Note: This story came to me from nowhere and presented itself to me as a sort of challenge. Namely how many fandoms can I fit into a single story where the only cross over is the actors who played them. Unfortunately I have not seen everything that either Tom Hardy or Joseph Gordon-Levitt have made over the years, and some obviously wouldn't fit with the story I had in mind. But I will see how I do. I may even try to crow-bar in some Leonardo Dicaprio and Ellen Page movies as I go. In fact just to start us off this chapter contains spoilers for Shutter Island.

Before Now (I Never Even Wondered)

It all started with a scream, which was not what anyone was expecting, not even Arthur. And he was usually prepared for anything.

Ever since Inception they had all been relying on Arthur to keep them on track. After everything that had happened it was Arthur leading the team and making the decisions, not Dom. He was the one that decided to go legitimate and one by one the others had followed. Eames and Ariadne and Yusuf and eventually Dom had all followed Arthur when he agreed to test the latest in dreamsharing technology. That was what they had been doing when they heard the scream and the sobbing that followed.

They were taking it in turns to test a new system. Someone had developed a new machine so that you could explore fictional worlds in your dreams without a whole team of people to look after you while you did it. A whole series of 'games' had been developed for this machine and it was their job to test the whole thing and iron out the bugs. But now something was wrong. Dom had gone into the room they used to dream sometime before, with one of the 'games' that he had chosen at random. And everything had been as they expected until he screamed.

Dom walked around the side of the Cabin lookong for his wife. He had been worried about her for a long time, but hopefully the move would help her. Finally as he came to the back of the house he spotted her in the porch swing. She looked so calm swinging back and forth and looking out over the water.

As he walked Mal turned to face him and stood. It was only when she started to walk towards him that he noticed there was something wrong. Her floral dress was soaking wet, her hair was dripping and her feet were bare.

"Baby, why're you all wet?"

But she ignored his question, instead throwing her arms around him and kissing him.

"I missed you. I want to go home."

Dom's brow crumpled as he pulled back to look at her.

"You are home. Where are the kids?"

Something was wrong, something was very wrong.

"Oh, they're at school"

Alarm bells started to ring in Dom's head and the panic set in.

"It's Saturday, Honey. School's not in on Saturday."

The smile on her face confirmed just how wrong the situation was as she replied.

"My school is."

He didn't want to turn around and see what she meant, he couldn't.

"Mal?"

When she just kept smiling he couldn't put it off any longer. He turned and saw them, the bodies in the water.

"Oh my god... Oh Jesus god no... Not my babies, please god, please no... Please god no."

He rushed to the water and pulled them one by one out of the water. All the while he could hear her humming behind him, completely detached from what she had done, what she had taken from him.

"Let's put them in the kitchen."

It took a moment for him to realise that she had spoken at all, but eventually the words penetrated.

"What?"

Numb he didn't protest as she manouved so that she was straddling him with his head pressed into her shoulder. All he could do was cry unable to process what was going on as she kept talking.

"Let's sit them at the table, Dom. We'll dry them off, change their clothes."

He couldn't take it anymore. He couldn't listen to her talking like that, not about their children.

"Please stop talking."

But she didn't listen, she just kept going. Adding to his torture.

"They'll be our living dolls. Tomorrow we can take them on a picnic."

Closing his eyes, Dom tried to push her words out of his head.

"If you ever loved me... Please stop talking."

He wasn't actually sure that he had heard what she said next, or whether it was what he wanted to hear her say.

"I need you to love me. I need you to free me."

He moved the gun from his side and pushed it into her ribs as she kept talking.

"We'll give them baths."

His finger twitched as he readied himself for what he was about to do.

"I love you Mal."

Her voice was soft and calm as she spoke again and for the last time.

"I love you too. I love you so much. I love you like..."

Then he pulled the trigger, flinching at the loud noise.

Arthur jumped up instantly. He recognised that sound, he had heard it before and he never wanted to hear it again. Rushing to the door Arthur yanked it open so that he could get to his friend as quickly as possible. What he found was a distraught Dominic Cobb hastily packing away the machine between sobs.

"Cobb? Is everything alright? Cobb?"

Dom's head snapped towards the door but it took him a moment to place who he was seeing. When he recognised his long term friend and colleague however he relaxed a little and managed to speak.

"Arthur, I'm sorry. I'm really sorry. But I have to go. I have to see my children. I'm sorry but I'll explain tomorrow."

With that he rushed past Arthur who had moving slowly into the room with Eames moving unnoticed behind him. As Dominic disappeared the forger strode over to the machine and looked at the game box beside it. He was curious to see what could have affected the extractor so badly.

"What was it?"

Arthur asked, concern clear on his face and in his voice. Legal work had mellowed him slightly. Not much, but enough for the serial people watcher in Eames to pick up on.

"Shutter Island. It's some sort of mystery game set in an asylum."

The pointman nodded realising what had happened. He remembered seeing the name on the list of games the company had sent. He had actually meant to remove it from the pile before Dom made his selection, but as usual Eames had been distracting him with some tall tale or other and he had forgotten. One of the avaliable characters in this particular game had an alarming back story. This character had lost both his wife and his children, killing her after she had gone mad and killed the kids. No wonder Dom was jumpy, after everything that he had already gone through. At that moment he made a decission.

"I think for the moment at least Mr Eames, we should put off any solo tests. I suggest that we test only multi-player games or possibly single-player games where we can add an observer. We don't know how much our own personalities can impact on these games yet and I don't want to take anymore chances. In fact for the moment I don't think the others should go under at all."

With Dom's departure he and Eames were the most seasoned dreamworkers. Ariadne still seamed so young to them, and Yusuf by his own admittion rarely went into the field. Besides he had looked into the forger's past. And although he hadn't found much, he knew enough to know that Eames could handle himself in any situation.

"You know darling, if you wanted to spend more time with me, you only had to ask."

Arthur resisted the urge to roll his eyes as he left the room. He needed to let Ariadne and Yusuf know what was happening. The architect probably wouldn't like it, she was so new in the business that she wanted to spend every single moment in a dream. But Arthur couldn't put anyone else in danger. He felt bad enough about the whole situation after what Dominic had just been through, without accidently doing the same thing to the others.

Meanwhile Eames flicked through the pile of games. He understood where Arthur was coming from which is why he had made the remark in the first place. Obviously he was feeling guilty about whatever it was that had distressed Cobb so much. The point man was always doing that, taking mistakes onto himself rather than blaming others. Personally he thought that Dom should have paid more attention to which game he was thinking of testing. But it was Arthur's way. The safety of the team was his top priority.

That gave him an idea. Grinning Eames pulled a box from the pile of games. He had just the perfect game for Arthur and his goody two-shoes need to look after everyone.

"Have you picked something Eames?"

Arthur asked as he stepped back into the small room. The forger had a worrying smirk on his face which didn't bode well for their test.

"I did indeed. 'The Dark Knight Rises'. I think you'd make a smashing Batman my dear."

With a resigned sigh the pointman sat down on one of the lawn chairs and rolled up his shirt sleeves.

"Whatever you say Mr Eames, but I'm not looking forward to seeing who you end up as. By the look of that shirt, you'll end up as the Mad Hatter."

The only reply he got was a laugh from the forger as he sterted the PASIV machine and they fell into unconsciousness.