Chapter Eight – Ghosts

Finn told Siddeley to fly leisurely on the way to Minnesota. Sky, Harley, and Katherine gathered as much info as they could before they left, and the flight turned into overnight travel. While everyone else slept, even the ghosts of the group, the three girls gathered in the lounge area to go over their research.

"This is so cool." Sky breathed. "The Megami-Hito worshipped deities and spirits tied to nature, because they believed they were all tied to the earth in some way. The Goddess of Psyche created psyche humans in order to bond vehicles and humans."

"It makes sense, regardless of whether or not she's real." Harley said. "Let's face it: humans and vehicles are two very different species living in the same civilization. It's not like the difference between a person and an animal. Somehow, we have learned to cohabitate, sometimes in the same house."

"These legends are fascinating." Katherine said. "One of them describes a cataclysmic war between vehicles and humans. I once read there is evidence of such a war found during an archaeological dig in China."

"I found historical accounts of psyche humans who claimed to see the goddess who created them." Sky said. "These are people who were about to die, but they say that an ethereal being visited them and helped bring them back to life." She rubbed the amulet around her neck. "To think this has been the connection all this time."

"You know, I found a necklace like that amongst the list of products sold at Ancient Art." Harley said. "The stones in the amulet? Those aren't random. Specifically, those stones are aragonite, black tourmaline, emerald, amethyst, kyanite, red jasper, snowflake obsidian, turquoise, white howlite, and blue tigers eye. All of those stones supposedly aid mental health. Black tourmaline repels and blocks negative energies and psychic attacks. White howlite helps with sleeping, dreaming and dream retention, and eases insomnia. I know we should look at this from a more scientific point of view, but all of this just makes too much sense."

"I've known how to speak with ghosts and spirits for years." Katherine said. "I, for one, tend to lean on the side of spirituality. There's nothing wrong with that. Quite frankly, some things can't be explained with science. There are plenty of people who want to deny it. This kind of thing can't be denied. I think we can definitively say psyche humans were created divinely, and their powers are related to a deity."

"Satisfied now, Sky?" Harley asked.

"Yeah, I guess." Sky bobbed her head.

"You guess?" Katherine laughed. "We just went on a great albeit short-lived research mission to find the origin of psyche humans, and we did. What else do you want?"

"I want to know for sure why we were created." Sky said. "Do psyche humans have a specific purpose in the world?"

"Now, that sounds like something a little more personal." Harley said. "That's not something that can be answered in a book or through research. You're going to have to take time to think of an answer yourself."

"Maybe." Sky nodded in agreement. She reached into her backpack and pulled out a small, old, leather-cover book.

"What's what?" Katherine asked.

"Just a book I got in Basque Country." Sky shrugged, flipping through the book. "Not really any text. Just a bunch of pictures."

Harley peered over Sky's shoulder. Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "Is it an art history book?"

"I don't know. Why?" Sky asked.

"Because none of these pictures are consistent." Harley said. "Look. That's a peacock from the Book of Kells. There's a cave painting. That's Renaissance work, I know it well. All these pictures come from a different country and/or a different era in history."

Sky looked in the first and last few pages. "No publisher information."

"Looks handmade." Harley noted.

Katherine wheeled closer and opened her phone. She tapped a button on the screen, and a blue light shined from where the camera would be. Katherine shined the light over a couple pages in the book. "No invisible ink. There are spots of contamination, which could be anything from dirt to blood."

"Huh, weird." Sky shrugged. "But it's pretty and it'll look nice on a bookshelf. I guess I'll hang onto it."

The sound of tires on the carpet alerted the girls to Finn driving into the room. He yawned. "Shouldn't you all be in bed?"

"We were on our way." Harley said.

Finn hummed tiredly. "Liar."

Harley laughed and bid everyone goodnight. Katherine and Sky followed suit. Sky lay on her bunk and stared at the pictures in her book. It did seem odd to have so many different pictures of different styles. None of them were even in a particular order. The text below each drawing was a brief description.

At least it looks pretty. Sky mused.

She first saw that she seemed to be in a wide, grassy area. Dark clouds filled the skies. Sky sat up and looked around. Everything looked dark. Something felt wrong, like she was in danger. Sky had an urge to leave before she got hurt. But when she heard an explosion, she decided to stand and jog to the hill near her. When she neared the top, Sky lay on her stomach and Army-crawled over the ridge.

On the other side of the hill, Sky witnessed a horrible sight. Humans and vehicles clashed in a vicious war. Cars ran over humans. Bulky humans slammed sledgehammers and swords into vehicles. Planes and helicopters dropped heavy objects and explosives. A mix of war cries and screams of agony or death assaulted Sky's ears. She wondered if this is what Skipper experienced while on his mission in the war.

Then, Sky saw a faint shadow on the ground, and she looked up just in time to jump out of the way of a bomb. The shockwave pushed Sky farther, and she tumbled and rolled down the hill. She jumped to her feet to dodge the fighters, weaving her way through the battle without really knowing where to go. She found a dead pickup truck and jumped into the truck's flatbed.

"Stop!" Sky screamed. "Stop it! Stop fighting!" Nobody listened to her. She didn't even know why she bothered shouting. "I said stop it! Stop doing this!"

Then, the vehicles and humans simultaneously froze and spun around to face her. Sky felt apprehensive, wondering what they would do to her. A glow caught her eyes, and she looked down to see a bright light emitting from her entire body. The light grew brighter and brighter until—

Sky gasped as she woke up. She panted softly as she stared at the ceiling. She slowly sat up, and her book fell from her chest into her lap. Sky quickly shut the book and stuffed it back into her backpack. She forced herself to go back to sleep.

The next day, as Siddeley descended into Propwash Junction, Sky couldn't shake her dream. It was horrible, yet not in the way her nightmares normally worked. Usually, her nightmares revolved around her past or her fears. This seemed random. Sky couldn't remember the last time she witnessed Skipper's war days through memory sharing. She didn't see any movies recently that included bloody battles. So what caused such a strange dream? Stress? Something she ate? Or—a theory that somehow made sense—was it caused by her book, which she still held when she fell asleep?

She pushed it aside when she saw Dusty and Ishani, and she ran to greet them. "How are you guys doing?" Sky asked. "You feeling any better, Ishani?"

"Oh, very much better." Ishani nodded with a wide smile. "Dusty, you want to tell her?"

"Tell me what?" Sky asked.

"Hey there, Dusty." Skipper greeted as the others caught up. "What's going on?"

"We have some exciting news." Dusty said, nuzzling his wife lovingly.

"Well don't leave us hanging." Sky laughed.

Ishani giggled. "I'm pregnant."

Sky's jaw dropped. "What?!"

"Champ, that's great!" Blade said. "Congratulations to both of you."

"Congratulations." Harley echoed.

"We found out soon after you left." Dusty said. "We wanted to make sure before we announced it."

"So does anyone in town know yet?" Sky asked.

"Nope. Hold on." Dusty turned to the Fill N' Fly, where a large group of the town gathered. Dusty raised his voice to a shout. "Hey guys! I'm going to be a dad!"

Immediately, everyone at the Fill N' Fly cheered, and Chug even hurried over and asked a thousand questions.

"We'll let him take care of all that." Ishani laughed. "Sky, tell us about what you found."

"It's really cool." Sky said. "Come on, let's go talk."

Ishani and Dusty were thrilled that Sky found her answers, and then intrigued by what she found. Sky was still excited by what she found, but she quickly turned the conversation to Dusty and Ishani's incoming baby. Due to the timing, Ishani would be sitting out for a while during next racing season for the sake of the baby. Dusty already decided he wanted to race only until the baby came. Blade excused Dusty from coming to Piston Peak for fire season so he could be with the baby.

Nathan was thrilled to see the second place Sky called "home." He asked Sky all sorts of questions: how she got her schooling, what her neighbors were like, how many friends she had in the town, the state of the house/hanger where she lived, etc. By the end of the tour, Nathan openly voiced his approval of the town as a place for his granddaughter to be raised. Sky was more embarrassed when Skipper and Sparky pulled out the scrapbooks. She insisted that her grandfather meet her old foster mother, and Rosa was more than thrilled to meet a kind member of Sky's blood family.

Unfortunately, Nathan had to return to his tribe soon. Sky insisted on a casual farewell party, which was held at Honkers. Sparky, Chug, Dottie, and Mayday talked to Nathan for a few hours. Chug, at first, had an attitude like he interrogated Nathan; but after he heard Nathan's story, Chug treated the elderly psych-man like he was his best friend.

While Sky chatted with Dusty and Ishani, Nathan came up and joined them. He set a glass in front of Sky. "I hear you like a good Irish on the rocks." Nathan mused.

"Yep." Sky nodded.

"You know, even when she turned twenty-one, she hardly ever got carded when she ordered alcohol with dinner." Dusty scoffed. "Like nobody questions a twenty-one-year-old who orders the hard stuff."

"That's my little whiskey girl." Nathan laughed, clinking his own glass of alcohol against Sky's.

"I'm really glad you could come out here." Sky said. "I really wanted you to see Propwash Junction."

"I think this is a wonderful place for you, Skylar." Nathan said. "You have a good town looking out for you."

"I wish you could stay longer." Sky said.

"Well the reservation where I live is just north of Lake Tahoe, down in Nevada." Nathan said. "You're welcome to visit anytime. And I want us to find time to travel out to Basque Country again and spend more quality time there. I want you to explore your heritage some more."

"That sounds like so much fun." Sky agreed.

"I just know that not a lot of orphans get the chance to really study where they're from." Nathan explained. "You never had a great relationship with your parents; and, quite frankly, I didn't have the best relationship with your mother. But I want to show you that not everyone from your family is bad."

Sky grinned and hugged him. "I don't think you have to worry about that."

After a while, Sky stepped outside for some fresh, cool night air. She inhaled deeply and exhaled softly. The entire situation just caused happiness to swell up inside her, and she couldn't stop smiling.

"Hey there." Harley piped up as she came to stand beside her friend.

"Sup?" Sky glanced down and saw Harley wore a pair of normal skates instead of the high-tech boots-that-turn-into-skates that C.H.R.O.M.E. issued her. "What is it with you and those skates?"

"It's how I kept up with my family, who is almost exclusively made up of vehicles." Harley shrugged. "Besides, now it's not so noticeable that I'm shorter than you."

Sky laughed and shook her head. "I guess that explains why I enjoy being up in trees sometimes. I like to be in the air, like when I'm riding Dusty."

Harley glanced around. "What trees?"

"Usually the ones at Piston Peak." Sky admitted. This time, both she and Harley laughed. Sky glanced into Honkers and saw Finn and Blade chatting as though they knew each other all their lives. "I'm a little surprised our Partners get along so well."

"You know, I am too." Harley said. "Finn's pretty guarded. Comes from being a spy, I guess. But they seem to have things in common."

"Let's see." Sky mused. "Leaders of teams, dedicated to their work, devoted to protecting people, and an uncanny ability to force answers out of people in their own respective ways."

Harley nodded in agreement. "I think it's also one thing more: they both lost their best friends."

Sky glanced back to her Partner. "Nick and Leland must be off exploring. I don't see them there."

"Yeah." Harley sighed softly. "Leland's pretty cool. He's pretty different compared to Finn. Leland is like a child and enjoys having fun. Not that Finn doesn't enjoy a bit of fun here and there, but he's more serious about his work."

"I feel like Blade was a lot less serious as an actor." Sky said. "He liked to exchange pranks with Nick, and the two of them acted like brothers."

"Leland and Finn act the same way." Harley said. She stared off into the distance. "Sometimes I forget that Leland is a ghost. I forget that the car who's always joining us on missions—the car who's Katherine's Soul Connect Partner—is really just the spirit of a dead guy."

Sky nodded in understanding. "That happens to me when I talk to Nick. It's only when he goes through walls and turns invisible do I remember that he's been dead for decades."

Harley sighed through her nose, this time with sadness. "Finn forgets Leland is a ghost, too. When he does remember, it gets hard for him."

"How so?" Sky asked.

"Leland's death wasn't easy on Finn." Harley said.

Sky pursed her lips. "How…..how did Leland die?" She noticed the pain flashing in Harley's eyes. "Sorry. You don't have to answer that."

"No, you ought to know. I trust you with the truth." Harley said. "Do you remember the World Grand Prix?" Sky nodded, and Harley continued. "Well, before that started, Leland was working undercover for the ones responsible for the whole scandal, something we wouldn't discover until much later. It was a solo mission, and Finn decided to let Leland take it. Something about losing a coin toss. Anyway, Leland's cover was blown, and he sent a transmission to Finn to call for backup. But he was caught….and then crushed to death."

Sky winced. Of all the ways for a car to die, getting crushed into a cube sounded the most horrible. "Poor Leland."

Harley nodded slowly. "By the time Finn got there, it was too late. His best friend, his partner, was already dead. Finn didn't have to watch him die, but all that was left to rescue was a cube of metal and glass." She sighed and ran her fingers through her short-cut hair. "I'm glad Leland is back. I really am happy and thankful that he's back in Finn's life and he's helping us with missions again. But I also wish Leland had never died. Now, who knows what might've happened if Finn had saved Leland? Maybe he and I would've never met. But it's not exactly easy for me to see the look on Finn's face when he's reminded that his partner is a ghost."

"I understand completely, Harley." Sky said. "The same thing happens to Blade and Nick."

"How did Nick die? If you don't mind me asking." Harley asked.

"A stunt gone wrong." Sky answered. "He was doing his signature inside loop for a stunt scene, and a crosswind blew him right into a cliff. Blade was the first one there, but he just didn't have the medical knowledge to help Nick. He used to get nightmares about it. Sometimes he still gets those nightmares on the anniversary of the accident. But, ultimately, I'm glad Nick is here. He's part of the team, the family, now."

"You two get along pretty well." Harley noted.

Sky shrugged. "Yeah." She nibbled on her lower lip. "Can I tell you a secret?"

"Of course." Harley nodded.

"At first, Nick was just a really good friend, almost like a brother to me." Sky said. "But, lately, I feel like our relationship has grown. I feel like I can talk to him about personal things that I normally only talk to my dad or Sparky about. Sometimes my stomach feels weird and I'll get a little flushed when I talk to him. It's getting harder to see him as just a brother-like friend." She noticed a smirk on Harley's lips. "What?"

"You know what that means?" Harley said in a singsong voice.

"I do?" Sky asked.

"You're in love." Harley sang teasingly.

"I am not!" Sky said. She felt her face growing hot. "Am I? I mean, isn't he kind of old for me?"

"Technically, he's still in his early to mid-twenties since that's the age he was when he died." Harley said.

"But is it weird that I might be in love with a vehicle?" Sky asked.

Harley thought about it. "Love does not discriminate, Sky. Not by age nor gender or, least of all, by species. You know, I'm even growing closer to Leland. He and I have a lot in common, and we enjoy each other's company. I think the only thing really getting in our way is the fact that he's a ghost, and I think that's the same problem you have."

"Yeah." Sky nodded slowly. "I've been constantly rejecting the idea of a boyfriend. None of the guys I meet like me for who I am. They just like me because I'm a racer, and that's all they treat me as. But Nick? He's always talked to me like I'm a normal person. He seems to like me for me, and not because of what I do, whether it's racing or firefighting."

"Sounds like the ideal boyfriend." Harley mused.

"Yes, except he's a ghost." Sky said. "I know love does not discriminate, but what kind of relationship can we have when one of us is dead?" Sky sighed. "I'm not even sure I want a relationship right now."

"As cheesy as this may sound, you need to do what your heart tells you, Sky." Harley said. "If you decide you're really in love with Nick, you need to act on it, regardless of the situation."

"You mean the fact that he's dead and I'm not." Sky guessed.

"Yep." Harley nodded. "If you two share a bond, you ought to try and make it work."

Sky grinned. "All right. Then I would advise you to do the same. You and Leland have similar taste in partners. Maybe you two could be partners to each other."

Harley giggled softly. "Yeah, maybe."

Unbeknownst to the women, two familiar ghosts parked themselves around the corner of the bar and eavesdropped on their conversation. Nick and Leland exchanged a look—Leland's surprised and Nick's ecstatic—before they spirited off and returned to Blade and Finn. They made sure only their friends could see them and no one else.

"Discover anything interesting?" Finn asked with an amused smile.

"Yes!" Nick's voice went up so many octaves it came out like a squeak. In a more normal voice, he and Leland relayed what they heard from Sky and Harley.

"See, Nick?" Blade said. "You're in love with Sky, and she seems to return your feelings. I told you not to worry."

"Although, I am pleasantly surprised to know Harley has feelings for you, Leland." Finn said. "Do you return the affection?"

Leland looked nervous now. "Um…well, Miss Hudson is a very intelligent, quick-witted, strong young lady."

"That doesn't answer my question." Finn said.

"Even spies fall in love, Mr. Turbo." Blade chuckled.

"Believe us." Nick snickered. "Blade and I saw all the James Bond movies when we were kids."

Leland was glad to be a ghost now. His blush couldn't show when he was a ghost. "I thought the reason for eavesdropping was to find out if Miss Riley shares Mr. Lopez's romantic feelings."

"True." Blade mused. "Nick?"

"Well I think it's more fun to tease Leland." Nick said.

"The only reason we got on the subject was because you were curious about Miss Riley's feelings towards you." Leland said.

"That is the reason, yes." Finn agreed. "I don't normally approve of spying on my own Partner, but this was a harmless reconnaissance mission that proved fruitful."

Nick could see he wasn't getting out of this. "Well, I guess we found out that Sky might share my feelings."

"But?" Blade asked.

"I don't know." Nick sighed. "It doesn't sound like she's very sure."

"But you are sure." Blade said. "You know what you're feeling for her."

"However, I must regrettably point out your…..ah, living situation?" Finn said.

"Yeah, I know." Nick said. "Kind of hard to be with someone when I'm a ghost. Everything else doesn't matter: our age, our species, none of that. It's the fact that she's still alive and I died years ago. What am I supposed to do about that?"

"Being dead doesn't mean you can't have a good relationship with her." Leland said.

"Oh yeah?" Nick scoffed. "How? There are so many things to think about, not just in terms of physically, but like legally. Like what if we decide to get married? What do I do when other guys start hitting on her? How does she explain to people that she and I are dating?"

"I think you're overthinking this." Blade said.

"I think you're just afraid to tell Skylar." Finn added.

"Yeah, okay? You got me. I'm afraid." Nick admitted. "I'm afraid that she won't accept me. I'm afraid that we won't be able to make it work. I'm afraid that I'm not good enough for her." He sighed heavily. "Knowing all that, can you honestly tell me that all I need to do is strap on a pair of man parts and tell her outright?"

"I think you eventually need to tell her." Blade said. "Never telling her would be dishonest. She deserves to know just as much as you deserve to find out her reaction."

Nick stared at the table. Then, he disappeared. The other three at the table sighed simultaneously. "You know, I always liked studying contemporary American history." Leland said. "I particularly enjoyed the 70s and 80s. I remember watching a couple episodes of that TV show Nick was on. He never seemed to have a problem with women back then."

"Those women weren't Sky." Blade said. "Nick didn't ever want a real relationship with those women, and they didn't see him as anything more than a TV star. Nick and Sky see each other for who they are, and recognize each other's talents and strengths. They also see each other's weaknesses, and work to fix them. I don't think Nick knows how to deal with that, and Sky is someone who is slow to trust. They're going to have to figure this out on their own."

Nick journeyed to the roof of Honkers, and he looked over the edge towards Sky and Harley. The women apparently moved to a different topic of conversation, and they laughed jovially at something. Nick didn't know if it were the rose-colored glasses or something else, but he started noticing the little things about Sky that made her physically beautiful: the light in her uniquely colored eyes, her musical laugh, the way light reflected off her coal-black hair, and even the dark color of her psych-man birthmark on her arm.

Is this what being in love feels like? Nick wondered. To look at someone and only see perfection?