AN:WEEEEE! HERE IS CHAPTER XXXIV! 3 STOP RACING CHAPTER! I hope you guys enjoyed Chapter XXXIII. If not, then I hope you'll enjoy this one more. Thanks to those who reviewed, favourited and followed. And now, I give you guys Chapter XXXIV of Link through Time.

CHAPTER XXXIV:

CONSPIRACIES AND A NEW RACE

The next day, Celeste woke up when she heard someone banging on the door. Checking her bedside clock, she saw that it was only 5:30 AM. She tiredly walked out of her room and up to the front door while the adults were getting up.

"Who is it? Why are you here at this ungodly hour?" She yelled at the door.

"LVPD."

LVPD? What the fuck are they doing here? She opened the door immediately and saw that it was the Chief of the LVPD.

"Chief Rogers?" She asked.

"Hello, Cassandra. May I come in?" He asked. Honestly, she just wanted to slam the door in his face and crawl back into bed but since she was a polite girl because she was raised as such, she let him in.

"Chief Rogers, what makes stop by?" Uncle Federico asked as they sat down on the couch. Celeste immediately leaned her head on Petra's shoulder.

"Good question, Mr. Knight. I was doing overtime at the station today sifting through old files, when I found this." He said as he plopped a folder in the table. Celeste felt like cold water was dumped on her; that was her adoptive parents' case file.

"Mom and Dad's case file?"

"Yep. The Original One."

"W-why are you showing us this? Mom and Dad's deaths were ruled out as accidents." Celeste said. This was another depth she didn't want to dive back into. Deep down inside her, she had a feeling that her adoptive parents' deaths weren't really a simple car crash.

"Where did your parents die, Cassandra?" Chief Rogers asked her.

"Outside Las Vegas! Why are you asking me this? It's common knowledge! The whole world knows about it!" She yelled. The situation was really ticking her off.

"Stand down, soldier." Levi snapped at her while Petra rubbed her back to comfort her.

"Cassandra, calm down. I'm showing you this because we found out that the file served in court was a fake. Someone broke in the file room 4 years back and replaced it with a final word that ruled it as an accident and planted doctored photos in it. Your parents were murdered. The crash was set up." The Chief admitted.

"Wha-what? Photoshop? That's what kept this information for 4 years?" She asked in anger. Again, Petra did her best to comfort her.

"Whoa, you are way more temperamental than when I last saw you."

"H-how did they die?" Aunt Natalie asked.

"Apparently, the local drug cartel did. The Blue Tigers." He answered.

"The Blue Tigers? Didn't dad aid you in taking them down? But someone screwed up with prosecution and the jury voted the boss not guilty, so he fucking walked? Then days later, I hear in the news that my parents have been burned to a fucking crisp." She said. Not only was Raphael Knight a champion racer, he was also an accomplished lawyer. The Blue Tigers' sponsors was said to be The Gardeners. Rumor had it, The Gardeners would pay off The Blue Tigers to take out racers in perk, death and brawl races. Usually through drug use. Celeste was never taken out by a Tiger. Their front was a fancy restaurant. While there was enough evidence to expose the Tigers of Illegal drug possession, there was never enough evidence to tie them down to The Gardeners. Unfortunately, 4 years ago, someone goofed up prosecution so the Tiger boss walked. Days after that, Clara and Raphael Knight died.

"How do you know all this?" Celeste asked him, she was deadly calm this time.

"Aside from the new evidence we found, a rat within the Tigers told me this." Rogers said.

"A rat in the house. Joy. So what do you want from me?"

"Be the bait." He bluntly said.

"Bait?" Celeste repeated. After being trained for the Scouting Legion for 3 years, another year of going in and out of the Walls on 2 Expeditions and 3 breaches, being bait is something she is pretty good at.

"The rat tells us that a Blue Tiger would be riding under a Gardener car. The Gardener boy maybe be banned but their company is not. While the race is happening, we'll raid his place to find illegal drugs. Once we do that and the race is over, we arrest him and interrogate him. Get him to talk."

"I'll get him to sing. You got yourself a deal but like before on the rape-murder case, you let me arrest him as well as Gardener if we finally tie him to the Blue Tigers as well as my parents' murder." Celeste demanded.

"Of course. Pleasure doing business with you, Ms. Knight." Chief Rogers said as he shook hands with Celeste.

"I'll show you to the door." Uncle Damon said as he stood up. Celeste took the case file with her back to her room. She wasn't really paying attention to the other details. All she was looking at was the pictures of the wreck and her parents' charred bodies. Now that she looked at it; Celeste thought of how agonizing it must've been for them. Getting charred to a crisp while waiting for death. She realized that should she get eaten by a Titan, she would be grateful. At least, it would be quick and painless.

'It almost feels like there's a conspiracy.' She thought to herself. 'Or maybe there is.'

Someone knocked on the door all of a sudden.

"It's Open!" She yelled. In walked Petra with a worried look on her face, dragging Levi behind her.

"You okay?" Petra asked as they sat on her bed.

"No. I feel like there's a fucking conspiracy around me." She admitted as she put the photos down. Levi picked it up and they examined it. Shit. No wonder Celeste was very frustrated and didn't want to be reminded of her adoptive parents' deaths. This was too disturbing for a 15 year old back then and it most likely is disturbing for a 19 year old.

"You're angry, aren't you?" Petra asked her. Celeste gave her a look that told them that they're about to receive a wise ass answer.

"I almost died thanks to a poisoned blade, I found out that I've been lied to by one of my friends and to top it all off, I find out that my adoptive parents may have been murdered by people from a drug cartel who was supposed to be locked away, what does that tell you? For clearance, yes! I am angry." She answered. She saw the flash of recognition in Petra's eyes but at the same time, she saw fear. Almost as if she was afraid she was going to hate her.

"Wh-who lied to you?" She asked but her voice squeaked. Celeste knew her mother does a piss poor job at lying. If her eyes won't give it away, her voice will.

"You should know; you set Armin up to it. When Dad and I weren't getting along, you were so desperate to fix things that you took things in your own hands and you had him lie to me; how dad took me from the midwives immediately to show me off. But that wasn't what happened was it? Dad had to deal with the fact that I might not last the night then, you both named me."

"How do you know all this?" Levi asked her. Celeste didn't need to know how she almost died.

"A little blue birdie told me." Celeste answered, knowing they'd get what she meant.

"An Anomaly? You went through an anomaly? When?" Levi asked.

"Days back. Before we left Santa Monica." She answered. This was getting out of hand; she was very emotionally compromised. Just then, Uncle Damon barged in and stuck something in her neck. It didn't take long before she felt drowsy.

"What did you do?" Petra asked as she caught Celeste in her arms. Looking down, they saw that she was knocked out cold.

"I tranquilized her like before." Uncle Damon said. Petra and Levi laid Celeste in her bed and let her sleep before they left the room.

"When my brother and his wife died, Celeste took it hard. But she didn't release everything through crying like we expected her to do so. She released it through her anger. As a result, I had to tranquilize her often to calm her down otherwise she had tantrums that doctors ruled out would bring danger to herself and others. Give her time. When the race happens, she'll be back in no time. You'll see." He explained to them. After that, they all returned to their rooms to catch up on some sleep.

Days later, the 3 stop race was about to occur and Celeste was indeed back to normal. They headed to the Nevada tracks and headed for Celeste's locker room so she can get ready.

"Now are you sure you're alright?" Petra asked Celeste for what must be the 50th time that day.

"Mom, please; for the last time, yes." She answered as she took her shirt off. Thank God, the men were off getting food, otherwise Levi would've flaked Celeste's skin already for the tattoos. Putting on a fresh black shirt, the boys entered the room with the racing official from Santa Monica.

"Stalk much, Winchester?" She mockingly asked him. He chuckled before putting on a straight face.

"No. I'm here to explain the tracks to you." David answered as he turned a holomap on. Celeste's phone rang and she picked it up.

"Moshi moshi." She answered lazily.

"What language is that now? Scratch that; don't tell me. Our men are outside the Tiger's house. They're about to start the raid. You know the drill after that. My deputy will be there." He explained.

"Yeah, got it. Thanks." She said before hanging up.

"You done?" Winchester asked and she shrugged as she put her jacket on. The holomap showed the Nevada tracks. The track is the shortest but most dangerous in America. Once the race starts, you'd have to go through a stretch, then the Vortex. After that is another stretch but that also has a service road. After that stretch is the jump jacks then the Upward road and then Desert road. The service road exits at the Desert road which in turn leads to the starting point. What puzzles Celeste is that there's no stop zone to switch vehicles in.

"Beware of the service road. If possible, do NOT go through it." He explained.

"Why?" Petra asked curiously.

"Way back when my other dad was still racing, there was incident in these tracks. Someone rigged the service road with toxic canisters that killed a bunch of racers when people were still using it. Luckily, my dad thought that service roads are for bitchy limp noodles so he avoids it. Point is when they tried to take the remaining toxic canisters off; they can't take off an entire row in the middle of the road. So they basically had to seal it off." Celeste explained to them. After that, Winchester blabbed on and on about how the race will go and when he was done, Celeste raised her hand.

"Where are the pit stops?" She asked.

"There are no pit stops. You stop at each lap." He answered.

"You're kidding me, right? That's-that's not 3 stop racing anymore…that's-that's-that's fucking Switch racing. That's not the races I grew accustomed to!" Celeste complained. Winchester shoved his hands in his pockets.

"Well suck it up, Knight. Times change and so do racing rules and how they go. Good luck."

With that, he left.

"I don't believe this." Celeste said as she sat down. Petra patted her head and grabbed her shoulders from behind to comfort her. Just then, the bells rang.

"Get." Uncle Damon ordered the boys. Uncle Federico, Aunt Natalie and the kids left the room.

"Take care, alright." Levi told her. Celeste embraced him and Petra.

"Bitch, I'm humanity's 3rd strongest." She said with a wide smile before they left the room and went their separate ways. Walking to the race zone, Celeste donned her helmet and got on her car.

"Remember; avoid the service roads. And…keep an eye out on the Gardener car, alright." Uncle Damon told her. She responded with a thumbs up. Looking to her left, the Gardener driver was male. When they left, she immediately sat in her cockpit.

"Start your engines." The commentator announced. After the count of three, they all moved. Celeste was in first place, with Bennett and Monroe slugging it out for second. The Gardener car was behind them.

"Celeste, the Vortex is ahead. Speed up." Uncle Damon told her via the radio.

"With pleasure." She answered as she entered the area. It was like a freaking roller coaster whenever she enters this. She kept going until she got out of the spiral and onto the next stretch. She was bumping with Monroe and when she gave a hard enough hit, Monroe was bumped to 4th and she entered the Jump jacks. It was still pretty scary for her because at each jump, she'd have to make a turn.

"OH FUCK!" She yelled in fear as she got out of the Jump Jacks area.

"Celeste, the Gardener car is beside you. He'll probably try to push you to the service road." Damon warned her.

"I'm ready." She answered. Just as he was about to ram her, she gunned it and entered the Upward road. When she got off of it, she went to the Desert road and turned on the GPS. Unfortunately, it still sounds like an Indian man.

"Didn't I tell you guys to fix GP?" She asked them but all she heard was Rex and Duncan's laughter.

"Jackasses." She muttered. Then she stopped at the starting line and hopped on her hover cycle.

"Damn switch racing." She muttered to herself.

"Change is constant, Celeste. You'll have to accept it sooner or later." Damon said via the radio. She went through the same obstacles. When she got out of the vortex once again, shit hit the fan when she was near the service road.

"Celeste, the Gardener is shooting at you!" Damon yelled but he was too late. A bullet pierced her shoulder, which made her yell in pain and it forced her into the service road.

"Cassandra Knight is at the service road!" A commentator announced. Celeste was going too fast and wasn't able to press the brakes in time. The consequence of that was that Celeste hit a toxic canister, which set off the remaining toxic canisters. Nevertheless, Celeste kept going. She could feel the toxins going inside her helmet and forcing her to inhale it. She took off the helmet and through it aside, using her spare wire.

"Forfeit now, Celeste. The toxin will kill you in 20 minutes." Uncle Damon yelled at her.

"No. I'm going to play through the pain. I can do this. I just have to make quick work of it." She answered before hacking out blood. Once she was at the starting point yet again, she hopped off and got on her car once more. Every now and then, she'd hack out blood as she zipped through the race. Now that the Toxic canisters were out of the way, she kept using it to her advantage. Celeste was the type of racer who'd use every shortcut in the book to be first. Something that her dad never approved of. She kept going through the race; coughing out blood every now and then while trying to maintain her position of first.

"Celeste, you have 3 minutes left and another stretch to go through. Forfeit now, please." Damon requested.

"I didn't go this far to forfeit now." She answered through the pain in her lungs. The Gardener cycle was beside her and ramming her. They were nearing the finish line.

"What I'd give to kill him right now." She muttered but instead, she just used a spike to flatten his tire and sped up. Once she crossed it, the crowds roared and they seem to have forgotten that she inhaled the toxins. She can barely hear what they were saying and she hadn't realized that they've already handed her the trophy until she keeled over and puked out blood.

"CELESTE!" She heard someone yell for her. Celeste painfully turned her head and saw Levi catch her. She felt something pierce her neck and she closed her eyes and fell asleep.

AN: Sorry for the very late update! I have a lot of projects that I'm trying to work on and I am always tired so sorry if this chapter sucks. Anyways, I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter and thanks to those who will review, favourite and follow this story! Firework out!