Down in the dungeon, Krunk, Nash and the Norms have been assigned by Velo to guard Crash, Coco, N. Brio, Crunch and Koala Kong so they won't try to escape. Clearly feeling sorry for them, since Tawna and the Nitro Squad were forced to betray them in order to keep them safe and out of harm's way, they are still being forced to guard them so that they won't upset Velo.
Crash and Coco are sharing a cell together, with Crash sitting on his bed while Coco sulks in the corner, crying to herself as she looks at the locket she wanted to give to Isabella, but never got the chance.
N. Brio is in a cell all by himself directly across from them, sulking on his bed just like Crash, upset that he'll be in a mutated octopus-like state for the rest of his life.
Crunch and Koala Kong are in a cell together, with both of them tied up in straight jackets and the sleeves handcuffed to the walls so that they can't attempt to break free from their current state.
Seeing Coco quietly crying in the corner of their cell, Crash sulks, pulls out the box containing his engagement ring to Tawna, opens it, pulls out the ring and takes a good long look at it. Knowing that the love of his life is gone and that he'll never get the chance to propose to her, Crash, on the verge of tears, tosses the ring away in anger, curls up into a fetal position and cries to himself. The ring lands at N. Brio's feet in the neighboring cell, getting his attention. He looks down and, seeing the ring, picks it up and examines it. His face lights up when he realizes where it came from.
"C-Crash, is this what I think it is?" Brio asks Crash, getting his attention.
Seeing the wedding ring in Brio's hand, Crash nods and sadly whimpers, "Mm-hmm."
"Why, you... you were planning to propose to T-Tawna, weren't you?" Brio asks in sadness and surprise, getting the attention of Crunch and Koala Kong.
Crash nods in sadness before continuing to sulk.
"Aww, C-Crash! I feel so bad for you right now." Brio tells him, sharing in his sympathy. "You were going to m-marry the girl of your d-dreams and now, thanks to that big g-green overlord and that c-c-cursed rat, you may never get that chance again."
Crash then tells Brio something through more incomprehensible gibberish.
Upon hearing his words, Crunch reassures him. "Hey, don't worry, Crash. It's going to be okay. We'll get out of here, free the girls and stop that robot from carrying out his plan. What do you say?"
Crash, upon hearing Crunch's words, sadly says something through gibberish, with Crunch getting wide-eyed and concerned with what he is saying.
"Sell your ring to fund the races?" Crunch asks, concerned and baffled. "Now why would you want to go and do that?"
"What?! No!" Brio exclaims in shock before continuing to Crash, "Now, you listen to me, C-Crash. You are not, I repeat, NOT selling your engagement ring to help f-fund the races. We are going to get out of here, stop Velo, find a g-good sponsorship and you are going to propose to your d-dream girl. I know things seem down for us now, but trust me, we can do this!"
"No, Brio. We can't do this." Coco tearfully says, getting everyone's attention. "Cortex was right all along. It is all my fault."
Brio, baffled with Coco's words, asks, "...What? Why would you say that, Coco?"
"I never should've dragged you guys all the way out here." Coco sobs, continuing to sulk in the corner. "And now, thanks to me, we've lost our only means of getting back home and even worse, our closest friends, including my mother figure, have betrayed us and left us to rot in this godforsaken prison for life."
"Well, I'm sure they only betrayed us just to save us." Crunch says, trying to cheer up Coco. "I'm sure they can stop Velo and save us, right?"
"No, they can't. Not this time." Coco continues to sob. "Velo will most likely have them killed if they try to betray and stop him. And, thanks to me, Velo's invasion will be a success and all of our friends will be poisoned and turned into mutants for his intergalactic army. We let everybody down. We... failed."
As Crash solemnly glances over at Coco, the sound of their cell door opening is heard, prompting Crash to jolt up in surprise. He then sees the Norms entering their cell and approaching Coco. Fearful for what they could do to Coco, his fear quickly turns to surprise and concern as he sees the two of them comforting Coco, who likewise glances up at the two of them in surprise.
"Hey, listen to me, Coco." Big Norm tells her as he gets down to her eye level. "Even though Velo's forcing us to keep you from escaping and stopping him, let me say this: you and your friends are not failures."
"Yeah!" Krunk exclaims. "I mean, look how far you all have gotten!"
Nash adds on to Krunk's comment, "And we wouldn't be telling you these things if we didn't care about you all."
Hearing the kind words coming from the very henchman who are being forced to guard them, a smile slowly comes across Coco's face as the Norms continue to comfort Coco.
Back on the asteroid where Cortex crashed, he angrily paces back and forth, muttering to himself as he mocks what Tawna and the others said to him earlier, "'You sound just like Velo, Cortex. We don't want you on our team, Cortex.' Who do those bandicoots think they are, anyway?"
He glances back at Velo's mothership hovering above the two restaurants in the distance before continuing to himself, "They have no business comparing me to that green menace! I only want global domination, not universal domination!"
In frustration, Cortex stomps his foot on the asteroid, causing the ground to crack at his feet, getting his attention. The cracked ground then gives out from underneath his feet, causing him to fall into a small cavern, loaded with power crystals. He then gets up, looks around and notices all the power crystals surrounding him, causing his face to light up with sinister glee.
"Why, this..." Cortex mutters to himself in amazement. "This is absolutely perfect! With these power crystals, I can repair the small cruiser that brought me here, take the crystals back to earth, and use them to power a new super weapon that will blast Crash and the others to smithereens!"
He then climbs out of the cavern and heads back to the small cruiser, where he grabs several bags to store the crystals in before returning to the cavern to collect the crystals. "Cortex, you are a mad genius!" he says to himself as he starts to gather the hundreds of crystals.
Meanwhile, back at Von Clutch's Motorworld, Von Clutch is in his office typing away at a computer and is busy talking on the phone with someone. As he listens to the person on the other end, his face slowly falls as what he is hearing is not good news in any way.
Von Clutch sighs dejectedly and says to the person on the other end, "No, thank you. I understand completely. Thank you for your time, sir." He hangs up the phone, turns back to his computer and finishes typing whatever it was he was typing. As Von Clutch sends the document he was typing to a nearby printer, Pasadena and Yaya Panda excitedly run into the room to tell him about the idea Yaya came up with the night before.
"V.C.! Glad you're here!" Pasadena happily exclaims as she and Yaya come to a stop in front of Von Clutch's desk. "Just wait'll you hear what..." Suddenly, her and Yaya's excitement quickly turns into concern as the two of them see Von Clutch with quite possibly the most depressed look on his face as he gets up from his desk and approaches the printer nearby, which is printing copies of the document he was typing.
Concerned, Pasadena asks him, "V.C., what's wrong?"
"Yeah. We got a great idea on how we can raise money to keep the races going!" Yaya tells him. "Don't you want to hear it?"
Von Clutch sighs dejectedly and sadly tells Yaya, "Don't bother with your idea, kid. It's completely pointless now."
"Pointless?" Yaya exclaims in surprise. "You haven't even heard it yet!"
"Ja, und I have no interest in hearing it now, thank you very much." Von Clutch grumbles.
Pasadena, appalled with Von Clutch's not-so-eager attitude, approaches him and asks, "Well, why not, V.C.? We have until the end of the month to get the money we need, don't we?"
"Not anymore, we don't." Von Clutch grumbles, to the point where it's hard to hear him.
"Not anymore?" Yaya asks, concerned as she joins Pasadena by her side. "What in the name of Willie Wumpa Cheeks are you talking about? Tell us!"
"Yeah!" Pasadena exclaims. "We have a right to know these things, too, don't forget."
Von Clutch sighs, turns to the pair and sadly tells them, "I just got off ze phone with our investors. We no longer have until ze end of ze month to get a sponsorship. They moved ze deadline to... tomorrow morning."
"WHAT?!" Pasadena and Yaya both exclaim in shock and fear. "Tomorrow?!"
"Ja, tomorrow." Von Clutch sadly continues. "I'm afraid... it's over. Our racing days are officially kaput."
"Over?" Pasadena says, stunned. "No, it can't be over! There's got to be some way—"
"Nein, Pasadena." Von Clutch sternly tells her, causing her and Yaya to take a step back in surprise. "We don't have a choice. Ze investors are coming here in ze morning with ze paperwork for me to sign."
"Well... what about us?" Yaya sadly asks Von Clutch as she starts to tear up, prompting Pasadena to comfort her. "What'll we do?"
Von Clutch approaches the printer as the copies of the document he was typing finish printing out. He takes the stack of papers, divides them in half and gives one half to Pasadena, and the other to Yaya, and sadly tells them, "Here. These documents state that our racing days are over und that Crash, Coco, und their friends are missing. You two can hand them out to all ze other racers, assuming they haven't disappeared as well."
"Von Clutch, please!" Pasadena begs as he ushers her and Yaya to the door. "Can't we at least talk to the investors and change their minds?"
"No!" Von Clutch sternly exclaims, prompting Pasadena and Yaya to look on with fear. Yaya sniffles before crying softly, prompting Von Clutch to realize that he's being too hard on the pair. Von Clutch sighs and remorsefully tells the pair as he opens the door leading out of his office, "L-look, just give ze documents to ze racers, and if it makes you feel any better, I can try to reason with ze investors when they get here tomorrow, okay?"
Yaya, wiping the tears from her eyes, asks Von Clutch, "You... you'd really do that for us?"
"Of course, I will." Von Clutch warmly tells her. "But I'm not promising that I can change their minds. These investors have hearts made of steel."
"Whatever you say, V.C." Pasadena sadly says as she motions Yaya to follow her. "Come on, cutie. Let's get this over with..." From there, Pasadena and Yaya travel all over Wumpa Island to get the documents to the other racers.
Firstly, Yaya stops by Crash's place. She looks through the window, where she sees Polar, Pura, Penta Penguin, Baby T., Baby Crash and Baby Coco frolicking about inside while Hasty looks after the place in Crash's absence. Seeing Yaya peeking through the window, Hasty opens the front door and invites Yaya inside. Once inside, Yaya gives Hasty and the animals each their own copy of Von Clutch's document, where they react in sadness and disappointment that they will not be able to race anymore.
Over at Wumpa City, Pasadena enters the main studio for CTR TV, where Chick & Stew are currently residing. The two of them, seeing Pasadena sadly approaching, get up and walk up to her with looks of concern on their faces. Pasadena sadly glances at the two of them before giving each of them a copy of the document. Upon reading the document, Chick and Stew react in sadness and cry into each other's shoulders, with Pasadena comforting the two of them as they cry.
Over at Papu Papu's village, Yaya knocks on the front gate, prompting a village native to answer. Seeing that Yaya is really upset and on the verge of tears, he lets her in, where she approaches Papu Papu and his tribe, who are busy having a late-night luau. Even Megamix is there, having found a new home with the tribe. Papu Papu, on the other hand, is fast asleep, as is usual for him.
The native who answered the door taps Papu Papu on the shoulder, prompting him to jolt up from his nap and whack the native over the head with his staff. As the native falls over, Papu Papu sees Yaya standing in front of him with a pair of documents addressed to him and Megamix. As Papu Papu takes his copy of the document and reads it, Megamix approaches Yaya, prompting her to give him his copy of the document.
Megamix reads it and, upon learning of the news, starts bawling uncontrollably, before running off to his hut that the natives built for him. Megamix leaps onto his bed and continues to bawl some more, like a teenage girl would after having her heart broken. Yaya, feeling bad for Megamix, feels like she should go comfort him, before turning to Papu Papu, who doesn't even care about what the document says and has fallen back to sleep. Yaya sighs in annoyance and sadness and leaves Papu's village while Megamix continues to cry a river, literally.
Meanwhile, Pasadena, aboard a small rowboat, has made her way over to Cortex's iceberg lab, where Tiny, N. Gin, Dingodile, Ripper Roo, the Komodo Bros., N. Tropy, N. Trance, Nina Cortex, Rilla Roo, and dozens upon dozens of Lab Assistants currently reside. Fearing for what they'd do to her should she approach them with Von Clutch's news, Pasadena places the copies of Von Clutch's document in a nearby mailbox and quickly rows back to Wumpa Island to hand out the remaining copies of the document.
Elsewhere, in the distant land of Avalar, Hunter, Elora and Bianca are in the midst of a heated battle with their foes Gnasty Gnorc, Ripto and the Sorceress, who have teamed up and invaded the land to claim it as their own. However, before their battle can go any further, Yaya steps into the middle of the battlefield, causing everyone to freeze in their tracks, not wanting to hurt her, especially once they lay eyes on her heartbroken face.
Yaya solemnly approaches everyone and gives them each a copy of Von Clutch's document to read. Upon finishing up the document, Hunter and Bianca gasp in shock and sadness, glance at each other, and share a good, long hug for the loss of their closest friend Spyro. Elora takes this news the hardest, knowing that Spyro promised her that he'd be back in time to take her to Dragon Shores for Valentine's Day. She then collapses and breaks down sobbing, prompting Yaya, Hunter and Bianca to walk up to her and give her a comforting hug.
Even Ripto and the Sorceress shed a tear and share a hug, knowing that they will never get to race alongside Crash and the others, and the fact that they'll never get the chance to defeat Spyro again. Gnasty Gnorc on the other hand, gets so angry that he throws down his weapon and storms off back to his home turf.
Finally, back at Pasadena's place, a quaint little farmhouse with a barn and acres of grazing fields, Pasadena places the last of the documents in an envelope addressed to Krunk, Nash and the Norms in Gasmoxia. She hands the envelope to a mailman, who drives off towards town to deliver the letter. Pasadena sighs and, on the verge of tears, starts back to her place.
Inside her farmhouse, Fake Crash, who has moved in with Pasadena ever since she fell in love with him in their Neon Circus Grand Prix, is busy putting the finishing touches on an elegant dinner he prepared just for the two of them, having learned to cook from web videos and cookbooks. He hears the sound of the front door opening and excitedly races to greet Pasadena, only for his face to fall when he sees her with tears rolling down her face. As Pasadena sadly drags herself to her room, she removes her helmet, scarf and boots, dropping them behind her as she closes the door to her bedroom. Fake Crash, picking up her accessories that she dropped, sports a look of concern on his face as he approaches her bedroom.
Before he can go any further, though, he also spots a spare copy of the document, which Pasadena had on her possession to give to him. He picks it up, reads it and gasps in shock once he learns the news.
Inside her bedroom, Pasadena, now in a tank top and gym shorts, is lying on her bed, crying to herself. Fake Crash knocks on the door as he slowly opens it and approaches Pasadena with a look of sorrow on his face. Pasadena, seeing Fake Crash approaching, gets up and hugs him, crying into his shoulder. Fake Crash, feeling sorry for Pasadena, since he knew racing meant the world to her, returns her hug and pats her on the back as he too sheds a tear in sorrow.
Meanwhile, Yaya goes back to her place, a treehouse which she built herself nestled away in a small park located near Wumpa City. Upon arriving, she climbs up into the treehouse, grabs a small blanket and wraps herself up before quietly crying herself to sleep. Before she can go to sleep, though, she hears the sound of someone climbing up the ladder to her treehouse. She spins around in a panic, only to discover that it's just Pasadena, who had stopped by to comfort her. Seeing that her home's nothing pretty to look at, Pasadena invites Yaya to come live with her and Fake Crash, so she won't have to sleep out in the cold of the night, to which Yaya accepts as she and Pasadena climb down the ladder out of the treehouse and to Pasadena's place.
Back at Von Clutch's office, Von Clutch sits down at his desk, sighs dejectedly and mutters, "It's hopeless..." He then rests his hands into his face and cries to himself quietly.