sighed in relief. Kitt was still in there, still listening.
"Is everything alright, Michael?" Kitt asked. He sounded subdued, despondent.
"With me?" Michael asked. "Well, I've got some nasty bruises on my shins but I'll live. I'm fine." And he meant it. It wasn't the extent of his injuries that bothered Kitt, he knew. It was the fact that Kitt felt he had caused them. "I know you think this is all your fault, but Kitt, nothing could be further from the truth. You fought back. You overrode the reprogramming that told you to obey Deauville. I don't know much about computers, and you know that, but I do know that you couldn't have fought back like that if you were just a computer. If all you were capable of doing was following what you were programmed to do. You're practically my guardian angel at this point!"
"Really?" Kitt asked. Michael knew that would get a response from Kitt, but he hadn't expected the vulnerability that accompanied it. Kitt had seen Michael at his absolute worst, and now it was Michael's turn to stand guard over Kitt's shattered soul.
"Really," Michael confirmed. The driver door popped open, and Michael accepted the invitation. He ran his fingers along the familiar lines of the dash. He'd always found comfort in touch, and while he didn't know how much Kitt could physically feel, he liked to think it brought Kitt some comfort too. "All the shit you've put up with from me? If you're not actually an angel sent from heaven, then you've gotta be a saint. I told you, you're the best friend I've ever had. You've stuck by me through everything. You held onto me even when I'd given up on myself. I'm not gonna let you blame yourself for this." Indicator lights on the dash flickered almost in response. Michael was slowly learning to translate Kitt's silences. "A lot went wrong for things to go down the way they did. We can sit here for the rest of our lives trying to figure out who to blame. Deauville's crazy, Kitt, and there's no use in trying to make sense of that sort of crazy. I know you're mad at yourself because you think you hurt me, but –"
"I did hurt you!" Kitt interrupted, distraught.
"Wanna let me finish?" Michael prodded gently. He continued without waiting for a response. "You didn't hurt me. Deauville got inside your head and fucked with you bad. You weren't in control. It wasn't you." Michael would gladly die on that hill.
"It's all so hard to understand," Kitt finally said. "I could see myself trying to kill you but I couldn't stop. Nothing I did was working." A quartet of lights tucked away in the lower lefthand side of the instrument panel blinked rapidly. It reminded Michael of someone hyperventilating. Kitt had no pulmonary system, but that didn't matter. The panic was just as real.
"Kitt, I need you to listen to me." Michael kept his voice soft and steady. "I will never blame you for what happened. I'll never blame Bonnie either. Deauville took advantage of both of you." How Michael kept the blood-boiling rage out of his voice, he didn't know. "He drugged her and forced her to reprogram you. Kitt, neither of you had any say in what you were forced to do." The flickering had slowed significantly while Michael spoke. He'd never noticed those lights before, but there was an awful lot to take in on that dash. Michael had the distinctly odd feeling that Kitt was at a loss for words. Not something that happened often, and normally he'd be lording that over Kitt like it was some sort of victory. Tonight, he was just happy that Kitt seemed to have taken his words to heart and was thinking them over. Michael settled back comfortably in his seat, watching as indicator lights flashed their usual patterns.
"Thank you, Michael," Kitt said at long last. He had a lot to process, Michael knew. He felt secure leaving Kitt alone for the rest of the night. If he stayed, he'd be a distraction to Kitt, even if he just slept in the garage.
"Anytime, partner. Anytime." As Michael moved to get out of the car, Kitt called his name softly, stopping him. "What's up?"
"Don't you think 'guardian angel' is a bit much?" Michael's heart soared at the return of that gently teasing sass. Gods, he'd missed it.
"For you, Kitt? Nothing is ever too much. Get some rest. I'm sure Devon's got a busy day planned for us tomorrow."
"It's 2:38AM. It already is tomorrow," Kitt pointed out. Michael groaned in mock agony.
"Good night, Kitt," he called over his shoulder as he left the garage.
"Sleep well, Michael."
