(I own nothing!)
I looked at Cobb, my hair whipping about me in the wind of the kick.
"You can't stay here!"
"I'm not. I'm going to go find Saito." Cobb stood still looking at his dead wife. I knew then that if I left him there he would never get back to his children. So I did the only thing I could. I raised the gun in my hand and pointed it at Cobb.
"I'm sorry." I whispered.
He turned just in time to see me pull the trigger.
*BANG!*
I watched as his lifeless body fell next to the projection of his wife. I felt the world stop shaking as I missed the kick. I walked over to the elevator and, pulling the gate shut, I hit the button for the ground floor.
As Cobb fell through the layers of dreams one thing caught his attention every time, the sleeping form of Ariadne. Finally he awoke in the van. Arthur handed him the mouth piece of the oxygen tank. Breathing in a lung full, he swam to the surface.
He pulled himself out of the water on the other side of the bridge, away from Fischer and Browning a.k.a. Eames. Arthur turned to him.
"What happened?"
"She shot me."
"She killed you?" Cobb could see Arthur's logical brain trying to fathom Ariadne's reason for shooting him.
"No, she saved me from the maze." Before Arthur could demand an answer they were pulled from sleep as the sedative wore off.
I looked out at the vast city. Dom and Mal had really gone all out. I started walking down the unfamiliar streets. I walked for days, then months and slowly the world that Cobb and his wife created began to collapse into the sea. Every day I would walk away from the sea shore and every morning I would wake up at the edge of it, the area I walked the day before having crumbled into the sea.
Now that neither of the original creators were here, their work was falling apart around me. I hadn't needed to create any buildings since I was always moving only sleeping when needed and even then only on the street. It not like someone was going to come kill me and even if someone did, I would just wake up. And then the months turned into years.
Then it happened. Two decades had passed since I shot Cobb and I was now forty-five years old, my hair was way past my waist with a few strands of silver and the beginnings of crow's feet had set in around my eyes. I woke up as usual and began to walk. I had walked far enough through the city to see the other side. It was just a wall of white unimagined things yet to be thought of and put into place to make something. The sun that day didn't seem as bright as it should have been. I turned and screamed, because there behind me was a wall of water so high I could barely make out the top of it. I ran but the faster I ran the faster it came after me till finally it crested and the wall of water crashed down on me and the remains of the dream world Cobb and Mal had built washing us away.
I fought to breathe, to think. But as the tide pulled me away I felt my eyes close. I couldn't die yet, I needed to find Saito.
"What the hell happened down there?" Arthur half shouted half whispered. Eames, Cobb, Yusuf and Arthur were talking, all of them looking at the prone forms of their comrades. Yusuf had kindly injected Fisher with a sleeping drug so they were free to talk.
"Mal showed up and shot Fisher. Ariadne and I went down to get him back." Cobb said looking at Ariadne, counting the number of breaths she breathed as her chest rose and fell, knowing that each could be her last.
"Down where?"
"Limbo." Arthur hissed in a breath.
"You took her into limbo?"
"It was her idea, alright? I tried to talk her out of it! We went down there to get Fisher and then-" Cobb abruptly stopped.
"And then…What, Cobb?" Eames asked.
"We ran into Mal again. She stabbed me, while Ariadne checked on Fisher and threw him into the kick." Cobb rested his head on his folded hands.
"I thought you said Ariadne killed you, not Mal."
"She did. After Mal stabbed me, Ari shot her." Eames and Arthur exchanged glances, not only did their team's youngest member have some serious balls, but Cobb had just called her by a nickname they had never heard before.
"Then she shot you?"
"I told her I was going to stay and look for Saito, next thing I know she's pointing a gun at my head, pulling the trigger." The annoyance and anger Cobb felt at her actions sliding its way around his words.
"Yep, I remember this girl I once dated, April her name was, our relationship ended the same way. You know minus the psycho projection of an ex-wife and that it was all a dream but-"
"Eames, shut up!"
I choked as sea water filled my mouth as the tide came in. I tried to move, but my body ached and whined in response. I heard someone approach but I couldn't move to look, my tired eyes fluttering shut. I almost didn't care if they killed me. Then shouting in some language I didn't know, it could have been English it had been so long since I heard anyone's voice, even my own. Then two sets of arms grab me and begin to drag me off somewhere and I'm trying to gather up enough brain cells to care.
I knew they dragged me into some building because the blisteringly hot air changed to perfectly air conditioned and the sand and rocks turned into smooth polished stone. I was pulled into a room with bright lights, too bright, and hands descended on my body search for something. I felt them take my gun and bishop, the one thing that had kept me sane, and left me there on the floor.
Then not five minutes later I was once again dragged out of the room and down the hall. The next room they drag me into was lit with lanterns, the walls were patterned panels and in the center of the room was a large sleek black table. I'm placed into a chair at the far end of the table.
Across from me is a man, or at least the remains of one. His face shows his age and hair that he has left is snow white and wispy, but his eyes are what catch my notice. One is covered in a blind film and the other is almost the same. But it's the look behind them that rivets me to the spot. It's the look of a man who was once a great man but had withered away in his own mind.
"Who are you?" The man looks at me.
"I am an old man filled with regret waiting to die alone."
"As am I an old woman." I smile at him but he frowns.
"You are filled with regret." It is not a question. "You thought of him." I glanced up and saw that he was holding my totem, the worn piece of metal now faded and sporting dents. "This is not your totem. You thought of him and this place cannot create him as you see him."
"As I see whom?"
"Another old man filled with regret. You looked at him like I looked at my wife. Such love, but tell me why was there pain in your eyes as well?"
"He could never love me, he loved her so much there was nothing left for me."
"But you still love him." Again it wasn't a question.
"If we could but choose who to love I would not be an old woman waiting only for death."
"Tell me, are you here to kill me?" He lifts my gun in his withered hands, before sliding it to me across the table.
"No, I'm here to wake you up. You have a promise to keep." I raise the gun and fire. He falls forward in the grips of death, a single hole in his forehead, my last bullet, but there is a smile on his face and I know he made it back. I set the useless gun on the table and turn to the window. The waves would be coming soon to wash this place anew.
"Good luck." I whisper before lifting his limp body and carrying it outside. I needn't worry about projections since they died with him. I carried him to a cliff side and buried him so he faced the ocean. I stayed there and watched the sun set. Did real sunsets look like this? I couldn't remember.
"This was a bad idea!" Arthur was shouting.
"Arthur, calm down, yelling will solve nothing." Miles' voice crackles over the speaker phone. Yusuf has once again drugged Fisher and is becoming worried about lasting effects.
"I shouldn't have let her go in, you warned me this would happen and I didn't listen." Cobb said, his eyes still glued to the girl not two feet from him and still so far away.
"Cobb, I sent her because I knew that she would end up going in." Miles voice sounded strained and tired.
"What?"
"Ariadne has always had a good sense of what's what in the world, is about as stubborn as a mule, and is single handedly the nosiest person I have ever met in my life. So if anyone in the world could help you with Mal, I knew she could." Cobb stared at the phone as if it had grown another receiver.
"I thought you sent her because she's the best Architect you had."
"Well, she is the best, that part wasn't a lie, you've seen what she can do." The phone chirped.
"Well that still doesn't explain why she shot Cobb." Arthur interrupted.
"She shot you?"
"Yes, we told you when we were down in limbo; I said I would stay to find Saito and next thing I know I've got a 44 caliber bullet between the eyes." Cobb snapped as he brushed a strand of hair out of Ariadne's face.
"Cobb, you had to get back to your children, Arthur has his family, Eames has his mother, and Yusuf has his cat."
"What does this have to do with anything?" Eames asked wondering how Miles knew about his mother.
"Sixteen years ago Ariadne was in a car crash with her parents. A drunken semi driver hit them head on. Her parents died on impact. She was trapped in that car for two hours before help got there. Both her legs were broken, as was one arm and multiple ribs. Her parents had been only children and her grandparents perished in a house fire the day before the accident. Do you understand now?" There was silence throughout the cabin. "She stayed because she had no one to miss her if she didn't come back."
"So that's why. I was wondering why she was there and not you, Mr. Cobb." They all turn to see Saito sitting up in his chair.
"She brought you back."
"I have a promise to keep she merely made sure that I would." Saito reached down and picked up the phone.
I stood there for years just looking at the never ending sunset that Saito had created. But like the last dream realm, it slowly was washed away as was I.
Finally the waves spat me out on a vast plain of white nothing. I stood and looked around.
Time to die.
But how? I couldn't bring myself to shoot myself. Drowning would be near impossible. Then I remembered. Perfect.
I began to build the tower block by block, inch by precious inch. The work went slowly, it having been so long since I built anything and if I was going to die here it was going to be my best work.
"Ladies and gentleman we will be landing in Los Angeles airport shortly. Please buckle your seat belts and thank you for choosing to fly with us."
Cobb looked up from his crouch by the unconscious female to look at Arthur. Arthur's face matched his. 'What now?'
"We need to wake her up!" Cobb said standing up.
"There's no time. We'll be landing in fifteen minutes and Yusuf used the last of any remaining sedatives on Fisher." Eames told them a grim look in his face. "I'm sorry."
"I am sorry as well, Mr. Cobb. I know you were fond of her, too fond perhaps." Cobb looked at Saito with broken eyes. "I will take her to a clinic I own in Germany, we are exploring the possibilities of using the PASIV as a tool for pulling people out of comas, helping the mentally ill, and giving loved ones a longer and more restful passing. I'm sure we can do something for her."
Cobb nodded and tried not to cry. He'd done it again. He'd gotten close and the person he cared about got hurt.
He wanted to stay with her, but his kids needed him, and their needs came before his. So with the pieces of a heavy heart he strapped her in before doing the same.
I stood looking at the building. It was done. I took a deep breath and opened the door. The first level was my own home from when I was smaller. The warm air with the scent of apple pie floated softly. I could almost see my family around the old oak table eating breakfast on Sunday morn. Mom putting food on the table as Dad read the funnies out loud to us. Dad would always steal a pancake from my plate; that was okay since I always took an extra one for him, but Momma still smacked him on the hand every time he did it. Then at night when I was supposed to be in bed I would watch my parents slow dancing on the front porch. They always knew when I was watching, but only said anything if it got too late.
A tear danced down my wrinkled cheek at the memory. Would they even recognize me if they saw me today?
But I didn't have time to linger. Quickly I walked to my room and to the closet. It was a simple room, just what one would expect of a little girl. I smiled at the soft pastel yellow walls, mom had said there was no way any room in her house was going to be pink, the vanity in the corner, a book case, a dresser and a bunk bed my grandfather made me. I smile at the memory before opening the door in my closet and ascending the steps to the next level.
Ironically it was my grandmother's house. It was in the city and you could see the Thanksgiving parade from her bedroom window. Her house always smelled of cinnamon and nutmeg as did she. We had been there for every holiday big or small. I walked to the pantry that I would hide in when I played hide and seek with grandpa. I opened it and stepped up into another stair case. Which place would this one lead?
Where it led wasn't a happy place. It was a rainy dark road in the mountain, the same one we drove every time we went to see my grandparents. It was the crash site.
My mind had left out everything about that night except one thing. The car.
There it sat, its front end crushed beyond recognition, the side bashed in. The car was upside down in the middle of the road.
Slowly I walked to it, fearing that at any second I'd see my parents' lifeless corpses, but they never appeared. I walked to the side door that didn't resemble something from a monster truck rally and pulled it open. There before me was pitch black. I gulped knowing what was next.
I walked through more levels, more stories and more rooms. These weren't as clear as the rooms before. They were foster homes, orphanage rooms, courtrooms, classrooms, a graduation hall, and finally a plane. It was the plane that took me to Paris for my scholarship.
I walked to my seat and sat down; I blinked as the seat moved like an elevator. I was moved through the lecture hall, the hall way where I met Cobb and then I was in the warehouse. I stood from the chair that was now a lawn chair and not the one from the plane, and walked to the big doors.
It took some pulling but finally the doors moved enough and then they went on strike refusing to move past that point. I squeezed through and blinked in the bright light of the plane that was headed to L.A.; the place I had been before entering the dreams for the inception. I stood there in the kitchen looking at the empty seats. I walked to Cobb's and brushed my hand thinking about how if he was there in the waking world and how his rough cheek would feel against my hand.
I sighed. Even if I made it back, he was still leaving. I turned away from the seat, tears pricking my eyes like needles. I rubbed them away viciously, stupid seat making me emotional. I sat in my seat and waited. Nothing happened.
I then tried Cobb's seat.
Nope.
Arthur's seat.
Nada.
Eames's seat.
Zip.
Yusuf's seat.
Zilch.
Saito's seat.
There is no no'er word to describe the impossible no'ness of my answer.
Fisher's seat.
And then…nope, still not happening.
Wait.
Nope still nothing.
I stood and stretched out the kinks in my old back. Then I saw it. And sighed so hard I felt even my lungs get exasperated at the discovery. Only in my mind would I have to jump the hatch of a moving airplane.
I walked to the door and opened it, I had my eyes closed, but I opened them as I stepped out.
I was looking down a long dark hall. I walked down it. There was nothing here. But after a long walk I saw a door, light pouring out of the cracks of the ill-fit door. I smiled and threw open the door. Finally.
Cobb stood at immigration waiting for the officer to hand back his passport. Now was the moment of truth, but his mind was back on the plane still holding the hand of the girl who saved him. He hurt at the thought that she was trapped, trapped because he wasn't strong enough. And now it was too late to even say he was sorry.
I stood on the roof of the tall building looking at the vast nothingness below. It was time. I stepped onto the ledge and looked out willing there to be something to look at on the way down, but there wasn't and it was probably for the best. It had taken me forty-one years, but here I stood finally able to leave.
I raised my foot and set it into the nothingness. I now knew why Mal jumped. Even though it yielded the same result, it was easier to take one step than to pull a trigger. Because falling is easy, you can't change your mind.
And I fell.
Cobb saw Miles standing there, a sign in his hand with his name on it.
"Ready to go home?" And for the first time he didn't know the answer. Then he spotted Arthur out of the corner of his eye, his hand was moving. Cobb's heart sank. That was the 'something went so wrong pigs have taken off in flight' hand signal. Cobb nodded at the café and led Miles over there. Now what went wrong?
I opened my eyes to look about the plane. We must have landed already; either that or everyone went skydiving. I notice Saito talking to the pilot as I grab my bag as I head to the door.
"So now you're a young man again with a second chance." I smile at him as he turns. He doesn't look surprised to see me awake.
"And so are you a young woman with a second chance, but the question is will you take it?" The look on his face tells me he knew I would wake up. Smartass.
"There is no chance I can take that I don't already know the ending of." The smile is sad now.
"One can't know everything, little Ariadne." I nod and wave as I leave the plane.
"We need to wake her up." The tone in Cobb's voice was strained and tired, but the resolution behind it left no room for argument.
"There isn't any way to get there! And even if we could get in, who would we send?" Arthur snarled running his hand through his hair for the millionth time, fear for their Architect obvious in his voice.
"I would."
"No, Dom, we can't risk you going in and getting lost. Your kids need their father." Arthur said shaking his head.
"I'm the reason she was in there in the first place!" Dom snapped, glaring at Arthur.
"Dom, she stayed so you could go home to your kids. Don't throw away her sacrifice." Miles said.
Dom sank back in his seat. Ariadne's face swam in his mind, her eyes full of life and a small slight smile on her face. Then it changed to one of her sleeping, her face expressionless. Then to one of her with tubes going out of her forcing her body to live. Then it made the last change. Her face was pale and gaunt, her hair draped around her and her head resting on a satin pillow, as a man closed the lid on her before lowering it into the ground.
"I'm sorry."
Her voice echoed in his head. He felt his throat close. Those would be the last words he ever heard her speak.
Miles watched his son-in-law with a pained look. He hadn't seen this coming. He should have known from the way Dom talked about the young Architect that it was the beginning of the end.
Miles looked up at the ceiling, but something on the upper floor caught his eye.
Maybe it was just the beginning.
I walked towards the door to the street my bag bouncing against my side and my totem clutched in my left hand. I look at the café on the lower floor contemplating food, but then I see the team sitting there talking, Miles is there too. I wonder why, but I have a taxi to catch and lord knows that will take forever.
I see Miles look at me out of the corner of my eye, he looks surprised at something. But I resist the urge to go talk to them. Remember the plan, you don't know them and avoid eye contact.
Then a thought struck me.
Did Saito tell them I was awake? Of course he did, he wasn't a cruel man….Right?
"You are a cruel man." The woman beside Saito said watching the girl walk through the crowd.
"Am I?" He asked, glancing at her.
"Yes, why didn't you tell them she's awake? They're worried sick!" Her eyes squint as she looks at the man in the café looking as if he's lost something important.
"But if I told them, it would be brushed off and then they would never get anywhere." Saito looked at his wife.
"I'm sorry, you're not a cruel man."
"Thank you."
"You're a sadistic one." She turned back to the girl. Also a romantic one, she thought as the girl walked out of the airport.
"Then what do you propose we do then?" Eames asked watching Dom pace before he stopped and leaned on the back of a chair.
"We don't do anything." They all turned to look at Miles as he calmly sipped his coffee.
"What?" Dom's voice startles several customers, causing them to stare before the glares from the five men made them turn back to their own bees wax.
"She's awake." Miles look at them over the edge of his mug.
"Miles…" Dom's voice is tired and strained.
"I'm afraid that's impossible. I did extensive research on limbo when I was studying the compound. There is no way she's awake." Yusuf said slightly sadly as he sorted the fruit salad on his plate, each fruit in its own little pile.
"Well then Ariadne has a serious sleep-walking problem." Miles says pointing his finger at something on the upper level. They turn.
And there walking towards the front doors of the airport was the youngest member of the dream team. She wasn't facing them, but the scarf was unmistakable.
"See she's- Dom?" But Dom was not at the table anymore.
I charged up the escalator, forcing by people who were cursing at me in several languages.
Could it really be her? I had to know. I ran to where I had last seen her but she was gone. Then a flash of brown caught my attention out of the corner of my eye. I ran out the front doors into the pouring rain just as the taxi pulled away, as did the brunette in the back.
I watch as it vanishes in the rain.
"Damn it!" I cursed.
"Taxi! Shit!" I turned and there jumping out of the way of a wave of water caused by said taxi, was Ariadne. She was wet from the rain and her hair was a mess but it was her.
"Ariadne?" I whisper not really believing that she could be here. Awake.
She turns to look at me, her eyes going wide.
"Dom? Wha-?" But she doesn't finish the sentence, because I grab her and pin her between me and one of the columns of the awning. Her lips are cold and blue, her eyes the deep brown pools that were full of wonder.
I kissed her.
I, Dominic Cobb, kissed Ariadne Bishop in front of the LAX airport and I didn't care who saw.
Then one thought ruined the feel of her lips against mine, the spark that it created.
What if you never woke up?
What if this was a dream?
I cursed at the taxi as I jumped out of the way of a small tidal wave of water.
"Shit!" I snarled after the retreating taxi and his bastard driver.
"Ariadne?" The voice that speaks is soft and hesitant. I turn and there on the sidewalk is Cobb slowly getting soaked in the rain. What was he doing? We were supposed to act like we didn't know each other.
"Dom? Wha-?" I don't finish because suddenly he's pressing me against a pillar, carding his fingers through my hair. His eyes are intent on me, memorizing as if he was making sure that all of me was there.
Then Saito's voice glides through my mind.
"An old woman filled with regret, waiting to die alone."
"A young woman with a second chance, but the question is will you take it?"
Could I?
But I don't have time to wonder, because he kissed me. Is kissing me.
I pull him closer as my feet leave the concrete. I never wanted it to end.
But then something hit me.
Was it just a dream?
He pulled away from me and I fumbled in my pocket for my totem. I felt it in my grasp. It was as it should be. New, barely used as opposed to the old one in limbo.
I look at him as he pulls out his own totem and spins it. It spins there on the trash can lid. I hold my breath as it starts to wobble. He looks me in the eye, his eyes are pleading for this not to be a dream, before shifting back to the top.
I pull out my own totem and set it on the lid next to it. The top spins into it… and comes to a dead stop. I voice our thoughts.
"It's not a dream, Cobb." And then I'm back against him and this time he doesn't let go.
Miles watches from inside, safe from the pelting rain.
He should have seen it coming. Had anyone seen what he missed?
"You owe me fifty bucks, darlings." Eames says looking at Yusuf and Arthur.
Apparently they had.
Saito watched from his vantage point, his wife having come back unwilling to miss the end of his sadistic test.
"What if it hadn't worked?"
"Then I would have gone to plan B." She didn't ask what plan B and knowing her husband, she didn't want to.
"Let's get out of here." I say looking deep into her warm brown eyes. She nods.
"Taxi!" I call out raising my hand and one pulls up almost immediately. She looks at me with a praiseful and jealous look. We climb in and I tell the driver my home address.
I looked at the girl leaning against my shoulder in the back of the taxi cab. She smiles up at me as I press a kiss to her forehead.
"Come home with me?" She looks shocked at my words.
"I don't want to intrude."
"You won't. And I'm sure James and Phillipa will love you just as much as I do." She looks as me with shining eyes.
"I'll go with you on one condition."
"What?"
"You teach me how to hail a damn taxi cab."
I'm going to Dom's house to meet his kids. I kissed him. And he just told me he loves me.
I snuggled closer to him on the cab seat.
I was not longer an old woman filled with regret waiting to die alone. Nor was I a young woman filled with hope. I was just Ariadne. A girl living her life with the man she loved.
Then a single thought hit me.
"Dom?"
"Yeah?" He smiles against my hair.
"Did you remember to tell Miles you were leaving without him?"
Back at the airport on a trash can lid sat a bishop from a chess set and a top. Miles smiled at them and picked them up. They didn't need them anymore but it would be something to remember this moment by, and to show the children. Miles smiled as he thought about what their relationship meant for him. More grandkids.