Hello everyone! I've been craving wanting to write an Inception fanfic and so here it is. I don't own any of the characters that luxury goes to the genius Christopher Nolan.
Chapter 1: 'Careful? I'm always careful darling'
It had been almost six months since Cobb and the rest of the team pulled off the Fischer job. There wasn't much on the news but Cobb made sure to keep track of what Fischer was doing. He knew that they had succeeded because Fischer had already let go of a certain branch of his company and wasn't done yet. That meant Inception had worked on him.
The main reason Cobb kept track of what was going was because he feared that Saito would come after him, had it not worked. Then again, Saito and Cobb now had a closer bond and he didn't think Saito would do anything to him.
Currently, Cobb was just signing off of the computer, knowing that everything was working out. A part of him wanted to take a look into Fischer and see if he was poisoned like Mal was. He knew that even if he was, once he would become his own person, wouldn't the idea go away? For Mal, she had no choice. He frowned, making himself forget about her. He knew he could never truly forget about her, but trying helped.
"DADDY!" A high pitched voice boomed from the other room.
Cobb jumped up right away, walking into the living room where the scream came from.
"Phillipa? What's wrong honey?" He asked as he approached his tearful daughter.
She clutched onto his arm once he bent down to her level. "James took my doll." She wailed as she clung tighter to him. Cobb smiled lightly as he patted his daughter on the head. He lifted her up, looking around the room for his son.
"James?" He called, waiting to hear his son respond to him. He left the living room, walking towards his room. "James?"
He saw a head of hair peeking out from under the bed. He kept the smirk on his face, sitting his daughter on top of the bed. He got down on his knees, palms on the floor, leaning down to be head to head with his son. "James. Do you have your sister's doll?" He asked as James looked away from him.
After a couple more seconds, James crawled out from under the bed with Phillipa's doll. He handed it to Cobb with a pouty expression. "Sawwy daddy." Cobb handed Phillipa her doll while he stood up. "James, you have your dinosaur in here. Why don't you play with that?"
James turned and looked in the corner of the room where the dinosaur was. It was sitting on a self above his toy box. "My rexy has to stay there."
"Why?"
"Bwecause Arfur gave me him." Cobb kept his eyes on the dinosaur, remembering when Arthur had brought the dinosaur over. It was right before Mal died. Arthur had been a brother to Cobb. After the Fischer job, Arthur hadn't been in touch very much. It wasn't his fault though. Cobb had wanted to distance himself from anything to do with Extraction or Inception. He had moved to another state to escape the reminder of Mal being in his old home.
He felt like he abandoned Arthur. They were the best at what they do, especially together. Add Eames to the picture and they could pull off anything. Eames was a good friend and ally for a long time as well. Before Mal died he had asked Eames to help him with several Extractions. Sure, Cobb was good on his own but having the best point man to make sure there were no road bumps, then the best forger to deceive the target was helpful.
The last time he had heard from Arthur, he was helping Saito with another assignment. Saito, like previously stated, became somewhat of an ally; a member of the team. Saito was wealthy and though he knew Arthur already had enough money to last him his lifetime from all the jobs he and Cobb did while Cobb was in hiding, he felt Arthur did it because there was nothing quite like it.
Ariadne would be finishing school right now. She probably had already finished up. He wasn't sure if she was going to go for more schooling or if she was done. He felt bad having her join them because now she would always want more. It was addicting to be able to go into other's dreams. Being able to create something by simply thinking about it; that was something.
Eames probably went back to Mombasa. There were a lot of jobs down there. Eames was probably set after the money Saito gave him, but he'd need more sooner or later. That was just how Eames was. Live life to the fullest sort of person, even if it meant spending everything. Yusuf was obviously there as well, tending to his people that came to him for sleep. He wondered if Yusuf would need to use it on himself after going in with them. He had mentioned he rarely goes into the field in the first place, but, there would always come a time where you'd have trouble sleeping.
As for Saito, it seemed that his company was doing very well. They were almost ahead of Fischer's company. On the outside it seemed he was doing well but Cobb worried about his mind. Saito was trapped in limbo for decades. Cobb had gone through having to readjust to being young again and it wasn't easy.
Cobb looked around, noticing that his children had left the room, probably off playing again. He sighed, running his hand through his hair. He did miss the dream world. He never dreamed anymore. He was glad because that meant he didn't have to relive being with Mal every night and wishing she were back. It did seem inconvenient from time to time. He missed waking up in the morning, recalling the spectacular dreams he used to have.
He walked out of the bedroom, back into the kitchen. He reached into his pocket, taking out his totem and spinning it. Even though it had been months of being with his children, it still felt surreal. He wasn't sure how Saito cleared him, only that nothing had been said about Mal's death. He knew that it said it was ruled a suicide and there were no charges against him, at least not anymore.
Watching the totem, he sighed in relief as it eventually toppled, rolling to a stop. As he picked up the totem, he jumped lightly when there was a sudden knocking at the door. Only his father-in-law, Miles, knew where they were now. He heard laughter, turning to see his children playing in the dining room, under the table.
He walked towards his door, looking out the peephole. He looked confused, unlocking and opening up the door.
"Ariadne? What…what are you doing here?" Instead of answering, the small girl walked in, hugging Cobb. She wasn't crying but when she looked up at him, her eyes were red. "Is everything okay?" He asked, putting his arms around her after the initial shock wore off.
She hugged him tightly for another ten seconds or so before letting him go. She realized the front door was open, shutting and locking it.
"How did you find me?" As soon as he asked that he felt dumb. She obviously would have asked Miles where he lived if she really needed him.
"There's someone after me, Cobb. I think they're looking for you too." She said, her hand in her pocket. Cobb knew that she was probably rubbing her totem.
Seeing how upset she was, he stepped back, motioning for her to go into the living room. He would give her a moment to calm her nerves before asking all the questions he wanted answers to. "Would you like something to drink?"
She sat down on the couch, bringing her legs to her chest. Cobb glanced at her, seeing for the first time in a while just how young and vulnerable she was. She looked so scared. Cobb made them both glasses of tea, bringing them over to Ariadne. He handed her the cup, sitting next to her in a chair.
"Tell me what happened."
For a few moments it looked as if she was trying to find where to begin. She took a small sip of her tea before setting it down on the end table. "Four days ago I had gotten done working at the library. I'm there part-time to help out the librarian. Anyways, as I walked home I could just feel someone following me. I know that sounds crazy but, it's true.
"I didn't want to panic but I did. I ran back to my apartment as fast as I could. When I got into my apartment, I couldn't believe I walked into mine. I…I thought I somehow gone into a different apartment. Mine was a mess."
"Someone robbed you?"
"I don't think so…nothing was missing, but it looked like someone wanted to scare me. It worked and I got some of my stuff in my backpack and left. As soon as I left my apartment, I saw two big guys heading for it." Her eyes began to water as she looked away, blinking quickly.
"So I left. I took a taxi to the airport and flew into New York. I knew that Arthur was there and I…I didn't know where to go." Her face got a little red but Cobb ignored it. He knew that there was some sort of chemistry between them but didn't know if they kept in touch with each other or not. As fast as she was red, she then looked worried.
"Arthur…"
"He wasn't there. He wouldn't answer his phone. Nothing. I don't know if he had left or…or if something bad has happened. I asked Miles to let me know where you were because I didn't know where else to go." She began to bite on her thumb nail, not wanting to look up at him.
Cobb frowned, instantly wondering where Arthur could be. He pulled out his phone, pressing the number 3 and then send. He listened as the phone rang and rang and rang. Once the phone went to voicemail, Cobb cleared his throat.
"Arthur, it's me. I was just calling to see how you were doing. Call me back." He set the phone down on the table in front of him. He placed his head in his hands, running them through his hair. "Have you talked to anyone else? Eames? Yusuf?"
She shook her head, taking another small drink from her tea. "I haven't even tried. All I wanted to do was get here as fast as I could."
Cobb grabbed his phone off the table, scrolling through his contact list to find Eames. He had them all under different names, in case something would happen. He found Eames' name, and waited for the phone to ring.
"'Ello?" The thick British accent asked into the phone.
"Eames? Is that you?" He didn't know why he asked, you couldn't sound like Eames and not be Eames.
"Dom? Yeah, of course it's me. What brings the pleasure of this phone call?"
"I can't say much over the phone but we might all be in danger." He knew he needed to get straight to the point.
There was a pause for a moment before Eames spoke again. "We? You and I? Aren't we always? Which job is this from?" Living the life as a con always meant being afraid that someone would want some sort of revenge.
"Robert Fischer."
"How do you know?"
"Ariadne thinks some men tried to abduct her a couple days ago."
"What? Is she alright?"
"Yeah, she's with me. We think something's happened to Arthur."
"Right then…so where am I meeting you?"
This time Cobb paused, unsure of what to do. "If they have Arthur and tried to get Ariadne, then France or New York City would be our best bets because they know that neither of us live there." He didn't want to risk someone coming into his home and harming his children.
Ariadne was relieved to know that Eames hadn't been harmed but was worried for Arthur. The only thing she could think of was if he were dead. As she snapped back into reality, she watched as Cobb stood up, nodding several times to whatever it was Eames was saying.
"Alright. Two days then. Yes….yeah…see you then. Be careful."
"Careful? I'm always careful darling. See you." Cobb shut his phone, sitting it on the table again.
"Eames said he saw Yusuf about a week ago but that he would round him up. We're going to go New York. They'll meet us there." Ariadne nodded, letting her legs relax and stretch to the floor. "I figure we can regroup and then figure out what's going on. Hopefully it's nothing and Arthur is just off on a job or something."
"If he was just off on a job wouldn't it be too coincidental that someone tried to come for me?" She didn't mean it as a question, more of a statement.
Before Cobb could answer her, he looked down at his phone which was vibrating against the glass. He and Ariadne both looked up at the same time, confusion spreading on both of them.
"Arthur?"
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I'm not going to lie; I don't like this chapter at all. I tried to put too much into this too soon but I wanted to get it started. I hope so far, I've got Ariadne, Cobb, and Eames down as how their characters would act but I think I need to do a better job.
I hope you enjoy the cliffhanger and hopefully I'll have more for you all soon! Please review, they help me go!