It had been a beautiful invitation, the chance to enter into dreams and build anything her young mind had envisioned. Not buildings, not inventions, but entire worlds. She was still on the cusp of childhood, still able to grasp at those long-held dreams that a cleaner slate had constructed. Even at the question of legality, she had had only the slightest hesitation; she'd believed that the confidence placed in her would carry forward, that the secrets before her would open as easily as the sky. But then, even the dreamscapes reflected something of reality.
The noise of speech was like a soft humming in her ears, not unlike the mechanics of the elevator that had brought them here. Cobb was explaining something he thought she needed to know, but she was not hearing him. Was this a closed loop? Her heart still stung with the understanding of possibilities. She could still hear waves lapping at the sandy shore, at the feet of beautiful children.
He was explaining, but answers weren't forthcoming. The house was beautiful, warm sunlight draping the dark pines in comfortable hues. She thought of Eames, Saito, of Yusuf and Arthur and how they would never even get the opportunity for the closed loop. She was still able to grasp those long-held dreams.
The childen beyond her were leaping up, running. She took a step backward, feeling suffocated, motivated. Cobb's dreams were vivid in a way that her own designs had yet to match. One day, maybe, and though she could create truth in this labyrinth, she could not create answers.
He barely heard her as she broke into a sprint for the elevator behind them. The metal lattice of the door sprung closed behind her with speed and finality. Did Cobb want her to see? Did he want someone to know? She hit the button for the lowest level. His secrets were in a different kind of vault.
Down, down, she went, feeling a pressure like water closing in on her that had nothing to do with gravity. She wasn't doing this for him. She was doing it for the others, who had no idea what tricks and traps lay before them. For a moment revulsion roiled in her stomach at their ignorance, this deep-seated fear that had killed her once and might do so again. It fled when light began to shine through, illuminating the secrets that he had tried to keep from her, from all of them.
This was at the heart of their conflict, but this dream, this nightmare, wasn't a construction of new and imagined properties. It was a reconstruction, a memory, created just as brightly and complete as any other world she had stepped into. It was fresh. She felt in that moment that she knew more than she wanted to, and still not enough. She was going to protect them all, protect Dom even. With sure fingers, she reached up and pulled the door open.
She stepped into reality.