A/N: It'll be over soon… I don't have much more planned for this story. I don't want it to end! *cries* Anyways, this chapter is in two parts, not separate, but different in their tones… I think it'll be like that until the last chapter, which could either be this chapter or the one after, depending on how I break it up. Also… I have no idea how cars take their school supplies back and forth, so just bear with me with the subject of Abby's book bag… it bugs me, too, but I'm not sure what else to do for that XD. Anyways, enjoy :).

During the few weeks after Abby had found CHROME, her life had changed almost completely. She now had a second home at headquarters, as Finn had instructed her parents, but against what he recommended she requested that her last name be changed to Axlerod; as a result of Miles and Estella taking up more missions, she began to see less and less of her parents, adopting the agents of CHROME as her extended family, especially Holley and Siddeley, both of whom she made a point to talk to every day. Using the racing instruction her father had gotten her, she timed in privately and found that she qualified for the Youth Grand Prix, which luckily took place in England that year. While she was training for that, nothing else mattered. She began to become forgetful, even leaving her book bag at home one day and having to ask Estella to go back and get it.

It was almost lunch before the Pacer finally returned to her daughter's school, thinking that she'd be asked to leave it at the office so Abby could pick it up.

"They're about to go to recess, so you can just take it to her classroom," the receptionist paused, entering Abby's name, "She's in room A113. Oh, and I need your name, as well, just for the record."

Estella paused. She almost gave one of her many aliases out of instinct, but she caught herself. "Estella Axlerod," she replied smoothly, as if there was nothing wrong with the name… it was common enough, she supposed, and Abby had no problems with teachers or anything, and it wasn't different for her. The receptionist nodded a little, typing it into the computer.

"Go to the second hallway down, turn right, and then it's the third door on your left," she directed to the Pacer before the phone rang. She pressed a button on the floor to answer it, waving Estella on with her other tire.

"Thanks," she mouthed silently, turning towards the hallway that led into the school, following the directions she was given to find that Abby's classroom door was open… she hated to admit it, but she was nervous. Kids in small quantities she could handle, especially if she knew them, but the sheer amount of kids in a class made her second guess herself. Of course, no one could really tell just by her expression, but the point still stood.

Estella turned into the classroom to find everyone talking to one another, a crossover vehicle grading papers at her desk, but looked up in time to see the Pacer, who seemed relieved when she saw another adult in the room. "Can I help you?" she asked.

"Yes," Estella replied, snapping herself out of her somewhat spaced-out state and turning towards the teacher, "I'm Abby's mother, and I just brought her book bag for her... did she have any trouble without it?"

Ms. Huxley was confused, but attributed the two cars' relation through adoption. There wasn't really another way, "We actually have had a fairly busy day today—not now—but she's been borrowing pencils and the like from her friends."

Abby had seen Estella and wove through the sea of kids at desks to her, "Hi mom! Wait… what are you doing here?" she asked, not meaning to be rude, but she had forgotten about forgetting her bag that morning.

"I thought you might need this," Estella replied, pushing the light blue book bag over to her. It was actually hers when she had first come back to England with Finn… it was still in good condition, and even if Abby didn't understand it fully, she liked the idea of sentimentality.

Abby realized that she'd completely forgotten about it and took the bag, looking as if she wanted to facepalm… if she knew what a palm was. "Thanks," she replied, nudging her mother a little as the bell rang for recess. "Have to go," she said quickly, "Got a race with about half the class planned for today."

"Go on, then," Estella said, chuckling a little as the little racecar sped outside with her friends. The Pacer swore she heard the word, 'lemon' shouted out by someone, but she wasn't sure…

"Oh, since you decided to stop by…" Ms. Huxley said after the last student left, "I've been meaning to talk to you about her grades."

"How so?"

"They're slipping, especially the last few weeks' worth. I know that racing's important to her, but school needs to come first. Is there any problems at home that could explain this?"

Yes… Abby practically had two homes and her parents risked their lives on a regular basis without her knowing. They were just lucky Finn knew how to circumvent the government. "None that I could imagine."

"If that's the case, then she's just being lazy about her homework. She turns in blank sheets, if any at all." Ms. Huxley didn't mean to be so blunt, but sixth graders could be like that sometimes.

"I'll make sure she starts doing it, then,"

"Also… there's something else I've been meaning to bring up. You know she speaks Italian, right?"

"Sometimes…"

"She's been picking up other languages, too… but mostly random words she uses as curses. Her favorite one is Nilpferd… I looked it up and it means 'hippo' in German," she chuckled, "I just figured I should warn you because if I have to send her to the office, it would probably be because she learned a real one."

"That would probably be her father's department… he told her not to curse. Maybe she figured if she tried to learn them in other languages…"

"She'd get away with it," Ms. Huxley chuckled, "It's a common problem among this age group, but she unfortunately has a teacher who's seen it all. She does have a knack for pronunciation, though."

"I'll be sure to discuss it with both of them," Estella replied, "Well, it was nice talking with you, but I've got a meeting to be at," she lied, but she could tell that her radio was buzzing off the hook. Even being the only 'gadget' she had, it could get annoying.

"I won't keep you, then," the teacher replied, "Have a nice day!"

"You too!" Estella replied, driving out of the room and leaving the school as fast as she could without being noticed. "Velcome to Transylvania," she answered, adopting a vampire-like accent for a moment, "Can I help you vith something?"

"Not funny, Stella," Miles said quickly before Finn cut him off with his own radio.

"We've got a suspicious situation… Xina's being brought in for questioning, but you need to get back here as fast as possible. They've got information on you. A lot of it. And your husband, too. We don't know where it went or what they're going to do."

"What about Abby?"

"Leave. Her. At. School. I'll send Londyn when it's safe to do so, but do NOT contact her. She's safe as far as I know, and you don't have the capability to protect both of you if you have a run-in with any assailants."

The realization of what Finn had told her was reeling though Estella's mind as she tried to keep her casual disposition to the public. They knew about Abby, she was sure of it. What if they broke into the school to get to her? Estella herself was vulnerable, but at the very least she could make sure she got somewhere away from the danger if needed; Estella may not have had weapons but she did know how to escape. "I'm going back," she replied, a tone of desperation in her voice as she turned into a store to turn around. Abby'd driven on the public roads before… she was already planning evasive tactics for getting Abby safely back to CHROME… Finn promised she'd be safe there. She was about to turn onto the other side of the street when another Pacer blocked her path. It took only a moment for her to recognize who it was.

"How many times do we have to kill you?!"

He chuckled, "Doesn't matter. You're already dead," and with that Acer directed to just behind the blue Pacer, revealing Grem with what looked like a giant sheet of some sort, throwing it over her before she even had time to react. It had to be laced with something, because it only took a couple minutes before she lost the fight, feeling the turn signal where her radio was hidden being hit forcefully with a tire… she just hoped it hadn't been completely destroyed as she slipped into the darkness.

…

"We've lost communication," Finn said, frustrated, "They must have headed her off when she went back for Abigail. Has anyone found Xina yet?" he continued, thinking out loud. Even with the small amount of cars in the building, it was bustling with activity; Cecil was put on the duty of finding the cream sedan, but he wasn't back yet… the silence answered his question. "Nevermind. Holley, is there any trace of where those files went?"

"I haven't even figured out why they're so focused on the lemons… No offence, Mr. Axlerod," the Jaguar said quickly. Being connected to the mainframe of the computer system had taken a lot of her concentration; all the information of not only the breech, but also everything else was swimming though her thoughts. It was almost too much, but she continued working and making exceptional progress. "All that seems to be corrupted are files on you and Estella," she added.

"What about Abby?" the Range Rover asked, half panicking but trying to remain calm. His wife was captured… if not that… then dead. He tried not to think about it.

"I encrypted that a while ago. Nothing to worry about." In truth, Holley had been the first of the extremely tech-savvy cars… she wasn't sure how many more like her they'd created. "Xina's been with us for a while, though. Why her?"

Finn had been quiet, checking access records. He was careful not to do anything too taxing on the computers, as he learned long ago that Holley picked up on anything done in the building's mainframe, especially when she was actively connected to it. But how did Xina get in without Holley even having an inkling of what was happening? "It has to be Xina, it's her clearance number all over. Cecil!" he said urgently into his radio.

"She's not here," he replied, "Wait, I heard something," he added, signing off before Finn could say another word.

Finn's expression must have read a mixture of shock and annoyance to Miles. "When you yell at everyone they don't exactly want to stay on the phone with you," he chuckled, trying to make light of the situation. In all actuality, it wasn't working; he wasn't in the mood for jokes, but he still tried to make them, which resulted in the jokes themselves not even being that funny.

"Can you please do something besides attempting to be the comedic relief?"

It was then that Cecil radioed back, "I got her. She's a couple rooms over from where you are. She's armed. I'd suggest showing up in the next few minutes or so if you don't want to lose an agent."

"On my way," Finn replied, "Come on, Axlerod, you're learning how to interrogate," he added, driving out of the room and to where Cecil had said… it was the detention center, set up so there was a safe zone agents could stay while questioning a potentially dangerous car. Cecil, however, was stuck in the cell with Xina, who had cut off his exit and was refusing to move, a gun on her hubcap drawn and ready to fire if he tried anything. Finn was glad he hadn't brought Londyn, now; no matter how dangerous their work was, he was still going to try to keep her as safe as he could.

"I have a feeling I'm not the only one that needs a lesson on interrogation…" Miles commented simply, receiving a glare from Finn. He honestly couldn't help it… it was better than panicking. He used sarcasm as a substitute so he could concentrate even under pressure.

Xina continued to back out of the room, her gun trained on Cecil, who didn't have much to defend himself; he had a knife and grappling hooks, but nothing practical for an agent to get out of a situation with, no matter how well he could use them.

Finn had drawn his own gun, just in case she managed to get beyond the 'safe zone'. "On your honor as a CHROME agent you'll spare Cecil and allow yourself to be questioned!" he said forcefully, the white sedan jumping at the sound of his voice, shirking back into the cell. Cecil got out and closed the door that now separated the agents and the accused.

Xina still glared. As long as that pane of glass was between her and the agents, she was safe. "Fine," she said somewhat huffily, revealing her true American accent, "question away."

"Why were you stealing information on Stella and I?" Miles asked, glaring back just as hard. He'd never felt anger towards… a villain like this. Sure, he'd defeated them before, but this hit too close to 'home'. He couldn't help but remember that he was once on their side.

Finn had to chuckle, "Innocent until proven guilty, Axlerod. You should know that," he warned, causing the Range Rover to reverse a little in partial embarrassment, more willing to learn now than before. "Xina, we have reasonable evidence that you were surpassing your clearance level. Explain yourself, if you care to."

"I don't have to explain anything! I plead the fifth!" she protested desperately, trying to remember her rights but reverting back to American terminology. As she said this, her headlights flickered an eerie blue color, much like the tint Holley's computer had when she activated it.

"The question is if you can stay silent," Cecil replied, to which the sedan glared, but said nothing. "Londyn and Holley are searching the access records right now, and from what I know your tires are all over it."

Xina was silent.

"And we've lost communication with Stella," Miles added, "Any ideas there?"

"Better," Finn replied to Miles's statement. He was learning fast, he had to admit.

Xina's eyes widened. The next phase… I should have been out of here by now… what are they gonna do to me?! I've been caught… I'm no good to them anymore…

"So you do know something," Cecil commented, "Who kidnapped her? Are they here?"

Until my last breath I need to help them. Even if I failed my mission, I can still make sure they're successful, "I'm not saying another word." She tried desperately to control her computer, to keep it from being used against her, but it was almost no use. While she kept it from activating, her headlights were glowing an extremely bright blue and she was unable to turn them off.

"Well, your headlights are… interesting," Cecil replied, "You know, I've only seen that blue one other place…"

"In Miss Shiftwell's holographic display," Finn finished for Cecil, narrowing his eyes. The only car in CHROME that was granted a computer was Holley, and even if she didn't show it her systems controlled her for the most part. Perhaps they were connected to emotion. "Xina, you have unauthorized software installed in you."

"You think I don't know that?!" Xina broke her silence, raising her voice. "I was built like this, do you think I had a choice?"

She's AI, was the one thought that crossed the minds of all of the other agents in the room. "You are required to report abilities like that," Finn commented, pinpointing the sedan's weakness. Him. She was terrified of Finn, he could see it in her eyes. "You breached the security of the most secure agency in the entire United Kingdom. Who are you working for?" he demanded again, any kindness remaining leaving his voice. He was tempted to draw a gun, but he didn't find it needed at this point.

Xina kept her defiant pose, glaring, though it was clear she was losing her strength. Something had changed. "You useless piece of scrap!" an invisible voice told her over her radio, "Drive as close to those agents as your cell allows, that is, if you want to leave a legacy in our society." She felt something activate within her, something that had done nothing before, but she knew what it was by instinct. She had 30 seconds. "Give them a false lead!"

"Zundapp. I'm working for Professor Zundapp," Xina said, breaking into an insane laugh, her eyes blazing as the self-destruct sequence finished its countdown, the room exploding into a spectacular ball of fire.