I've been mapping out this storyline for a while now.
Arthur stared at the man in front of him. He found himself tied to a chair.
"If this is a dream, you can't kill me," he snarled. "And if it's my dream, I'm the one in control."
The man started to laugh.
"I can't kill you Arthur, but I don't want to. And this is my dream, not yours. And I know stuff about you that you wouldn't want anyone else knowing."
Arthur stiffened.
"Like what?" He shot back.
The man cracked a haunting chesire like smile.
"Your worst nightmares...the ones that you can even think about. Some of them, Cobb doesn't even know about, or Eames. And they especially don't know about your past."
Arthur's face paled and his lips felt dry.
"You don't scare me," he said, trying convince himself.
The man let out a cousin of a laugh.
"No, not yet," he whispered. "But I will, you can count on it."
With that little spiders started to crawl towards Arthur's chair.
Cobb groaned in frusteration. It had been a week since Arthur had been taken. All of them were at lost on where he could be.
"Do you know anyone that might want him because of you?" Eames asked.
"I don't know where to start," Cobb said simply. "I have many enemies.
"Maybe we're all looking at this wrong," Araidne said suddenly and they lookd at her causing her to flush. "I mean...what if they are after Arthur...becuase of Arthur? I mean, how long have you known him?" She asked Cobb.
"A few years," said Cobb.
"I worked with him on a job a year before we met Cobb," Eames volunteered. She nodded.
"I'm just wondering...how much we really know about his past, you know? We're all thinking it's because of you, Cobb, but what it it isn't? What of Arthur has his own enemies?"
Saito sighed.
"Then that makes our search a hell of a lot bigger." He glanced at Cobb. "Can you make this plan work without Arthur?"
Cobb shot a firey glare at him.
"I don't care if I can," he growled sharply. "That's not an option in my book. We're not going forth on this project until we find Arthur."
Saito raised his hands in the air.
"It's just a suggestion."
Cobbs continued to glower at him.
"It shouldn't even be a suggestion," he snapped.
His cell phone rang and quickly he picked it up.
"Arthur?"
"No, but it's a...how shall we say it? Good friend of his."
"What have you done with him?" Snapped Dom angrily.
"Relax, you'll see him soon enough. I want to meet with you. And with Mr. Eames."
Dom glanced at Eames and slowly nodded.
"Fine where?"
Eames and Cobb both sat at a table in a nearby cafe.
"I don't like this," growled Eames. "I don't like this at all."
"Neither do I," muttered Cobb. "We don't have much of a choice, though."
"Mr Cobb?" A voice from behind asked. They turned and looked at theman standing behind them with an odd smile on his face.
"You're the one holding Arthur?" Cobbs asked sharply. The man laughed.
"I'm one of them."
"What does that mean?" Eames asked sharply.
"Easy there." The man held up a dice. "You know what this is, right?"
"Arthur's totem,"said Cobb soflty. His fists clintched. and the man nodded. Cobb's silently shook, takinng someone's totem meant you wanted to mess with their minds, mess with their dreams. God only knows what they were doing to Arthur.
"I want to see him," Cobbs added in a growl. "Or at least speak to him."
"I'm sorry that can't happen," the man said with a shake of his head.
"Why the hell not?" Eames asked sharply.
"Because Arthur is trapped right now, in his very own dreamworld...in fact in his very own worst nightmares."
Cobb sucked in his breath. The idea of your own nightmares being used against you... He shuddered.
"Why?" He said as he tried to steady his voice ."Why is are you doing this?"
"For revenge," said the man simply. "Because Arthur got my son killed, and now he is going to do the true meaning of pain and suffering."
Arthur and Eames stared at this stranger and then stared at each other, Araidne's words sneaking up on them. How much did they really know about Arthur's past?
Apparently not as much as they thought.