A/N: Happy Halloween everyone! This story's a little different from the other oneshots in this story, but it still features the overall theory and theme, so I'm gonna put it here. I'd also recommend rereading the first chapter if you haven't seen the version on DeviantArt, because this fits in much better context with what I changed this story to be in conjunction with (for people that want timeline specifics, this is between IRII and AAP). Anyways… enjoy :)

"You're sure everyone's schedule is cleared for tonight?"

"You've already asked, but yes," Finn replied to Holley, who looked a bit nervous but excited. That day was Halloween, and it was a tradition among CHROME agents to tell frightening stories in the holodome, alternating years for who told the story, and everyone knew it was Estella's turn this year, as well as Miles's first time witnessing the event. It would certainly be interesting; even if Finn didn't necessarily approve of rearranging schedules for anything, he was always up for a scary story around Halloween… Leland and Sid had been the ones to start it long ago, likely the year CHROME had been established, but he couldn't remember at the moment. At first he detested the tradition simply because they tried to scare Finn and Finn only, but as the group grew and changed it became more tolerable, especially since the new members were normally targeted, as they were added on the end of the rotation and had the longest time before they could tell their story and possibly get revenge.

"Thanks, Finn," she said, smiling and nodding as she left the room, probably to set up the holodome's programming for that night.

Even if it was supposed to be a fun event, Finn couldn't help but sigh. Now, all it only made him think of Leland and Londyn… both of them practically lived for the group activities CHROME had adopted. He shoved the thought aside, leaving his office to see that everything was being properly set up. Of course, Holley was much better with computers than he was, but he needed to make sure Sid could still fit into the dome with the configuration she set up.

…

Later that night, as the sun was going down, the agents began to gather in the dome. Holley had gotten Miles from the dorms, where he'd been told to stay today, guiding him through the fake trees and to the center of the dome, where everyone else was except for Estella. Siddeley had been allotted a spot by Holley's programming, filling in forest trees around him. He'd settled extremely low on his landing gear, careful not to touch the dirty ground, but it still looked like he was laying down for the most part, likely so he could see the speaker better and he wasn't towering as much over the smaller cars. He nodded slightly in greeting, smirking at the presence of the Range Rover.

"If this is hazing realize that you already gave me weapons," Miles said, partially annoyed and partially frightened. The setup of the scene looked like an initiation ceremony from his point of view, but he was having none of it. He'd learned his lesson from college.

Finn rolled his eyes, "No, it's not hazing. We're more professional than that." He had parked close to one of the paths in the trees, just in case he wanted to slip out without anyone really noticing.

"Then what's all this?"

"We're telling scary stories," Sid replied.

"Oh, and THAT'S professional?"

"It's tradition," Holley said, taking her spot in the circle, "Estella's telling the story this year, and then Siddeley next year, and then Finn the year after."

Miles found that he'd been led into the circle already, so he didn't bother changing positions. "Where is she, anyways?"

"Right here," the Pacer said, driving into the group and turning to face the rest of them. She'd been painted an even darker blue than she already was, almost black, and her headlights were shining softly, enough to illuminate herself a little and make her position known. Holley activated her computer and made the holographic full moon shine a little more on Estella, almost like a spotlight not not especially noticeable.

"Sorry, Stella, but what's going on?" Miles asked, still extremely confused.

"Telling ghost stories, so shush. Does everyone in here know what the Revolution refers to?" she asked cryptically, as was customary when one was going to speak about the world before they were all cars. She knew about everyone, but was most concerned about Holley, and it seemed that everyone else was, as well, because all eyes were on the Jaguar.

Holley reversed a little, somewhat embarrassed, "I was thirteen, if you must know." She was used to older cars whispering around her when they talked about that part of history and it never got less annoying.

"It wasn't meant for you to take offence, Miss Shiftwell," Finn replied, chuckling a little, "We're all human here, we were just making sure you were, too."

"Must be a good story if you had to ask that question," Siddeley pointed out, "Could you actually tell it, please?"

Miles rolled his eyes at the plane, though no one really noticed it. Of course it would be a good tale, since it was Estella… but the whole thing was iffy to him, the topic of the Revolution already touchy to begin with. Finn wouldn't sit in on such a petty tradition if there wasn't something more to it.

"Alright, alright," Estella finally said, turning off her headlights and allowing the fake moon to be the only source of light. She'd been preparing this story for years, rehearsing it privately until it was perfect. "It started with the beginning of the end…"

...

"The Immunos were just beginning to be hunted down and converted, one by one. With the reconstruction occurring at the same time, there were plenty of places for them to hide, but it also made them harder to catch, even if it was a top priority for cities that weren't near wildlife preserves, where Immunos could seek asylum. A young woman who only went by the name Elizabeth, or Ella, had been hiding in an abandoned apartment building for weeks, running a small garden in a couple windows for food and thankful the water hadn't been shut off yet.

Then came the day they began to rebuild that part of town. A forklift went through the hallways of the building first, calling out to any hiding residents to get out before they took the building down. Ella stayed hidden in her bathroom, laying in the bathtub to keep the forklift from seeing her. Apparently there were other silent residents because she heard footsteps above her and just outside her door.

Ella stayed hidden as best as she could, and was successful… until the wrecking ball knocked the top off of the apartments. She stayed in the bathtub, but the destroyed part of the building had flipped upside down was it fell to the ground. All the rubble came down on top of her, her hiding place being the only thing that kept her even somewhat alive. Someone had seen her orange shirt through a window, and she was dug out of the destroyed part of the building. It was supposed to come down all at once, but the wrecking ball wasn't used to actually hitting a building himself yet. When they found her, she was nearly dead; there was no way she could survive much longer, even if she was trying to drag herself away from the cars with her one good arm that hadn't been crushed.

The forklift that had tried to evacuate the building took her to a clinic, where all the others were forced to go, but this was an emergency. Monitoring her heartbeat, she flat-lined before they could even get all of the electrodes on her. Working quickly and somewhat carelessly, they put the helmet on her after putting on as many electrodes as possible and threw the switch. No one knew if it worked.

They connected the black box to the only car they had immediately on hand, an orange Pacer, the scientists, now all forklifts, were thankful to see that she'd opened her eyes. As soon as she realized what she was she cried."

...

Estella paused for a second, remembering her own conversion… it had been almost as bad, but her silence was also for emphasis. She could see that Miles sympathized at least a little from the look in his eyes, but it was a good thing for her purposes. She also noticed that Holley was missing, and wondered if it was a little early for that, but continued anyways.

...

"They eventually taught Ella how to move again and released her without another word. She didn't want to go back to where she was-she couldn't- so she checked into a hotel for the night until she could figure out what to do with her life. As she looked in the mirror that was there, she felt like she wasn't herself… like something was wrong with her eyes. She thought nothing of it, and went to sleep.

It wasn't an ordinary sleep. Ella was so close to death when she was converted that her black box didn't pick up every trace of her, and her soul longed to be one again instead of hanging in the balance between life and death. Her troubled dreams awoke her, and she looked in the mirror again. Her eyes had an odd green glow to them now, and she thought she saw a shadow in the corner, but she didn't bother wondering about it. She was too tired from her accident and turning into a car, so she went back to sleep.

When Ella woke up again, it was late in the afternoon. The shadow was gone, but she looked in the mirror and couldn't remember who she was or how she'd gotten there. She studied herself and noticed the eerie bright green glow her eyes had. Not remembering her own name, she renamed herself Jade, as her eyes were her most striking feature. She smiled a little, showing her teeth when she saw that she had small fangs, almost like a vampire, but she didn't know how she knew because she couldn't remember anything before that day.

Jade left the hotel, but she couldn't take being in the city anymore; she knew where to look for other Immunos, and she saw them everywhere, struggling to survive. She turned away, heading to the countryside to think things through. But as she drove, she began to forget more and more of herself. Her black box was not protecting her soul, making her die mentally. Her fangs she had noticed when she woke up grew more and her eyes could practically have been her headlights if it hadn't been daytime. Her artificial intelligence part was taking over.

Suddenly, she came across a Hugo broken down on the side of the road, a puddle of oil beneath him. She hissed at the sight, lunging for the car and biting through his hood without another thought. She severed his oil and electrical lines, not even drinking his oil. She left him for dead and drove into the forest, claiming the territory as her own."

…

Estella had slowly inched closer to the rest of the group, her eyes gaining an almost evil look to them. Miles wasn't sure, but he thought he saw the greenish glow she was talking about. He looked around to make sure he knew where the exits were, but there were none… the trees had almost grown around them, and where was Holley? He wished he'd broken down or something… then he wouldn't be there right then. It was like he'd never even met the car telling the story. He'd NEVER seen her acting this good… he could normally still tell it was her, for the most part.

…

"Jade lived on about a 20 kilo radius, killing any car that stayed too long in her territory, drinking their oil so she didn't have to leave her claim; the oddest part about it was that she never broke down. Not once. It didn't take long for the town nearby to see her in the forest, her glowing eyes giving her away. When they began seeing their residents being killed around the sightings, they arranged a mob to track her down and destroy her. She didn't even see it coming.

The entire town raided her territory, cornering her next to her most recent kill. Having brought a few forklifts with them, one tended to the injured car and two focused on Jade. A couple pickup trucks managed to hold her down as they severed the connections between the black box and her, shutting her down for good.

They left her body in the forest as a reminder to any other rogue cars that could be wandering in the forest, but the signs didn't last long. She woke up, her eyes glowing even brighter than ever, and some say that even today she still wanders all of Europe, looking for a new place to lay her claim."

…

Estella had transfigured her personality to the opposite of how she normally was. When she finished telling the story, she chuckled evilly, revealing fangs of her own. Her eyes were unmistakably the eerie green she'd described, and as the moon got brighter she turned a sickly orange. "Imposter!" Miles cried out, activating his stun gun but not willing to shoot... he kept close to the edge of the forest, seeing that the trees were too close together for anyone to escape. He didn't even bother seeing what the other two were doing… Jade was going after him next

After a couple minutes of chasing Miles around, Estella chuckled genuinely, her eyes blinking back to their normal rich brown color. "You really don't know how to take a joke," she said, the orange tint to her dissipating and some of the trees shrinking back into the ground, revealing Holley with her computer activated, laughing while shutting down the scene she'd created in the holodome, leaving Miles somewhat dumbfounded.

"All caught on video, Estella," Siddeley added, revealing a small camera that was hidden in the shadow of his wing. Not surprisingly, during all the commotion, Finn had vacated… he likely had most of it on video, as well.

"You've got to be joking…" was all Miles could say, cringing a little as he realized the blackmail that had just been created against him.

"We were, you weren't," Estella said, eyes still laughing even if she wasn't anymore. "It was all in fun. That's why we have the tradition. All new agents get the same treatment."

"So it is hazing," Miles concluded, annoyed, "I should've known."

"Not exactly," Siddeley said, not used to being as quiet as he had been, "Hazing is a ceremony where new members are forced to do ridiculous things to be a part of the group. You were already in the group, we were just having a little fun. Besides, it's the storyteller's choice who they target. Most of the time it's either everyone or Finn if there isn't a rookie among us," he smirked, getting up from the position he was in and likely trying to figure out the best method for exiting the building later… it was a task on its own to go inside any building besides his hangar, much less leave one.

Miles rolled his eyes. Something about the plane annoyed him from the start, and what had just happened to him didn't make the situation any better, "Same difference. Remind me next time to break my drive shaft or something," he said, turning and heading back to the dorms for the night. He wished he could get a house instead of staying at CHROME, but he wasn't permitted to yet… if ever.

"Hey, wait!" Estella called after him, catching up and nudging him a little with a tire, "It couldn't have been that bad."

"You don't understand."

"Understand what?"

"That picking on others hurts… I have to deal with it for the rest of my life… it takes its toll on people's sanity."

That was the last straw. "And you think I'm not made fun of? The ONLY reason I'm even here is because Finn noticed I could act. I learned to take a joke, which apparently you haven't. I don't care if Finn promoted you to an agent or not, but you still have a long way to go."

"It's not that… it's just… I don't know," for once in Miles's life, he struggled to get his thoughts out.

"About…?" Estella realized at this point that she'd been a little too snippy, so she backed off a little after she caught herself.

He sighed a little, "I hate being a car… I know most people do, but…"

"Yes, I know… but I also knew it would be what scared you most… it's what lemons have in common."

"Well… that, and I'd rather tell a scary story than hear it," Miles added, smirking a little. He almost wished he had a disguise program; perhaps he could request it, just for Halloween costumes… something told him that unless he was allowed to stay away from CHROME headquarters Finn wouldn't allow it.

"Alright, try to scare me," Estella prompted.

"Er… I don't even think it's Halloween anymore," Miles said, checking the clock on the wall and seeing that it was 12:01. "Nope, just missed it. Maybe next year," he concluded quickly, driving out of the building before Estella could say anything more.

"Liar!" she called after him, laughing and turning to go back to her own room for the night, already planning for the next time she got to tell the Halloween night story.