Author's Note: After Chapter 14 I'll be taking a week off from this story to post something new. Normal service will resume the following week.

Chapter 14

Twenty Years Ago

The Emerald Forest North Circuit was a true terror. The ribbon of asphalt - barely wide enough for two cars side-by-side - was 23 kilometers long and wound through an ancient forest. The track had well over 100 turns and innumerable elevation changes. There were several parts of the circuit where cars routinely got completely airborne. It was all made worse by the fact that there were rarely barriers to separate the track from the forest, and those that were present were woefully insufficient. The place was a deathtrap, and hardly a grand prix was run in which someone was not killed.

It had taken all of Taiyang's charm and powers of persuasion to convince Summer to join him at the track. She was pregnant but still endeavored to make it to the races to support her husband. For Emerald Forest she had planned to stay home. Just going there made her nauseous, and having to watch her husband race on the terrible circuit was altogether too much. She had lost too many friends to the place and the fear of losing Taiyang was almost too great to bear. Eventually a rather morbid argument swayed her. If something happened, it would be better if she was there to take charge of the situation. She could make the hard decisions. If she was back on Patch, those choices would be out of her hands.

As usual the race was going to be run in bad conditions. The weather in this part of the world was unpredictable and rapidly changing. It added to the danger and Summer's anxiety. She put on a brave face, sitting there smiling in the suite above the Beacon GP garage, as Taiyang and his temporary teammate Peter Port rolled their cars out to the grid. Yang, just a toddler, was entirely oblivious to the peril her father was putting himself in. She sat beside Summer, happily humming to herself as she impatiently waited for the race to begin. She loved racing as much as her father, the sights, the sounds, the smells. There was no doubt about it, she was going to be a racer.

Taiyang had qualified on pole with Port just behind in third. Port was a legend and three time champion, but he was aging and his glory days were long over. His one year ride with Beacon GP while Summer was pregnant was his last big hurrah. He would go on to race for several more years, bouncing around between sub-par teams, but this was his last chance to compete. Of all the drivers he seemed the only one not afraid of the North Circuit. He called it "the ultimate test of manly courage" and boasted about he had won there four times. In truth he used his bravado to hide his nerves. Everyone had a coping mechanism.

The race got underway in drizzling rain. The track was soaked and behind the first few the spray the cars kicked up was blinding. It would rain on and off for the rest of the race and the track never really dried out. After over eight minutes the cars returned, roaring past the pits. Taiyang was in the lead with Port second. The pair had a big margin over third. About a minute after the leaders crossed the line to start their second lap, the second place qualifier limped his car into the pits. He had been the only one with the speed to compete with Beacon GP that weekend, but his engine was misfiring and would not make another lap.

Summer began to calm as the laps ticked by. Each one complete was one less where Taiyang could have a problem. He continued in the lead, slowly pulling away from his teammate as the laps wore on. Then came lap 10. A silver car came roaring up the hill toward the pit straight. It was Port. Taiyang was nowhere to be seen. As he passed the Beacon GP garage Port pointed to the right-front tire then banged his fist on the side of the car. He was trying to communicate with the crew. Taiyang had blown his right-front tire and crashed. Word of the accident soon reached the garage area. Summer felt ill. She wanted to cry but had to be strong for Yang. She listened and nodded as Yang complained about how her daddy was not going to win. Summer just hoped he was alive.

Port went on to win the race, his fifth GP win at the fearsome track, but Summer did not care. No news had filtered back about Taiyang's accident. That could be good. It could have been minor so there was nothing to say. Or it could be bad. It could be that no one wanted to say anything. She was heavily pregnant but Summer made her was as fast as she could to the podium. She intercepted Port before he could take the stage. "What happened?" She asked. "Is Taiyang alright?"

"Oh, old Tai's fine!" Port boomed. "He just had a little slide into a dirt bank." Port laughed. "He's a little muddy, that's all! Nothing to worry about!"

Summer breathed a sigh of relief. "Thanks for telling me, I was so scared." Summer admitted. "Go have some fun on the podium."

"Not a problem." Port said. He bent down to a pouting Yang. She was still unhappy that her father had lost. "Chin up little one! Your father may not have won the race but the team did! We'll all be celebrating soon! I'll even give you a sip of champagne!"

"No you won't." Summer said. "She's two."

"Have it your way." Port laughed. "Well, I'm off."

Taiyang arrived a while later. He was indeed muddy but Summer still gave him a tight hug. She had never been so happy to see him.

Present Day

When the drivers arrived at the Emeraldring on Saturday morning they were met with the news that Winter was still alive. She was in a coma and still not expected to recover, but there was still the faintest sliver of hope. They all knew that even if Winter survived that she would likely never be the same. Winter had been a good friend to many of the drivers and her absence was felt up and down the pit lane. The locked up Schnee Automotive garage became a makeshift memorial as flowers and letters were left in front of it. No one felt much like racing but the show went on. The show always went on.

Ruby made her way to the Goodwitch GPE garage to see Yang before the morning's practice. Normally they would have a friendly chat, talk about their cars and their chances, and generally get each other pumped up to drive. Today would be different. The mechanics milled about the cars as they always did, and Blake sat in the corner reading a book. Yang stood at the entrance to the garage, staring off into space.

"Hey sis." Ruby said.

"Oh, hey Ruby." Yang said, snapping back to reality. "Are you alright?"

"Not really." Ruby admitted. "I don't know how you can keep going."

"Yeah, it's rough." Yang said. "Last night I went out and drank...a lot. What did you do?"

"Pyrrha." Ruby said.

"What about her?" Yang asked.

"I was answering your question." Ruby said.

"Oh...wait...what!?" Yang exclaimed. "So you…" Ruby nodded. "You and Pyrrha freaking Nikos, red-haired goddess, really?!"

"Yep." Ruby confirmed.

"I knew you two had a thing going on, but I didn't think you were quite there yet." Yang said. "I have to admit, I'm jealous. How was it?"

"Amazing." Ruby sighed.

"You don't sound thrilled." Yang observed.

"It was great and all, but...it's just...the time probably wasn't right." Ruby explained. "It should be something special to remember, but when I look back all I'll be able to think about is Winter. I think we both knew that...but how could we wait knowing death could be right around the corner?"

"I'm sorry." Yang said.

"And I'm so scared for Pyrrha and I'm sure she's scared for me." Ruby continued. "I guess this is what it was like for mom and dad. How did they do it?"

"I don't know." Yang said. "I really don't."

"I'm worried about you too, you know." Ruby said.

"Oh, don't worry about me." Yang said. "I'm going to be fine."

"How can you be so sure?" Ruby asked.

"Because I have to be." Yang said. "If I didn't think I'd be okay, I wouldn't be able to keep going. You just have to believe. I'll be fine, you'll be fine, Pyrrha will be fine. All our friends are going to be fine."

"And what if they're not?" Ruby pressed.

"Well...then we'll have to deal with it." Yang said. "But it's no good dwelling on it. Racing makes you happy, right?"

"Yeah, like nothing else." Ruby replied.

"The same goes for me." Yang said. "And I'm sure Pyrrha feels the same way too. It would be stupid to take that happiness away from ourselves because of what might happen. You just have to live in the moment."

"That's really hard right now." Ruby said.

"I know." Yang said. She hugged her sister. "You have to at least try. For me."

"Okay." Ruby said. "I'll do my best."

"That's all anyone can ask." Yang said.

That morning's practice was the first time most of the drivers had been out on track. There was a lot of work to do in a very short period of time. The cars were on track almost constantly. It was just as well. It allowed the drivers and teams to focus on their jobs. The scramble led to some spins and a few minor incidents but the practice session was mostly uneventful. The Emeraldring was a power track and the Schnee powered teams dominated. Penny led from Coco and Velvet, followed by Yang, Pyrrha, Blake, Emerald, Ruby, Mercury and Ciel. It just made things harder. Everyone knew Winter would have been up front if not for her accident.

Weiss started to fall asleep. Even with all the noise in the hospital room, she was exhausted and needed the rest. It was not as if there was anything to do. Winter's husband and daughter were not in the mood to talk and neither was Weiss. Weiss was snapped awake by the sounds of frantic beeps and alarms. Doctors and nurses flooded in. Winter was dying...again. Her heart had stopped a few times overnight and earlier in the morning. The doctors had restarted it and continued keeping her alive. Each time there seemed to be a little less urgency to their work, replaced more and more by the knowledge that it was futile. Winter's husband was growing weary of it as well. He knew in his heart that his wife was gone and that they were just delaying the inevitable. One of the doctors pulled him aside and they had a short conversation. The flurry of activity around Winter was stopped as the alarms continued to blare.

Word of Winter's passing reached the track just before qualifying. There were none of the big displays of emotion that the previous day had seen. Everyone was spent. Besides, it was just confirmation of what they all expected anyway. A few had held out hope but it had been tempered with the knowledge that the odds were slim. At least now it was over. The Atlesian national anthem was played over the PA system. Qualifying was delayed by a minute for a moment of silence. Then the show went on. The show always went on.

Penny kicked off qualifying by setting a time no one was going to beat. The previous day, when Winter's condition had been announced, she had briefly wept, but since then she had been entirely focused on driving. No one could say if she had gotten over it, come to terms with it, or just pushed it to the back of her mind. She had always been a very focused driver. There were already rumors swirling that she would be Winter's replacement at Schnee Automotive. As the session neared its conclusion Penny was followed by Velvet, Coco, Mercury, Pyrrha, Blake, Yang, Ruby, Emerald and Nora. Mercury had blown a turbo his last time out, so he would not be improving his time. The rest had time for one more run.

Ruby crawled out of the stadium section, building a gap to the traffic ahead of her. She was going to need a clean track to set a good lap. She wound up her car through the final two corners, a pair of square and slightly banked right-handers, and out onto the frontstretch. She crossed the line to start her lap and was soon on the brakes for the first corner, North Curve. After the quick flick to the right she was off into the forest. Barely halfway down the gently curving stretch her engine was already screaming, right at its limit. Then it was hard, very hard on the brakes for the North Chicane. After the slow right-left-right Ruby was back on the throttle, powering out onto another long, gently curving stretch.

Ruby reached the far end of the track and braked hard for the East Chicane. Once this part of the track had been a tight but flat-out right-hander, but after a driver died in a freak accident during testing, the corner had been reprofiled into an incredibly tight chicane. Ruby wound right, left and right again, the final bit of the chicane unwinding onto another long stretch as her car built up speed. With the engine screaming she approached the South Chicane. She was hard on the brakes, then muscled her car through the left-right-left and onto the track's final long straight. She flew past the spot where Winter had crashed. Earlier in practice it had brought back those painful emotions, but after dozens of laps this time it hardly registered.

Ruby was on the brakes as she arrived at the stadium section, so named for the grandstands that enclosed it on three sides. She swept her car through the first of its corners and its fastest, a right-hander. Then it was a short straight before Ruby had to slow the car to a crawl for a banked left-hand hairpin. She powered out of the hairpin, flicked the car left then right through a flat-out chicane before slowing for the final pair of right-handers. She kept her momentum up as she rounded the turns before rocketing out onto the frontstretch and across the line to complete her lap.

Ruby's lap had been a relatively good one, her best, but her car simply did not have the speed. Penny won the pole followed by Velvet, Coco, Yang, Pyrrha, Blake, Emerald, Ruby, Mercury and Ren. The top three had a clear advantage over the rest, an insurmountable gap of almost a second per lap. It looked as though only reliability issues would keep them from winning. Penny had a gap of a half second over Velvet, and she looked like a lock for the win. None of the drivers much cared. Even Penny took no joy in her pole, and though normally happy-go-lucky, she seemed profoundly depressed. Now that there was nothing else to focus on, the emotions she had so expertly repressed came flooding back.

Weiss and Winter's husband and daughter flew back to Atlas aboard a Schnee Automotive company jet. The casket containing Winter's body rode in the cabin rather than as cargo. Already an Atlesian flag was draped over it. Even in death, Winter was a national hero. Beyond her on-track success, her charitable efforts touched the lives of millions and she had served as an inspiration to young and old alike. Back in Atlas the government had declared three days of official mourning. In addition to a private one, Winter would get a state funeral, as grand as any ever staged for a great leader or war hero.

When the plane arrived in Atlas, thousands of mourners were there to greet it. A never-ending stream of dignitaries offered their condolences. Weiss just wanted to be alone, but she had to play her role. The weight of expectation that had once accompanied Winter now fell on Weiss' shoulders. The weight was crushing. Their hero was dead and the people desperately needed a replacement. It was only natural that they would choose her sister. The state funeral a few days later would attract millions of mourners who lined the streets as the sad procession rolled past. Amid the tears and extravagant displays of grief, there were cheers for Weiss. Willing or not, she was going to take her sister's place for a lot of people. As bad as living in her sister's shadow had been, this new situation was infinitely worse. She was no longer being compared to the greatest driver in the world, she was now held to the standard of a god.

Ruby and Pyrrha spent the night before the race apart. They both by now felt the night before had been a mistake. It was not one that would have a negative effect on their relationship, but it was something both needed some time to think about. In the morning they were still not quite ready to talk about it. In any case the race took up most of their attention. After losing Friday practice to torrential rain and tragedy, all the drivers were down on track time and to a degree the teams were still playing catchup. Worse for Beacon GP, they were slow. There were more power tracks ahead on the schedule and the team would need to find some straight line speed if they were going to compete. It was rumored that Nevermore had an engine update coming, but until it arrived they were bound to struggle.

After a brief discussion at the drivers' meeting it was decided to leave the front row vacant out of respect to Winter and her team. On pole, Penny would line up on the left side of row two with Velvet to her right. As the cars and drivers waited on the grid pre-race the assembled media relentlessly asked question after question about Winter. The responses were mostly stock answers, words of respect and mourning. No one really wanted to talk about it. After her win in Patch Ruby was already seeing more attention, and it was attention she did not want. Just thinking about what had happened to Winter made her sick. Ruby felt bad for Weiss, knowing that at the next race, if Weiss was there, she would face the same questions, probably more of them. Ruby knew what it was like to lose a loved one to racing and knew that while Yang shielded her from the worst the media could do, Weiss would have no such protection.

It was a great relief when it was finally time for the cars to roll off for their parade lap. The drivers could concentrate on the task at hand, keep their minds occupied for a few hours. Penny pulled into grid spot 3 and Velvet into spot 4. Behind them the cars slowly lined up until Nolan and Cardin took their spots at the very back. The medical car stopped behind them and a flag was waved at the back to indicate that the drivers were ready to start. Attention was focused on the lights, one red, two, three, four, all five. The wait seemed interminable as the drivers revved their engines in anticipation. Finally the lights went out and the race was on. Tires screeched and engines roared as the cars thundered toward the first corner in a blur of vibrant colors.

Penny got a good start and made it through the first turn clean. Velvet got a mediocre start but her teammate Coco got a great one. Coco arrived at the first turn ahead by a nose and Velvet conceded the position, slotting into third ahead of Yang. Pyrrha was next, followed by Blake, then Ruby who had gotten a fantastic start. Ruby was almost able to pass Blake as well but had to back out as the cars filed through the first corner. The field made it through the first corner clean, a rarity at the track. At the very back of the grid Cardin's car had stalled and refused to start. He got out and the safety crews pushed it into the pits. His race was over but he was not bothered. The things he had seen two days earlier had scarred him and he was happy the awful weekend was over.

Penny spent the early laps of the race pulling away from the field. Behind her reliability issues took their toll. First to fall out was Emerald, soon followed by her teammate, both with turbo issues. Ciel soon joined them with an electrical issue. Adam's engine overheated and Russel fell out with an oil leak. The cars began to spread out. Penny was setting incredibly fast times, quickly pulling away from Coco who was slowly gapping Velvet. Velvet in turn was pulling away from Yang, but Yang was unable to shake Pyrrha and Blake. Ruby ran by herself a little further back.

The uneventful race neared its halfway point. Penny made her pit stop on lap 20. She had a large enough lead to pit and come out without losing a spot. The next lap saw Coco, Yang and Ruby make their stops. The lap after that saw Velvet, Pyrrha and Blake stop. The pit stops helped jumble the order near the bottom of the points. Stopping a lap later turned out to be a poor decision for Pyrrha and Blake. Yang was able to get away while Blake overtook Pyrrha with a great stop. Having pitted a lap earlier and run an extra lap on fresh tires, Ruby was right on Pyrrha's transmission when she exited the pits.

The draft had kept Pyrrha close to Yang, and now that Yang was free of she and Blake, Yang began to pull away. Blake was just a little slower than Pyrrha and the battle between the two allowed Ruby to stay with them. On lap 33 Pyrrha got a good run out of the North Curve. She closed on Blake as they ran through the forest toward the North Chicane. Blake moved right to block and Pyrrha drove up on her left. Ruby filed in behind her teammate, adding a slipstream effect to assist her. Pyrrha edged ahead as the cars slowed for the chicane. As they swung right Blake drew even, but as the track cut back to the left Pyrrha was able to take the position. Ruby was unable to follow her teammate through and fell in line behind Blake. Ruby soon found that Blake was just as fast as she was, and Pyrrha slowly pulled away from the pair.

On lap 37 of 45 Penny was leading by three quarters of a lap. She had lapped everyone except the Coffee Inc. teammates. She radioed in that she had a problem. When she arrived at the pits, almost half a minute later than expected, her car was trailing a plume of white smoke. The turbo had failed and her race was over. Penny cried after getting out of the car. It was partly down to the crushing disappointment of losing a race she had dominated and partly because of Winter. Ironwood Racing Technology and Schnee Automotive had long had a close relationship - Ironwood had been a Schnee Automotive driver before becoming an owner - and Winter had been one of Penny's few friends in the garage. Her loss had been crushing and Penny had given everything she had to keep herself together throughout the weekend. Now she let it all out.

Out on the track nothing much changed over the last few laps. Coco won the race easily and Velvet held onto second despite a last lap tire failure that forced her to crawl to the finish line. Yang took third, followed by Pyrrha, Blake, Ruby, Nora, Ren, Arslan and Sun. On the podium there was no celebration. The trio faked smiles for the pictures. Champagne was not sprayed. In the post race press conference all three drivers dedicated the race to Winter. There were still too many questions about their lost comrade and no one walked away feeling particularly good. It was Coco's first win in a long time and she was a notorious partier, but even she could not bring herself to celebrate.

Pyrrha and Ruby had previously planned to spend the two weeks before the next race vacationing together. They had been very excited about the trip. Now they were just happy to be getting away. Much of their excitement was gone but they would do their best. They still had each other and for now that was enough.

Standings After Eight Races

1st - Winter Schnee - 37

2nd - Yang Xiao-Long - 35

3rd - Pyrrha Nikos - 32

4th - Ruby Rose - 21

5th - Weiss Schnee - 19

6th - Blake Belladonna - 14

7th - Coco Adel - 13

8th - Penny Polendina - 11

9th - Velvet Scarletina - 7

10th - Nora Valkyrie - 5

11th - Arslan Atlan - 3

12th - Reese Chloris - 1

12th - Lie Ren - 1

Inspirations

- The Emerald Forest North Circuit is based on the Nurburgring Nordschleife.

- The reaction to Winter's death is based on the events following the death of Ayrton Senna.

- Velvet's last lap tire failure is based on the actual finish of the 1987 German GP.

Inaccuracies and Anachronisms

- There were no fatal accidents in F1 in 1987.

- Leaving the front row of the grid open for the actual start of the race would not have happened. The cars may have lined up with it open for the pre-parade lap grid, but would have lined up normally after that.