Hello! So this is my first story ever! I've had this story in my mind for awhile, and welcome all feedback! Please be kind!
She was still there, in that cold, damp room with no light. She did not know how long she had been there, or more importantly, if anyone knew where she was. The only thing she could believe in was that they would be back, just like clockwork, to invade her mind. They would create any kind of scenario: terrifying, epic, mind-blowing to wheedle out her secrets. With the ability to hurt her within the dream they could harm her in so many ways, leaving her screaming in pain, and always bringing her out of the dream, unharmed and ready for more. But this time she knew she was not going to survive the torture, because she had no information to give them. They asked the impossible, they asked for what she did not have the power to give.
So on those rare days where they placed her in a pleasant environment that reminded her of happier times, to try and persuade her to cooperate, he would inevitably appear. She knew he was not real, he had not been real for many years now. But laying there with him in their bed in the London flat they had shared, she apologized every chance she could and told her that she loved him. As if the amount of apologies would make up for the fact that the real man would never hear her side of the story. The real man was out there in the world somewhere, and while he thought less of her if he still condescended to think of her at all, he was out there and alive. And to her that made every bad thing she had done worth it.
When they began to physically torture her, outside of the dream, she would cling to those memories. They had run out of ideas and resorted to methods that would permanently scar her. But she no longer cared. In the dream she was with him, and she could not think of a better way to die.
When asked about it later, Ariadne would never be able to explain how she ended up there.
She was between jobs, lying low, just like Arthur had taught her to. They had said goodbye only a week before, after he had given up on trying keeping her out of the illegal world of dreamscaping and finally asked for her help with an extraction job. The target had been a rich aristocrat who wanted to know if his wife's affair had resulted in a child who was now heir to his title, and who had paid them handsomely to produce the truth that he had known all along. Right before she had been captured she had seen a newspaper headline announcing their divorce.
Arthur had assembled most of the team, it had been over a year since they had all been together. A new extractor was needed, but Arthur had known of the second best in the business now that Cobb was comfortably "retired" and living with his family again. She had kept up with most of them; Eames through lunch dates when he was in Paris and raunchy voice messages that he insisted on leaving her, Yusuf through email detailing his new experiments, Cobb through long letters detailing the exploits of the children's schooling always accompanied by pictures. All except for Arthur.
Arthur would call out of nowhere. After the Fischer job she had been hoping to continue with whatever they were, or at least trying to. But he had disappeared outside the airport, all she knew is that contact was forbidden for at least a month after the job. She had spend a day in the luxurious LA hotel room that Arthur had booked for her, ordering room service and lounging in the massive Jacuzzi tub before heading back to Paris the next day. She had written that kiss off as a fluke, and assumed that those three months of her life were a one time experience.
Until he showed up at her apartment one month later, exact to the day. A stickler for the rules, but he was still there. He had offered her a new job, after explaining the dangers of the job, wanting desperately to work with her again he said, and she had been too excited at the prospect of working with the team again to tell him no, or ask him the question she had been mulling over the past month.
"Why?"
She wanted to know if he had meant anything by that brief kiss in that imaginary hotel lobby. If he was true to his word that it was a distraction from the suspicious projections, if he had done it to get it out of his system, or if the faint smile he had given her meant something more. She was not quite sure what she wanted the answer to be, but she could no longer stand this state of ambiguity. Their working relationship was wonderful, they were friends even. And when she thought she caught him looking at her out of the corner of her eye, she would blush and duck back down to her workspace, still too much of a coward to address what she thought might be there.
However, that question may never be answered now due to her presence in the damp, dirty cell she had just been deposited into. Her head was fuzzy from the drugs they had used to knock her out and her head was throbbing from the blow that had been used to incapacitate her. She had no idea who would want her, for their last job had been rather peaceful, with neither party capable of this kind of stealth. All she knew is she was cold and in pain.
Until the moaning began.
Ariadne was not sure what was in the cell with her, but it sounded so eerie that any resolve she had disappeared the instant the thing began to cry. She screamed in surprise and ran to the nearest wall she could find, praying that whatever it was did not know she was there. She shook with fear and prayed that Arthur would realize she was gone, and that he cared enough to come looking for her.
The door finally opened, but Ariadne had lost all track of time and did not know how long she had been in the dark hole that was becoming her nightmare.
When the light from the door invaded the small room she was slightly blinded and even more disoriented when she was grabbed and hauled out into a small hallway. As she struggled against her captor's hands and blinked to regain her balance she finally saw what, or rather who, she was sharing her cell with.
It was a young woman, who appeared to be not much older than Ariadne, but there the similarities ended. This girl had to be dragged from the cell, seemingly unable to walk any longer. Beneath the bloody clothes that indicated that the girl had been beaten over and over again, she was taller than the architect by a few inches at least. Her pale skin was covered freckles underneath the dirt and bruises, and her ginger hair was matted and tangled and covered her face from Ariadne's view.
Her assessment of her cellmate was cut short by a quick slap to the face which surprised her more than it hurt. She clutched her cheek and glared at the one who had delivered the blow.
"Pay attention my dear" the hulking man said, with a hint of an accent that she could not place as he pulled the barely conscious girl from his associate, holding her up in front of Ariadne, as if for her inspection.
"Do you recognize this woman? From your dealings with Dominic Cobb?" As he spoke he shook the girl, whose eyes finally showed life and caught Ariadne's.
The beaten and bloody woman's eyes were dark green, and glazed over. Yet now they showed some sense of clarity as well as panic. As raspy voice, which sounded as if it had not been used in a while, began to make noise, before finally making noise.
"I've never seen her before in my life, Ivan" she whispered. "She doesn't know anything, so you might as well let her go. She doesn't deserve this"
As she spoke she gazed into Ariadne's eyes with an intensity uncharacteristic for someone who had been tortured for days. They were strong, in contrast to her body, and seemed to connect with Ariadne, and realize that she was here for the same reason. In one look a single thought was exchanged: "Do not tell them anything".
Ariadne did not understand the specifics of what they were talking about, but she understood the gravity of her career choice more than ever. This woman had a history with Cobb and most likely, the rest of her former inception teammates. Arthur had told her of the sort of clients he had dealt with in the past and the dangerous nature of the people they worked for. These people wanted information about Cobb, and had found out that Ariadne had worked with him before his retirement. This was not good.
The redhead continued, "Ivan, I don't even know anything about him anymore, as I've told you time and time again". Her voice got stronger and well as angrier as she went along, "The last time I saw any of them was the job in Hong Kong, just like you. Why can't you understand that and let us go?"
The tall man, Ivan, did not seemed pleased with the woman's response, which he seemed to have heard before. He roughly handed her back the lesser henchman and grabbed Ariadne instead. He shook her before slamming her up against the wall behind her.
"What do you know of Cobb now?" he growled in her face.
"I don't know" she said firmly, with as much confidence as she could muster while hoisted two feet off the floor. This wasn't the truth of course, but the woman currently being supported by the shorter man was dying to protect her former team. These men must be interested in the outcome of a previous job, and she could handle keeping Cobb safe until Arthur figured out what was going on.
Of course, judging by the look of the girl slumping in the man's arms, she had been fighting for a long time and no one had come to save her.
Ariadne hoped that the trust she was about to put in Arthur would pay off as she drew herself up to the man's face.
"I have no idea what you want with me, and I don't know her" she nodded her head towards the redhead.
"Oh, I doubt that little one" he chuckled in her face. "I think you know all about Dom Cobb's latest scheme, and that even if you don't talk, they'll come for you.
Her eyes must have perked up at this idea, and Ivan obviously knew he had hit a nerve.
"Oh yes, I know of your precious point man, Arthur. He seems like the type to come after the one he loves, unlike that good for nothing Eames"
Ariadne did not know what to think. Arthur loved her? They had been observing them enough to know this? Eames?
"You had better hope that your point man values more than that awful forger cares for her" jerking his head towards the other girl who Ariadne could now see had a single tear running down her cheek. This was one of Eames' many conquests? Why would they expect her to know anything than? Eames changed girls the way most people changed their clothes. Who was this girl, extractor or former flame?
With this new information Ariadne and the girl were flung back into the small holding room. In the darkness Ariadne fumbled for the wall. Finding it, and using it to prop herself up on, she breathed a sigh of relief to be away from their captors if only for a moment.
"Are you okay?" The voice came from the darkness.
"That seems an odd question coming from the girl whose obviously beat up" Ariadne answered "but yes, I am, thank you. Are you okay?"
"I'll survive, I'm sure" she rasped, and Ariadne detected a hint of a Southern accent from the girl. "They didn't hurt you before, did they?"
"No, no, not at all yet" Ariadne responded "but judging from what I saw it'll happen eventually"
"I'll try and keep that from happening, at any cost, honey" Ariadne heard racking coughs coming from the girl's direction and began feeling her way towards the source. When she finally came to the girl, her eyes began to adjust to the darkness and saw her hunched over with her hands over her ribs.
"Come here" Ariadne said, making the girl lean on her. She initially jumped at the architect's touch, but soon relaxed and lay on the floor with her head on Ariadne's knee. They sat there like that for some time until the girl spoke again.
"He'll come for you, you know."
"And how do you know that?"
"Because I know Arthur, and if he's finally fallen for a girl then he'll go to hell and back to take care of her. You're a lucky girl"
"Well neither of us are very lucky at the moment. How do you know Arthur, or Eames for that matter?"
The girl fell silent again, and Ariadne wondered for a moment if she'd passed out from the pain. Finally she stirred again.
"They were my family once" and with this Ariadne felt more tears fall on her knee. With this Ariadne rested her hand on the girl's head and began to brush the tangles out of her hair. While they did not know each other, then had a common goal: to protect their family, or what was once their family. While Ariadne did not know the extent of this girl's relationship with Arthur or Eames, she clearly cared for them, and Cobb too. She was being tortured and had not broken yet, and that meant something. They were in this together, whatever "this" was. Ariadne sighed.
"I'm Kathleen" the girl murmured. "It's nice to meet you".
"Ariadne", she laughed at the absurd situation.
"Well if anybody's gonna get us out of here, it's gonna be you Miss Ariadne." Kathleen giggled from the floor. "I hope you really are Mistress of the Labyrinth".