Biker Mice From Mars - Somewhere I Belong

Once Upon A Time I Was Falling In Love Now I'm Only Falling Apart

The darkness seemed to get even thicker, which was odd, for it was already pitch black around her.
To make it even more peculiar, every emotion, every thought, every feeling soon vanished like smoke in the wind and for a brief moment, there was just... nothing.
Nothing but peace and quietness.
As if the world was just gone, its cruelty swallowed by the soothing darkness.
Perhaps this was how it felt to float away into space.
Just to exist, and nothing more.
A smile curled her lips as her heartbeat slowed down, and soon, it was back to its usual rhythm.
This was... indescribable.
There were literally no words to explain how it felt to be at peace like she was now.
After years of struggling, after years of living in loneliness and anguish, she was finally at peace...

But then, out of nowhere, there was a flash of light.
A light so bright, she felt the urge to close her eyes, or even raise her hand to protect her eyes from its intensity, but instead, she did nothing, for her eyes were already closed and her hands...
Well, she couldn't really feel her hands.
In fact, she couldn't even feel her body anymore.
It was as if she was having an out-of-body experience, but instead of watching herself from above, she was watching something else.
Something she hadn't seen before.
Blood-red sand as far the eye could see.
The millions of sand grains glittering like diamonds in the bright light of the reddish-yellow sun.
A high wind, making those same sand grains fly into the air, blurring the pinkish sky, thereby taking away its beauty.
High mountains made out of red stones, standing proud and surrounding the outstretched desert.
Dark clouds hanging on the top of the mountains, ominous and bleak.

A wasteland. Lots of sand. Bad weather. No hotdogs. No water, either. It's barbaric, but hey, it's home.

Vinnie's words, the very ones he had spoken during their second meeting in that alley, echoed through her head, although somewhere far away as a distant memory and she soon realized what she was looking at.
Mars.
The famous red planet.
Almost eagerly, she tried to take in as many details as possible, for this was something she definitely didn't want to forget and she couldn't help but think of what her late father would say when she told him that she was the only human female on Earth who had seen Mars with her own eyes.
If only he was still here to tell him.
Minds would be blown, once again.
But then, the image shook heavily, and the silence, that sweet and peaceful silence, got replaced by loud roaring engines and howling wind.
It was then that it hit her.
She wasn't looking at this with her own eyes.
No, she was looking at it through Vinnie's eyes.
Her gaze lowered, or actually Vinnie's did, and she now saw the dashboard of his exquisite cherry-red bike, although it looked less advanced than it was now.
More old-fashioned, even.
More simplified.

What hadn't changed was the digital speedometer, which told her that she, or well, Vinnie, was currently driving through the rugged desert at a respectable hundred-twenty-five miles per hour.
The moment she discovered that, she suddenly felt the wind pulling her clothes as if she herself was sitting on that bike, while in reality, it was Vinnie.
This was beyond weird.
As if she was transferred from her body to his.
Perhaps that theory wasn't so far-fetched, actually...
Movement below on her left caught her attention, and she saw a white-furred hand reaching out to one of the mouse-shaped side mirrors of the bike as if it was her own hand.
After adjusting the mirror a little, her eyes locked with red ones, familiar yet different.
It probably shouldn't be a surprise that not even the dazzling and neck-breaking speed that he was driving with was able to stop her knight in shining fur from checking himself out in the mirror, and funnily enough, she was grateful that it didn't.
Because now she was able to see him.

Big ears.
White fur.
A silver...

No, wait.
The mask.
It wasn't there.
Even better, the scars weren't either.
He looked younger, too.
And was wearing different clothing, the black hoodie replaced by a soft-yellow shirt, a sleeveless brown jacket, and greenish bandoliers strapped around his still very impressive muscular chest.
Instead of black biker jeans, he now wore baggy army pants with a black bandana wrapped around his right upper leg.
His shoes were still the same though, she saw when he looked down for a moment before his red eyes darted back up, and before she knew it, she was looking at Modo, who was driving next to Vinnie on his purple and chrome bike.