MAL 1: Intro

Prologue:

...After the Fischer job, Dom never escaped from his limbo. The rest of the team successfully kicked back to level one, and Saito was woken by a gunshot kick straight from limbo, after spending 40 years of dilated time in the dream.

After the plane arrived in America, Robert Fischer, the mark of the operation and subject of all three dreams, never suspected the dreams he experienced, and the idea he obtained from those dreams were from the team. He most likely carried on surprised with the fact he dreamed of the other passengers on his flight that day. Saito honored the agreement by having the charges against Cobb, and nation-wide arrest warrants neutralized. Unfortunately, Cobb never got to see his two children in real life; just mere projections of them. One can imagine his reactions as he discovered he was still in the world that he and Mal built over a 50 year dilated period. After Cobb shot Saito; hence waking him, he was attacked by Mal before he could shoot himself. She hacked into his mind in limbo and implated the memory of him waking up, entering the U.S., and seeing his children.

The rest of the team; Arthur- the point man and researcher; Eames, the forger; and Ariadne the architect; even Saito himself experienced a brief period of grief. Cobb, however never woke up, and slipped into a coma. Upon arrival in Los Angeles, he was rushed to a private hospital. Saito- dedicated to honoring his agreement, and weary of the effects of dream sharing, initiated developments in dream-sharing technology. He paid the original team to go into the limbo, and search for Cobb. As he suspected Mal to be the culprit of his situation, he sent in numerous people to confront the projection. Using state of the art technology, sleepers were able to access Limbo without having to do the dream-within-a-dream routine.

The first dive revealed the time dilation variables in limbo. Time dilation under sedation is roughly around 20 to the power of the dream level. At level 3, time was 8000 times slower than in reality. Cobb's limbo is expected to be between levels 4 and 6, however, as he entered his limbo from level 3, it's expected time was dilated to a much higher degree. The computers projected the time dilation factor to be 20, but the estimated level of limbo was roughly equal to a dream layer of 4. For each day, Cobb spent 438 years and 4 months of dilated time. Each hour was 18 years. Against the urgent request of the dream (mainly Ariadne's request), Saito refused to let them go into Cobb's limbo. Years had passed for him from the time it took to move him from the airplane to the hospital. God knew what happened to him in that time.

It was widely believed that Mal was involved. Ariadne protested that the projection died, but Arthur believed that she was still alive. Saito told them that Cobb woke him by shooting him. He knew if Cobb could produce a gun, he would have had an additional shot to wake himself up.

The team embarked a massive mission- by combining their subconcious and bringing all of their projections into Cobb's limbo to fight Mal's army while they hunted her down. The team speculated she would have him. Ariadne was considered to be at great risk as she shot the projection, weakening her enough for Cobb to let go of her. Another motive Mal had to attack Ariadne was because she, the Architect, hindered Mal's efforts to sabatage the Fisher Job until she told cobb of a passage way for Saito and Fischer to get into the mountain base. Ariadne also empowered Cobb to let go of his guilt that fed the projection.

The team hunted for Mal. The team agreed to shoot Ariadne to wake her up if things got too rough.

Mal was spotted long before she spotted the team. She knew they were there, but thanks to Ariadne's architecture, she was unable to reach them, or so they thought. This projection had learned everything Ariadne knew, and struck with a vengeance. Mal had brought down an army of thousands upon the team. They were outnumbered, injured in the massive shoot out, captured, and brought to Mal. The projection "executed" the team by stabbing each of them- to expel them and wake them up- but not before extracting their memories with an icy stare and injecting copies of herself into their minds- individual projections of her that would haunt them in their own dreams.

As for Ariadne, she was subject to unspeakable torture at the hands of this apparition and prior to being cast into her own limbo, an electrical storm (from a defrillibrator) woke her up. Ariadne was tramatized to a serious degree and refused to cooperate with any further dream exploration, not even to save Cobb.

But she still dreamed naturally and was haunted by Mal- who seemed to infect, alter, and destroy her memories and knowledge and whenever the girl dreamed, the projection hacked into other brain processes; altering the chemical balances in Ariadne's real body, bringing on severe depression and other mental disorders. Mal had escaped the dream realm and was alive and kicking when Ariadne wasn't dreaming- when she was asleep and awake. She caused Ariadne to hallucinate and affected her senses.

It was believed this was Mal's revenge for empowering Cobb to overcome his guilt, and the twisted apprition living Ariadne's subconcious replaced Cobb as the object of her twisted affection.

Today, the entire team is comatose, and Ariadne is hunted by this ghost. But Saito hasn't given up and dedicated a great amount of resources to enhance dream-sharing technology and developing the means and training those whom he would send in to take Mal out.

He had to find Ariadne before it was too late. Before Mal could find a way to put her into a coma and haunt and torture her for an incaluclable eternity in limbo until her body aged and died.

Inception + One Year

365 days passed in real time. In that time, Corporate America witnessed the takedown of one of the largest conglomerates in the country- Fischer Morrow. The corporate behemoth; owner and controller of thousands of companies world wide- didn't come crashing down in a scandal as many thought- nor did it explode and cipplie its companies and disemploy hundreds of thousands of workers world wide. A year ago, it was widely speculated that the corporate giant would cave in and prosecutors eyed and drooled over the trail of foul play that created what would be a scandal much bigger than Enron, British Petroleum, Exxon, and Union Carbide. It was presumed Fischer Morrow would burst following Maurice Fischer's death. But his son, Robert Fischer, dis-assembled F-M, shuffled his army of lawyers around and had them pick apart the legal technicalities and mess of foul play left behind by those who Maurice Fischer employed.

What Robert Fischer did was he took apart almost every part of Fischer Morrow, and had each component- from corporations to individual manufacturers and blue collar companies, cleaned out or re-set. He then began to slowly build his own corporate empire that operated on more ethical values and policies. Fischer prevented catastrophic job losses, and kept Fischer Morrow from exploding and finishing off the U.S. economy for good.

In the last year, he was more successful than his father ever had been. His father built the empire, he kept it from destroying itself. And it was all thanks to the groundbreaking dream he experienced that day when he flew from Sidney to Los Angeles. But Fischer knew all along- that a parasite of an idea infecting his brain had defined him. Everything in his life had improved a great deal. He had been made able to see the imminent disaster his father left in his hands, and prevented it. Fischer originally doubted that his father wasn't ashamed, but decided he was happier that way.

Now Fischer had a new ambition- to create a dream tech industry- an industry that could be worth billions in the future. Not the mere creation of dream sharing technology but the endless possibilities of its use. And he would start with very people who changed his life.

Manhattan, New York City, NY

Saito, leader of his own corporate behemoth, had witnessed with great awe as Fischer Morrow was taken apart and rebuilt into a far more efficient entity. Now it no longer focused on energy, but a multitude of other things, leaving no further competition for his own empire to capitalize on.

But he never expected this, but such an opportunity had came from the unlikliest of accquaintences. He sat at the Formica table accross from Robert Fischer. At first he thought he had been exposed, that Fischer knew everything. How they hacked into his subconcious, and planted the idea that his father, Maurice Fischer, king of his corporate empire, was infact not disappointed in his son, but wanted him to be his own man and live his own life. Only God knew what Fischer would do next.

"I know everything, Mr. Saito. I know it was you and your people who pulled me into that dream. You wanted me to break up Fischer Morrow and destroy everything my father built. I invited you to meet me here, so you can admit that."

Saito sat uneasily in his seat, but wasn't exactly scared of Fischer. Hardly anyone knew about dream sharing technology and Fischer would have a difficult time proving this in court. Saito's army of attorneys would most likely win in any court cases related to this.

"You're right, Mr. Fischer," Saito confessed, "I hired Mr. Cobb and his team and they planted the idea in your mind. But we noticed you're having a greater success than your father, no?"

Fischer sighed and looked at Saito, "That's all I wanted to hear. I have but one thing to say."
"What's that?"
"Thank you."
"Oh," Saito said, surprised, "You're welcome."
"I don't think it was merely an idea that your people gave me," Fischer said, "I honestly believe that what I thought about my father was wrong, that he was only disappointed I tried to measure up to him, and your team revealed that secret to me, whether you planted an idea or not."

Eames, you have done very well.
Saito cleared his throat, and said, "So, how are things going for you, since this breakthrough?"

Fischer chuckled and smiled, and replied, "My father built an empire, but in the last few years it got slow, and began to crumble. I even warned him myself, and he ignored everything. You see, I had to take Fischer Morrow apart or else everything in it would have came crumbling down. I even had to let Browning go because he was too stubborn to see the legal aspects of the problem. I did. I put new companies together and let them operate separately. A few minor adjustments from here keeps each of them working in top order. But overall, I merely took what my father gave me, and made it into something better."

Saito nodded, noting the young baron's increased confidence.
"I'm happy for you, Mr. Fischer."

"I've noticed your practice using the- what is it called, that device that makes people dream?"

"The PASIV. Portable Automated Somnacin IntraVenous device. Dream sharing technology. It was devised by the military for experiments and training purposes. Our man, Dom Cobb used it for his line of work."

Fischer continued, "How is this Cobb anyway? Did he make it back to his children?"
Saito nodded sadly, "Sadly no. If you remember, he slipped into a coma when we landed. He was removed on a stretcher. Do you recall him telling you of a place called Limbo? How in a sedated dream that if you died you wouldn't wake up and be stranded there for a long period of time?"

"Yes, I recall him saying that, if he told me he was Mr. Charles. But how did he end up in a coma? Was it that sedative?"
"No," Saito said, "It was Mal. That woman who shot you and tied you up. Cobb is in limbo. The medical team I hired to oversee him found no viable cause. I suspect it's her."
"Her?-" Fischer began, but Saito cut him off.
"It was a projection of his wife. You should know her. She shot you and put you into Limbo. You only escaped by grace of-"
"Your architect Ariadne. I know who she is. Has she gone back to the university in Paris?"
"She has disappeared, and I'm trying to find her," Saito admitted sadly, "Before its too late. You see, Mr. Saito, that woman who shot you during our dream has become a menace. She imprisoned Mr. Cobb in Limbo, and caused him to go into a coma. We went in to find him, and neutralize her, but she struck with a vengeance, and decimated the team. They are now all in coma. Ariadne escaped the dream and ran out from our lab. I havent heard much about her since."

"I see," Fischer said, looking down at the table, then back up at Saito, "Who is Mal again?"
"She is the memory of Dom Cobb's late wife, Mallorie Cobb. She committed suicide over a year ago. She was Cobb's first experiment where inception is concerned. He failed and now she's dead. The idea he planted in her killed her- drover her to commit suicide. Where Cobb failed with his wife, he succeeded with you."

"W-wait a minute," Fischer said, "What was the idea?"
"That the world is not real. Cobb and his wife experimented with dreamspace exploration. They spent 50 years in Limbo. When you dream, your brain functions faster, giving the sense of time being slowed down. A three hour nap stretched out to 50 years in Limbo. Cobb sought to escape and wake up, his wife accepted Limbo as her reality and refused to leave. So Cobb planted the idea in her subconscious, and she agreed to wake up. When they woke up, the idea stuck with her like a parasite. That reality was a dream, and limbo was real. She committed suicide. Cobb and his team were extremely careful with you. She was destroyed, you were defined. And now all that remains is a projection of her, powered by guilt, fear, memory, and time. Mal has infected Cobb and his team. They were in his limbo, and she infected each of their minds, and now a projection of her exists in each of them, destroying them from the inside."

Fischer seemed sympathetic for a second, but then was again systematic as he always was.

"I'm sorry to hear of your expenses, suffered on my behalf. I wanted to offer a business proposal on a cheerful note, but that's past."

"What proposal?" Saito asked.

"This dream sharing technology, I see potential for an industry so great it will change the world, and everyone in it- from manufacturers to clients and customers to the higher-ups- like us would all benefit. There will one day be a dream sharing tech industry, and those people will posses the same qualities of your team. I propose that we make this a joint venture, and as I have plenty on my hands, you could run it. I provide the funding, and we share the profits evenly."

Saito could hardly respond to the young man's proposal. So Fischer continued:

"Listen, there will be an industry one day. It's already visible underground. I have several intel agencies watching and reporting. You can imagine what advances can be made, and threats be presented in this-"

"I accept your proposal." Saito said, "You and I have had these dreams. We've both been to Limbo. We both know the potential threat of one single projection. If I didn't know any better, I'd say we're late for the new arms race."

"So be it," Fischer said, "We'll creat new companies, get around the law, and set up where authorities will be least concerned. But, first I want a handle on this projection. She's a dangerous weapon if unleashed."

"It would be best if we destroyed her."

"Then do it," Fischer said smugly.

"We need our architect. She dis-powered Mal once. We need her to do it again, and take out this projection once and for all."

"Where is she?"

"She disappeared. She's gone." Saito said.

The two men talked further and established that they would use their resources to locate Ariadne and bring her back.