A/N: The chapter that you are about to read is inspired by two very awesome people! First, I want to give a special thanks to my little sister who gave me this idea for the chapter and for getting me out of my period of writer's block after publishing chapter 7. I also want to thank another great Cars fanfic writer: whipplefilter. I was inspired by one of the chapters in her new story called "The Curve" (link here: /works/11489949/chapters/25772247). Without these two lovely gems, I wouldn't have any idea on where to begin in writing this chapter so I appreciate their contributions to my story. A few notes before reading: Flashbacks are here again, the bold text indicates the flashback. Bold and italics indicate narration within the flashback. Disclaimer: I do not own the songs: "Never Give Up" by Sia and "Bouje" by J Perry feat. Shabba. Also, I do not own the scenes that will appear in the flashbacks. I am merely using them as a reference to my own story. The scenes within the flashbacks belong to Disney and Pixar's Cars films. Hope you all enjoy! :)

Maestro of Motivation

Cruz

It was a quiet morning in Radiator Springs. The sun was barely beginning to rise while Red watered the flowers near Stanley's monument. Everyone in town was resting, having no idea about what transpired between Lightning and Cruz at 3 o' clock in the morning. Although she was up at a late hour with Lightning, Cruz just couldn't go back to sleep. She tossed and turned in the cone, fighting the exhaustion. She finally opened her eyes to see the sun rising over the desert plains. She let out a long, tired yawn and began to exit her cone. She slowly drove past Lightning and Sally's cone and made her way out of the Cozy Cone Motel. It was peaceful in the town, not a soul was on the road and every shop was closed. The traffic light in the middle of the town was flashing it's yellow light as Red continued to water the flowers.

"Good morning Red," Cruz whispered as she drove past him.

Red nodded at Cruz and watched her drive over to Doc's old garage. She stopped in front of the locked doors and stared at the blank, grey wooden planks. Her mood matched those planks at the moment. Even though she poured her heart out to Lightning in the middle of the night, she was still nervous about getting back on the race track. After reflecting on these fears, Cruz proceeded to open the doors with her front tires. The doors creaked open as small dust particles flew into Cruz's mouth. She coughed endlessly as she tried to catch her breath. Man, this garage needs a serious makeover!

She didn't bother to turn on the lights since the sun's rays peered into the room through the window panes. Cruz drove around the garage, gazing at the framed pictures of her many training sequences with Lightning. There were various pictures of them: there was one of them driving side by side on Fireball beach, one where they were trying to "sneak through the window" of tractors at Thomasville, another one with them racing in the mud at Thunder Hollow Speedway, and even their first ride around Willie's Butte hung next to a framed picture of Lightning and Doc on their first race around that desert track. Cruz marveled at all the memories that hung on the wall. While her gaze remained on the pictures, Cruz accidentally bumped into a cardboard box, knocking over Doc's Piston Cups and various racing tapes near the projector. She tried to reverse from the damage to clean up her mess, but that move caused her to bump into the projector. The projector leaned over on its side, nearly causing it to fall and break on the floor. Cruz rushed to the opposite side of the projector and pushed it back on the stand.

Oh man I have to be more careful! Mr. McQueen would definitely kill me- or worse, Doc's spirit would come and haunt me forever! Okay maybe I'm exaggerating about that last one but still, you can never be too sure.

Cruz drove over to the mess she made and began to put everything back in its place. As she pushed one of Doc's old racing tapes to the side, she saw something under the tape that caught her eye. There was another tape on the floor with a red label on the case. She pressed the clip on the case which caused the tape to slide out. Cruz's eyes widened with shock as she read the label on the tape. It said: "LIGHTNING McQUEEN RACE '06."

NO WAY! Oh my gosh I have to play this!

Cruz rushed over to the projector to put the tape in. She set everything up properly, but when she pressed the button to start the video, the projector wouldn't turn on.

"Ugh! Seriously?" she said as she continued to press the button.

After several minutes of messing with the controls, Cruz still couldn't get the projector to turn on.

"What's wrong with this thing? Hamilton!"

"Hamilton here," her electronic assistant replied.

"My projector won't turn on, what do I do?" Cruz said in a frantic tone.

"Have you tried pushing the button?" Hamilton asked.

"Yeah like several times!"

"Have you tried plugging it in?"

As soon as Hamilton said that, Cruz looked for the power cord on the projector. Sure enough, the cord was unplugged from the power outlet.

"Oh, ha ha. Thanks Hamilton!"

"No problem," he said as the blue light in Cruz's headlight turned off.

Cruz drove over to the outlet and plugged the cord into the socket. She drove next to the projector and started to watch the video.

It was surely the race of the century. It was the tie breaker race in California between The King, Chick Hicks, and Lightning McQueen. Almost every store in the country was closed while every bar, restaurant, and public arena were packed with cars all watching this sporting event. At a small home in San Juan, Texas, a pre-teenage Cruz was watching the race on the couch in her living room. She had a massive bowl of popcorn next to her as she wore her red #95 cap with a small Lightning McQueen plush toy close to her side.

"And there he is, Lightning McQueen! Missing all week and then he turns up in the middle of now where, in a little town called Radiator Springs," Bob Cutlass exclaimed as the camera panned directly on Lightning.

"Wearing white walled tires of all things!" Darrell added as all three racers headed to the starting line.

"What are you watching cariño?" Cruz's father asked as he made his way into the living room. He was a silver 2000 Acura SLX. He glanced at the television and saw Lightning spin off the road and onto the field near the track.

"Oh no!" Cruz screamed as she hugged the plush toy tightly.

"Ay, caramba! He seems to be having an off day, eh mija?" her dad asked.

"No he's not papa. He's going to pull through and win this race!" Cruz objected.

"I know that you love this race car but look at him! He's not focused."

"Papa, I'm sure that he will get through this. I know he will. He has to," Cruz said as she bit her lip.

Lightning had to win this race. Her hope just couldn't die out like that. Cruz needed him to pull through, but Lightning's mind wasn't on the race track, it was on Radiator Springs.

"Whatever you say mija," Cruz's dad said as he left the living room and met her mother in the kitchen.

A few minutes later, Cruz heard her parents yelling at each other in Spanish. She turned the television volume up to try and drown them out, but it was no use. She still heard every hurtful word. Come on Lightning, you have to win!

Lightning

BACK IN RADIATOR SPRINGS...

The sun's rays touched Lightning's face as he finally woke up from his slumber. He let out a loud, long yawn and stretched out all four of his tires. He smelled Sally's delicious cooking and made his way out of the cone. He met Sally by the small stove near the dining room.

"Good morning my love!" he said with a big smile.

"Morning Stickers! I thought you would never wake up. I was about to eat all of this food by myself," Sally said with a chuckle.

"Now you know I wouldn't let that happen," Lightning said with a grin.

"I would ask you how you slept last night, but I forgot that you didn't get much sleep because of that knocking. What caused the knocking anyway?" Sally asked as she started to set the table.

"It was Cruz," Lightning said, remembering the look of devastation on her face last night.

"Cruz? What happened? Is she okay?" Sally asked.

"She should be. We had a long conversation last night. She was telling me how she had a nightmare about me firing her and replacing her with another racer."

"What? She should know better than that. You would never do that to her. At least, I should think so," Sally said with a cunning smile.

"Oh come on Sal, of course I wouldn't do that to her. She told me that she was afraid of losing me."

"Yeah I know that feeling," Sally said as a frown appeared on her face.

Lightning immediately turned around to face Sally. "What are you talking about Sal? I would never leave you!"

"You almost did," Sally said as her voice cracked.

"What? When?"

Sally took a deep breath. She was never the emotional type, but when it came to her and Lightning, she was comfortable enough to wear all her emotions on her hood.

"When you crashed," she said in a sobbing tone.

"Oh Sal-"

"I'm just saying that I understand where Cruz is coming from. I mean, you brought so much love and hope to this town and to me. I couldn't bear to lose you Lightning. I was scared out of my mind! I would never be the same without you. I just-"

"Hey, hey! It's alright Sal. That never happened," Lightning said as he gave her a kiss.

"Yeah I know and I'm grateful everyday for that," she said with a smile.

"This is an awkward transition but I'm starving!" Lightning said as he rushed to the table.

"Where's Cruz? She should've been here by now."

"I'll go get her. She's probably still asleep," Lightning said as he headed over to Cruz's cone.

Lightning drove to the cone and knocked on the door with his tire. "Cruz it's time for breakfast!" he yelled, but there was no response.

"Cruz?" he said as he propped up high on his tires and peeked through the small window on the door. The room was empty. There was no Cruz.

She's not here? She must be at Flo's.

Lightning drove over to Flo's V8 Cafe where everyone was laughing, drinking oil, and having some good conversations. Mater was the first one to notice Lightning of course.

"Hey Buddy!" he shouted with glee.

"Good morning Mater! Good morning everyone."

"Morning McQueen," Sarge said with a salute of his antenna.

"Hey Lightning," Fillmore said, still sounding tired.

"Good morning Lightning!" Luigi said with a bright smile.

"Buongiorno amico mio," Guido replied, (Good morning my friend).

"Good morning kid," Sheriff said.

"Hey Lightning," Ramone replied as he rose high on his tires.

"Morning hot rod," Lizzie said with a wink.

"Hey Sugar! Want something to drink?" Flo asked.

"No thanks Flo. I'm looking for Cruz, has anyone seen her?"

Everyone simultaneously said that they had no idea where she was. Then in the midst of all the confusion, Red came over to Lightning and tapped him on his side.

"Oh hey Red. What is it?" Lightning asked.

Red pointed in the direction of Doc's garage.

"You sure she's in there?"

Red nodded and drove over to an empty gas tank.

"Thanks Red! See you later guys!" Lightning said as he drove to Doc's garage.

He quietly opened the door on the left side and peeked into the room. He heard car engines revving and Bob Cutlass narrating a race.

"Lightning McQueen is right behind the leaders! What a comeback!" Bob announced on the video.

Lightning saw Cruz staring intensely at the projector screen. She was so enthralled, as if she's seeing this race for the first time. Lightning slowly inched his body inside the garage, trying hard not to scare Cruz. He was halfway inside until the open door creaked. Cruz turned around and saw Lightning at the door.

"Hey Mr. McQueen!" she said with a bright smile.

"Hey Cruz. What are you doing in here?"

"Oh I hope you don't mind, I was just watching your racing tapes."

"My racing tapes? How did you find those?" he said in shock.

Lightning hadn't seen those tapes since Doc passed away. Doc used to request tapes from every one of his races just so he could see ways for Lightning to improve in the next season. After Doc got the tapes, he would make Lightning sit down and watch the footage with him.

Doc and Lightning were sitting in the garage watching Lightning's most recent race on the projector. Doc was watching closely while Lightning zoned out and played with one of the tape cases. Doc immediately paused the video. Lightning jumped and put the case that he was playing with back on the shelf.

"Did you see that?" Doc asked as he pointed to the screen.

"See what?" Lightning asked, giving Doc a confused look.

"Well if you were paying attention instead of playing around with that tape case you would see the problem," Doc huffed.

He saw that?

"There are several things wrong with this frame. One, you were way too close to the wall on that turn. Two, you drove right smack into that patch of tire marbles. You could've slid right into that racer next to you. Three, you're still not paying attention!" Doc yelled as Lightning dropped the tape case that he was balancing on his tire.

"Sorry Doc, it just feels weird to watch myself race. I'd rather experience the race track instead of watching all my moves on replay."

"Well you'll have to get used to it. You may have a lot of talent, but that talent ain't gonna get you anywhere without some sense backing it up."

Lightning looked down at the ground. "You're right Doc. I'm sorry."

"No need to apologize son, that's why you have me. Now I need you to pay attention this time because you really messed up on this next turn," Doc said with a smile.

Lightning smiled back as Doc continued to play the tape.

Cruz

"Mr. McQueen?" Cruz said, interrupting Lightning's train of thought.

"Huh?" he said, snapping out of his trance.

"You asked me about your racing tapes and I said that I found them under Doc's tapes. Were you even listening?"

"I'm sorry Cruz. I'm really hungry and breakfast is probably getting cold, that's why I came to get you."

"Oh right. You just seemed so shook about me finding the tapes," Cruz insisted. She desperately wanted an explanation.

"I'm not, how you say, "shook" about you finding the tapes. I just thought I hid them better than that," Lightning mumbled under his breath.

"You wanted to hide the tapes from me?" Cruz said with a sly grin.

"I really need to work on keeping things in my mind," Lightning said as he rolled his eyes. "No Cruz I didn't want to hide them from you. Can we go now? I'm starving here!"

"Fine we can go, but we're coming right back here after breakfast," Cruz said as she turned the projector off.

A few moments later, Cruz and Lightning were back in the garage facing each other with the projector still running in the background.

"So, about you trying to hide those tapes. Your engine is full now so you have no excuse Mr. McQueen," she said in a stern tone.

Lightning sighed. "Well, I hid those tapes because I didn't want to see them again. There, you happy now?"

"Oh no, that's not the full story. There's more to it than that," Cruz said as she bit her lip.

"Are you sure you didn't want to be a police car because you're pretty good at interrogating."

"Come on Mr. McQueen, why did you hide the tapes?"

"I haven't seen those tapes since Doc passed. The day that he died, I stormed in here and hid the tapes because I never wanted to see them again. I tried my best to hide them away but somehow you found them."

"I'm sorry Mr. McQueen. I found them by accident. I knocked everything over and when I was putting things back, I found the tapes. I should've put them back but I was so excited and curious! This was like finding gold in a treasure hunt for me."

"Cruz it's okay. You-"

Lightning was interrupted by the sound of metal crashing onto the pavement. Both he and Cruz turned to face the projector. They both witnessed The King's crash and silence fell right between them. Cruz looked over at Lightning; his face was straight, having no expression whatsoever. She on the other hand was stunned. Watching The King's crash made her feel all the intensities that she felt when she watched Lightning's crash. She completely froze.

"Cruz? Are you okay?" Lightning asked looking over at a terrified Cruz.

"Huh? Oh yeah I'm fine," she said with a quick smile.

"Now you're the one zoning out on me," he said with a grin.

"Mr. McQueen, I wanted to ask you something last night but we were both too tired to continue the conversation."

"Go ahead, no one's stopping you."

"Well this might be a little personal: After your crash, how were you able to recover and how did you gain the confidence to get back on the track? What I'm really asking is, how are you so strong?"

"Cruz I'm flattered to hear that you think I'm strong but the truth is, I'm not strong on my own. I was able to recover because of my family here at Radiator Springs. Everyone rallied around me through the entire healing process. They visited me in the hospital often. Flo would bring all my favorite drinks from the cafe, Ramone would show me some new paint designs that he had for me when I got out; Luigi and Guido would try to make me laugh by letting me read some Italian comics. They would get all the jokes, but I was always clueless. Sarge and Fillmore would come and argue most of the time about the best fuel treatments for me. Red, Lizzy, and Sheriff didn't visit often but they came as well. Mater was always there as you can imagine, bringing me balloons and board games for us to play, he would even spend the night at the hospital just to make sure that I was okay."

Wow. What a lucky car. My parents would come visit me or maybe they would be too busy arguing to notice.

"And Sally! Sally was a real trooper. She came every single day. She was tied with Mater for the most visits. She would bring me some food that she made. I rarely had to eat the hospital food because she packed every meal: breakfast, lunch, and dinner. She would constantly call the nurse to make sure that I was getting treated properly. We spent long nights just talking about our future together and my racing career. You see Cruz, I didn't get out of that state on my own. I had a strong support system."

"Wow. You are truly lucky Mr. McQueen."

"Oh come on Cruz, don't act like you don't have the same support as me. We all love you Cruz and from what I've experienced, I know that we will be right beside you every step of the way."

Lightning's words warmed her heart. She knew that she had a family here in Radiator Springs, but she was concerned about her own family. Her family was a broken one: her parents got divorced when she was young, they were impoverished and lived by paycheck to paycheck, and they rarely talked about each other's feelings or dreams. Come to think of it, all Cruz's parents wanted for her was a comfortable life with a money making job. They didn't want her to aim high because they wanted to protect her from shattered expectations. When she got the job at the Rusteze Racing Center, Cruz packed up all her things, left her mother's house, and never looked back.

"Thanks Mr. McQueen. I really appreciate everyone here," she said with a smile.

"Do you still have your speakers with you?" Lightning asked.

"Yeah why?"

"Let's go over to your cone and you'll find out," Lightning said as he drove out of the garage.

They both made their way to Cruz's cone. What is going on here? Why is Mr. McQueen so hyped up? I don't like where this is going!

"Alright, turn on the speakers and open your playlist," Lightning said with a big smile.

"Okay," Cruz said as she opened her playlist.

"Um, remember the night that you told me about your racing dreams, you know the night that I yelled at you?"

"Yeah what about it?"

"Well after you left, I felt bad about yelling at you like that so I decided to get you back on the road with me. I wanted to surprise you with some of your workout routines. I tried to find the workout song you used to train me and well-"

"Mr. McQueen?"

"So in order to find the song... I asked Hamilton to go into your playlist," Lightning said with a nervous smile.

"You went through my playlist Mr. McQueen?!"

"I just added one song! Just look up "Never Give Up" by Seata please?"

"I still can't believe you went through my playlist. And you had the nerve to add a song!"

"Just look up the song Cruz!"

"Hamilton."

"Hamilton here."

"Play "Never Give Up" by Seata."

The Indian beat filled the cone as Lightning began to dance.

"Mr. McQueen please don't do that. No offense but it's a bit horrifying to watch you dance."

"Shhhhhh! Just listen:"

I've battled demons that won't let me sleep

Called to the sea but she abandoned me

But I won't never give up, no, never give up, no, no

No, I won't never give up, no, never give up, no, no

Lightning was mouthing the words and dancing like crazy! Cruz was just laughing her wheels off at first, but then the chorus made her start dancing:

And I won't let you get me down
I'll keep gettin' up when I hit the ground
Oh, never give up, no, never give up no, no, oh
I won't let you get me down
I'll keep gettin' up when I hit the ground
Oh, never give up, no, never give up no, no, oh
I'll find my way, find my way home, oh, oh, oh
I'll find my way, find my way home, oh, oh, oh

Both Lightning and Cruz were dancing and singing along to this inspirational tune. Although Cruz was the one dancing well, while Lightning danced off beat, they still had fun together in their mini jam session. When the song was over, they made their way over to Willie's Butte and drove to the starting line.

"Alright Cruz, play the song," Lightning said as he revved his engine.

"You got it!" she said with a smile.

Everybody dance and bouje bouje

Put your hands up souke souke

Shake your hips and woule woule oh

Lightning glared at Cruz. "Wrong song," he said in frustration.

"Oops! Sorry about that," Cruz said with a nervous laugh.

And I won't let you get me down
I'll keep gettin' up when I hit the ground
Oh, never give up, no, never give up no, no, oh

As soon as the song started, they drove around Willie's Butte side by side into the beautiful sunset on the dessert plains.