Chapter Text
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“Pleased to meet you, miss Izhets, my name is-“
“Oh, please, you don’t have to introduce yourselves,” The redhead intervened, cutting Arthur mid-speech. “I know who you all are. Arthur, the point man; Ariadne, the cute little architect,” at that Ariadne frowned slightly, mind you. “Yusuf here is the chemist. Mr. Eames, the forger... You are quite the famous dreamsharing team.”
She cocked a light brown eyebrow at Eames, receiving back a smirk.
“I met Vicky a couple years back, on a job. It was successful. She contacted me a few days ago, saying she had a job and wanted me in. And then, well, you are all here now.” Eames explained.
“How many times have I told you, dear, not to call me Vicky?”
“Not enough, it seems.” The forger flirted.
The redhead rolled her eyes and grinned, “You can call me Viktoriya. Now, shall we discuss the job?”
Viktoriya walked past the team toward the table on the middle of the room, placing the briefcase she was carrying on top of it and re-arranging her folders. Eames made sure she was well out of hearing range before he spoke.
“Sweet as honey, ain’t she?” Eames smirked.
“Looks more like an angry bee to me,” Ariadne huffed, crossing her arms.
“Don’t worry, dear, you grow on her once you begin to know her,” the forger winked and walked to the table.
“Let’s hope that’s true…” Yusuf whispered and followed Eames.
Arthur looked at the architect and just shrugged, then tilted his head to where the other team members were beginning to sit, silently saying they should go join them. Ariadne sighed and nodded, walking beside Arthur till they reached the table. Viktoriya, as the extractor, sat at the head; to her left was Eames, then Yusuf. Arthur sat to her right, then Ariadne.
“I believe Mr. Eames here hasn’t told you anything about this job?” Viktoriya looked at the team, resting her gaze on the forger.
“Only Artie knows the basics, no details,” said Eames. The point man glared at the nickname.
“All right, then. I was hired by Albian Industries to track down and extract information from a former employee,” she handed the folders and they opened them to the first page. There was a picture showing a handsomely tanned young man, with curly dark hair and dark green eyes. If he weren’t their mark, Ariadne would’ve found him somewhat attractive.
“Albian Industries specializes in security equipment and footage, they have clients from all over the world; they also manage a lot of information regarding these clients. Imagine you pay for security cameras and microphones of exceptional quality, but in exchange you agree to Albian receiving a copy of all the info via WI-FI ‘for the record’. They monitor everything; they know everything.” Viktoriya continued, “Our guy is Luke Milligan, twenty-seven years old. Quite a Ken doll, if you ask me.”
“Why is Albian looking for him?” asked Yusuf, leaning forward on his seat to look at Viktoriya.
“He stole a few documents and then fled. Albian has been looking for him for months now.”
“Is there a deadline?” asked Arthur.
“They’ve given us three months to find him and deliver the information he stole. They told me he saved the files in a flash drive before he erased them from the company servers. He must have destroyed it by now, which means the only way we can know what he knows is through his subconscious. “
“Then we must assume his mind is trained against extraction,” Ariadne said, straightening on her seat. “If he works for a powerful surveillance company he’s likely to have enough knowledge to realize what’s happening inside his mind.”
“Ariadne’s right. First we find out as much as we can about Milligan. Mr. Eames, I believe your acting skills will come in handy,” Arthur said.
“I’ll pose as the new employee; sniff around, see how much I can learn from Mr. Milligan’s coworkers,” the forger said.
“And how will you manage that?” Viktoriya asked. “You’re great at what you do, but this isn’t a dream. You can’t be a chameleon in real life. Besides, getting a job at that company isn’t easy. It could take you weeks to get an answer from them.”
“Oh,” Eames feigned hurt, placing his hand above his heart, “such little faith!” Viktoriya just rolled her eyes. “Trust me, I have my ways,” he winked at her.
“Fine. While Mr. Eames does that, we should begin researching and planning the dream levels. We’ll be needing two –maybe three- levels, depending on how well hidden the information is,” the extractor looked at the architect. Ariadne nodded. “Yusuf, we’ll need a compound that allows us to go down three layers of dreams, is that all right?”
“I have already formulated one that will work,” the chemist replied.
“Just… make sure we won’t fall into limbo if we die,” Eames said, scratching his head.
Eames and Ariadne exchanged a look, unaware that Arthur –ever the point man- was watching them. He realized there was something they hadn’t told him concerning limbo and the inception. Viktoriya noticed it too, though she didn’t know what they meant. All the heads turned to Yusuf, expecting his response.
“I’ll do my best.”
“Let’s get to work, then,” the redhead said.
The hours flew by, everyone working on their respective desks. Ariadne was sketching a few ideas, while Arthur worked on his research; meanwhile Eames contacted some important people who owed him a favor or two, and Yusuf was experimenting with some liquids. Viktoriya sat the farthest from them all; she read the information over and over, turning it in her head. Milligan had to be somewhere, he couldn’t just disappear.
As the last precious rays of light died away, one by one, they started to go home. Yusuf and Viktoriya left first. About eight o’clock Ariadne began packing her things, waving Arthur and Eames goodbye on her way to the stairs.
“Ariadne?”
The architect turned around to find Arthur walking toward her; suit jacket and briefcase in hand.
“Yes?”
“I’ll walk you home.”
Ariadne sighed, “I can take care of myself, Arthur. I’ve been out when it’s darker, you know? And –”
“I know. I know you can take care of yourself,” Arthur half smiled. “I just want to accompany you.”
As much as Ariadne would have liked to say no, thank you and walk away, she didn’t. There was something in the point man’s eyes that told her she had to say yes.
“Fine.”
“Goodnight, you two,” Eames was smirking, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively.
Ariadne narrowed her eyes at the forger and went down the stairs. Arthur raised an eyebrow and shot Eames a warning look, then followed Ariadne.
Once outside they fell into an easy step. Ariadne didn’t need to lead the way back to her flat; Arthur already knew where she lived. And if that sounded a bit creepy, Ariadne didn’t really mind. It was a short walk, but it was enough time for Arthur to ask what he had wanted to know for some time now.
“There’s something I would like to ask you,” began Arthur.
“Okay,” Ariadne said, looking at a couple walking a few meters ahead of them. They turned a corner and disappeared.
“What happened on the third level of the inception?”
Ariadne stood on her tracks, a bit shocked at the question. She looked up at the point man, who had stopped when she did.
“You don’t know?” Arthur shook his head. “I thought Cobb had told you.”
“He wouldn’t talk about it at all,” Arthur said.
“Um, well,” Ariadne hesitated. She felt as if she was betraying Cobb’s trust. There had to be a reason why Cobb hadn’t told his closest friend what had happened down there.
Arthur was a member of the team, though; he had risked as much as any of them. He had the right to know. So, Ariadne looked around, making sure nobody was listening, and told him what had happened; up until the point where Mal killed Fischer.
“Mal was there?”
“Yes. I tried to convince Cobb that she wasn’t real, but he wasn’t sure. When Mal killed Fischer, Cobb shot her.”
“When we got out of the water you told me he went to limbo to get Saito; that he wouldn’t stay with Mal. This means that he had to get Fischer too… then, how did he manage to find Fischer first and not get lost before finding Saito and coming back?”
“Mal shot Fischer so Cobb would have to fall into limbo to get him; there, Mal tried to convince him to stay. She would trade Fischer for Cobb. But Cobb –”
“Wait. Did he tell you all this?” His voice was neutral, but his eyes betrayed his confidence. He looked hurt. Hurt and betrayed because his closest friend wouldn’t tell him anything, but would trust Ariadne enough to tell her everything.
“Actually… He didn’t have to,” Ariadne bit her lower lip, waiting for the explosion. She knew Arthur would connect the dots.
Arthur inhaled and exhaled slowly, looking at the floor. “You went into limbo with him.”
Boom.
“How could he do that? He knew Miles didn’t want you to go into the dreams. That it wasn’t safe for you! And yes, you did go into the dreams, but that is entirely different from falling into limbo. I can’t believe he talked you into joining him, he knew the risk. And Eames, oh, I bet Eames just stood there, never thinking about how dangerous is was to go down there –”
“Arthur,” Ariadne tried to cut him off. “Calm down.”
“That’s why Cobb never told me; he wasn’t putting only his life at risk, but yours as well. And I know,” Arthur lowered his voice, realizing he was almost screaming. “I know I put us all in danger when I didn’t realize Fischer would be trained. I failed you all. That’s why Saito got shot in the first place. Had I known about his security before… There would’ve been no need to go to limbo.”
The point man licked his lips and directed his gaze to his right. Ariadne took that moment to intervene and explain everything.
“Cobb didn’t make me go with him. It was my idea.”
Arthur’s head turned to her abruptly. His eyes narrowed and his mouth opened to reply. It was Ariadne’s turn to talk; she wouldn’t let herself be cut off once again.
“Before you say anything let me finish!” Arthur closed his mouth, opened it, and closed it again; resembling a fish out of the water. He stood very still, waiting for her to continue. Ariadne sighed, “When Cobb, Eames and I arrived at the antechamber it was too late. Saito was still alive, but barely. They said it was over. I couldn’t have that – after all we went through. So I suggested going into limbo to bring Fischer back. They refused at first; it wasn’t Cobb’s fault, nor Eames’, you see? I insisted. I knew we’d have enough time down there.”
“At last, they agreed. While Cobb and I were in limbo, Eames would place the charges and then he would bring Fischer back with the defibrillator. It was worth a shot.”
Arthur just looked at her straight in the eye, listening intently. She could see there was a lot going through his mind. The use of that last sentence brought memories to both their heads. Arthur, unconsciously, blinked in recognition.
“So, Mal wanted to trade Fischer for Cobb. He said he would stay. Then everything began to tremble and lighting appeared; that was Fischer’s kick. I threw him out of the building.” Ariadne was careful to avoid the whole ‘I performed inception on my wife first’, because Arthur didn’t really need to know that. “When Cobb said he wouldn’t stay with her because she was just a shade –just a pale reflection of his real wife-, Mal stabbed him. She freaked out and… And I shot her. I would’ve shot Cobb too, but he knew Saito would be already dead. He decided to stay and look for him. Then I jumped off the building.”
A good three minutes passed before Arthur said anything. He just stared at Ariadne as the gears turned in his head. Nothing he had ever imagined about the third level of the ‘impossible’ job, not one thing, was even close enough to the truth. Ariadne stared back for a while, but then she looked away. She waited patiently for him to come back to reality.
“It was you.”
Ariadne nodded slowly, turning back to the point man.
“You completed inception.”
“No, I just… I did what I thought was right.”
“Ariadne… what you did was completely and unbelievably insane,” the architect frowned. “No one on their right mind would’ve done that. It was incredibly stupid going into limbo on your own accord. You could’ve gotten lost, or stuck for who knows how long. You could’ve never woken up again.”
Ariadne was about to say a few unkind words to the know-it-all point man, but he wouldn’t let her.
“But… that was the most impressive and brave thing I have heard in my years of dreamsharing. And it’s all because of you. No one else would’ve dared to do what you did. Not even I. The inception was completed thanks to you. Cobb is now with his children because of you,” Arthur stepped closer to her and placed his free hand on her shoulder. “We would’ve been lost without you.”
Ariadne swallowed and tried not to think about Arthur’s hand warming her shoulder, or her heart rate beginning to quicken. She bowed her head and smiled a little, flattered by all the praise. When she looked up again Arthur was simply looking at her. The corner of his mouth quirked up almost imperceptibly as he removed his hand.
The cool air made the loss of contact even more noticeable. She ignored the feeling and resumed the walk back to her place, Arthur by her side. Ariadne had thought he would leave her by the outer door of the building; she should’ve known better, though. He climbed the stairs with her until they reached the third floor.
“Well, this is it,” Ariadne said, standing in front of her door.
“It is.”
“Um, would you like some coffee? Tea?”
“I think I should let you rest,” Arthur said. “But thank you.”
“Then, I guess I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Goodnight, Ariadne,” Arthur bowed his head slightly.
“’Night,” Ariadne said, opening the door. She stepped inside the apartment.
Arthur was about to go down the stairs when he remembered something. He reached her door just as she closed it.
“Wait, Ariadne?”
The door unlocked and their eyes met once again, “Yes?”
“I’m sorry I shouted at you before. I’ve never been to limbo, and to think you went there on your first job… The very thought of going there seems quite intimidating to me,” Arthur chuckled.
“It’s okay, really. I understand that you were upset,” Ariadne said, smiling gently. “I probably would be to, if I were in your place.”
Arthur nodded.
“See you tomorrow,” he said.
“Bye, Arthur.”
Ariadne closed the door slowly, her eyes never leaving his. Then she peeked through the peephole, careful so he wouldn’t see her. He looked down for a moment and then proceeded to walk to the stairs, tall and business-like.
As he exited the building he found himself half smiling. Thinking of the petite architect and the new respect and admiration he felt towards her.
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