As Ariadne and the rest of the team prepared for the Fischer project and packed up everything for the flight, nerves were running wild from every single person. There was a lot riding on this job, especially for Cobb. It was almost too much pressure to handle. But they forced themselves to focus and just get the job done right.

Ariadne's cell phone rang in her pocket. She pulled it out and saw that it was Christi who was calling her. "Hey, Christi, I can't really talk right now. I'm…working."

"Ari?" the quiet, shaky voice of her friend said on the other end.

"Are…are you okay? You sound like you're crying."

"I—I've been taken."

"What are you talking about?" She put the phone on speaker. "Cobb, listen to this," she said to the blonde man. "Where are you?"

"I'm in the back of a van."

"Who took you?"

"I don't know. There's two men. I keep hearing the word…Cobol."

Every single one of the team members' eyes widened as they all frantically looked at one another.

"Do you know exactly where you are?"

"No."

"Hey, she's got a phone!" a man's voice yelled in the background. There was the sound of banging and another man shouting things over Christi's screams. Then the line went dead.

The silence in the room was deafening.

"Who was that?" Cobb asked.

"My best friend, Christi," Ariadne answered, small tears pooling in her eyes. "We've been roommates since our freshman year of college." By the looks on all of the men's faces, she could tell they knew something she didn't. "What is it?" she demanded. "Do you know who took her?"

Arthur sighed. "It was our last job. Cobol hired us to extract information from Saito's mind. We failed, and now they have a bounty out on us, specifically Cobb."

"What do they want with Christi?"

"My only guess is to lure him out into the open."

"What are they going to do to her if he doesn't show?"

The silence that followed gave her her unwanted answer.

"We've got to get her," Eames stated. "We are not leaving her at the mercy of Cobol when she had nothing to do with any of this in the first place."

Cobb sighed and pressed his hand to his temple. As much as he wanted to disagree, he knew Eames was right. Who knew what would happen to that poor girl if they left her with Cobol? They had already proven that they were willing to kidnap her. He didn't want to think about what they'd do next.

"Okay," Cobb finally said. "We've got a few hours before we're supposed to be on the flight. We'll go in, get the girl, and get out. After that…we'll make it up as we go. That's what we do all the time anyway."

Ariadne breathed a small sigh of relief that he wasn't going to leave Christi with those men, but she was still beyond worried about what would happen to her until they got there.

"Arthur," Cobb said, "trace where that phone call came from and find out her location. Ariadne and Eames, you'll be with me. And the rest of you, finish packing everything up and get on the plane. We'll be there before it takes off." He looked over at Ariadne. "Let's go get her."

Cobb, Arthur, and Ariadne ran to the car and got Arthur on Ariadne's cell phone as he gave them directions to where he had traced the phone.

They ended up at a warehouse that looked just as intimidating on the inside as it did on the outside.

Cobb motioned for Ariadne to stay and keep watch, then motioned for Eames to go one way while he went the other to look for Christi. The two men wandered around, being very careful not to be seen by any Cobol agents.

Finally, Eames found the girl. Her arms and legs were tied to a chair, and her head was slumped forward, resting on her chest. "Cobb!" he called as quietly as he could. Eames ran over to Christi and examined her face and eyes. "She's been sedated," he confirmed.

They heard voices not far from where they were, and correctly assumed that it was the two Cobol agents who had taken her.

Eames proceeded to quickly untie her bindings and frowned at the red lines that were left behind on her wrists from the ropes. It wasn't fair that she had been brought into this in such a harsh way.

After finally freeing her, he slipped his hands under her legs and around her waist and hefted her up into his arms. Her arm went around his neck while her head rested against his chest. She felt so…fragile.

"Let's get out of here," Cobb whispered firmly. "Now."

Cobb and Eames quietly raced back to the car where Ariadne stood, anxiously awaiting their return.

"Is she okay?!" she panicked at the sight of her unconscious friend.

"She's fine," Eames told her. "Just knocked out."

He gently placed Christi in the back of the car with Ariadne and then ran into the passenger seat.

Suddenly, gunshots fired at them and threatened to burst through the windshield. Cobb took off as fast as he could to get away from the shots.

"What are we supposed to do now?" Cobb asked.

"Well we can't bloody well leave her here, now can we?" Eames responded. "They'll recapture her as soon as we leave."

"We can't just get her on the plane."

"Why not? We've already bought out the cabin and the flight attendant, and Saito owns the whole bloody airline. We shouldn't have a problem sneaking her on."

Cobb sighed again. This was not going according to plan. But once again, Eames was right. They couldn't leave this girl here when Cobol was still lurking around.

Seeing no other option, he drove to the airport where the rest of the team would be. On the way, he called Arthur and told him of the unexpected addition to their plans. Arthur wasn't happy, but he agreed that they didn't have much of a choice.

The four of them rushed to the airport with Christi in tow.

"Shouldn't she be awake by now?" Ariadne asked as they arrived with Christi still unconscious.

"The sedatives they gave her are still trying to ease their way out of her system. It shouldn't be much longer," Cobb explained.

"How are we going to get her on the plane?"

"Arthur's talked it over with the flight attendant and, after giving her extra money, convinced her to let us get her on the plane. Once everyone's boarded, Arthur will get her on by the stairs, rather than using the jet bridge. That way, we can still hide her from Fischer and the rest of the passengers."

Arthur met them outside and drove around to the airstrip where their plane was waiting while Cobb, Ariadne, and Eames went inside the airport to board. He parked their car and waited for the sign from their flight attendant.

Arthur never liked getting a stranger to help them with their dream-sharing. A necessity, he knew, but it didn't change the fact that it made him nervous to think that one word from any of them could get the whole team arrested.

Once everyone on the plane boarded, the flight attendant showed her face and that's when Arthur knew it was time. As if their job wasn't illegal enough, they were now sneaking someone onto a plane. This had not been part of the plan when he went to college.

Arthur picked up Christi and carried her aboard the plane. He didn't miss the nervous look on the flight attendant's face, and he didn't blame her one bit. If she got caught helping them, her whole job was in jeopardy, and maybe more than that.

But again, it was a necessity.

With the curtain closed, he set Christi down on the floor of the plane, separated from everyone else. Cobb, Ariadne, and Eames joined Arthur to make sure that they had both gotten on safely.

"She should be waking up at any minute," Arthur told them.

As if on cue, Christi stirred a little and her eyes began to flutter open as her foggy mind started to clear. Taking one look around her, she gasped as she quickly sat up. That wasn't her best decision because sitting up so fast made her head start to ache.

"Christi!" Ariadne exclaimed. "I'm so glad you're okay!"

"Ari?" Christi said, trying to put the image of her friend into focus. "What's going on? Who are all you people? What are you doing to me?!"

"Shh!" Ariadne shushed. The last thing they needed was Fischer coming back here and questioning what they were all doing.

"Don't tell me to be quiet! I want to know what the heck is happening right now! Who took me? Are you all working with them?"

"Christi is it?" Cobb said as Ariadne helped her stand up. Still trying to regain her balance, Ariadne had to put her hands on her to keep her from falling. "First of all, we're the good guys. We saved you from the Cobol agents." He handed her a glass of water. "Here, drink this. It might help you feel better."

Christi looked at him suspiciously. He hadn't given her any reason to trust him…but Ariadne seemed to, and the water was really tempting. If this guy did save her, he wouldn't poison the liquid, would he?

She slowly took the glass and drank a few sips. It felt nice on her parched throat.

"I'd like to apologize in advance," Cobb continued.

"What are you talking about?" Christi asked. Suddenly, the images around her started to go fuzzy once more. She fiercely blinked her eyes over and over again to help her stay awake, but she just couldn't keep them open. She looked down at the glass in her hand. "What did you do?" she asked softly.

"Don't worry, darling," the man behind her said. "You're going to be alright."

The last thing she remembered was falling into someone's protective arms.


Eames caught Christi as she fell back into his embrace, the drug Cobb had given her taking effect. "Now what?" he asked.

"I guess…we take her with us," Cobb said.

"You mean into the dream world?"

"I don't want to, but I'd rather have her with us down there where I can keep an eye on her. I don't want to risk her waking up and ruining everything for us."

"Do you have enough of the sedative to have her with us?" Arthur asked Cobb.

"I asked Yusuf to bring a spare just in case. Apparently, it's a good thing I did."

"Well," Eames mumbled. "Welcome aboard, Christi."

Eames quietly brought Christi out to the cabin while Fischer wasn't looking and secured her into one of the open seats. Then the rest of the team buckled themselves in, and the plane took off.

Cobb's foot bounced up and down in nervous anticipation. He kept sneaking glances over at Christi, each time relieved to find her still knocked out. He had given her a pretty powerful drug, and it helped that she had just been sedated. She probably would stay asleep for the whole flight anyway, but he didn't want to risk it.

His eyes were glued to the lit signs above him. As soon as the one reading "Fasten Seat Belt" went off, he made his move.

"Excuse me?" he said, reaching forward to the man in front of him. The man who knew absolutely nothing about them when they knew everything about him. "I think this is yours. You must've dropped it." He handed Fischer his passport that Eames had previously swiped for him as an excuse to talk to him.

"Would you gentlemen care for a drink?" the flight attendant asked politely.

"Water, please," Cobb told her.

"Oh, um, same, please," Fischer said. He turned to Cobb and gave him a thin smile. "Um, thank you."

"You know, I couldn't help but notice, but you wouldn't happen to be related to the Maurice Fischer, would you?"

"Yes, he, um…he was my father."

"Well, he was a very inspiring figure. I'm sorry for your loss."

The flight attendant quickly held the two glasses in front of Cobb and he poured the same drug he had given Christi into Fischer's glass.

"Here you go," he said as he handed the man his water. "Hey. To your father. May he rest in peace."

They took a couple sips from their glasses. Cobb did not miss the hard look on Robert's face. If they did this right, and the catharsis was powerful enough, this just might work.

It hardly took any time before Robert was knocked

out on his seat. Cobb shook him a little to make sure he was fully under, and the fact that he made no movement confirmed his assumptions.

The team members grabbed their individual wires and hooked themselves up to the PASIV device. Eames grabbed an additional wire and attached it to Christi's arm. He looked at her for a second.

She was just…so beautiful. Her luscious black hair was gracing her flawless pale skin. She looked so calm and easy, unlike the few minutes where he saw her awake, but he didn't blame her for that. Considering the circumstances, it was a fairly reasonable reaction. No doubt she felt uncomfortable with this whole situation, not to mention she was still completely clueless about everything going on around her and why she was involved.

He forced himself out of his daze and got himself hooked up to the machine before sitting down.

The flight attendant pushed the button on the PASIV, and they all entered the dream.