Wolf Pack

Midnight Confessions

"What?" KITT asked, curious what she was studying so intently.

"The EM calibration on your scanner is way off," she informed him, starting to reach to adjust it. But she paused just as quickly, pulling back. "May I?" She needed to remember that he wasn't the lifeless vehicle she had helped build before. He was alive like she was, and he deserved the option to give consent or deny it.

"You have my permission," KITT assured.

With a nod she reached again. That was all she needed to begin recalibrating, using the settings on the control panel to adjust the power and precision of that aspect of his scanner. Already KITT noticed the difference as things he hadn't quite noticed before became that much clearer.

"Katie," KITT addressed as she continued to work.

"Hm?" Since her main focus was preoccupied with his settings, the casual hum was her only reply.

"Why did you leave the Foundation?"

His question made Katie pause...and she was silent for a long while. Rather than answer at first, she finished her adjustments then gave his dashboard a gentle pat. "There you go. All fixed," she said. Then he waited as she sat back into her seat, so visibly drained by the loaded question that he almost regretted asking.

Not that she failed to reply at all. "I just...didn't want to be there. If they decided to scrap you," she admitted tiredly, keeping her eyes averted in a way.

"Scrap me..? I don't understand," KITT said.

Well, this story wasn't going to be very pleasant. Though, Katie supposed it was better to get it out of the way. And she felt that she owed him an explanation since he didn't have a chance to know about her until now.

She propped her elbow up on the door, and leaned her head against her arm. At the moment she actually appreciated the cool air that she could feel from just outside the closed window. "When Bonnie and I were recruited to build you, I was excited. Since, you know, nothing like this had ever been done. ...Or at least, that's what I thought," she started.

"When we were near completing you, I started looking into some of the older tech that Knight Industries had already created. Anything that would help improve your design. And, I found a file on a car that was exactly like you, but had gotten finished. I remember seeing that it was code-named KARR."

KITT remained silent, knowing all about KARR and their similarities. But he kept quiet as he could sense the distress in her tone. And he could see the subject was upsetting.

"When I confronted Wilton Knight he told me KARR had been destroyed because his AI wasn't exactly what Wilton wanted. I was worried that if Wilton didn't like you, he would just do the same to you as if you were just an object that can be torn apart and remade over and over again... After I left, I got a lot of threats from Knight Industries and a few from F.L.A.G, pretty much proving to me that they were corrupted." There was a slight growl at the back of her words, but for KITT's sake she kept it civil.

What she said didn't sound right, though. F.L.A.G. and Knight Industries- sending threats?? "Why would they do that?" he asked, completely in shock.

Katie couldn't help but give a sympathetic smile at his childlike innocence...and his ignorance of the fact that even the 'good guys' could have dark secrets. "I'm one of the few people left who know all the ins and outs of your design, sweetie... I didn't just do the research and programming for how your AI works, learns, and evolves day to day, but I also know your machinery. Weaknesses, capability, blueprints...and that's all a threat to them," she explained. "I think they were afraid I would try to build my own version of you, or that I would give away your secrets. It got so bad that one day I had to hack the system to delete my records. So that way they couldn't find me to enact those threats," she said.

Her smile faded as she turned her gaze out the window to watch the parking lot. "The only reason Bonnie and Devon know my whereabouts is because they're family. Not terrible people like the ones who made me leave, or wanted me gone just because I know the most about them." With a huff through her nose she added, "Those idiots are just mad because I cared the most about you, and wanted the best for your outcome. But I obviously couldn't control what they ultimately did, so... I didn't stick around, because I couldn't handle the thought of seeing you treated the same way they apparently treated KARR."

Her voice became quiet, like those concepts still plagued her even after all this time. "...I guess...Wilton decided that made me a liability, is all."

At the end of her explanation, KITT was speechless in more ways than one. If all of this was true, then Katie had actually just taken a significant risk to her own life in order to ask for help. It went to show just how dire the fued with her older brother was, not to mention how much she had to go through in order to juggle that while staying in hiding at the same time.

Come to think of it, if there was one technician he didn't know about, who's to say there weren't more? Were they alive..? Or did Wilton Knight have them silenced before his death?

KITT didn't know that, nor where to begin looking into it if he chose. But, he did know one thing. He would do everything he could to keep Katie safe.

For now, he said the only thing he could think of. "I'm sorry."

At that Katie finally looked back at his voice modulator. She didn't smile again, but there was a sort of soft, kind look in her eyes that she hadn't expressed all day. And it almost distracted from the hint of sadness in them too. "It's not your fault, hun. Some people are just selfish asses," she pointed out.

That much he did know.

After that, they sat in silence until Katie grew tired and dozed off into a light sleep with her head against the window. And KITT let her have the rest. She certainly needed it.