Inside Burnout's body, Lethe fell. The slippery flat shale was like a jagged slide beneath them as they plummeted. The rain-slick stones formed an avalanche wave in front of them, rippling out on either side to bring down tons of rock.
Burnout used the Kodiak's body as a cushion of sorts, trying to maintain an edge of control as they fell. The cold brittle air was chilling and wet around them. The wind like a wall of ice needles. Lethe felt everything Burnout felt with absolute clarity. His spirit was ensconced now. Irretrievably tied to Burnout.
For now, it is perhaps for the best, he thought.
Burnout's mind was full of anger, hate toward Ryan Mercury for the death of the Kodiak. Lethe could taste the emotion like a palpable scent. He could feel Burnout's thoughts and emotions almost like they were his own. In fact, he found them harder and harder to ignore.
The anger filled him, and brought with it an image. An elf with a painted face, lounging in a French garden. Walls of ancient masonry surrounded the courtyard. Salt air and the dull roar of the sea. Blue sky and water of cobalt.
Anger and frustration boiled inside, overwhelming.
The elf smiled, but his eyes glared. "This is an unexpected visit," he said.
Angry, heated words were exchanged. A conversation that blended into an emotional collage.
Then the scene faded from Lethe's mind, and he could not recall anymore.
"What was that?" Burnout asked, digging his heels as he tried to slow their fall.
"You saw that, too?"
"Yes."
"I don't know," Lethe said. "I think it was a memory."
"A memory of what?"
"I don't know. Maybe it's one of mine."
Burnout said nothing.
The lake came up like a black wall, like an impenetrable slab of the darkest asphalt. But Burnout had dug in with his heels and his claws in an effort to slow them down. The dark water slammed into them. Shaking their body to the metal core. Then the chill came as they drifted to the bottom, swallowed whole by the icy liquid.