I normally do A&A fics, but I thought I might give writing the novel form of the movie. I can't believe there is not a novel of "Inception". I tried reading "The Dark Knight Rises" novel. It put me in a coma.
I hope I'll do better then the guy who wrote "TDKR" novel.
Inception: the unauthorized novel based on the movie by Christopher Nolan
I do not own "Inception".
1.
~ Cobb felt the ocean wash his body to shore. He was so exhausted and abused by the waves, he let the water take him where it wanted. He felt the thick sand of the beach crush under his hands as the water tickled his face.
He couldn't remember how he got here. How he had landed in this place, or where this place was. He opened his eyes as the tide pulled out. The waters leaving his body prone in the hot sun.
He heard children laughing.
'No, not again.' he thought as his fingers tried to reach out and touch the illusion of a little boy and girl playing on the beach. Building sand castles and ignoring him. Their backs turned so he couldn't see their faces. Cobb put his head down into the waters again as the tide came back for him.
'Those aren't my children.' he thought bitterly as he let the surf rush over him again. The power of the tide threatening to pull him back out to sea as it's plaything.
~ Cobb didn't feel the poke on his back with a rifle. One of the guards had discovered him, and thought him dead. A body that washed up on this private beach next to the opulent palace. The guard looked over his body skeptically. His uniform indicating he was private security and not real law enforcement. He didn't want to touch the dead man, and instead used the muzzle of his riffle to flip the back of Cobb's jacket over. The guard wasn't shocked to see the hand gun concealed in the back of the man's pants.
The guard barked at his partner to come and help. A solitary figure climbed down the rocky edges next to an exquisite Japanese palace. It's roof and spires perfect and untouched by time or any kind of hardship.
Not even in dreams could such a palace exist.
~ Waiting. Waiting. Waiting. Who was he waiting for? Saito didn't remember anymore.
An aged man sat hunched in an impressive dinning room. No other guests sat with him despite the fact the table could accommodate many. Saito was totally alone. His palace was pristine, a showplace, yet nothing but his staff stirred in it's halls. This place was a tomb and he could barely be called alive.
The old man was alone in his waiting. Trying to remember, who he was waiting for.
"Sir?" His butler whispered in his ear. Saito's natural language slipping from the servant's lips as he described a man who was found alive on the beach.
Saito perked his head up as if he had been dozing.
"He was delirious, but asking for you by name." The butler said. Saito showed only slight interest, but his staff knew him well enough to tell his moods.
"Show him." The butler huffed at the guard.
The guard jumped forward and respectfully placed a weathered and waterlogged hand gun on the table.
"He was carrying nothing but this." The guard said. Afraid to look at the ancient man. "And this." he added as he carefully place a small, metal top next to the weapon.
'Was this man dangerous?' The old man scoffed at the idea. 'I am older then time by now. Let this man come. Let him do what he wishes.'
Saito blinked his eyes and the butler told the guard to bring the interloper into the dinning room.
Saito could hear the two guards dragging the limp body of the intruder to his chair.
The guards placing him across the expansive table so the two men would not be too close.
The ancient man was resting his hand over the gun as if it were a precious gem. He watched as the stranger ate slowly of the meal given to him. Saito's staff showing this man the curtsey of food.
The intruder was younger. His clothing, hands and face, beaten and weathered by the sea he had just been pulled out of. He looked in no shape to do anyone any harm.
Still, the old man rested his wrinkled hand on the gun that had been taken off the uninvited guest.
"Are you here to kill me?" Saito asked in a weak and shaky voice. He hadn't used his own voice in so long, he had forgotten what it sounded like.
The strange man stopped eating. He looked up at Saito slowly.
The ancient man lost his train of thought then. His memory had become faded and thread bare. So many years locked in this perfect palace by the sea. So long trapped here with no way out.
His aged hands found the metal top. A child's toy. One that struck a memory.
"I know what this is." Saito said as his fingers plucked the top up and turned it over. "I've seen one before. Many, many years ago."
With a simple flick of his fingers, he sent the top to spinning. It danced lazy circles on the flawless table. Spinning effortlessly.
"It belonged to a man I once met in a half remembered dream." Saito recalled. His words finding a poetic tone in his old age.
"A man, possessed of some radical notions." he added as with milky, half blind eyes, he looked at his guest.
~ "What is the most resilient parasite?" Cobb asked the refined Japanese businessman.
A much younger Saito rolled his eyes as he ate his light dinner. He had heard a pitch like this a thousand times before. He was in the business of making money. Everyday, every moment, he had to pretend to be interested in some young man's new ideas. Nothing impressed him anymore.
"A bacteria? A virus?" Cobb went on casually. The American man nodded to Saito's dinner plate. "An intestinal worm?"
Saito stopped chewing at the idea. Such an idea, now growing in his brain, made him lose his appetite.
A cough came from Mr. Cobb's associate, Arthur.
"Um, what Mr. Cobb is trying to say-" The professional looking young man said eagerly.
"An idea." Cobb cut his friend off. "Resilient, high contagious. Once an idea is taken hold in the brain, it's almost impossible to eradicate. An idea that is fully formed, fully understood? That sticks." Cobb said. His careful hands moving over his brow. "Right there somewhere."
Saito huffed and tried to summon his appetite back after the idea of intestinal worms.
The dinning room was the same. Beautiful and flawless. Yet, it was different. Saito could hear guests at his party mingling and laughing just outside the door. This place was more alive. This place was more real.
"For someone like you to come and steal?" the businessman asked as Cobb confidently drank the expensive red wine Saito had his staff open for them.
"Yes." Arthur said hurriedly as if trying to give a sales pitch. "In the dream state, your conscious defenses are lowered and that makes your thoughts vulnerable to theft. It's called extraction."
Saito flicked his eyes to Mr. Cobb's associate. Arthur was dressed more appropriately for the party them Mr. Cobb. The dark haired man was in a careful tuxedo and not just a black tie and jacket like his companion. He found Arthur more agreeable. A young man, yet he was more about the nuts and bolts of any project. He didn't waste Saito's time with radical notions.
"Mr. Saito, we can train your subconscious to defend itself from even the most skilled extractor." Cobb said confidently.
"How can you do that?" Saito asked lazily.
'Here it comes,' the businessman thought 'the big pitch.'
"Because, I am the most skilled extractor." Cobb said simply. "I know how to search your mind and find your secrets, I know the tricks. I can teach them to you so that even when you're asleep; your defense is never down."
Cobb carelessly took his wine glass and put on his indifferent facade. Letting Saito know it didn't matter if he was hired.
"Look, if you want my help; you're going to have to be completely open with me. I have to know my way around your thoughts better then your wife, better then your therapist, better then anyone."
Cobb stood and casually moved around the marvelous dinning room. Waving the light crystal holding the expensive wine around like he did this all the time.
"If this is a dream, and you have a safe full of secrets, I need to know what's in that safe." Cobb told the businessman.
Saito couldn't help but think about the high tech safe he had installed in this very room. A hidden wall panel covering it from view. A place he could hide his corporate documents while he was here.
"In order for this all to work; you need to completely let me in." Cobb said finishing up the sales pitch.
Saito smiled and touched the fine linen napkin to his lips. He had heard enough. Cobb and his associate, were impressive. They were everything his research has promised them to be.
"Enjoy your evening gentleman." The businessman man said standing up.
Saito was pleased to see Arthur was well mannered enough to stand respectfully as well.
"I'll consider your proposal." Saito added as he left them to return to his party. His staff opening the sliding walls to reveal a large room decorated with charming people in beautiful clothing.
~ Arthur and Cobb were left alone and they stood silently in the beautiful dinning room.
"He knows." Arthur said pessimistically to Cobb.
Cobb scowled and set his glass down on the flawless table.
The room started to rumble slightly. Not an earth quake or tremor. It felt like the palace had hit a bout of turbulence. As if they were on an airplane and it was just shaking enough to make someone nervous.
Arthur looked worriedly up at the intricate and artistic light fixtures as they clinked and swayed dangerously overhead.
"What's going on up there?" He grumbled. Obviously not pleased things were not going well.
Cobb wasn't deterred however. He checked his watch and quickly calculated how much time they had before the eventual collapse.