"Zara!" Nick screamed as he watched her take a bullet in the chest. She collapsed onto the ground and didn't move. His worst fears suddenly hit him like a ton of bricks. He couldn't move as time seemed to stop, he watched as her assailant walked up to her and raise his gun to shoot her in the head.
Nick was running as if he was on fire before he knew he was moving. He knew Zara was probably already dead if not dying, but heaven help him if he just stands by and watches it happen.
Mr. Nickolas Eams always prided himself on being many things in his lifetime. In the Dream Share Industry, he was considered an amazing Forger and Thief. Granted in 'real life' he was those things as well, but still, he was a bloody professional. He was usually calm under pressure and never got too attached to anyone or anything. But right now, none if mattered, because of this woman.
In record time he had crossed the distance and sent a flying kick into the guy's head. The assailant crashed into the wall and his skull split open. Not that Nick cared to look, he was currently trying to pick Zara up and carry her to safety. She was breathing haphazardly and trying to open her eyes to see what was happening. But as long as she stayed breathing, a small flame of hope burned within him. He had let her go once before, it was the stupidest thing he had ever done and he cursed himself for thinking he could live without her.
Arthur seemed to pull up in a car out of nowhere and Nick placed Zara in the backseat with himself as Arthur sped to the closest hospital. Nick stripped off his jacket and applied it to the gun shot wound.
"I hate the taste of blood..." Zara croaked as she tried to shift to in his grasp.
"What were you thinking you bloody crazy woman?" Nick asked as he tried to stop the bleeding. Despite the circumstances Zara laughed.
"I was thinking I would go for a cup of coffee then tell COBAL to fuck themselves." Zara answered.
"You're bloody wounded and you choose to tell jokes?" Nick replied, although he was relieved that at least she would keep her sense of humor despite the worst things in the world happening to her. He took it as a good sign.
"Would you rather I cry and go into hysterics? Tell you that you're the only man I will ever love for as long as I live which will be for the next 10 minutes or less?" Zara questioned. Despite her sarcastic tone there was an air of truth in her words.
"You are NOT going to die anytime soon love." Nick sternly replied as he put more pressure on the wound despite Zara's grimace.
"Since when have I ever done anything you tell me to do?" She teased as her eyelids got heavier and heavier as it got harder and harder to breathe. She could see Nick smile briefly before he looked worried as he tried to shake her awake, he was yelling something but the noise was deafening as she couldn't make out what he was saying. He was holding her face now, staring desperately into her eyes but her vision seemed to swirl and contort, the edges growing black before she gave up fighting. The last thing she feels is Nick's lips crash onto hers.
Three months prior-
The team was going to be doing another Inception. But if they thought Robert Fischer was a tough mark, they had another thing coming. They had set up shop in New York this time, in a large loft space that hid in plain sight. The team was meeting, discussing the Mark and how on earth they thought they could pull this off. Eams was at his wits end and decided they needed help on this.
"Where are you going?" Arthur asked as he got up and pulled out his phone.
"Calling in a favor." He replied with a smile. Like Dom had contacted Miles for an Architect, Eams was going to call the one person he knew could help him when he got seriously stuck.
Several minutes passed and he came back with a satisfied grin.
"I talked to Christine..." He began and watched Dom and Arthur raise their eyebrows.
"She will be sending us her best, an Ace Alpha Wild or so she says..." He went on to say, Ariadne watched as Dom and Arthur went from surprised to disbelieving.
"She will be at the airport at 8am tomorrow, I will be troubling myself with picking her up." Eams finished.
"How do you know Christine? And SHE?" Arthur asked.
"We all have to have our secrets mate." Eams replied with a wink.
"What's an Ace Alpha whatever?" Ariadne asked.
"Someone who is an extreme specialist with obscene skills, technically speaking, they don't exist." Arthur explained as he kept his narrowing gaze on Eams.
The next morning Eams waits patiently at the airport and is completely shocked to see a woman who looks like Christine, his own old mentor, but 30 years younger walking toward him. Same russet hair with blonde highlights, same porcelain skin, but with the most intense deep turquoise eyes he has ever seen and with an hour-glass figure that is accentuated by the way her pea-coat is tied around her waist.
"Mr. Eams?" She says as she gets closer.
"Yes?" He replies, shaking his head out of his stupor.
"Hi, I'm Zara, seems you are finding yourself in a pickle?" She asks with a innocent smile.
"It appears so, do you have any luggage love?" He asks, taking on his charming facade. She quirks an eyebrow and gives him a wry smile.
"Yes, do you always use pet names with team members?" She asks as her smile grows.
"Only the lovely ones darling." He replies with a handsome grin and a wink. She blushes despite herself and shakes her head.
"My mother warned me about you..." She says as they begin to walk to the baggage claim.
"Your mother?" Eams asks.
"Yes, Christine, Christine is my mother, she's the one who enlisted me to help out 'an old friend'. But I have to say I expected you to look older the way she carried on about you." She replied thoughtfully as she looked him over.
"Well fancy that. I never knew she had a daughter." He replied as he watched her take him in.
"In this business, one can not be too careful." She cautioned meeting his gaze before putting on an air of formality.
"Absolutely." He agreed as they came to the baggage claim and waited.
"Here's my bag." She said as she nodded to a large, heavy cased bag that looked like it belonged to some secret government agency.
"Allow me." Eams said as he got it for her. But he didn't realize it probably weighed as much as her.
"Are you sure? It's awfully heavy, I wouldn't want you to stroke out." She said as she watched him wrestle the thing.
"Here." She said as she reached out and pressed a code on an exterior keypad and out of nowhere a handle and wheels appeared allowing him to pull the thing almost effortlessly.
"I have got to get me one of these..." He muttered in amazement.
"I don't know if you could afford one. The blasted thing has cost me a fortune and a half." She replied honestly but with good humor. Once they got to the car he began to tell her the specifics.
"You're kidding me." Zara said with a groan.
"Is there a problem love?"
"Yes." She replied, pinching the bridge of her nose to stave off a headache.
"I would rather only say it once. Let's just get to the workshop." Zara said with finality as she pulls out a tablet from her bag and begins to tap furiously on it. Eams eyes her warily but they say nothing before they come to the workshop.
"Would you be a dear and get my bag?" Zara asked as she puts her tablet away.
"As my lady requires." Eams says smoothly. Zara smirks and follows him inside. The group is gathered and talking quietly. Zara feels nervous, like the first day of school all over again. She smiles shyly at the group before she recognizes a face.
"Yusuf?" Zara asks, suddenly stepping forward toward her old friend.
"Zara? When did you get to be an Alpha?" Yusuf asks, pleasantly surprised to see her. Zara giggles and hugs him, much to the surprise of the rest of the group. Zara switches to speaking Punjabi so the rest of the group can't listen in to the conversation. But it is clear by her tone and hand gestures that something serious is going on. Yusuf hugs her again and it appears to apologize for something. Zara's eyes water slightly before she slips back into her professional facade. Zara says something with a dismissive gesture then chuckles mirthlessly. She takes a deep breath and turns to the rest of the group.
"Hi, my name is Zara Hunters. I only recently became an Ace Alpha Wild so I promise I won't act half as haughty as I'm sure you are expecting me to. Although with the size of this group I'm rather surprised you would call me in. But considering your target, I think you just might need me after all. So, bring me up to speed and tell me what you have." Zara says as she takes a seat and brings out her tablet for taking notes. After everyone has said their peace- she nods and frowns.
"Mr. Eams, will you help me with something?" Zara asks as she brings her bag over to a desk near her and opens it. She motions for Eams to help her lift what looked like a framed and wired glass pane onto the desk. After setting it up she pulls the pane upright and turns it on. Ariadne swears the last time she saw something like this it was in an Iron Man movie.
"Arthur, you are running Point correct?" Zara asks with her back turned to him, still tapping on the glass.
"Yes." He answers.
"In any of your research, did our Mark show that he has had any subconscious training?" Zara asked, looking over her shoulder.
"Not yet." Arthur asked, the question putting him on edge.
"Well my late father wouldn't be one of the best at what he did if you could find it." Zara answers cryptically. She turns revealing the screen with a picture of her father and the Mark on the screen.
"Shit." Eams cursed under his breath.
"Exactly." Zara says giving a nod to Eams with a smirk.
"Your father is Wilson Hunters." Eams said as if it was an epiphany.
"Was...he died two months ago from a stroke." Zara corrected, her eyes going to Yusuf.
"He always made it a point that when he trained a client that the training would be nearly impossible to trace, therefore, anyone who tried to do an extraction would get a nasty surprise." Zara explained.
"We're bloody screwed..." Eams announced.
"Ye of little faith." Zara replied calmly with a mischievous grin.
"Can you beat your father's training of the subconscious security?" Cobb asked.
"Yes and no. My father trained my own subconscious, so far I have invited 18 different teams to do an extraction on myself, none of them have come close. However- the same way an Architect can create secret passageways that cut through a maze, many Trainers will install a fail safe in the mind of the client, in the case that extraction be deemed necessary for either the Mark's security or the trainer's. Only the trainer and the client know the fail safe- think of it like a secret password that gets you into the back room. It is one of the greatest challenges in the business to crack the subconscious of a client of my fathers. But if I'm not mistaken- you guys have done this before- both Inception and cracking my father's security- case in point- Robert Fischer Jr..." She says as she moves a picture of Robert onto the screen. Arthur let go of a breath he didn't know he was holding. No wonder it didn't show in his research. Cobb and Arthur share a knowing glance.
"Congratulations by the way on that. It is only because of some serious digging that I found out you guys are responsible. But don't worry- secrecy is probably the most important aspect of this business and something I personally stake my life on. So you guys are safe." Zara promises.
"So that being said- here is what else I have..." Zara then took the next hour regaling them of all the information they hadn't gotten yet. Arthur could feel the blush creeping up the back of his neck. Zara was the real deal. No wonder she had her title, she honestly deserved it. He always considered himself one of the best Point Men in the business but she was clearly surpassing him in her skill in research and thoroughness alone.
"Where did you get your information and tech from?" Dom asked when she finished.
"The tech is from Japan, a small company that just sprang up within the last year or so. My sources are to remain my secrets, but I can swear to you that I only use the most trustworthy and vetted of channels for information." She answered as she began to pack up her screen. Cobb couldn't help but be perfectly pleased with her answer.
"So...which workspace is mine?" Zara asked as she clasped her hands together and looked at the surroundings.
"You can have the one your screen is on." Cobb offered.
"Oh, yeah that will work. Ok, just so you all know, I have some odd quirks when I work- I rarely leave for lunch but I tend to snack all day long and since my desk is out in the open like everyone else's I will keep my head-phones in when I listen to music and if I loose myself and start singing and dancing, please for the love of all that is holy ignore me or tell me to knock it off, I won't get offended. Also, does this place have anything that has resemblance of a kitchen?" Zara asked.
"Yes, it's over here." Cobb said as he got up and showed it to her.
"Excellent because I love to cook and often do, so I hope that isn't too distracting but all of you are more then welcome to eat whatever I cook, a former Mark was a chef and I went undercover as a sous chef and it has never left me." Zara said as she began to go through the cupboards and taking a mental note to get what she needed.
"Perfectly understandable. My condolences by the way." Cobb offered.
"Thank you. Oh, my car should be here any minute..." Zara said as she walked toward the front of the office space and went outside.
"Eams, I will say it again- I am impressed, she deserves her title." Arthur offered in praise, his tone completely genuine.
"Thank you Arthur, but even I didn't know who she was until I met her at the airport. Her mother never said she was sending her daughter, let alone that she even had a daughter."
"Christine is her mother?" Arthur asked with a quirked eyebrow.
"You've never met Christine have you. If you had, it wouldn't come as a surprise. Zara is practically a clone of her mother, except for her eye color. But I had no idea that bloody Wilson of all people was her father. That makes Zara practically Dream Share royalty." Eams said, running his hands over his face. Either they were saved or were in a world of trouble.
Zara came back in and said something to Yusuf before she left again.
"Where did she go?" Eams asked.
"Shopping, she's hungry and wants to make us brownies." Yusuf answered with a chuckle.
"Woo!" Ariadne blurted before she ducked her head back down and went back to work. Arthur raised an eyebrow.
"Arthur- women can easily live without men, but women can never live without chocolate, as Point Man I thought you would know this darling." Eams teased. Arthur turned his attention to the Forger and narrowed his gaze before going back to work himself, eying Zara's equipment with a hint of jealousy.