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Ariadne sat at the café that Cobb arranged to meet at, nervously fiddling with her coffee cup. Would he finally tell her what his illegal business was and why she was needed? A waiter suddenly approached her table holding out an arm and Ariadne looked up to see Cobb making his way over. He smiled at her and extended his hand. Ariadne stood and shook it in response.
"Ariadne, thank you so much for meeting with me again." Cobb said as he pulled out his chair.
Ariadne nodded understandingly and gestured for him to begin. "So… What?"
Cobb started right in on his spiel, "So they say we only use a fraction of our brain's true potential. Now that's when we're awake. When we're asleep… Our mind can do almost anything."
Ariadne blinked, taken aback by the sudden seriousness in his voice. She reached for her coffee cup and gestured for Cobb to continue, "Such as?"
"Well imagine you're designing a building, right? You consciously create each aspect. But sometimes you feel like it's almost creating itself if you know what I mean."
"Yeah, yeah. Like I'm discovering it." Ariadne nodded, suddenly entranced by Cobb's words, wondering where he was going with it.
"Genuine inspiration, right?" Cobb reached into his pocket to pull out a pen. "Now in a dream our mind continuously does this. We create and perceive our world simultaneously and our mind does this so well that we don't even know it's happening." Ariadne leaned forward as she watched the small diagram Cobb created on the napkin. "That allows us to get right in the middle of that process."
"How?" Ariadne questioned.
"By taking over the creating part. Now this is where I need you. You create the world of the dream. We bring the subject into the dream and they fill it with their subconscious."
Ariadne leaned back, disbelieving. How did they suddenly get on the topic of dreams? "How could I ever acquire enough detail to make them think that it's reality?" she found herself asking.
"Well dreams… They feel real while we're in them right? It's only when we wake up that we realize something was actually strange." Cobb replied. "Let me ask you a question. You never really remember the beginning of a dream, do you? You always wind up right in the middle of what's going on."
"I guess, yeah."
"So how did we end up here?"
Ariadne stopped and tried to think. "Well, we just came from the, uh…"
Cobb leaned forward intensely. "Think about it, Ariadne. How did you get here? Where are you right now?"
Ariadne looked around suddenly feeling very untrusting of her surroundings. "We're dreaming?" she asked, her voice a mix of awe and disbelief.
"We're actually in the middle of a workshop right now, sleeping. This is your first lesson in shared dreaming. Stay calm," Cobb ordered. Ariadne nodded timidly and Cobb stood up. "Very good. Now come with me."
Ariadne had followed Cobb down the street as he explained dreamshare further. Ariadne noticed a familiar man seated on a bench up ahead. As they got closer, Ariadne's eyes widened.
"Arthur, what are you doing here?" she asked and Arthur stood up to greet them. He was wearing the same suit that he had worn on his date with Ariadne.
"Ariadne, this is Arthur. He's our point man." Cobb spoke hesitantly. Another man walked around the corner then, smiling at her sympathetically. "And this is our forger, Eames."
Ariadne stared at the three men in disbelief. Arthur took a step closer to Ariadne but she took a step back, a look of hurt and confusion crossing her face. "What do you mean? You work together?"
Arthur's expression fell and he nodded, remorsefully. "Yes, Ariadne. I had no clue—"
"You had no clue, huh? Your boss informs you that I declined his little job offer and so he sends you after me? What… Did you think just because I slept with you that you'd be able to get me to join your team?" Ariadne sputtered. "And what the hell were you planning on doing?" she asked, staring at Eames.
"That actually was a freak coincidence," Eames said defensively.
"All of this is just a freak coincidence! Ariadne, I wouldn't do that!" Arthur cried out and reached for Ariadne's arm.
Ariadne shook it off and turned away from the group of men and began to run down the street. She felt tears threatening to spill over. As she ran, she earned several angry glares from projections as she pushed past them. She turned down an alleyway and found herself at a dead end. Beginning to head back the other way, Ariadne realized that she had trapped herself. A group of projections began to converge at the entrance of the alley, cornering Ariadne.
"What, they're gonna attack us?"
"No… Just you."
Ariadne thought back on her conversation with Cobb earlier and shuddered inwardly. Closing her eyes she focused on a way out. Ariadne turned away from the crowd to the building wall before her and now there was a single door. She ran for it and swung it open, locking it behind her.
A staircase appeared before Ariadne and she began to steadily run up it. She reached the door to the roof and pushed it open, looking down at the city before her. She was still shocked by the realism of the dream. As she stood on the roof there was a weak thundering sound off in the distance along with the sound of faint music. The ground beneath Ariadne began to rumble nearly causing her to fall over. She looked over the edge at the street below to see large chunks of gravel exploding out of the sidewalk. Windows shattered, sending shards of glass flying into the air appearing to be in an anti-gravity state. Ariadne gasped as the building began to crumble underneath her.
Ariadne sat up in her deck chair gasping for air. She blinked and looked at her surroundings. She was lying in a warehouse with several desks and work stations set up around her. There was a large bulletin board on the far side and Yusuf was seated near the PASIV watching Ariadne as she sat up. The four of them were positioned in chairs around the sleek silver case in the middle of the circle. There was an IV line plugged into Ariadne's wrist and she jerked it out of her arm as the others began to awaken. Arthur sat up quickly and reached out to her hands. Ariadne yanked them away, "Don't."
"Ariadne, please. Just listen to me." Arthur nearly begged as Ariadne turned to walk away.
Cobb swung his legs over the side of his chair and spoke up. "He had no clue, Ariadne. It's all a misunderstanding."
Ariadne was already halfway out the door, not even bothering to listen.
Arthur's face flushed red as he glared at Cobb. "I told you." Eames said from his chair and earned a glare from Arthur in return.
Ariadne curled up on the couch with a cup of tea, barely moving the rest of the afternoon. She wrapped a blanket around her shoulders and cuddled a pillow tightly. She felt so used. They claimed it was a coincidence but Ariadne didn't know how much she could believe them. She stared at the note from Arthur that was sitting on her coffee table, crumbled up and tossed onto the table out of anger. She gingerly reached out and unfolded it reading Arthur's words over and over. They were supposed to have dinner plans. Ariadne slid her phone out of her pocket and dialed Arthur's number; her thumb wavered over the 'Send' button. She closed her eyes and then pressed cancel, tossing her phone over to the opposite couch.
Arthur sat down at the bar that he had arranged to meet Ariadne before their first date, wondering and hoping if she'd show up. He had called and left her a message asking to meet but he had received no response since then. It had been a little over an hour since their scheduled meeting time. He sat at the bar, turning his glass of whiskey around in circles. He looked towards the entrance and around the bar one last time before getting up and heading for the door.
Arthur walked into the warehouse the next morning, feeling worn out and tired. He only got a little over two hours of sleep the previous night. He sat down at his desk and rubbed his eyes sleepily. A few minutes later Cobb walked in followed by Eames. Eames shot Cobb a look and he nodded in return. Arthur waited, expectantly.
"Arthur, we need an architect. You know we can't do this without her." Cobb stated evenly.
"You really think she'll want to come back after what she found out yesterday?" Arthur questioned.
Cobb sighed. "Think about it, Arthur. Finding out you were involved isn't the only thing she discovered. She discovered what it's like to build in a dream—what it's like to create things that aren't possible in the real world. She'll be back. I've never seen anyone pick it up that quickly before. Reality's not gonna be enough for her now."
"So what do you want me to do?"
"Reconcile with her. It'll make her decision to come back easier." Cobb stated simply and turned his back to work.