Lightning was in the lead heading towards Big Bentley, Francesco right on his bumper.
"Here he comes," Grem sung darkly. One of the panels of the clock to the right of Mater was open, so he could see McQueen going over Westminster Bridge, with Francesco and Miguel right behind. He felt his RPM's rising and glanced worriedly at Grem.
Grem grinned as he pushed the lever all the way. The camera began to whine. The sound grew louder and louder as the red beam got wider. Mater felt his engine shaking. Lightning was just under Big Bentley when there was a sudden burst of orange. Huge amounts of smoke erupted from McQueen as his entire engine bay burst into flame. Sally gasped loudly as she watched her boyfriend catch fire. McQueen skidded out to the right and hit the wall. Bits and pieces of metal flew off his chassis before he bounced off the concrete, spinning out to the left and stopping on the track. Miguel collided with him, causing him to spin faster, and got hit by Shu. All three cars in the collision stopped, the other racers stopping before the corner. They watched as the flames grew bigger. "McQueen!"
Following the Porto Corsa crash a week back, Sir Axlerod had set up several ambulances along the way but weirdly, a fire truck was at the corner by Big Bentley. It was quick to respond and headed to the scene. Miguel and Shu saw the truck and knew that they had to help.
"Hayaku!" Shu shouted. "Watashi ni shōkaki o agete kudasai!"
"Dame uno tambien!" Miguel shouted too.
And so the two pitties quickly began tying each of the extinguishers to their front left tires while the truck tried to put out the fire.
"Miguel, you take care of the front. Shu, go to the rear and try and stop it from there."
"Derecha." Miguel nodded. "Estoy en ello."
The emergency crew gave them the all clear and they slammed the extinguishers down on the ground, while the two pitties used the handle. With the help of the fire truck, the flames got smaller and smaller until just a small flame was all was left. The fire extinguishers were untied and fell on the ground with a thud.
Both cars were breathing heavily as the burnt body of McQueen lay on the track in front of them. The Radiator Springs folks were utterly speechless as they watched the live feed of McQueen's smoking, gutted chassis being carefully lifted. Sally's eyes were full of tears and she lost all control. She sobbed loudly and Flo comforted her.
The pitties carefully loaded him into an ambulance and closed the doors. Miguel and Shu closed their eyes, holding back their tears. The other racers were tearing up too but Nigel was the first to start crying. Carla rubbed her tire on his hood before Nigel clung onto her. Carla was surprised at first but continued to rub her tire on his roof. Rip started sniffing loudly; Max put his tire on his hood. Rip looked up and gave him a weak smile. Max did too.
"Chrysler, qui es aux cieux, s'il te plaît, prends soin de notre ami comme il a pris soin de son ami." Raoul muttered under his breath, trying hard to hold back his tears.
"All cars report to pit row," Darrell's voice came over the speakers. "I repeat, all cars report to pit row. Sir Axlerod has a few words he would like to say."

"Well, it's done," Grem said as he reversed away from the camera.
Mater watched the cars race back to the starting line. He tried desperately to hold back his tears. He didn't want to believe his best friend was dead, he wouldn't believe it. He felt that somehow McQueen was alive, but every other car knew McQueen's racing days were over. Holley and Finn didn't say anything, they just let out a huge sigh, not sure how to comfort Mater. Mater finally lost all control of his emotions and burst out crying.
"Oh great going Grem," Acer smirked. "You made the baby cry."
"Aw, there's not time to worry about-"
As Grem and Acer carried on talking, Mater was still crying through his blood-shot eyes but he stopped and his eyes continued to tear up as he listened to the ambulance's sirens blaring below. Grem watched the ambulance drive over the Westminster Bridge before turned his attention back to the headset he had on.
"McQueen's dead, Professor. They're taking him back to the pits."
"Good, now time to go to the second part of the plan."
"Copy that," he then turned to Acer, "we're engaging part two."
"Part two?"
"Let's just say, those racers are going back to the pits to have a moment of silence and Sir Axlerod has some words he wants to say."
"And once the special guest arrives, instead of saying some nice words about McQueen, they'll able to say them to McQueen themselves." They chuckled loudly. Mater growled despite the tears still trailing down his doors.
"Aw, don't feel bad about your best friend," Acer pretended to comfort him in a very sarcastic voice. "You couldn't have saved him… Oh wait, you could have."
"Dad-gum lemons!"
"Request acknowledged." The guns started to come out but the ropes stopped them, making them spin, and they went back in. The two lemons laughed again.
"What? You think we didn't take your bullets?" Grem explained through his laughter. "How stupid do you think we are?" Mater then realised that the ropes were slightly torn. The speed that the guns had been rotating was cutting the ropes. He pretended he hadn't noticed and went back to being angry. The two cars finally stopped laughing by the time he continued to glare at them.
"Enjoy those cogs because that's the last thing you'll see." Grem and Acer made their way for the elevator and went back down to the ground floor.
"There's got to be away out of this." Finn looked everywhere, but once Mater couldn't hear Grem and Acer anymore, he started saying "Dad-gum!", but each time he said it, he said it more aggressive and faster. The guns started to cut through the ropes until the ropes snapped and they zipped quickly around his body and sending him down onto two cogs below him. He landed on the two, with his wheels spinning for a while until he moved onto the cog that was going the way he wanted to go and brought him onto a lower platform. He drove around until he stopped in front of Holley.
"I got to get you all out of there!" Mater shouted.
"There's no time!" Finn roared back. "Those cars need your help!"
"But I can't, I'm just a tow truck!"
"No tow truck would have gotten this far, or got out of that so easily. You can do this. Clear those pits!"
"But what about you guys?!"
"We'll be fine! Just go! Before they get the other cars!"
"McQueen would want you to do this!" Holley added.
Mater took a deep breath and quickly, he headed for the platform. He burst through the doors at the bottom of the tower and raced out onto the busy road. He disappeared around the hedging, but unknown to him, Grem and Acer were hiding at the base of Big Bentley, around the back, and drove slowly out.
"The tow truck has escaped and on his way, Professor."
"Wunderbar. Now would you be so kind and escort our special guest to the pits."
"Copy that." He turned to Acer. "We're moving onto part three of the plan, tail the Special Guest."
Acer nodded and the two raced off, after Mater.

Once Holley and Finn were alone, she glanced nervously at him. "Will we be alright?"
"He wouldn't have left if I told him the truth-" The gears turned again and Finn groaned as it brought them closer to the spiral gears. "-going to get killed by a clock." He chuckled quietly. "Brings a whole new meaning to 'your time has come'."
"Time…" Holley thought. She studied the gears around the clock tower, following the gear that was going to crush them, to another gear, to another until her eyes fell upon a generator, just below them. "That's it…" She carefully took her front left tire out of the ropes and using her tasers, she launched them at the cables. It stopped a few inches and reeled itself in.
"What are you doing?"
"Trying to turn back time." She launched them again, stopping short again. The gear turned again but Holly and Finn's roof caused fraction against the gears, making them inch forward.
"If I can just...reverse...polarity…" She launched them again but this time, the taser tips hit the plugs. Just as Holley hoped, the gears started to turn the wrong way and the two weren't going to be crushed.
"Excellent, good thinking Holley!"
The clocks' forks were now turning the other way.
"What's everycar doing driving on the wrong side of the road for?" Mater exclaimed, weaving through traffic.
Grem and Acer were tailing Mater from a distance. "He's almost there."
Holley's smile was wiped away when she noticed they were heading for another gear. "Oh no."
Finn wasn't worried, he realised that the gear was going to go between their rear bumpers and it could be used to cut the ropes. "Holley! Burn rubber!" Their rear tires spun furiously as smoke poured from their rear wheels. Once the ropes were cut, the two shot forward, over the gears and cogs below and onto the platforms in front of them. "We have to help Mater." The two drove from opposite sides to the side of the platform that had the elevator. "Calculate, fastest route-"
Holley's side skirts and spoiler extended out to make wings. Her tail light glasses split and moved up and down and three small exhausts came out, making weird winding up noises as if they were jet engines of a plane. "Done."
"Oh, Miss Shiftwell…" Holley just gave him a smug smile. "Oh, you kids get all the good hardware."
Finn drove behind Holley but stopped in his tracks when he noticed an air filter on the ground.
"Oh no, that's Mater's."
"I knew his escape was too easy."
"We need to hurry!" Holley took off. She flew through one of the panels of the clock and down Big Bentley, and straightened up just as she was just above ground level. Finn slammed through the doors and raced onto the busy street.

(This was a scenario I wanted to do for sometime but wanted to delay it until I knew what to do. This is actually a deleted scene from one of my other stories, Friends to the End. This was originally supposed to be the crash scene in the story, the actual crash was based on Niki Lauda's in 1976 but the whole premise of the scene was inspired by Ayrton Senna's death in 1994, but I got rid of it and decided to keep to the original crash scene in the movie. This is where the ratings once again go up :p
Oh, I originally was going to continue writing up to when Axlerod's got exposed but I decided not to, as it kinda goes against what the title suggests, might finish later but for the moment, this is where it ends.)