Chapter 8

Nineteen Years Ago

The Mistral Circuit was one of the world's most dangerous. The 14 km ribbon of asphalt ran through the mountain forests to the west of the city. It was made up of public roads of sometimes questionable quality, and there were few barriers to separate the drivers from the nearby houses and trees. The weather was entirely unpredictable and the track was large enough that it could be raining on part of the track and perfectly dry at another. Despite the twists, turns and elevation changes, most of the track was run flat-out. Many had died there over the years, and many more would die before the place was finally shut down.

Needless to say, the drivers hated the place. Yet they still kept coming back. That was just how it was. Unacceptable though the risk may be, they would face it, comfortable in the knowledge that it could never happen to them. Summer and Taiyang were no different. Sure, somewhere in the back of their minds they knew either one of them could very well be next. They were terrified of losing each other and worried about how it would affect the kids. But then again, they could just as easily die in a road accident. The cars they took to the track might be slower but they were no safer than the ones they climbed into upon arrival. What was the point of fearing death? Better to live life to the fullest than wonder what if.

Race day dawned sunny but by the start the skies were increasingly grey. That was how the Mistral Circuit was. It rained at some point during almost every race there. It was just something everyone would have to deal with. It was early in the season but both Summer and Taiyang looked to be in the title hunt. The car was quick and the engines were robust. With a little luck one of them just might be champion. They had been close the past few years but come up just short. With weather threatening, tire choice would be critical. Taiyang chose rain tires. He figured it would be better to be slow and safe than fast and wrecked. Summer took dry tires. She had seen weather threaten and not deliver too many times to put on rain tires before there was actually rain.

The race started and the cars headed downhill toward the first corner, Red Water. They crossed the bridge over the stream of the same name and rocketed uphill. It was flat-out for over a minute before the track cut left then sped up again. Taiyang, the only driver on wet weather tires, had fallen back to eleventh from his fourth place starting position. From fifth Summer was up to third. The next serious corner was a sweeping right. Before that, Summer hit a wall of water. The skies opened in a sudden and torrential downpour, soaking the southeast corner of the track just as the field arrived.

The leader slid through the right-hander, barely keeping his car on track. The second place driver spun, looping the car around before getting stuck in a ditch. Summer was going entirely too fast. Her car hydroplaned straight off the track, catapulted off a dirt bank and crashed through the upstairs window and wall of a house that stood beside the track. Three more cars collided and slid off before the melee was over. By the end of the lap nearly half the cars that started would end up out of the race, caught out by the weather.

Taiyang completed the first lap in the lead, on his way to an easy win. He had not seen Summer crash. The rain ruined visibility and he only became aware that there had been a heavy crash when the rain let up a bit and he spotted a gaping hole in the side of a house. Even then he had no idea who it had been. So many cars had gone off on that first lap that no one was really sure who had crashed where except for the drivers involved themselves. Since the public roads were used for the track, it was nearly impossible to get back to the garage area before the end of the race if a driver crashed out on the far end of the circuit.

As the minutes turned to hours Taiyang became increasingly worried about Summer. They had become fast friends and Taiyang already hoped there would be more than that. Most of the other drivers had made their way back but Summer and a few others remained missing as the sun began to set. Could she have been the one to hit the house? He and the rest of the team were incredibly relieved when a tiny compact car sputtered up to the garage, Summer in the passenger's seat.

"Where were you?" Taiyang asked.

"Well, I very rudely let myself into this man's house." Summer laughed. The man was not laughing. "He helped me out of my car and offered to drive me to the pits. We broke down on the way and I had to make some repairs to his engine." The man glared at her. "Alright, I'm getting to it. He insists that we pay to repair his house and car, and I promised we would deliver."

"We've got a garage full of professional mechanics." Qrow said. "We'll have that car running better than new in no time. As for the house...Ozpin!"

"What is it?" Ozpin asked as he walked over from the back of the garage.

"It seems your driver did some damage to this man's house." Qrow replied. "You're the man with the checkbook."

"Oh, that is unfortunate." Ozpin said. "I'm afraid I don't have any cash or checks on me." He turned to Summer. "Glad to see you're alright. But did you have to hit his house?"

"The car's hard to control when there are no wheels on the ground." Summer laughed.

The man looked about ready to explode, his skin reddening and veins on his forehead popping. "I'm sorry I can't pay for your house right now, but how about I give you the trophy as a down payment?" Ozpin offered. "I'll have a check mailed to you once I get back to the office. You can keep the trophy."

In an instant the man's anger disappeared. "You've got a deal." The man said, shaking Ozpin's hand. "I never thought I'd be happy to have my house wrecked."

Present Day

The Mistral Circuit looked a lot different than it used to. It was no longer made up of public roads. Gone were the minutes-long stretches of flat-out running. The bridge at Red Water was gone and the corner - though still fearsome - had been reprofiled. There was armco everywhere, most of it fronted with tires. The Mistral Circuit was thoroughly modern. Still, it retained some of its old charms. There were still some very fast bits, the elevation changes were just as drastic, and the weather was just as unpredictable.

The drivers loved it. There was no place quite like it, a circuit where you could almost feel like you were living in the past like the gladiators of the previous generation, and yet all within the relatively safe confines of a proper race track. It was not perfect. It was still possible to crash heavily at Red Water where there was still little run-off room, and the chicane before start/finish broke up the flow of the track rather more than the drivers would have liked. Even so, it was a masterpiece and every driver wanted the prestige that would accompany a win there.

Ruby was certainly looking forward to the race. For one, it got her away from the spotlight she had been forced into at the previous races. The track actually brought back good memories of her mother who, when she was still alive, would tell the funny story of how she had ended up on someone's bedroom after a spectacular crash. Her father would then complain about how he had to give his trophy away as a result. Then everyone would have a good laugh. It was a track her parents loved and excelled at, and Ruby hoped to follow in their footsteps.

Pyrrha was looking forward to the race too. It was at home for starters, and her friends and family would be in attendance. Unfortunately she would have to deal with more media attention than she would have liked, but it was nothing she could not handle. She had raced at the track many times and won there the previous year in the 1000 km sports car race. It was her favorite track, fast, flowing and stunningly beautiful (the same description Yang would likely use for her). In the previous two races she had come close to her first win. Making it happen at home would be perfect.

Practice times were not promising for the Beacon GP pair. Mistral was a power track and the cars with Schnee engines were predictably fast, even before turning them all the way up for qualifying. Winter, Weiss and Penny locked out the first three spots in all three practices. Coco, Emerald, Mercury, and Velvet were all very quick. Then came Ruby, Pyrrha, Yang and Blake, all close to each other. Team Juniper was well back as their cars were not quick in a straight line. Even so, everything could change in an instant if the rains came, and most suspected they would. A Mistral GP just was not a Mistral GP without rain.

The rain did not come in qualifying. As the session neared its end Winter and Weiss held the top two spots with unassailable times. Penny was next, significantly ahead of fourth. Things were a bit interesting between Coco, Velvet, Emerald and Mercury, but then there was a large gap back to everyone else. Pyrrha was eighth, followed by Blake, Yang and Ruby. Pyrrha was easily the fastest in the second sector of the track - with Blake, Yang and Ruby nearby - but in the first and third long stretches of fast track ruined her time. The gap to the Schnee-powered cars in terms of engine power was even bigger in qualifying than it had been in practice.

Pyrrha was not about to give up. Not at home. She went out for one last run, determined to break the Schnee dominance. She made her way through the final chicane slowly, getting as good a run out onto the start/finish straight as possible. She crossed the line to start her lap and eased her car to the left side of the track. She braked hard, almost coming to a halt for the first corner, a right-hand hairpin called Source. She spun the tires slightly on exit, heading steeply downhill on the old start/finish straight. She kept the throttle on the floor as she cut left, swept right and cut back to the left to negotiate Red Water, cresting the hill at nearly 200 mph to begin the long straight that followed. The engine screamed as Pyrrha pushed the car to its maximum speed.

After the longest stretch of flat-out running on the F1 calendar, Pyrrha was hard on the brakes for the tight right-left-right complex called Valley. The track dove downhill and Pyrrha braked again for the long, sweeping, off-camber right-hander called Mistral. A quick blast of throttle took her to a tight left, then she was on the throttle, rocketing downhill. She braked slightly for a pair of fast left-hand sweepers, still flying downhill and powering out. Pyrrha braked hard again for the right-left of Camp at the bottom of the hill, then just tapped the brakes for quick right that followed. Now was another long stretch of flat-out running. She controlled her wheelspin on exit, flew through the right-hand sweeper that followed, using all the track, then blasted out onto the stretch called White Mountain. Traveling uphill, she swung around two flat-out left-hand sweepers before she had to brake hard again for the final left-right-right-left chicane called the Bus Stop. Pyrrha ran the car hard over the kerbs, coming out of the complex nearly sideways. She kept her foot down, leaving dark streaks of rubber behind her as she powered across the line to complete her lap.

It was not enough to top the charts, but it had been very fast. Pyrrha somehow ended up fourth. The other drivers could hardly believe it, but there was the time, and it was all on video. Her lap had been nearly perfect, but the occasional slide showed that she could have gone even faster. She was the only car in the top 8 that did not have a Schnee engine. Winter, Weiss and Penny had put up times faster than Pyrrha's, but they had much more power. Behind her, she had out-driven former champion Coco, and more experienced veterans Emerald and Mercury. Velvet was next, followed by Yang, Ruby and Blake.

The next day dawned sunny and cool, but by midday the skies were threatening. Just before the cars were to head out to the grid it began to rain and did not stop. Suddenly it was anyone's race. The Schnee-engined cars could no longer count on their engines to carry the day, and with extra power might even be at a disadvantage in the slippery conditions. All eyes were on Pyrrha. As she waited on the grid before the race she was interviewed by reporter after reporter. Winter, the defending champion and pole winner, was the only driver who got even a fraction of the attention. Ruby was quietly confident. She was fast in the rain. If no one was paying attention to her, all the better.

It was still raining when the cars rolled off for their parade lap. They rounded the track and lined up on the grid for the start, the drivers focusing on the lights suspended above the track as the rain grew in intensity. One red, two, three, four, five...lights out! Tires spun and cars squirmed as the drivers tried to ease off the soaking grid. Winter and Weiss got similar starts but Penny and Pyrrha behind them had a terrible time. They were both passed by Emerald on the short run to the first corner.

Winter and Weiss rounded Source side-by-side with Weiss on the preferred line. She pushed her older sister wide. Winter drove up onto the kerbs. The painted surface was like ice in the rain and her car slid sideways, heading back toward the track. She collided with Coco and the two cars bounced away in opposite directions, allowing Penny and Pyrrha to slip through the middle. The hole closed as Coco bounced off the inside wall and into Emerald who was deflected into Mercury. Velvet tried to pass on the right but was struck by Coco as she bounced back again. Yang managed to slip through, followed by Ruby, but Blake hit a bouncing tire that collapsed her suspension and sent her car spinning. Nora, Sun and Arslan tangled as they tried to avoid Blake. The track was basically blocked and Gwen, Adam and Cardin all piled in before the crash was finally over.

What little remained of the field made its way back to the start/finish line where the red flag was displayed. Weiss led from Penny, Pyrrha, Yang, Ruby, Ciel, Dew, Reese, May and Neptune. Francois, Nolan and Russel were the only other drivers still in the race. It took over an hour to clear the track of wrecked race cars. The race would be restarted with the surviving cars in their original grid positions, and the race distance shortened by one lap. Now Ruby was sure she could win. Most of the cars she would have had to pass were now in the garage in various states of disrepair, and the path to the lead was a much clearer one.

The rain eased a bit but continued to fall as the drivers readed for the restart. One red, two, three, four, five...lights out! The cars again squirmed away from the line. Weiss, alone on the front row, got a clean run into the first turn. Pyrrha got a better start than Penny and slipped into second. Then came Yang, Ruby and Ciel. They raced downhill, then up through Red Water and out onto the long straight that followed. Weiss had been forced to take it easy through Red Water, her car not handling the rain well, and that allowed Pyrrha to slip past. As they approached Valley, Ruby cut right, shooting up the inside of Yang and Penny to go from fifth to third in a single move. Weiss was still falling back with an ill-handling car but Ruby was forced to follow with no good place to pass. Pyrrha had a huge lead by the time the field reached White Mountain. Ruby managed to get past Weiss on entry to the chicane as Yang got past Penny just behind. Behind them Reese had made her way up to sixth.

Ruby pulled away from Weiss who was soon passed by Yang. Yang was good in the rain but her sister was better, and the gap between second and third grew lap after lap. Meanwhile the gap between first and second began to shrink ever-so-slightly. Ruby was closing in. It was slow progress, only a tenth or so a lap, but it was steady and Ruby had all race. The rain was light but steady, enough to keep the track wet without the condition becoming impossible. Ruby hoped the rain did not pick up. If it got bad enough the race would be shortened for safety, and she would miss out on her chance to win.

The crashing was not over. On lap 26 of 42 Ciel got Red Water very wrong. She oversteered through the right-hander and in the wet conditions could not recover. Her car kept sliding to the right. As it turned all the way around it hit the grass, lost all grip, skipped across an access road and slammed into the tire-fronted concrete barrier on the right side of the track. The car popped up in the air, did a complete flip, then landed on its side in the grass. The medical car was dispatched but it was not necessary. Ciel crawled out on her own, scrambled away from the car a bit, then laid down in the grass. She was too dizzy to stand, concussed but otherwise alright.

All the while Ruby was getting closer. Pyrrha picked up her pace but Ruby did too. They started making mistakes, a slide here, a lock-up there. Pyrrha desperately wanted to win at home. Ruby just wanted to win. With two laps remaining Ruby was finally there. The cars powered out of Source, their tires spinning and spitting water as they struggled for grip. Ruby got alongside as they ran downhill, but she was forced to concede the position at Red Water. It broke her momentum but also pushed Pyrrha offline for the corner. Both got bad exits and were basically even again, running nose-to-tail all the way to Valley. Ruby patiently followed Pyrrha as they negotiated the twisty portion of the track. Pyrrha got a great exit onto White Mountain and all Ruby could do was follow. She faked a pass attempt on entry to Bus Stop, but Pyrrha was not fooled and held her line.

Ruby got beside Pyrrha as they ran down the start/finish straight. She would have the inside line for Source. She braked as she had the lap before, but she was on a different line. Her car splashed through a puddle and briefly lost all grip. She got to the corner going too quick and slid wide, allowing Pyrrha to sweep back into the lead. Ruby recovered and quickly gave chase having lost quite a bit of distance. She did not catch back up until they got to White Mountain. Ruby was still some distance back but got a good launch onto the fast stretch. She followed Pyrrha through the two flat-out kinks. Pyrrha blocked left as they headed for Bus Stop. Ruby drove up on the right and the cars braked for the corner side-by-side. Ruby was just ahead but Pyrrha had the preferred line. Ruby was able to hang on and had the inside for the next pair of corners, again drawing just ahead. The final corner, longer than the others, gave Pyrrha the advantage. They accelerated onto the start/finish straight almost even but Pyrrha pulled just ahead as they crossed the line.

Pyrrha was ecstatic. A win at home was a dream come true. Ruby was happy too. She came up short for the win but she had been faster than her teammate and it was a thrilling battle besides. She wished every race could be so fun. Yang was relieved to be back on track but disappointed to still be out of the points lead. Weiss and Penny meant it was not a total shut-out for the Schnee-powered cars but the day had been a disaster. Reese rounded out the points-paying positions. Even the continuing rain could not put a damper on Pyrrha's excitement as she stood atop the podium. The crowd was electric, going crazy for Mistral's new F1 contender. As Mistral's national anthem played Pyrrha cried tears of joy.

In the post-race interviews Pyrrha had nothing but praise for Ruby. Ruby was shocked. It was not common for drivers to praise each other so highly, even their teammates. F1 was a cutthroat world and teammates could be particularly savage rivals. Pyrrha was different. For her part, Ruby had nothing but praise for Pyrrha. She was different too.

"You know, you can talk about yourself when you're talking to the media." Ruby said to Pyrrha. "All those nice things you said are a little embarrassing."

"But it's all true." Pyrrha insisted. "I've never seen anyone drive better in the rain, and I like to think I'm a great wet weather driver."

Ruby had never received higher praise. "Well you're probably the best driver I've ever seen period." She said. "That lap you did in qualifying was a thing of beauty. It was perfect."

"I don't know about that." Pyrrha said. "It was pretty good, but I didn't even get the pole. I'm sure it could have been better. I'm much more impressed with your rain driving anyway."

"That doesn't make it any less amazing." Ruby said. She paused for a moment. "How about this? At the next test I'll help you be a better rain driver, and you can give me tips to be better in the dry."

"You would do that for me?" Pyrrha asked.

"Of course." Ruby replied. "We're friends."

"Yes, but, I've never known a driver to offer help like that." Pyrrha said. "Normally everyone wants to hold onto whatever advantage they can get."

"It helps us both and helps the team." Ruby said. "There's no downside."

"I guess there are a few things I can help you with." Pyrrha said. "Okay, we'll do it."

Standings After Three Races:

1st - Pyrrha Nikos - 21

2nd - Yang Xiao-Long - 13

3rd - Blake Belladonna - 12

4th - Ruby Rose - 9

5th - Nora Valkyrie - 5

5th - Weiss Schnee - 5

7th - Winter Schnee - 4

8th - Arslan Atlan - 2

8th - Penny Polendina - 2

10th - Reese Chloris - 1

10th - Lie Ren - 1

Inspirations

- Mistral Circuit is Spa-Francorchamps.

- Summer's accident is based on a real one that took place at Burnenville at Spa, but I have forgotten the details (driver/year). I'd appreciate it if anyone can help me out.

- The first lap crash is based on the wreck at the start of the 1998 Belgian Grand Prix.

- Ciel's crash isn't based on any one crash in particular, just any of the very similar crashes at Eau Rouge over the years.

- Teammates as savage rivals, Prost and Senna anyone?

Inaccuracies and Anachronisms

- Drivers would not have chosen rain tires in the absence of rain.

- In the event of a first lap red flag and restart, drivers in a crash would be allowed to use backup cars or restart in repaired cars rather than being out of the race. I think that's idiotic, so I'm ignoring that possibility. Also, plot.