A/N: This will be a rather short, four-chapter story. It started out as a oneshot, but I thought in the end it was too long, so I broke it up and will be posting the chapters over the next couple of days. I hope you enjoy! Reviews from you lovely readers are always appreciated.

A big thank you to Paint Me Violent for being an excellent beta for this story!

I do not own Inception.

Part One: The Offer

The room that Ariadne was locked in was unbearably plain. That was most likely the point, she realized. Four cinderblock walls, painted white. No windows. Ugly mismatched gray and green tiles covered the floor. Fluorescent lights overhead making the skin on the back of her hands, placed in front of her on the steel table, look a ghastly, pallid color. The air was still, stuffy, and a little bit cold - inexpensive to maintain without heat, altogether. She assumed the room was only used for the one purpose of holding criminal defendants before it was their turn in the courtroom.

She took slow, even breaths as she waited. She wished she had her chess piece totem to play with while she waited, but the bishop had been taken from her, along with anything else she had on her person when she was arrested. The bailiff would be coming soon, she realized, to lead her upstairs to the courtroom where the charges would be read and a court date set. She was not panicking, not just yet: instead, a feeling of dread had settled in the pit of her stomach and seemed content to stay there.

She heard footsteps in the corridor, and looked up as the door opened. The guard was a large black man, his arms enormous and his walk the ungainly stumble of a bodybuilder, but his face was not unkind.

"Ready to go," he said, his voice deep and assured. It was not a question, but not a command either. Just a statement. He looked encouragingly at her, and she nodded. His eyes were soft and curious. He had probably never had to escort a criminal such as her before.

Ariadne stood without a word. She had to walk. She felt out her limbs and tried to estimate her condition - was she ok to walk? Her knees were shaking, and she mentally shook herself to lock them. Her heartbeat increased exponentially, but still she did not lose herself to panic. Perhaps it was all she had been through in the past three months: corporate espionage, a near-death experience, and then the farce of attempting to fit back into a normal world that had toughened her and prevented the panic from taking over. But she could feel it, not far off, threatening to break through her careful composure at any minute.

Ariadne's walk was slow but steady as she walked down the hallway to the elevator and rode it two floors up to the main floor, the guard just a hair behind her the entire time. She did not wear handcuffs - because the thought of me attempting to escape is laughable, she thought bitterly. She had always been a small girl.

Her artist's mind could not help but notice the boring hallway deco: plain and white, dimly lit, just like the room she had just exited. The elevator was not much more stimulating: ugly, dirty steel. Of course, these bottom floors of the courthouse were not meant to be seen by people of a good impression. She frowned as she thought that only criminals, and the bailiff, would ever see these walls.

Ariadne and the guard exited the elevator together in silence and walked a short distance down another hallway (same as below, though it was covered in a thick green carpet) to a wooden door. The guard looked at Ariadne questioningly as he took the door handle. She only nodded again. He gave her a reassuring grimace - she could almost have called it a smile, but it was so reserved - and pulled the door open.

Ariadne of course took no notice of the many people crowded into the seating area in the back half of the courtroom. She could only look up, at the magnificent wooden rafters, arching over long, glass-paned windows. The windows let in light, but no image of outside: they had been frosted. She could only tell that it was a bright day outside. There were lights on the ceiling covered by beautiful glass domes, but their light paled in comparison to the daylight. The walls were a rich mahogany, with the wood floor just a few shades darker. The room was not exactly how Ariadne would have done it - she preferred marble over wood for a fancy interior design any day but it was breathtaking nonetheless.

She finally took in the people as she got to her seat - many more than she expected, at least seventy or eighty of them, and all were staring at her. Press in the back - oh God, there are so many. Her court-appointed lawyer sat next to her, looking through the papers in front of him, and did not spare her a glance. His glasses sat perched at the end of his rather long nose. He wore a black suit and a bored expression. What remained of his hair was graying and stuck up in odd, short patches on his head. She looked to her right at the prosecutor. Unlike her own lawyer, he was staring at her, and the first impression Ariadne had of his appearance was that he would fit comfortably in a southern courtroom drama from the 1960s: his skin was tanned and his face slightly ruddy, and his dark brown hair, a little long, was slicked back, coming to stop at the end of his neck. He wore a brown suit and held the sides of the unbuttoned jacket away from his slightly protruding stomach as he surveyed her. The look he gave her was hard - not the curious look of the audience, but a searching, penetrating look. She gulped and looked at her feet, turning red, as she suddenly felt the weight of the situation fall onto her.

"All rise," a bailiff called, and the floors creaked as everyone in the room rose to their feet. "The Honorable Judge Emerson McQuaid."

Ariadne stared, her heart fluttering as the judge entered and took his seat. He was a stocky, aging man, but the look he gave her as he sat stated clearly that although the physical power he had once commanded may have gone, he was still a tough-minded individual.

The floorboards creaked again as the crowd took their seats.

McQuaid spoke, his voice gruff and hoarse. "Name the suit."

The prosecutor took to his feet, buttoning his jacket as he did so. Ariadne noticed Robert Fischer was nowhere to be seen around the prosecution table.

"Your Honor," the prosecutor started, and his voice matched his persona, Ariadne noticed: not completely a Southern accent, but it was a slower drawl nonetheless. "The state of California brings against the defendant a case of kidnapping, attempted robbery, and attempted extraction through illegal use of dreamshare technology." He turned to give another hard look to Ariadne. "The state seeks a maximum penalty on all counts."

McQuaid eyed the defense table. "And does the defense have anything to add?"

Ariadne's lawyer looked up from his papers.

"No, Your Honor."

Ariadne stared at him granted, all she knew about criminal courts were from watching a few seasons of Law & Order, but surely there had to be something else they should have been doing? And the lawyer had never once introduced himself or given her a passing glance. She bit her lip, suddenly terrified.

"Very well," McQuaid said, giving the defense lawyer a skeptical look and getting up from his perch. "Trial date is set for one week from today, 9 a.m." He banged his gavel once and started toward the exit.

"Wait," Ariadne hissed to her lawyer, turning in her seat. "Shouldn't we be doing something? This was so quick, I-"

He finally turned to look at her, but his look was dismissive.

"There's not much to do, I'm afraid," he said, attempting a look of pity and failing miserably. "We'll have to wait and see what the jury is like."

At least this holding room is a bit more stimulating, Ariadne thought unenthusiastically later as she sat, waiting again. The room was at least furnished - dark red wallpaper, a mahogany desk and chairs, a landline phone on the wooden table she was sitting at. The lawyers conference room, she realized. It was dimly lit the light from the windows, so bright earlier, was fading as the day wore on.

"We had a quick round in there earlier, didnt we?" A voice came from behind her and she started in her seat, turning around quickly to see the prosecutor strolling into the room. The door clicked shut behind him. "So quick, in fact, I don't believe we were properly introduced." He held out a hand. "Sam Lee," he said by way of introduction.

Ariadne shakily took his hand and shook it, unsure of what to make of him. He sat down across the table from her.

"If I were you," Lee said, giving her the same hard look from earlier, "I'd be pretty pleased to meet me, as I'm probably the best friend you're going to have here."

"But, I-" Ariadne started, about to suggest that her lawyer come meet them as well.

"I just thought the two of us could have a quick little chat. Personal and private," Lee spoke over her, his penetrating gaze from the courtroom back in his eyes. Ariadne felt the air leave her lungs. She knew that she shouldn't say anything to Sam Lee without her lawyer present. She could accidentally give crucial evidence or testimony that would damn her.

Lee seemed to be waiting for her to speak, right after he had interrupted her. Ariadne remained silent, but could not tear her eyes away from his. His tiny green eyes bored into her timid brown ones, and she felt an enormous pressure and claustrophobia, though of course she was still sitting in the large room.

"Nothing you say here will go back to your lawyer, unless of course you choose to tell him, and nothing you say will go back to the court - immediately. You may need to testify eventually, but that's a discussion for another day." Lee folded his arms over his rather large stomach as he spoke. His voice was normal, but seemed to hinge on anticipation. "I am, at this point, simply offering you a proposal. You may accept or reject it, though I would say it would be enormously in your favor to accept it."

Ariadne frowned. Roundabout lawyers talk, she thought to herself. She thought over what he had said, searching for hidden traps in his words, before she said quietly, unmoving, "What is it that you are asking me?"

Sam Lee eyed her for another moment and did not answer. When he did finally speak, he too did not move a muscle in his seat, and they were statues speaking to one another.

"I am offering you a chance at freedom," he said, his voice suddenly low. "You are currently on trial for a very serious matter, a trial which, if things go my way, would send you to prison. Penalties for armed robbery in the state of California are a minimum of ten years in prison. Armed robbery is the least of your worries. I could twist this trial in such ways that you could never understand. I could practically put you on trial for rape - unlawful and forced entry into a man's mind without his consent." Lee smiled as if actually considering it. Ariadne felt the blood leave her face.

"So. That's quite a long time for a young girl such as yourself to be in prison. A very long time indeed," drawled Lee, raising his eyebrows at her but still unmoving. Ariadne could not move out of fear: she had lost all feeling in her arms and legs.

"Which brings me to my point," Lee said sharply, louder, sitting up a little straighter in his seat and finally looking away from Ariadne. His movement allowed her temporary peace in which she took a deep breath of air and gulped.

"Mr. Fischer and I have agreed that we will drop the kidnapping and attempted robbery charges against you, leaving only the attempted extraction charge, if-" Lees eyes were back, focused on Ariadne's. "If you will provide us with the names and current whereabouts of your associates, and what it is that they wanted from Robert Fischers mind."

Ariadne blinked. NO.

"Wh-what?" she stammered at him.

"Come, come now, Ariadne," Lee said. "You didn't really expect that we would believe that a 22-year-old who has no known former contacts or experience with the extraction business, or even with dreamshare technology for that matter, could attempt this feat on her own?"

Ariadne could not forget the image of Cobb, leaving the baggage claim at LAX and rushing toward Miles, and the two of them hurrying off home. In her mind's eye at that moment, all she could see was the relieved and grateful look he gave all of them before hurrying off without a word. Toward his children.

NO.

"No, we have surmised that the entire first class cabin was involved," Lee continued, and Ariadne was snapped back to the dreadful immediate. "So we have the names on the tickets, but that's no good, as I know your comrades probably have decades worth of aliases.

"So, what I really need from you is this," he continued, taking Ariadne's stunned silence for admission. "I am going to need the name of your associates, or at least what they told you their names were, where you operated from, how your plan came together, what it is exactly you wanted from Mr. Fischer, and the current location of your associates. You give me this information, and I can give you your freedom."

All she could continue to do was stare at him in horror. NO. She could not do it. She could not could she? She had clammed up at his questions, but if she thought about it...

"And the extraction charge that I leave with you, well that's nothing really," Lee rushed on, as if her silence signified her worry about her pending incarceration. "The laws aren't fully organized about punishing illegal dreamshare yet, and I will be lenient with the prosecution if you are helpful to us. You may not get any jail time at all." He raised his eyebrow at her hopefully. She was silent still.

"Hmmm," he said thoughtfully. "Perhaps you'd like some time to mull this decision over. Maybe some time to help you remember all the details." He stood, straightening his jacket as he did so. He towered over her. Ariadne felt like she might vomit. "But just think about it, Ariadne," he continued, his voice low again. "What do you think they would do, if they were in your place?"

I hope you like the beginning! If you want to see what Ariadne decides, come back later, or I always find that selecting the Alert option below is easier :P

Reviews are welcome! If you happen to find grammatical mistakes, please let me know - fanfiction hates me and I had to change some errors manually.

Terra.