Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds or Inception.

Author's Note: This is going to be long. But I'm going to enjoy writing the dynamics as the characters interact. Possible pairings are Arthur/Ariadne, and perhaps Hotch/Prentiss, thought I'm not sure how it's going to turn out.

Prologue:

They'd been caught. Even with all the planning, all the cautionary measures they'd taken against something like this happening, the government had still managed to wrap their grimy hands around the team. And there they ended up, all five of them confined to a single room, furnished only with a rectangular steel table a fold-out chair for each of them. Cobb thought it lucky that they hadn't been shackled.

It was an interrogation room, they all knew. This building they were in was the FBI's Los Angeles Field Office. The team's own headquarters, another deserted warehouse, had been raided while they'd been gathered there, attempting to work on their next case; this one an extraction.

Ariadne was standing, pacing the room, looking scared out of her mind. She'd known that the line of work she'd chosen to be involved in wasn't exactly legal, though it seemed as if she hadn't come to realize the consequences until now. Arthur's expression was neutral, but both Cobb and Eames looked massively peeved. Yusuf was on the edge of his seat, tapping his feet in his anxiety. He should've known that this would've happened eventually.

The door at one end of the room swung open, and in walked a man, wearing both a black suit and a nasty scowl. "We've decided to offer you a deal," he said, though he didn't look as if it were his choice to give them a chance to compromise.

"A deal?" scoffed Eames, crossing his arms as his eyebrows shot up towards his hairline.

The man nodded. "One where you all won't end up in jail." Ariadne stopped her pacing as the words won't and jail reached her ears.

"Well, what is it then?" Cobb moved from his spot at the wall, steeling his jaw. Arthur still leaned against the wall, silently observing, yet willing to jump in at any time with his own thoughts.

"You guys ever heard of the Behavioral Analysis Unit?" He cocked a brow, and his scowl grew deeper when none of them made any indication that they had any idea what he was talking about. "They're part of the FBI, dealing with psychology and the like."

Arthur's eyes narrowed, and it seemed like he finally decided to speak. "What have they got to do with us?"

"You're going to help them."

"Help them how?"

"You're going to train them in that thing you call extraction." He practically spat out the words.

Cobb shook his head vehemently. "Dream sharing, and extraction, are extremely intricate. It'll be hard to teach anyone with no knowledge about it to do it."

"It's either help them, or go to jail." The man shrugged. "Your choice."

Section Chief Erin Strauss was not the first person Aaron Hotchner would've wanted to be greeting early on a Monday morning. Nonetheless, it was she who sat waiting in his office when he arrived at seven a.m. sharp that day.

"Agent Hotchner," she said curtly, getting to her feet as he entered.

"Chief Strauss." His greeting was equally as cold. "What can I do for you?"

"It's not what you can do for me." He frowned. It wasn't like Strauss to be cryptic; the woman was normally straight, and to the point. "Have you ever heard of a dream-share?"

Hotch shook his head. "No."

"It's a type of technology, used to enter peoples' dreams."

He cleared his throat, repressing the urge to roll his eyes. "Excuse me?"

"Exactly what I just said, Agent. And your team has been chosen to learn how to use it. You'll be training with the best team out there; they're criminals really, as what they've been doing is illegal, but we think that your team will be able to put what they do to good use."

Author's Note: So, what'd you think? Should I continue?

Sorry it was so short; the upcoming chapters will be much longer, I promise.