“Three hours out, and three hours back,” moaned Klaus tiredly, stretching his arms the length of the car’s backseat. He cringed as his wrist was scratched by damaged leather and the stuffing underneath. He frowned, looking out into the nighttime. “We couldn’t have just stayed in a motel for the night?”

“Gross.” Skye sighed. “Even if we found the best room, we have a deadline. The three hours we could spend going home tomorrow could be three hours we could spend fixing a customer’s car.” She yawned, letting her foot off of the accelerator.

The double yellow lines were slowly creeping underneath the left side of the car, and with that a pair of headlights were slowly creeping into their direct line of sight. “Skye? Hey, Skye?” No response. “Skyla Rose!” He finally screamed.

Her eyes shot open and she screeched as she whipped the steering wheel just fast enough to avoid clipping an oncoming car as she realigned the car to be in their lane. As the duo were processing a near death experience, Klaus stared hard at her. “Pull over and let me drive. You need sleep.”

Skye scoffed. “I too can stay awake. Just watch me.”

* * *

Skye’s snoring served as ambiance for Klaus’s driving. The endless stretch of road ahead of them was lit by street lights and others’ headlights. He looked down to Skye’s phone as it gave further instructions. “In five miles, take exit 14B to Rouxland, Tidestone, Arcadia.”

He smiled to himself. Just a bit further to have some new scenery that lasted for roughly an hour, though he felt his grin disappear when his eyes darted to the ETA; still two hours until they could even park outside of their house, and that’s not counting the time they’ll have to spend actually getting ready for bed.

Klaus sighed. Knowing that in two hours, this trip will just be a mere memory as he drifts off to sleep in his bed, he didn’t make too much fuss about it. Just drive safely. That’s all he could do.

Five miles only lasted seven minutes as he kept his eye out for hiding silver vehicles that would have been parked within the forestry dividing the highway. Thankfully he reached his exit ramp without having to confront state troopers for the ever increasing number on his speedometer.

He would always look in the rear view mirror for emergency vehicles that seem to materialize in thin air with their flashing red and white lights. He would also look for cop cars to see if he’s being tailed just to wait for the right moment to hand him a ticket for anything.

Instead, there were two pairs of headlights growing ever bigger as the cars behind him closed in. One shadow of a car hid behind the other one, and within seconds they passed Klaus with thunderous roars of what sounded to be performance mufflers. The only other things that stood out to him were the colors; beige and dark blue. He found that he lost interest in them moments after.

He was more focused on his own ride. This car engaged all of his senses to make it harder to fall asleep at the wheel right away, despite the yawns that kept stacking one after the next. One of his hands was preoccupied with the manual gear shift that moved about the slots until settling at fifth gear, his feet were divided into the clutch and gas roles, and one hand always had to perch on the wheel.

His almost bleary eyes took notice of a blue sign sticking out from the grass at the side of the highway. Rest stop in two miles. Maybe he could take a nap after all, it would be better than getting in trouble late at night and with a customer’s car no less, he thought.

Out from the darkness touched by headlights, an object in the road. He shrugged, figuring he’ll just change lanes to avoid what looked like garbage from a distance. It was the reddest furniture he had ever seen, but as he got closer, it looked more like a human than a chair. Was it an old mannequin?

It was just four seconds, but within those seconds his heart rate skyrocketed as his foot dove towards the brake, his hand scrambling to coax the car into a lower gear as its speed couldn’t lower fast enough for his comfort. With no time to change lanes nor stop, he collided with what looked like the curled up body of a redhead.

It going under the car forced it to swerve, turning sideways as he kept his foot on the brake. He dove for the clutch, sent the car in reverse, and let it roll down the highway into a shoulder. It stopped just before the guardrail could even lay a scratch on the left rear panel.

Catching his breath, he climbed out of the customer’s car to survey the damage. One of the sides of the front bumper sustained a dent he could see in the orange glow of a street light overhead, wincing as his hand explored the concave surface. His mind flashed back to the image of the person that was run over and thus ran along the shoulder in the opposite direction to find them.

He felt a hand slam onto his shoulder and forcibly turn his body to face another face. Her teeth were gritted, her other hand clenched as her furrowed eyes burrowed into his soul. “What have you done, Klaus?” Skye interrogated. “You’re so reckless! You could’ve got us killed! Why is the car facing the wrong way?”

“I-” he stopped, having no more words to say, but it didn’t seem like Skye was going to speak over him any time soon. He gulped. “T-there was this huge opossum and- and I couldn’t stop but I tried to, and-”

She turned back to the car facing her, surveying the dent with just her sight. “It must’ve either been a huge opossum or multiple ones. That’s a good dent for some mere roadkill.” She looked about the highway. Was he sure it wasn’t a huge, bulky bird of prey? Or a stockier coyote? “No matter. I’m too broke to do a last minute fix. You’re responsible for buying the parts even if I’m the one doing the labor. Your sleepy ass is done for the rest of the night.”

Having avoided a near full passionate bout of scolding, he climbed into the backseat without saying another word. As Skye watched him close the door behind him, she turned to an object that caught her attention just with the corner of her eye. It was five hundred feet away, but it shone bright almost like a star underneath the street lights.

Skye sighed, letting her curiosity get the best of her as her feet motioned to the star on the asphalt. Upon closer examination, it was nothing like a star and more like a glowing car emblem in the form of an H. She summoned her flashlight from her utility belt and investigated the metal hardware; it was rose gold.

Rose gold emblems, to her best knowledge, sold for almost a fortune in her city in part due to older and more famous race teams having cars with such emblems in their ranks. Such race teams put Rouxland on the map just decades before her time, but anyone from that time would tell anyone that pre and post-race culture days were different worlds.

She thought maybe one of those mystical cars ended up dropping this because of a collision. She ruled out the customer’s car; it resembled a sports car but its engine was that of an economy car’s, and that doesn’t speak of the fact the manufacturer of this badge wasn’t even the same as her customer’s car.

Still, a rose gold badge. She pocketed it, patting her pocket as she walked to the driver’s seat. “Finally, I can put a proper grocery list together.” She breathed. She climbed into the seat, closed the door, spun the car in the other direction and drove off into the night.

* * *

As the sun rose over the busy streets and lax neighborhoods of Rouxland, an obnoxiously loud tone came from an electronic device on the nightstand in one of the houses, although it could only be heard in that room alone. The young woman groaned and let her hand feel around for the device that was hellbent on waking her up.

Her hand swept the device onto the floor. She groaned, lacking the energy in the moment to retrieve her phone. The device soon went quiet after what felt like an eternity as though it had finally given up.

"Hi, the phone number you're trying to reach belongs to Skyla Rose. I'm sorry that I can't get to my phone, but if you leave your name and a message, I might get back to you.” The recording of Skye’s voice recited. A beep signaled the answering machine’s cue to take a message.

"Good morning, Ms. Rose,” an old man’s voice crept through the speakers. “I heard from the residents of this fine town that you're one of the best mechanics in the area. I wanted to call you and make an appointment for my car's tuneup and maybe some fluid replacement. Please call me back, thanks." The message ended just as Skye sat on the edge of her bed and lowered her body to pick up the phone. She noticed the missed phone call notification and replayed the message in her head.

Best in the area? She smirked. Finally, she was getting the recognition she deserved. She dialed in the phone number that attempted to reach her. After an eternity of ringing, she heard background noise, almost like from a radio in that other room playing a country themed song; Skye nearly retched.

“Hello, sir, this is Ms. Rose. You called asking about an appointment, right?” As the man began to speak, she sighed internally, getting up on her feet to let them guide her into the kitchen. She collected a sticky note from the door of the fridge and picked up a pen. “Sure, we do fluid replacement. What fluid were you looking for and what’s the make and model of your car?”

And so, she set the appointment for a couple of hours from then. At that moment, Klaus woke up, groggy and with no shortage of yawns as he trudged to the coffee machine. “Morning, sleeping beauty.” Skye greeted without even looking at him.

Klaus rolled his eyes and sighed; of course she’d still be peeved about the night before. He looked over her shoulder to find her finishing recording the details of a customer’s request. “Thank you, sir, we’ll see you then.”

As he watched her hang up and put her phone on the counter, he asked, “customer?” Skye nodded. “Early?” She nodded. “Do we have time to cook breakfast?” This time, she shook her head. “Oh. I guess I’ll find the breakfast biscuits then.”

Skye eyed her phone again with a certain disdain. Whether it was for her early morning customers or for her phone that kept her relentlessly connected to work day in and day out for what felt like eight days a week, she wasn’t too sure.

“That dream we had, about Jade and Raina - do you think it could’ve been real after all?” Klaus spoke from the freezer, fishing with his hand to find a quick breakfast.

“What? No. Don’t be daft - it’s much too early for that.” Skye frowned, nonetheless. The confusion that clouded her judgement, the cool touch of terror snaking around her and Klaus, the glowing blade she clasped in her own two hands - the weight, the light, the essences that splashed onto her body as she took down that monster - it all felt like reality.

“Oh.” Klaus sighed. “You’re right, I’m sorry.” Just as he spoke, Skye eyed the metal emblem she collected the night before. She couldn’t stop her eyes from glossing over the rose gold coating as the light from above the kitchen sink ricocheted onto the wall from the emblem. “I just can’t help but think back to it. That’s the kind of dream that sticks with you, you know?”

Klaus’s eyes dimmed, having been brushed over by his mentor. He winced when his eye registered bright light from its corner. “Hey, could you turn off that light? The reflection’s killing me from whatever you’ve got over there.”

Skye clasped her head on one side to nurse a headache made from the light. “Yeah, yeah.” She muttered, reaching over to the light switch above the sink, only for her to realize the switch was in the ‘OFF’ position the whole time. Looking up at the bulbs, they were darkened after all. In fact, there were no other lights bright enough in the kitchen to give them headaches.

The rose gold emblem was coated in a bright light, as if it had been powered by a switch to turn it into a bright bulb. Waves of light like solar flares emerged from it as the light grew ever brighter, eventually forcing the duo to turn their heads to protect their eyes as pulses of light filled the kitchen with energy.

The solar flare-esque light contorted and fused with itself as if they were limbs, forming and coming apart as though deciding on a form. The rose gold emblem floated off of the counter and rose to Skye’s height as the energy surrounding it coalesced, gathering, creating a bipedal form that sprouted light that looked like hair and clothing.

The light disappeared suddenly, letting the duo finally see what was before them.

It was a woman, tall and slim; her denim jeans and pink, sleeveless cable knit sweater accentuated her features. Ringlets as red as an inferno cascaded over her shoulders and to her mid back; an amalgam of dark amber and scarlet. She opened her brown eyes to face Skye’s, one another letting their surroundings and each other sink in.

Klaus stared agape at Jade and Skye, the latter backing up into one of her kitchen table’s chairs, knocking it off balance. Meanwhile, Jade’s eyes traveled from Skye to her hands as memories flooded back to her; the accident, her life being stolen by a giant after she was spirited away to another world, now with the addition of receiving the news about Raina.

“Jade?” Skye questioned under her breath. This couldn’t have been her, and yet the red hair, the signature sweater she was almost always wearing, her denim jeans that were torn around the shin after a fight that took place back in high school. “What’s going on here?”

Jade paid no mind to the questioning, instead her mind was taking a trip through recent memory. She recalled the scene, sounds, and images taking place before her without any control to be found. “Stryder, what are you talking about?!”

Klaus stepped forward, noting her breathing that gradually sped up. Her pupils were retracted, tears welling at the corners of her eyes, slipping down her cheeks the momitent she closed them. “She can’t be gone! You’re lying!”

“Raina!” Jade cried out in her mind, only vocalizing it with a quick gasp before turning tail and sprinting towards the door. “I have to see her! I know she’s alive, I just know!” As her body met the muggy morning air, images of her loved one appeared before her.

Her smile, her caring advice - just imagining her face was enough to get Jade’s heart to skip a beat. Never could she entertain the thought of never seeing her smile again, nor being never to hear her angelic singing again. “Raina, please hang on for me!”

“Jade! Jade, where are you going?!” Skye ran out after her, gasping as she held onto her side, her sprinting slowly to an exasperated stop as she watched Jade’s silhouette shrink in the distance. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

Skye turned back towards the front door, waving off her outburst. “What a waste of time-“

Crunch.

She raised her foot to find a wad of balled up paper, now powdered in the dust and dirt that collected in the treads of her steel toed boots. She would’ve thrown it away if it didn’t have Jade’s name written in blue ink in one of the folds.

She unfurled it, revealing a party invitation stapled to plain white paper with surprisingly legible details about the address of a hospital, a hospital room, and a name; Raina. Her mind thought back to the labyrinth dream she and Klaus had shared not too long ago; the still images mentioned and showed Raina, too.

Skye’s body jerked as she whipped her head back to the garage having heard loud honks from a car Klaus took the wheel of. It was the same car they took home the previous night. “Get in!”

***

Raina was the only thing she could see, images from memories appearing before her, rapid-fire reminding her of Raina’s soft, brown hair and her soft, tanned skin, each of these intricately felt on more than one occasion. She could never forget the way her curious and yet loving green globes peered at her Jade through her glasses, frames speckled in brown and amber.

She could never forget her soft lips, the way her fingernails dug into her back - her entire being was too tangible even in memory, and too precious to even consider the thought of her leaving.

And yet, somewhere in Jade’s mind, a thought as quiet and yet poignant as a mouse would squeak, “she’s gone, there’s nothing you can do.” Or, more annoyingly, “you’ll be next if you keep pushing yourself. Let her go.”

“Never! Never, never!” Jade shouted, once again pushing past crowds leaving swearing, disgruntled busybodies in her wake. “Raina! Please, don’t leave me!”

Little did she know of the brilliant blue car following her, containing Skye and Klaus as they fought traffic to get at a level speed with her. Though Jade was a once revered track star in high school, it was hard to believe they’d fail to catch up with her once all of the slow commuters cleared a path.

“Jade!” Skye cried out. “Jade, get back here! You forgot your stuff at my house, idiot!” It was no use, she hadn’t even turned her head in the driver’s direction. “Damn it! I wish she’d just stop and listen.”

“Forget returning her things, did you forget what she did this morning?” The car stayed silent, save for the impatient tapping of Skye’s fingers on the steering wheel. “Considering the things we saw, I want answers. Also why can’t I drive again?” Klaus gave her an inquisitive look, even clasping his hands together almost pleadingly.

Skye leered at him, causing him to pull back. “Because I’m not the one who’s going to run over roadkill and make us even more broke.” Still, she didn’t want to admit it, but her desire for answers fueled her motive to chase her down. For the first time in years, she had gotten curious - no, excited about learning something other than anything to do with the automotive industry.

Jade approached an intersection as fast as her legs could take her. Her breathing grew faster and shallower, her lungs and throat burning and aching in protest of her sprinting. “Hey, the light’s red, lady!” A stranger yelled from the corner.

She paid no mind, instead she focused on knowing that deep down it was rather silly to start pushing herself after regenerating, but Raina kept showing up in her mind at its forefront each time she thought about slowing down.

Just midway through the crosswalk, the tip of her shoe caught a depression in the asphalt, stopping in its tracks as a tiny wall hindered its path. As for the rest of her body, it kept going, but instead of a sprint it was sent flying, meeting with the road.

She sat on her side, touching her ankle to find it screamed in protest of the lightest touch. Just moving it would do her no good. There were so many people around, so why were they just watching?

She then wished her question remained unanswered, for a roaring horn grew louder as the distance between her small body and an eighteen wheeler got smaller as seconds passed by. She’d try crawling, but her body locked up.

Jade sat there, petrified, unable to get away from a truck whose driver honked and applied the brakes as best as they could.

Just moments before impact, Jade closed her eyes, the only thing being felt now was her sweater being gripped by a strong hand and her body being tossed a short distance. She opened her eyes as she collided with the ground to find a young man staring down at her as the truck passed by just an inch from his body.

——————

“What were you doing out there? You got a death wish or something?” The blond young man stood over his friend, hunched over looking past her feet at the ground. She focused her attention on a short trail of ants to distract herself from being scolded. “What would’ve happened if I hadn’t been in town to make copies of my work schedule?”

“Is it true?” Jade asked, leading Stryder to hum back questioningly. “I said,” she rose to her feet and gripped the collar of his shirt; if she didn’t have a strong grip, he would’ve fallen onto his backside. “Is it true?! Is it really true that Raina isn’t here anymore? Did she really..?”

“Yeah.” He conceded. “She passed away from complications. The doctors even said it was a miracle she didn’t just die on the scene.” He managed a small smile at his friend nonetheless. “I think she hung on just for you.”

All the two of them could do now was share a hug, unable to find the words able to succinctly sum up the loss of someone close to them, and though they had words to speak, neither of them could find the right way to say those words. Not now.

“Okay so you’ve got chocolate,” Jade and Stryder broke up their hug as they watched a young man hand a chocolate ice cream cone to his mentor. “Which one of you had cookie dough again?” Klaus shrugged, handing them two of three cones.

“We were just following you because you forgot your stuff at my house.” Skye admitted, ever hiding her true curiosities. “Must’ve been one hell of a party,” she muttered under her breath.

As they swapped cones, Klaus got a couple of licks into his mint flavored sphere before asking, “so, Raina. What was she like?”

“She was my driver,” Jade admitted. She saw the looks she had garnered, expressions ranging from shocked, wide eyes to Stryder’s grimace, as if he knew but didn’t want her to tell. “What? After that dream we had, after everything we’ve been through, you’re still surprised?”

Skye looked down on her scarf. The emblem, the car, the dreamworld - they had been through a lot together, but at the forefront of her mind were thoughts about how to remove ice cream from silk. Though the evidence was there, she kept ignoring it. Clearly this whole experience is a dream, she thought.

“You’re not supposed to be sharing this kind of stuff. What would have happened if you got Badged by that truck in front of everyone?” Stryder stepped forward, hands balled up and held to his chest, as if defensive and pleading all at once. “You’re lucky Skye even has that scarf. At least we know she can be trusted.”

“I’m right here, you know,” Skye scoffed. “Damn it these cheap napkins don’t work at all on silk.” Stryder could only look on in disbelief. Given his knowledge about her accessory, he had to fight himself to keep from visibly cringing when she was taking a coarse napkin to her Salvager Scarf. “So what’s your story, Stryde? You and Jade good friends?”

He sighed, patting the redhead on her back. “Yes. Raina, Jade, and I were quite a team. We had a lot of adventures just last summer.” His smile shifted into a frown, however. “Then we lost Raina.” He fought tears, biting his tongue to distract from the urge.

Jade had no qualms about letting out a sniffle and letting a tear slip down her cheek, however. “Raina was our dearest friend. Now with her gone,” Jade gasped, looking on at the mechanic still fighting with her stained scarf. “She might be the last one.”

Klaus had joined the miniature war against the staining, rubbing it roughly with a wet napkin, grunting and swearing under his breath. “Her? Really?” Stryder inquired.

“Yes.” Jade sighed, looking at and touching the scarf on her own neck to meet a similar scarf, only its colorations were no longer the purple, white, and orange stripes like she remembered; now they closely resembled the pinks and greens and blues of Skye’s scarf. “Skye could very well be Etheridge’s last Salvager.”