A/N: Hello everyone! Just a little side story here. I saw Inception yesterday with my friends and absolutely ADORED it. It was sooo good, I loved nearly every minute of it. And I loved JGL in this movie, I just think he's awesome. So, about half way through the movie this fanfic popped into my head and I had half of it written about an hour after I got home haha, I hope you enjoy it! Part 2 will be up soon :)

(Note from 2013: This entire story is unbeta-ed, since I started writing it before I really knew was beta-ing was haha. I'm too lazy to try and find one now, so please try to bear with me. If you see something that's really bugging you, or you just want to give me a tip to improve my writing, feel free to telling me via review or PM, thanks!)

Ariadne (architect girl) POV:

"So, what's this guy's deal again?" Arthur asked as we got onto the jet plane.

"This 'guy' supposedly works for a known Italian mob leader that our client wants to know the location of." Cobb replied gruffly, swinging his luggage into the overheard compartment.

"Supposedly? Come on Cobb…" Arthur rolled his eyes.

"Just lay off, okay? I'm sure enough." he replied. Arthur was always so hard on Cobb.

"Anyways," Cobb continued, "This Italian mob leader-"

"Supposed, Italian mob leader," Arthur cut in with a sneer as he sat down near the window. Cobb scowled at him, then turned to me as I sat down across from him,

"This guy deals with torture to get information; he's trained his men to have mob-like projections. Do not, under any circumstance, let them take you alive. Trust me, they won't kill you, they'll make you wish you were actually dead." Cobb's hard eyes bore into mine, making me squirm in my seat.

"Take it easy, she's not dumb. She knows what to do if something goes wrong," Arthur said, not even taking his eyes off of the window. God knows how Cobb and Arthur ever get through the day without killing each other.

"We need to get this done quickly, the flight's about eight hours from here to Venice. We'll spike his drink, Eames'll put us all under, and then we get in and find out where his boss is located. That's our assignment." Cobb looked at everyone to see if they had any questions. I looked next to me at Eames, he seemed resigned enough. The flight took off and in no time we were up in the air. Our private section (courtesy of Saito) got their drinks, and Cobb distracted the attendant while he slipped some of the concentrated sleeping powder into Mr. Demetri's drink. Within moments he was out and Eames was hooking us all up. I looked across from me as watched as Arthur and Cobb were being put under.

This was when you could see their biggest difference. Eames started up the flow and both of them fell limp in their chairs. I looked at Cobb; even when he was asleep he still looked upset. His brow was furrowed and his mouth was turned down in a frustrated scowl. He never seemed relaxed, not even when he was dreaming. Then I looked at Arthur, who could not look any more different if he tried. He looked absolutely tranquil, serene. All of his worries seemed completely washed away; he even smiled in his sleep. I didn't know if he actually didn't worry when he fell asleep, but it sure seemed like it. They looked so different, almost cliché sleeping next to each other; absolute opposition, frustration and peace, chaos and order, yin and yang. I smirked and leaned back as I felt the needle pierce my arm.

We were in a large city, it was night time. The street lights were on and there were few people on the road. I looked to my left and right but I didn't see anyone. I was about to step into the street when someone grabbed my arm from behind me. I almost screamed until I realized it was Arthur, dressed in a beige trench coat and a dark hat. He smiled and motioned to follow him down the alley. I started to tell him off, but he immediately put his hand over my mouth,

"Mr. Demetri is a very perceptive dreamer, we can't risk drawing any sort of attention to ourselves," He whispered into my ear. We met Cobb behind an abandoned warehouse, he was dressed the same way Arthur was. They looked more like Chicago mobsters from the 40's than the Italian mafia, but it still worked. I took this moment to realize what I was wearing myself. I looked down to discover a tight-fitting knee-length red dress with a low V-neckline and my hair was up in curls. I glanced in a store window and my jaw dropped as I noticed my cherry-red lips and heavy eye make-up. Not to mention the various pearls and ribbons in my hair. I looked like a mob girl, and as I took another step forward I realized I had a gun under my dress, hooked onto my thigh. Yep, definitely part of the mob, I thought. I briefly wondered how much I'd actually be able to do in this dress as Cobb motioned us through the doors into the warehouse.

It was extremely dark, but we walked quickly through the large room until we came to a basement door. Cobb knelt down, pulled out a skeleton key, and after checking behind us, unlocked the door with little difficulty. I looked at the windows of the warehouse; a couple walking by stared at me through the window, a dead glare in their eyes. I hurried down the stairs as the guys were trying to unlock another door.

"Guys, I think Demetri's projections are onto us," I whispered. Arthur glanced up the stairs in the dim light of one bulb, but then looked back as the door clicked open. We hurried in and looked around; it looked almost the same as the floor above, just a bit smaller. At the back of the room was a large safe, that's what we had come for. I heard Arthur breathe a sigh of relief next to me as Cobb dashed across the room to the safe.

"Not so fast," said a voice from behind us. All three of us spun around to find Mal standing in the doorway, surrounded by Demetri's projections.

"Oh no. No, no, no, no, no…" I gasped. I turned to Cobb, who just stood there with his mouth open, at a loss for words.

"Cobb…" Arthur said warily as he pulled his gun out from his jacket, not daring to take his eyes off of Mal and the other men.

"I- I don't know, I thought…" Cobb stuttered. I turned back to Mal, whose eyes had narrowed into slits.

"That's them." She said bluntly. The men immediately open fired as Arthur as I tried to fight back. We ducked behind the pillars as Cobb desperately tried to get the safe open. The men ran towards us without fear; I heard a cry of pain as I saw Arthur go down on the other side of the room, clutching his leg. I screamed as I felt a bullet go through my arm. I dropped to the floor, clutching my wound as blood started pouring out. Desperately I looked up at Cobb who had just gotten the safe open when he got shot in the back.

"No!" I yelled, forgetting that he really couldn't die. He bent over, clutching the papers in his hand as the men surrounded the three of us. As they began to pick me up I quickly tucked my gun back under my dress as I saw Arthur and Cobb do the same.

The men dragged us out of the room to a run-down apartment building next door. It was falling apart, with the windows boarded up and the wallpaper peeling off. There was nothing in the room but a chair, unless you counted the spider webs. Two men held on to my arms as I saw two more men hold Cobb and another two holding up Arthur, who was wincing as his leg dragged on the floor. A tall man walked in who was clearly in charge of the others. He walked up to each of us, anger and malice in his eye. Could projections really act this way? This was far more advanced than anything else I'd seen. These projections had order, they had social class; they almost had a mind of their own. The tall man stopped at Arthur, who clenched his teeth, scowling at him; Arthur and Cobb were both really good at scowling. I glanced over at Cobb, and did a double-take. He looked absolutely terrified; his eyes were wide and he was breathing heavily. Wait, what was going on? Why was he so upset? The tall man looked away from Arthur and back at the two of us. Mal walked in through the door then, and the tall man looked to her,

"He's the one you want," She said, nodding towards Arthur. Hold on, Arthur? Wouldn't they want Cobb? Why was she blaming the wrong person?

"No! Mal, please, don't do this!" Cobb yelled. I stared at his panic stricken eyes and then looked at Mal, who gave him a seductive wink.

"Cobb, what the hell is happening?" I yelled, not able to contain myself anymore. None of this was making sense! My breathing started to speed up as the tall man spun around and punched Arthur square in the face, causing his nose to bleed.

"NO!" Cobb screamed as the man pulled out a gun and pointed the barrel towards me. Adrenaline shot through me for a second before I screamed and he pulled the trigger.