Disclaimer: Knight Rider was created by Glen A. Larson.
Author’s
note: Slightly AU. This story takes place in the mid 90’s. NB at end of story.
Summary: Devon, Michael and KITT mourn the passing of
a dear and close friend.
Rating
PG - Drama
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
KNIGHT
RIDER
ELYSIAN
KNIGHT
Cold. Dark.
Silent. His mind, numb, the
air, stagnant. He had heard nothing for
three days. He had eaten nothing. He felt nothing but emptiness as he forced
himself with tremendous effort, to get up and make a cup of tea. He did not know how he managed it, nor how
he managed to make it back behind his desk, but after the first sip, he could
take the silence no longer.
The
first thing Michael heard in three days was a smash, and panic overtook him as
he ran into Devon’s office, to see the older man sobbing, slumped over his
desk, a tea stain on the far side of the wall, his precious fine bone china cup
lay in pieces on the floor.
Gently
Michael took the older man’s hand.
“Devon...” he whispered.
If
he had spoken any louder the other would not have heard him.
The
elder man looked up, slowly, revealing puffy, bloodshot eyes.
“If I hadn’t-“
“No, Devon... It’s not your fault...”
“Ohh why, Michael ...” He could say no more before tears drowned him
again.
But
Michael could not answer him.
* * *
Three
days prior ...
Bonnie
gently adjusted KITT’s internal systems.
“There you are, all better.”
“Thank you, Bonnie, you have the touch of an
Angel.”
The
FLAG Technician smiled and patted him softly. “Aww, Kitt ...”
“Now, on a more serious note,” Devon said
coming to them, “Sid Howard is on the move again controlling that mechanical
monstrosity of his, that he designed specifically to kill Kitt.”
KITT
emitted something that could be ascertained as a groan.
Bonnie
turned to Michael. “One *scratch* on him
and I’ll have your guts for breakfast.”
“You’re vegetarian,” Michael smiled.
“My cat isn’t.”
“Oh ...”
“Don’t worry, Bonnie, he’ll take good care of
me, won’t you, Michael?”
“I promise, not a scratch on your baby ...
Hey, why don't you come with?”
Bonnie
turned to Devon.
“Go on,” he said with a smile.
“Thank you, Devon.”
She
eagerly climbed inside KITT and waited for Michael.
“Not a scratch on Bonnie either,” Devon
warned.
“What about me?” Michael said. “Is it okay if I get a scratch?”
“Yes!” all three chimed.
“Well, thanks.”
* * *
After
a long, arduous, chase, the trio had cornered Sid’s armoured car, or so they
thought.
“Michael,” Bonnie said, “if I can get close
enough to Sid’s vehicle, I can reprogram it.”
“Bonnie,
you gotta be outta your mind if I’m lettin' you close to that thing. KITT, try your jammers again.”
“Zilch, Michael. He’s locked out to any outside interference.”
“Well then, there’s only one thing left to
do.”
Bonnie
smiled. “I knew you’d see it my way.”
“Nice try.”
“Michael,”
The Technician protested, “if Kitt can jam the steering, I may be able to-“
“Forget it.
I have a plan.”
“And when were you planning on telling us?”
KITT demanded.
“It’s dangerous. You both would have freaked.” Michael pulled
out a small black device.
Bonnie
stared. “Where did you-“
“Is that a neutronium bomb in your pocket or
are you just glad to see me?” KITT said dryly.
Then he exploded. “You mean you
were carrying a *bomb?!* – That thing could’ve blown and then where would we
all be?”
“Relax.
I have to charge it. I knew you’d
go off like that.”
“Very funny, Michael ... I wonder how he would react if he had a bomb
inside him,” KITT said to Bonnie.
She
looked at Michael, crossly. “I still
don’t know where in the Universe you got-“
“Wilton’s secret stash. Emergencies only. And *this* is an emergency.”
“I still think that if I can get close
enough” – Bonnie started.
“It’s too dangerous.”
“And handling neutronium explosives
isn’t? Michael, that’s a very complex
vehicle.”
“Plant bomb.
Car go boom. 'Nuff said?”
“As long as it’s not *me* that goes boom,”
KITT said. He reluctantly skidded to a
halt as Michael climbed out. “Be careful
with that thing.”
“Yes, Mother,” Knight said with a smile.
“I don’t know why I put up with him,” KITT
said.
Bonnie
couldn’t help but smile.
“But you, Miss, are staying right here.”
“Yes, Sir.”
“You’re getting as bad as Michael.”
Bonnie
always knew when KITT was smiling.
Knight
zig zagged his way to the remote controlled armoured vehicle, though it
detected him and swerved. Michael
couldn’t risk throwing the bomb until he was sure it would hit its target.
“No ...” Bonnie looked worried. “He’s not going to get to it in time ... If
he detonates it too close to you ... Kitt, see if you can jam its steering.”
“I’m trying, though, it’s quite – Bonnie!”
KITT
was unable to lock his door fast enough as the Technician bolted. Michael looked shocked, but there was nothing
he could do as he madly tried to distract the vehicle's attention from Bonnie.
Desperately
KITT hauled cylinder and managed with all his power to slow the other
vehicle. Bonnie was able to jump onto
it.
KITT
and Michael started in horror. Though
Bonnie seemed engrossed in her perilous task.
She cracked the computerised lock on the door and flipped herself
inside, much to Michael’s surprise and he planned to ask her how she learned
... Probably all those episodes of Buffy and what was that other woman
called? ... Oh that’s right. Zena.
Or was that Xena? Something like
that. But his mind only thought of that
for a split second before he worried about Bonnie again, although the FLAG
Technician seemed to be doing very well.
She had already accessed the car’s computer and was madly going at the
controls, despite the vehicle’s controller trying to shake her.
“There ...” Bonnie said, at last, as the
vehicle came to a complete standstill.
The
FLAG Technician checked her work.
“Harmless as a puppy.” And she
climbed out.
“You get back here this instant!” KITT called,
relieved Bonnie emerged unharmed.
Michael began to approach her with similar thoughts of rousing.
As
she walked back toward KITT, feeling guilty about making him worry, though
there would be more to worry about if that thing had been allowed to run roughshod.
Behind
her, Bonnie heard a noise, a slight creak of metal. She shivered and slowly turned. Surely the car wasn’t operating again, she’d
shut it down real good. To her horror, a
gun turret poked out.
“I can’t shut it down!” KITT yelled. “Get out of the way, Bonnie!!”
Her
face a mixture of turmoil, Bonnie turned to the vehicle, its cannon levelled at
KITT.
“No.”
“Bonnie!”
Michael yelled.
“Bonnie Barstow, do as I say!”
She
turned to KITT and smiled. “I thought I
was *your* mother.”
Michael
ran as fast as his long legs would carry him, perhaps there was away he could
save both Bonnie and KITT. His heart
sank when he saw Bonnie was too close to the machine to survive the blast if he
blew it up. And now, only now he
realised how much KITT meant to her.
Just as much as KITT meant to him, if not more. Michael knew that either he or KITT would
have to get Bonnie out of the way and KITT wouldn’t be able to act in time
before the gun went off and he wasn’t sure if he could get to Bonnie in
time. Knight realised with a shock, no
matter what he did, one of his friends was going to die.
“Bonnie, please...” KITT begged.
“Kitt, I can’t ... I can’t let you die ... I
... I love you ...”
Bonnie
turned back to the machine, which seemed to be hesitating and she realised that
Sid, controlling the thing would not fire while she stood in front of
KITT. Not from anything that could
remotely be described as compassion, Sid
knew
he would only get one shot before Michael blew the thing to kingdom come and he
was saving the blast for KITT.
Bonnie
turned to him. “Kitt ... Kitt ... I’m so
sorry ...”
“Bonnie, I understand... I ... I love you
too.”
Tears
streaked the Technician’s eyes as she began to move away. The turret moved slightly, and prepared to
fire.
“BONNIE, NO!!!!” KITT screamed, barely hearing his own voice
as Bonnie dashed back into the line of fire, the blast ripping through her
chest as though it were tin foil. The
last things she saw, as she twisted and fell were Michael and then KITT and it
pained her to leave her baby, knowing his agony would last a lifetime, hers
only seconds, as her life left her before she hit the cold, hard road.
KITT
stared in shock, barely hearing Michael scream her name. KITT heard nothing but silence. No wind, no birds, no footsteps as he stared
at the lifeless body of one he held so dear.
He could not bear to recall her final moments, the blood saturating her
white suit, the shocked pain on her face she tried to hide, her hair scattering
to the winds, seeming as though it had happened in slow motion, though his
chronometer showed 1.32 seconds.
Michael
ran, and threw the bomb before the thing could get off another shot and when
the debris had cleared, he ran to Bonnie and fell beside her, held her and cried. KITT watched in pained silence, hoping if a
place for the dead existed that Bonnie would be at peace there.
* * *
Michael
held Devon’s shivering hand.
“These things happen,” the older man forced
himself to say, standing, withdrawing his hand and placing it hard on the
desk. “I fought in wars. I have buried friends before.” His face was as a stone.
“Devon,” Michael said. “You don’t need to act tough for me. We all loved her. She was ... special... And the death of a
friend doesn’t get any easier.” His mind
flashed back to his partner Muntzy ... and his wife Stevie and he fought back
tears of his own.
“That she was. Very special ... She was the daughter I
always wanted.” A tear escaped. Devon let it.
“Where’s Kitt?” Michael asked.
Devon
blinked. “Outside, I think ... Michael,
be gentle with him ...”
Knight
managed a small, pained smile. “You
sound like Bonnie.”
“He’s never lost anyone he cared for so
much.”
* * *
Michael
walked outside, to be almost blinded by the bright sunlight - and fresh air,
he’d almost forgotten what that tasted like, but the freshness was no
consolation for his loss as he looked around for KITT. Puzzled at first, as his automotive friend
was nowhere in sight, he surmised perhaps KITT had gone for a drive, to take
time for himself, but when he looked ahead, he saw his friend, on the edge of a
nearby precipice.
“*KITT!!*”
he screamed. “Don’t you fucking
dare!!!”
The
Trans-Am almost lost his balance as he reversed to his panicked friend.
“I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t thought
about it, Michael, but I could not to that to Bonnie ... She ... she gave her
life for me.”
“She did...”
KITT
pulled up beside Michael.
A
long pause followed.
“Michael ...” KITT began, somewhat
nervously. “Do you blame me for-“
Knight
sighed a painful sigh as he touched KITT’s hood. “No, Kitt, I don’t blame you.”
“I wouldn’t blame you if you did, Michael.”
“KITT, she loved you more than
anything...” A tear made its way down
Knight’s cheek, despite his pain, Bonnie’s love for KITT touched him deeply.
“I feel terrible,” KITT said. “I-“
“It was her choice, Kitt.”
“I know and I would have done the same for
her.”
“I know you would, Buddy. I know ...”
Knight stroked KITT’s hood. “I
would have too.”
Another
paused followed. “I ... I have to get
my systems checked,” KITT said. “Ohh
Michael ... Bonnie ... Ohh Gods...”
Never
to be touched by her warm, delicate hands, never to see her smile, never again
to have her long hair slightly caress him as she fiddled deep within her
circuits. Never to have her fuss over
him again ... KITT wished he could cry.
Knight
climbed inside him. The Firebird felt a
little comforted.
“I know...” he said, ever so gently as if he
sensed the car’s innermost feelings.
“It was just a mission like any other ...”
KITT said. “But it wasn’t, was it?”
“No, Buddy, it wasn’t...”
“I ... I don’t know how good I’ll be to you,
Michael...I ...”
“Kitt, you’ve just lost one of the most
important people in your life. Someone
you loved. We all have.”
“I know ... But I ... my circuits ....
manifolds ... My fuel pumps .... I don’t know why... Maybe that thing did
something ... I need a complete overhaul ... they feel like they’re splitting
apart ...”
“It’s called grief, Kitt,” Michael said
softly, “and the only overhaul that can fix it is time.”
“How much time, Michael?”
“I don’t know ... And Kitt, you’ll always
miss her ... like Stevie .. I-“
Michael
stopped. He felt the inside of KITT get
a little warmer, akin to KITT holding his hand.
“Thanks, Buddy.”
“My pleasure, Michael. I am glad you’re here.”
Knight
gave a sad smile. “We’ll both need each
other.”
KITT
didn’t want to think about who was going to be his new technician. He was sure FLAG would appoint someone with
just as much expertise as Bonnie, but would they have the same delicate hands? Would they see him as more than a machine?
“She was more to you than your Technician,
wasn’t she...”
“Yes, Michael. She was the first friend I’d had, the first
one to treat me like a person ... She was as some have said, like a mother.”
“I know that, Kitt, but she was more than
that, wasn’t she?”
KITT
paused before he spoke, his voice soft.
“Yes ... yes she was...”
Michael
gently stroked KITT’s wheel, again deeply touched by his friend’s love.
“Michael,” where do you suppose Bonnie has
gone?” KITT asked after a while. “Most humans believe in an afterlife of some sort.”
“I don’t know, Kitt, Heaven maybe, if it
exists.”
“I was reading Greek Mythology, earlier in
the week,” KITT said. “The Ancient
Greeks believed in a place called the Underworld, where the God Hades ruled
over the dead. The myths say that he was
a fair and just God who punished the evil and rewarded the good, whom he sent
to the Elysian Fields, a place of eternal bliss and serenity.”
Knight
paused for a moment. “Sounds like a nice
place, Kitt. Perhaps she has gone
there.”
* * *
A
gentle breeze caressed her face as she opened her eyes. She lay in the middle of a soft, luscious
grassy field, and sat up slowly. Small,
pristine white flowers surrounded her.
Briefly she remembered her quick, though painful death and winced, not
from the external pain, but for those she left behind. Here she felt no physical pain, her wound non
existent, and she wore a white flowing dress, unstained with mortal blood,
though she pained for her loved ones.
A
gentle voice seemed to emanate from the luscious trees. “Fear not, Little One, though your friends
grieve for you in the mortal world, your spirit will always be with them, and
there will come a day when they will join you.”
She
hadn’t known much about the ancient myths, though she knew the voice to belong
to Hades and she smiled at his warmth and waited in blissful serenity for the
day when she would be reunited with the ones she loved.
*
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
NB: This was written for a “Challenge Fic” due to
a rumour that the were going to kill off Bonnie if season 5 of Knight Rider
Eventuated. I ‘m glad they didn’t as I
love Bonnie! I wrote the fic to give her
a respectful and honourable death.