Author's Note: Sorry for the shorter than usual chapter. Life happened. And screw the Nurburgring! I promise the remaining chapters will make up for it.

Chapter 12

14 Years Ago

Like every other driver, Taiyang hated the Emerald Forest North Circuit. Like every other driver he was racing on it anyway. And doing a pretty good job at that. The race was about half over and he was in the lead. In a distant second place was Summer. It had begun to rain early on and that gave Taiyang the advantage he needed to pull away. Now he just counted the laps, impatient for the race to be over.

He would not win. Taiyang turned into the Mine Kink as he had lap after lap. This time, something was different. He felt it in the car as soon as he turned the wheel. He got out of the throttle but it was too late. His right-front tire, deformed with a slow leak, blew out. He went straight and headed for the dirt bank that lined the track. The car smacked the wall of mud and stopped. With no seatbelt Taiyang was thrown from the car and into the forest beyond. As he sailed through the air he wondered how Summer and the kids would do without him. Then his world went dark.

Summer drove past just in time to catch the tail end of Taiyang's crash. She saw him sail out of view like a ragdoll, disappearing into the forest. She felt sick. It was her worst nightmare, unfolding before her eyes, and she was most definitely not dreaming. She did not stop. There was no point. Either he would survive or he would not and there was nothing she could do. At least he was not trapped in a burning car. That was not a death she would wish on her worst enemy.

Summer spent the next lap wondering what the future would hold. She had little hope that Taiyang could have survived. Money would not be a problem but raising two young girls alone would be difficult. The trauma they would go through would only make matters worse. They were not old enough to really understand yet, but they would know their father was gone. How would she explain it to them?

Summer arrived at the Mine Kink a lap later. Taiyang's crumpled car was still there. So was Taiyang. He looked a bit dazed and was covered in mud, but there he was, sitting on the bank. To Summer it seemed a miracle. He waved as she drove past, on her way to winning the race. In truth it was no miracle but dumb luck. If Taiyang had hit one of the trees the impact likely would have killed him instantly, but somehow he had missed them all. The impact with the ground might have killed him too but the rain had turned the ground to mud, softening his landing. He was not even hurt beyond a few bruises.

Things may have turned out alright but both Taiyang and Summer were shaken. Neither could imagine life without the other but the crash had forced them to confront the possibility. However dreaded, it was an eventuality they had to be prepared for. Both wished the other would quit racing but both were well aware that that was not going to happen. In the end, they were racecar drivers and would do what racecar drivers did. They would assume it could never happen to them or anyone they cared about. Death was something that happened to other drivers.

Present Day

The time trial results were in and Weiss' decision to help Sun had not cost her as much as it might have. To no one's surprise, Penny kept the top spot. Yang and Pyrrha had jumped Weiss on their last run but Weiss slotted in a strong fourth. Ciel came up just short for fifth, followed by Coco, Neptune, Yatsuhashi, Emerald, Mercury and Sun. In the end, Weiss was happy with her decision and team harmony had been mostly restored.

Weiss was not all that disappointed in her starting position but she was absolutely disappointed about the race day weather. Rain started pre-dawn and continued all morning. It was still raining as the cars rolled onto the grid. The rain was never particularly hard but it was continuous and the track was soaked. Yang would not have had it any other way. She knew from experience that if anything could close the gap between the Schnee cars and her own, it was rain. She was probably the only driver happy with the weather. The North Circuit was already dangerous in dry conditions. Racing it in the wet was almost suicidal.

The cars lined up and the starter raised his flag. The rain continued to fall, the pitter-patter of the drops mixing with the roar of the engines and the cheering of the crowd. The flag dropped. There was little grip as the drivers struggled to get going, their tires spinning and cars sliding. They dove into the first corner, sweeping around behind the garages without incident. Then it was off into the forest. Yang made her move into the North Curve, diving to Penny's left as they braked for the corner and completing the pass. Just behind, Weiss had her hands full with Ciel and Coco behind her. She managed to hold on. Until the very end of the lap there would be few passing opportunities.

Yang pulled away through Hunt Creek and into Tall Oaks. Pyrrha was all over the back of Penny's car but there was no room to get past. Weiss managed to put some distance on Ciel and Coco as the two got to fighting each other. The high-speed portion of the lap began and the field began to spread out. Penny kept close to Yang, horsepower momentarily winning out, and Pyrrha fell back a bit. By the time the cars arrived at Cross, Penny was right on Yang's tail. Unfortunately for her, there were corners to negotiate. Yang immediately opened the gap again, a gap that would only grow as the lap wore on.

Yang crossed the line to complete the first lap with a huge lead. Pyrrha had managed to keep close to Penny by using the draft. Pyrrha drove up along the left side of Penny's car on entry to the first turn. She failed to complete the move before the track swung back to the right, and the cars ran side-by-side through the sweeping South Curve. They continued side-by-side down the following straight before Pyrrha finally completed the pass in the North Curve. Behind them Weiss had gotten well clear of Ciel and Coco and managed to get close enough to Penny to begin contemplating how she would get by.

By the beginning of lap four of twelve, the order had settled. The previous lap Weiss had passed Penny on entry to the South Curve, a fairly straightforward move that Penny had barely contested. Further back, Coco had passed Ciel while Sun had managed to charge all the way to eighth, just behind his teammate. Yatsuhashi, Emerald and Mercury swapped positions in the North and South Curves, but there was little to decide between them.

With the leaders long gone, the backmarkers charged toward Cross. WFR's Tukson slowed and turned into the corner. His right-front suspension collapsed and he shot off the track to the right. The wet grass did little to slow him as he skidded across it. As his car bounced across the grass, the collapsed suspension folded under the front end and popped it up in the air just before the dirt bank. The car slapped the bank with its bottom and cartwheeled into the air. It slammed into a huge, ancient tree, bending almost in half and exploded. The rain prevented the fire from spreading to the flora, but nothing could save Tukson.

None of the drivers stopped to help. There was no point. Those who had witnessed the crash knew he could not possibly have survived. Even the spectators who gathered around could only watch as the car and its driver were incinerated. A few track workers arrived but they did not even have a fire extinguisher. They too could only watch. It was a gruesome end but one that was all too common for men of Tukson's profession.

The next time around the track Yang saw a plume of smoke rising from the forest just outside Cross. She had no way to know what had happened, but from the skid marks on the track and the debris scattered around, it was clear that someone had crashed. She did not want any driver to die, but she hoped it was not someone she knew well. Weiss saw the smoke a little later as she passed the spot. She did not want any driver to die, but she hoped it was not someone she knew well. All the drivers shared one sentiment: at least it wasn't me, it could never be me.

Word filtered back to the pits. Teams set about giving their drivers the details they needed. Ruby held out a pit board for Yang. "Weiss is OK." Some time later she held out the board for Weiss. "Yang is OK." Some of the other teams showed similar signs. WFR called Adam in and he retired from the race. He did not seem particularly broken up about it. He was probably more bothered by having his race ruined than by his teammate's demise.

The race went on as it always did. Yang continued to lead, steadily pulling away from Pyrrha. The gap between Pyrrha and Weiss was rather stable. On lap nine Coco's engine expired and her race was over. A lap later Jaune slid off the track at The Forest and got stuck in the mud. Other than a few mechanical issues among the backmarkers, things were pretty straightforward.

Yang coasted across the line to win, over a minute ahead of Pyrrha. Pyrrha had pushed her car to the limit but it payed off with a second place finish. Weiss came home third to complete the podium. Penny was next, followed by Ciel, Neptune and Sun. Sun had put in a gritty drive, from a bad starting position with broken ribs, but come up just short of scoring points. Also coming up empty were Emerald, Mercury and Yatsuhashi. The trio fought all the way to the finish but it was for nought.

On the podium there was no celebration. Yang held her trophy up then lowered it and walked away, followed by the other two. Even if it had been socially acceptable, none of them were in the mood to celebrate. For many of the drivers it was the first death they had experienced, at least in Formula 1. Even so, it was such a common occurrence that there was little emotion. The drivers were numb, they had to be. A driver cannot be fast and scared, the two are mutually exclusive. They all told themselves it could never happen to them, but somewhere, deep down, they knew it was a lie.

Penny though, Penny was different. Even after Winter's accident, the danger had not quite sunk in. After all, Winter came out alright, just a broken arm and some minor burns. It was better than one could expect from most road accidents. A death hit her hard. She had never imagined it could happen. She did not know Tukson, or for that matter any of the other drivers, particularly well but it felt like losing a member of the family. After the race she cried and cried, inconsolable. She talked about wanting to quit, how it was all too much for her. In the end Ironwood convinced her to keep driving. But now Penny was a different person. Gone was the happy-go-lucky, bright-eyed little girl. She could still be that at times, but her innocence was gone. The fear had crept in and like all drivers, she would have to suppress it somehow.

There was almost a month before the next race. Most of the drivers would have preferred to have it the next day. It would be something to distract them. Not that any of the drivers were looking forward to the next race. It would be at the Forever Fall Forest Circuit. It was an infinitely simpler track than the Emerald Forest, but no less dangerous. What it lacked in complexity it made up for in sheer speed.

Standings after six races:

1st - Winter Schnee - 24

1st - Pyrrha Nikos - 24

3rd - Yang Xiao-Long - 23

4th - Weiss Schnee - 21

5th - Penny Polendina - 18

6th - Yatsuhashi Daichi - 11

7th - Coco Adel - 10

8th - Sun Wukong - 8

9th - Mercury Black - 3

9th - Emerald Sustrai - 3

11th - Neptune Vasilias - 3

12th - Ciel Soleil - 2

Inspirations

- The Mink Kink is the corner before Bergwerk where Niki Lauda had his famous accident. Taiyang's crash is based on Lauda's, though Lauda's was caused by a mechanical failure, not a tire failure. In 1976 there was still just a dirt bank as a barrier.

- A 12 lap race might seem short but the track length made it a long enough race. The track is so long, in fact, that the F1 and F2 races were held at the same time.

- Tukson's crash is vaguely based on the fatal crash of Gerhardt Mitter and that of Peter Collins.

Inaccuracies and Anachronisms

- There was a fatal crash at the Nurburgring in 1966, that of John Taylor. It shared no similarities with Tukson's and occurred at Flugplatz.

- Even in the wet, a run like Sun's would be near impossible at the Nurburgring simply because of the near impossibility of passing.