Eames raised an eyebrow in disbelief as he observed Arthur effortlessly shooting several far off projections with perfect aim and frowned as he mentally solved the mystery of what Arthur had been doing late at night in PASIV. Eames needed to step it up if he wanted to keep in the competition.
He smiled to himself at Arthur's weapon; the younger man was certainly a creature of habit. No imagination, he would often say. While Eames liked to dream up all sorts of fantastical weapons, Arthur always had the same non-descript black Glock at his side.
Not that it wasn't working for him, he bitterly thought to himself as he watched another projection slump to the ground much farther off (though he'd never admit it)than he could have successfully shot.
Cobb was working his magic inside the building with their newest mark and had left Arthur and Eames to guard the entrance to allow him to work in peace. As shared dream technology was becoming more well-known, the job difficulty was becoming increasingly difficult as high up businessmen learned of the potential risks and trained their minds against extraction.
They also found themselves competing with other mind thieves in a market they had once solely dominated. There were two or three other teams who were just below them in skill level jockeying for position, waiting for them to mess up just once so they could claim the top spot.
Checking his watch, Arthur swore quietly and pounded his fist loudly three times on the door behind him as they crouched below a strategically parked car trying to get Cobb to hurry. Eames was took this opportunity to fire off a shot, grimacing to himself as he missed.
"Got one." He lied, eyes darting over to Arthur then twinkling when glee when they noticed he had been momentarily distracted and wouldn't know otherwise. His second shot hit the mark and a wide grin broke out across his face, nudging Arthur in the side excitedly. Arthur looked up at him, not terribly impressed.
"What, did you want a gold star?" He asked dryly, scanning around them. The amount of projections had tapered off significantly.
"You could buy me a drink instead, love. I'm afraid another gold star would just swell my head." Eames responded without missing a beat.
"Do you think I should go check on Cobb?" Arthur pointedly ignored Eames joke. "He's taking a long time."
"How long has he been in there, then?" Eames asked
"About thirty-two minutes." Arthur replied, checking his watch again impatiently.
"Give him time to work his magic, darling. Not everything can be planned out to the last minute you know."
"What exactly do you think my job is then?" Arthur frowned, dark serious eyes meeting Eames light blue ones in irritation. Eames was about to respond with any number of smart-aleck comments when a loud commotion could be heard from the building behind them. Taking a moment to give a meaningful 'I told you so' glare to Eames, Arthur turned and raced gun drawn through the main door to check on Cobb.
The hallway was dark and decrepit; the doors lining it were all open but revealed nothing but an impenetrable darkness. At the end of the hall, the only well lit door was ajar allowing a single sliver of light to cast its beam on a rather disgusting dusty wooden floor.
Crouching low, Arthur felt comforted by Eames at his back as they passed the dark rooms. Although they hurriedly strained their eyes looking into each and every one of them they could make out nothing. It was more than just a little creepy, even to two grown men.
"Why would Cobb design such a bizarre building?" Eames whispered, taking in the overpowering stench of mildew from the rotting planks beneath their feet. Another crash nearby accompanied by a shout of alarm and Arthur broke his cautious approach to run full sprint to the door. Eames swore as he tried to grab the back of his jacket but missed, and instead watched the Point man break their element of surprise by flinging the door wide open.
He still had moments where his youth and inexperience got the best of him, though they were few and far between. He had noticed it was mostly when Cobb was in some sort of perceived danger, though he had been proud to admit it had been for him once too.
"Cobb?" Arthur called out into room, gun levelled in front of him ready to shoot at a moment's notice. Silently coming up behind him, Eames peeked over his shoulder quickly glancing at the wooden tables and chairs lay strewn about. There was clear evidence of a struggle but not their leader, who was suspiciously M.I.A.
"What are you two doing?" They heard a voice behind them, and they both whirled with surprise, backing into the safety of the only well-lit room, guns darting from imagined target to imagined target. Cobb emerged from one of the dark doors to their left, smiling apologetically as he ran his hand through his slicked hair. Arthur sighed in relief, placing his gun back in the familiar groove of his back.
"Sorry to worry you." Cobb said dismissively, taking in the destroyed room. "I lost my gun. Eames, can I use yours?" He asked offhandedly and Eames handed him his own. Cobb was always a better shot anyhow, probably more-so that day.
"Where's the mark, Cobb?" Arthur asked, straight to business.
"Well, funny thing about that, Arthur." He replied, coldly. Arthur looked up, warily.
"I trusted you to do one very important job on this team. Explain to me why your goddamn research on our mark was off. Again. Your stupid thoughtless move cost us the mission." Cobb snapped, as he stalked towards the younger man. Arthur visibly recoiled with the sharp words he hadn't been expecting, and Eames looked away, embarrassed.
"You acted completely inappropriately, putting not only yourself, but the entire team at risk!" He continued, jabbing his finger forward as Arthur backed away from the slowly advancing Cobb, stumbling over some debris on the floor and barely catching his fall as he wound up with his back to the wall. His face couldn't be redder from embarrassment and Eames could hardly look at the scene.
"Say you're sorry to Eames!" He demanded, and Arthur glared back defiantly at him from the wall, wondering if he could just shoot himself and wake up.
"I'm sorry." He muttered quietly.
"What?" Cobb yelled back.
"Listen, it's ok, right? No harm done!" Eames protested meekly, wondering how long this side of Cobb had been hidden from him.
"I'm sorry." Arthur enounced, his teeth gritting together in anger. Before Eames could even believe what he was seeing, Cobb grabbed Arthur by the collar of his shirt and slammed him forcefully against the wall. A cry of alarm left Arthur's lips as he stared confused into the older man's piercing blue eyes and tried to make sense of his new situation while ripping at Cobb's hands to free himself.
"This doesn't concern you!" Cobb shouted back at the approaching Eames, who had quickly made several strides to close the distance between them. The Brit paused for a moment, wondering if he had the right to involve himself further in the situation. He hadn't been with them long enough; this wasn't their dynamic, was it?
"I hired you for a goddamn simple job, and I got some simpering little kid following me around like a pitiful stray." Cobb's piercing eyes bored into Arthur's as he slammed him again into the wall again to drive his point home.
"Alright, Cobb, that's enough, eh?" Eames interrupted uncomfortably, taking the last few steps and putting his hand on Cobb's shoulder. Arthur's eyes looked downcast, refusing to meet Eames worried stare as he tried to avoid the humiliation he felt.
"You're right." Cobb replied, loosening his hold. Eames breathed a sigh of relief, but Arthur had reverted back to silent mode, his eyes still downcast.
Eames frowned as he looked from one to the other, wondering how a job could have gone so sideways in such an unexpected way. And what in the world could Arthur have screwed up about the mark? Before he could fully process that thought, Cobb whirled around and shot him point blank in the stomach. Gasping in surprise, Eames took two steps backward and stumbled to the ground, confusing across his face.
"Shoot me in the head, Cobb. I don't want to be here all day, mate." Eames attempted a confused grin, breathing shallow and ragged. Cobb just smiled down with a look that could only be described as sinister before he whirled back around and caught Arthur in the side of the face with the butt of his gun. Arthur had been in the process of aiming his own gun at Eames' head but hit the floor hard with the force of the unexpected blow. His own gun skitted away from him on the floor as Eames finally put it together.
"Others have finally gotten good at it, then?" Eames choked out, as he held his stomach, warm blood spilling out. Cobb grinned in an uncharacteristic way before landing a fierce stomp at Arthur's ribs and the younger man cried out, curling into a ball.
"Cobb, stop...! I'm sorry!" The younger man implored.
"It's not Cobb!" Eames shouted back, and 'Cobb' turned to face him.
"Don't!" He hissed mockingly. "It's more fun if he thinks it is!"
"Arthur, the job was a set up! Our mark is a forger!" Eames managed to shout out, a wave of excruciating pain making him hiss and curl up, grasping his stomach.
Arthur attempted to weakly get onto his hands and his knees, but a quickly kick from 'Cobb' to his face left him back on the ground, writhing around, bright red blood staining the wooden floor as his hands tenderly held his broken nose.
"Where's Cobb?" Arthur managed to moan out despite the pain in his face.
"I would imagine your Cobb is following two people of mine who bear a striking resemblance to the two of you." He drawled out slowly, enjoying himself. "He's probably wondering why you're leading him on such a wild goose chase, but I'm sure his trust for his team will overpower that suspicion."
"You have two other forgers on your team?" Eames choked out incredulously.
"mmmmm...yes. Yes I do. This line of business is certainly quite lucrative. I looked at what the three of you were doing, and I thought to myself 'how can I improve on that?' And then it hit me!" He absentmindedly interrupted his line of thought to stomp down on Arthur's hand as he reached for the gun. "Why not have the extractor and the point (here he ground down even harder on Arthur's hand to emphasize his point) be forgers as well?"
"Then you should have no problem beating us fair and square with jobs, not by tricking us like a coward." Arthur coughed bitingly, holding his hand delicately to his chest not sure which part of his aching body to pay attention to first. The false Cobb stared down at Arthur on the ground disapprovingly before landing a delayed well thought out kick to his stomach.
"You've no doubt died a lot of ways in the dream world, Arthur. But have you ever been beaten to death? I assure you it's not a fun way to go. Takes far too long for most people's tastes. I, however, am a very patient man."
His captive audience was no longer engaging him in conversation, instead resigned to just watching him with their wary eyes.
"I have to say there's one part of this whole experience I will enjoy the most." He mused, looking to the two of them. Eames looked up at him with scorn waiting for his response. "As long as my team is around, you three will never fully trust each other on one of your missions again!" He grinned, looking back and forth to the two of them, drinking in their expressions.
"I'm not worried." Arthur whispered out.
"What?" False Cobb asked, moving closer.
"I'm not worried!" Arthur painfully yelled out.
"Why?" He asked bemused, nudging him with his foot.
"So you have three first rate forgers, big deal." He spat out. "We have the best one out there and we still only needed him on the occasional mission. It doesn't compare to a first rate Extractor, Architect or Point." Arthur grinned up at him defiantly with bloodied teeth.
The first look that flashed across false Cobb's face was one of extreme anger, and Arthur winced, guarding himself for the next attack. Instead he was surprised to hear the other man laugh, and he looked up at him with confusion.
"Well Arthur, as supposedly the best Point in the business, you sure missed the most important detail with this job." He mocked.
Arthur knew this situation was entirely his fault. They had done so many low level jobs lately to make some money in the competitive market that he had gotten careless, just taken it at face level. This was just supposed to be a simple extraction; they had done one just like it dozens of times before, but it was no excuse. He had let his team down.
``So I won`t be requiring your skills dear Arthur. Though I did hear Cobb dabbles in both extraction and architecture! How interesting!" False Cobb turned to grin at Eames. "And I certainly don't want another Forger running about, making me look badly, hmm?" He asked. "Tell you what. I'm going to be going back to the real world. You two can just spend some time here, right? Maybe back there I might find some leverage to convince Cobb to help me on this next big job I've been hired for."
"Cobb would never work with you!" Arthur choked out, panicked. False Cobb gave him one last vicious kick to the ribs before walking purposefully to the corner of the room.
"Technically he will be working for me." He clarified, smiling condescendingly a the two of them before shooting himself in the temple.
...a...
Two utterly hopeless sets of eyes stared across the room at each other. Eames knew he should attempt to crawl over to the corner where the guns might still be laying, but didn't think he could even lift a finger at that point. The familiar shiver he felt throughout his body when he was dying from such a gunshot set in and a cold numbness began to weave its way up his extremities.
Arthur's breathing was coming out ragged and torn as he struggled with several broken ribs, his tucked in white collared shirt almost entirely pulled out, his vest stained with the blood that had ran down his face out of his nose. Eames wished he could say something to cheer the younger man up, but trying as hard as he could, cohesive words still refused to come out of his mouth.
"I'm sorry." Arthur's wavering voice called out as Eames tried to fight the darkness creeping in on the side of his vision, his breath coming out in ragged gasps. He didn't want to leave Arthur here alone with his guilt, and he didn't want to face the reality of whatever would be awaiting them when he woke up.
Loud running footsteps could be heard suddenly, and through hazy eyes he watched as Cobb raced into the room. Taking in the sight of his two teammates laid out horribly injured on the floor, he strode over to Arthur and dropped to his knee next to him. Arthur recoiled as best he could, not sure if the imposter Cobb had rejoined them in dream world, but no blow came.
"It's me, Arthur." Cobb whispered reassuringly. "You had a cat named Boots when you were seven." Eames smiled at this through the pain, coughing out blood.
"Hold on, Eames. Stay with us just a little bit longer. We stand a better chance if we all go back together." Cobb called out over his shoulder.
"Cobb, I'm sorry." Arthur choked out, again. "I screwed up really badly this time." His eyes looked up, seeking forgiveness. "They want to use you for some job."
"Hey, it's OK! They're just a desperate bunch of two-bit criminals. I realized the others weren't you two far too quickly to be even remotely worried about their skill as forgers." Cobb reassured, smiling down at him.
Arthur suddenly twisted up in pain, grimacing.
"Ok we have to move, they're doing something to us in the waking world. Remember everything you know about each other, the more obscure the better!" Cobb instructed to the two, straight to business. He levelled the gun at Eames and quickly put him out of his misery, a shot to the head. Standing up, he quickly did the same to Arthur.
Looking about at his two dead teammates, Cobb allowed the concern he had been hiding cross his face. He knew if they were using his team, using Arthur as leverage, he would be unable to refuse their demands. Sighing, he raised the gun to his own temple and with no perceivable hesitation, pulled the trigger.
...a...
A/N: Hope you all enjoyed it! I know, it's more of the same, but I just can't help writing this kind of fic! Writing a romance has virtually no interest to me. I'll try my best to update every day, but I literally have no idea where this is going so I warn you, I may get stuck ;) 3