Chosen Directions
Part 5 of 'Burn'
A CMAU fic
By Numnut
17 Jan 2007



"//Michael!!//"

Kitt was vaguely aware of Swan yelling his name over the screech of angry, terrified AI, but had no resources to spare in her consideration. She had caught him. He wasn't a crumpled mess of limbs on the floor, which was a small consolation.

Michael faded to a tiny amber spark....unconscious. Kitt reached out and wrapped himself around his partner. //Michael?//

No response.

Michael was at the hospital.

Nick was at the hospital.

<_Karr?

Ice-cold anger answered his query. Or at least it had the appearance of anger. Kitt knew his brother well enough to know that it was little more than a response to terror.

<_Is there nothing?

The temperature dropped even further, waves of dark emotion flowing across the link between the two AIs.

<_Michael is unconscious.

The anger faltered and a definite fear leaked through.

Kitt opened his eyes. His feet were on the floor. He was staring at them, hunched over. Broken mirror glittered in the overhead lighting.

He straightened.

And came eye to eye with the frightened expression on Swan's face. "Kitt?"

"I'm sorry." His voice was rough. He should explain further, but... "I have to go."

"But...your hand..." Her eyes echoed the worry he felt.

"I have the gloves." He shoved the hat on his head. "Thank you. I-I'll be back." And without another word, he turned and left.

Karr's engine was rumbling impatiently as Kitt dashed down the path and the Stealth took off the moment Kitt's feet were inside the door.
<_What happened? Kitt's CPU was still ringing with the backlash from whatever had hit his brother.

<_I do not know. Karr's presence was trembling. Kitt reached out a tendril and attempted to touch his brother, all his previous anger with him temporarily forgotten, but the dark AI flinched away, alone as ever in his pain. <_He was there, then the pain. Now there is nothing.

Kitt knew what that nothingness was like. It dragged at your mind, sucking you into its bottomless depths, leaching you inch by inch from whatever comfort or sanity you had left. He knew it.

And feared it as much as his brother.

<_It has happened before. We will locate him.

Karr didn't answer, but another wave of terror washed across the link.

There was silence for a while.

Then Karr spoke up quietly. <_How is Michael?

Kitt blinked at his brother's terminology. <_He is still unconscious, and in pain, but no more so than he was this morning.

The Stealth screeched around a corner and Kitt felt the laser restraints flex in response. The streetlights bounced off the dark skin of the Stealth in a parade of speeding colours.

Karr's presence suddenly stuttered and for a moment, Kitt thought his link with his brother would be the next to fall.

<<_Nick?????> A trickle of something danced across the link and Kitt shivered.

<_Karr? The Stealth swerved on the road, nearly taking out a parked car. Kitt grabbed the wheel, straightening their course.

There was shock, quickly followed by another wave of fear and terror. <_He was there. Then he was gone again.

<_Nick?

<_Yes, Nick!

<_Interference?

<_I don't know! The dark presence rippled with anxiety.

<_We're nearly there-

Karr shifted. <_He's not there.

Kitt blinked. <_We will find him.

<_No! He's not there! Not at the hospital.

<_Where then?

The AI hesitated, and Kitt waited as impatient as his brother had been earlier. <_South. He was travelling south.

<_Michael's at the hospital.

<_Nick isn't!

Kitt hesitated, his thoughts bouncing around his processors. Everything drew him towards Michael. Michael was his priority. But Michael was stable. He could feel him. Unconscious but stable, and if he was at the hospital, he should be safe.

Nick wasn't.

<_Kitt?

The Stealth tore along the road, but its destination was no longer definite.

<_Kitt?!

<_I- He reached out and embraced his partner a moment... //I love you, Michael.//...before retreating and putting up a light block.

"Patch me through to the Foundation."

Karr didn't answer but his disapproval was clear.

"Now."

There was a brief moment, then..."I have Miles."

Devon sounded like he had been dragged out of bed, but the bleariness disappeared quickly once Kitt relayed the situation. "I can't be there, Devon. You have to promise me you'll protect him."

There was a wave of astonishment from Karr.

"Most certainly, Kitt, you have my word."

"I'll hold you to it." And he cut the line.

<_Kitt-

<_Don't. It's the only solution.

<_But-

<_It's necessary. And he shut his primal fear away, shoving it into a dark corner of his mind where it trembled all by itself.

Karr didn't say anything further as Kitt spun the wheel and they turned south.

-o-o-o-

Nick woke with a whimper, some awful blackness reaching out to strangle him. It took a moment for his aching head to recognise the signs. God, no!

<Karr!>

There was no response.

Training kicked in a moment later, his senses reaching out to gather information before opening his eyes or moving. He was in a vehicle, lying down, hard surface and, by the lack of flickering across the back of his eyelids, it was dark...no, blindfold. His head ached so much, he'd almost missed the touch of fabric.

<Karr!>

He didn't miss the bindings holding his wrists behind his back in a circulation-cutting grip. The smallest of movements identified similar bonds around his ankles.

There were no voices, only the sound of an engine and tyres on asphalt. It was stuffy and closed in. Oxygen seemed to be a little on the rare side.

The trunk of a car? Most likely.

What the hell had happened? <Karr!> He'd been at the hospital guarding Michael and likewise keeping him company while Kitt went in for repairs. Michael had fallen asleep at some point and Nick had taken the opportunity to stretch his legs outside in the corridor, perhaps grab something to eat from the vending machine not far from Michael's position.

After that he remembered nothing.

He had been on alert. The thought that he had been caught off guard offended his sensibilities. He wasn't stupid. He knew his capabilities. There had been no one suspicious in the vicinity.

What about Michael? Fear attempted to distract him. Michael was vulnerable without his partner. Someone had tried to kill him, for Christ's sake. Whoever had him, did they have Michael as well?

And what the hell had happened to his link with his partner? His mind ached to feel the silky soft touch of Karr's mind. <Karr!>

Bottomless darkness beckoned.

He shunted it aside and focussed on the problem at hand. Movement proved difficult. His muscles cramped. Apparently he had been in this position for some time. But with some decent wriggling, he managed to drag his arms around under his feet, bringing his hands forward. He let out the smallest of grunts as his shoulders cracked.

Feeling about him, he found little. Whoever had shoved him in here hadn't wanted to give him any advantage by leaving a random tyre-iron around for him to play with. So he turned to working on the bindings around his wrists.

His thoughts automatically fell back on the question of who exactly could be the people responsible for all this. If this was an attack on him rather than Michael, he should have known about it beforehand. He had connections for this exact reason. Hell, he should have known about the attack on Michael. The fact that he didn't led him to believe whoever had taken their fancy was outside the usual mercenary network. Which led to the old 'crime of passion' explanation. One that was never Nick's favourite. Passionate people were less predictable. They-

A sharp stab of pain where the link resided in his head. He leapt on it. <Karr?!>

And there was a response! His partner, far away and seething, but there. <Karr!>

<Nick!>

He reached for him, but just as suddenly it was gone. All of it. No! <Karr!>

Pain radiated out to his skull. Goddamnit! He fought the urge to hit something, his position precarious enough already.

The vehicle stopped.

Nick immediately shutdown, clearing his mind, making ready. Voices approached. He flexed the muscles in his legs and arms a moment before letting himself go limp.

Dim light seeped through his eyelids as the trunklid lifted above him. He located three opponents by their breathing and speech. One drew close and reached in to pick him up.

Nick twisted, bringing his head up hard, butting opponent number one solidly. Using what little momentum he had, he rolled back down, bringing his legs up and over the lip of the trunk, flipping himself out and onto his feet. A flick of his wrists and the blindfold was gone. The remaining two goons didn't bother waiting, both diving in to grab him.

Nick whipped around, letting his balled fists make bone soup out of goon number two's face. The man's yell turned into a gurgle as he flipped onto his belly in the dust. Goon number three didn't bother to wait for his mate to fall, moving in quickly. Following through with his momentum, Nick spun, jumped, and came down hard on the man's foot. A twist of his shoulders and his head made some decent contact with the man's jaw, removing teeth. He followed through with an elbow in the man's ribcage. Goon three stumbled backwards and Nick took the moment to gauge the field and direction of escape.

The sound of a pair of hands clapping slowly distracted him as a tall dark skinned man walked into the pool of light surrounding the former agent.

"Very nice, Mr MacKenzie. I wouldn't have expected anything less."

Nick squinted at him, dazzled by the street lamp above him. He didn't recognise the man, but he was too busy calculating escape routes to really care. He didn't appear to be armed, but Nick was well aware of the reliability of appearances.

"Do you feel better now?"

Nick didn't answer.

The man smirked. "So nice chatting with you. However, I have business to attend to, and you are far too good an opponent to leave conscious." And with that he calmly pulled out a tazer and fired.

Nick dove for cover, but the metal prongs caught him, electricity arcing up and down his body. At some distant point, he heard Karr scream and then there was once again nothing.

-o-o-o-

The Stealth slid sideways off the road, taking out two trees and a fence post before coming to a trembling rest on the sidewalk.

Karr writhed in the depths of his CPU. <Nick?> The link was once again gone, blackness clawing at his soul.

Kitt's presence flickered at the other end of the AIs' connection. Karr shuddered and desperately tried to pull himself together. The Stealth had left the road. They'd had a car accident. Shame quickly followed.

<_Kitt?

<_I'm...I'm functional. The white light shivered, turning to reach for his partner. Karr stared down the length of the link, watching Kitt embrace the pale amber flicker of his ill and still unconscious partner and was suddenly irrationally jealous.

Miles had reported the FLAG's agent's safety a short while ago. But there had been no trace of Nick. No one had any idea what had happened to him. Karr was close to screaming the walls of his CPU down.

He ached for the icy blue light of his partner. While his relationship with Nick was vastly different from that of Knight and Kitt, it was still cherished. It was different, but there was love of a kind all of its own.

Karr mentally blinked at the thought. He wasn't sure he had ever actually admitted that to himself before.

<Nick!>

Nothing.

The car was still running and Karr was surprised when Kitt applied the accelerator, edging them away from the fence they had clipped. "File an accident report."

"What?"

"File an accident report in Michael's name. They can bill me later." And with that, the AI floored the Stealth and they took off. "Do you have a more precise location?"

Karr shook himself. What the hell was wrong with him? He was distracted, unfocussed. Nick's life was at stake. He rummaged through the mass of readings he had automatically pulled the moment the implant flared. "I have co-ordinates."

"Give them to me."

Karr complied automatically, sending the file via the link.

<_Thankyou. And Kitt reached out to wrap a piece of himself around his brother.

Karr just stared at him.

<_It will be fine. We will find him. We will.

Karr frowned, darkness enveloping him and he shrugged off Kitt's attention. But he didn't turn away, still staring at the white light of his brother as the other AI played the functions required for driving.

Fifteen minutes later they pulled up in front of the Silver Sunset Nursing Home.

-o-o-o-


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