Back at Home

As he left the highway, a multitude of old memories flooded into his artificial mind. He was heading for Knight manor, a place he swore that he would never return to. Now, he was coming back of his own free will.

It had all begun with one pathetic human's attempt to take over the Foundation. Jennifer Knight was a threat that could not be taken lightly. She came for her legitimate portion of the Knight fortune, and this time she brought her army of lawyers to the battlefield. The Board of Directors was divided: some of them accepted her to be the true and most important heir of Wilton Knight, and some were just trying hard to find a way to keep her away from FLAG. A lawyer working for the Foundation came up with the idea of accepting the Knight Industries Two Thousand as the legitimate heir, instead of her. It seemed ridiculous at first, but it soon became clear that it was the best solution they had. They knew the kind and benevolent KITT, compared him to Jennifer, and accepted the proposal quickly. The only thing left was to make sure that no other heir existed.

He sped up as he approached Knight manor. The sun was shining on his dark hood, the dust billowed out behind him making him look like a horizontal avalanche. He was just as deadly, just as powerful.

On his first way back he was nothing but a damaged CPU box, hardly functional and barely alive. When KITT found him he was a pitiful reminder of the oh-so perfect prototype he used to be. He felt humiliated as he sat in the passenger seat of his own brother, but it was still better than lying helplessly in the sand. At least Michael Knight was not around.

Until the right turn, he only had a distant scan of the manor, but from here, he had a full visual of the property: a gardener was walking across the lawn, a technician was packing his tools in Lab 1. The Semi was gone: most likely, KITT needed to be put together after saving some humans from each other again. But if that's what his main programming forced him to do... KARR had learned not to stand in his way when it came to saving human lives, and he had learned it the hard way. It was bad for his own integrity.

KITT wasn't nearly as hostile as he expected him to be. KARR prepared for a fight, a very last fight, even if he was nothing but a vulnerable black box, unarmed, weak and out of his protective shell. KITT didn't even say an angry word. Later, he was placed into the brand new car that was supposed to be the newest body for the Two Thousand. But that was a part of the deal, a deal that he would prove to be the true heir of that traitor Wilton Knight and get Jennifer to understand that she'd better give up her plans and not ruin what her father and his creator built, not destroy anything that he now considered to be his own property.

He was coming in at 235 miles per hour, watching for the gate in the distance to open for him. At this speed, he could have easily jumped over it, or even crushed it if he felt like.
'How do you do, sir?'
'It's good to see you again, boss!'

'How did you like the new tires, Mr. Knight?'

Mr. Knight. Last week, if someone would have offered him a body that had four wheels and maybe a laser, he would have gladly accepted it. Now, technically speaking, he was the principal of KITT and Michael Knight. It took him less than a week to take over FLAG. It started with convincing the Board of Directors to support him against Jennifer. He had continued with making sure not to be betrayed again. Sooner or later most Board members had realised that he was not only calculating and unpredictable, but that he had also had something of a great leader in him too. At the end of the week, he had a double vote from the Board of Directors, full access to FLAG's internal network, and a 39% share of the Knight Industries.

Comfortably, he slowed down, approaching the medieval-looking castle in a seemingly lazy manner. Only his amber scanner remained running left and right as he checked every minor detail of the manor. Once he fought for his life, to not be brought back here. He hadn't wanted to belong here. Now, this place was a part of him, it belonged to him.

It was his life. And his primary program was to protect it.