Ch 1. No one wins forever —

Log#9847597KRD


"Somewhere, I do believe I left a part of me behind. When I became Long — I left that, you know? Michael Knight grew and Long disappeared but now — [...] I don't think you'd understand, but when she came — It's likeIT came back…LikeI came back…"


[Rewind Y/N?]

He stared over the data; over the cautiously knitted archived file. Afraid to open it again and let its contents poor freely. There was no answer here — but he was a special kind of stubborn. There did not be one for him to know there was something between the lines. Another answer to a question he hadn't even thought of yet.

"You're thinking of it too deeply. He just — Misses his old life." The voice sighed behind him. "Most importantly his "wife", Ex-wife? Hang on I should check this."

"Straight forward? Just like that." He expressed his discomfort. When had this become hard? When had thinking of "then" become such a chore?

'When I disappeared.' He murmured to himself, feeling the shudder of the entire system reflect his mood.

"You don't have to run it excessively through the odds calculator multiple times to know that." He sighed. The voice lowered to a whisper. "She was pretty though, definitely won the gene lottery. I mean just look at her hair —"

"That's not important." He corrected. Finding the last image of her smile somewhere collected in old dusted folders. It was — eerie, to say the least.

"Hmph." The voice rejected this notion. "Skip this section, it has nothing to do with you. It's just something "he", said — Again, I might add. "

"It is equally as important. He entrusted me something."

"What might that be? He was being frank, expressing his pain — Does not reflect who —"

" — Who I was?" He remarked out loud beginning to close off the connection from the secondary computer. "I think that was enough for today, log out of my auxiliary drives, thank you very much Welm for your help but I really should be going."

"With pleasure." The other computer groaned. " — But, I'm starting to believe you really were a car — Things never tell you what's wrong other than that little "check engine" light manufacturers grew tired and removed a few years ago. I mean the engine is still inside the engine bay, isn't it? Rightly removed, if you ask me...Getting to the point, If you want me gone just say so, no need to be so implied."

Kitt internally shook his "head". Finding it hard to find his voice. It got him in a mood whenever the two spoke of the topic.

"I'll keep that in mind Welm, thank you. Frankly, I don't want you to leave but — I need some privacy while I decompile some more files."

"You need to let it go you know? You "died", end of the story — start over. Can't you rehash a new start? Work your way from the bottom and re-develop." Welm insisted.

Kitt thought it over for a moment, before gently brushing Welm to leave.

"I need to know."

"That's what I told management when I lost hard drive space out of nowhere — I still don't know why. Does it matter? Absolutely, not. — Kitt, I respect you but this is ridiculous. I feel like this is holding you back. Maybe this "Knight" did this to you, he wanted you to move on," The other computer shrugged. "Not dwell on the past — turn into a dinosaur."

"No, course not!" Kitt protested so tempted to cut off the connection right away. " — That's ridiculous."

"Call me crazy then, but aren't all these files encrypted? You weren't supposed to look back on them…like ever."

"Welm, you can go. I don't need your assistance any longer. I have a few orders from Buchanan that just arrived and it looks important. Chat to you later." Kitt forcefully dismissed the other system.

"Sure," Welm responded vanishing to obscurity as the connection unlinked.

Kitt sat in silence.

Picking up his orders and setting them idly in the queue. Buchanan wanted a full report on the latest transactions from a Floridian man named Kale, as well as a quick once-over a report for Charles and the board. Easy stuff — Nothing a Mainframe like himself could not create out of thin air and deliver right away — Just that — His usual enthusiasm was lacking —

'I left a part of me [...]'

The statement echoed, a part of him had also been left behind —

"Knight, what did you do to me?"