The world is dark. Something like snow, but burnt and grey, is falling all around her. Mako knows this memory. In a few minutes she'll be holding her shoe, standing in a destroyed, abandoned street, watching a nightmare monster coming for her.
But this time she knows it's a memory. She knows it isn't real. And she pushes it away. Stay in the Drift. The Drift is silence. But there is no drift. No one is there. She's alone in her mind, and it's terrifying. She wonders if this is how Raleigh felt after Yancy died. It is. She doesn't so much hear that as simply somehow know it, courtesy of the part of Raleigh that is now embedded in her. The hardest thing to live with is the silence.
She reaches out, feels around her. Nothing. Only a blank black space and that drifting ashy snow. She turns fully around. There. Against the blackness, something casts a more solid shadow.
She starts walking toward it, but every step is as heavy as if she's locked into a conn-pod harness, trying to lift the Jaeger's feet without any hydraulic assist. There's water pooling on the ground. She can't tell how deep it is.
"Hello?" No one answers, her voice echoes.
She's not afraid. Fear isn't a word that exists here. It's like anything can happen, but nothing too. Nothing is real here. No one can hurt her. Or at least that's what she tells herself. Is this what it means to be dead? She thought there was supposed to be a light.
She reaches the solid shape. It is a Drivesuit, like her own. Black and sleek. She flicks the release for the helmet. From inside, there is a breathy sigh. Eyes flick open, a smile breaks the darkness.
"Mako. Didn't I say you could always find me in the Drift?"