Arthur whirled around to see a sleek black handgun clenched in Dom's fist.

"I found it on the area table." Dom state blankly. "Funny, Diana. You don't carry a gun."

"It's been a recent development." Diana raised her hands gently in front of her, showing her brother she had no intention of making sudden moves. "It's hard for any thief to cover their tracks. Even extractors. I didn't want to meet your business partners on my doorstep unprepared."

"That's what this is about." Dom's eyes flashed, as though he suddenly understood the answer to a question no one else knew. "Somebody wants revenge for a job gone sideways."

"Cobb, that's not -" Arthur began

"Who was it!? Cobol? Steltek? ExCorp?" He shouted the names, raising the gun and leveling it at his sister. Morpheus, who had been sleeping soundly on a worn pillow near the door, woke with the shouting and stood

"Cobb, don't do this!" Arthur shouted. "This isn't how you handle things, remember!"

"What will shooting me accomplish, Dom?" Diana desperately tried to maintain a calmness in her voice. "If this is just a dream?"

"I'm not going to kill you." Dom assured, his voice cold and calculating. "Am I, Arthur?"

Dom shifted his aim and it felt as though the world turned in the fraction of a second. Arthur lurched forward. Morpheus barked. A gunshot. A scream. A punch. The sound of shattering glass as Dom's head connected with the marble counter top, sending flying the wine stems that dangled from the bottom of the cupboard above.

Then, as quickly as the world turned, it stopped, like the black void left in the wake of a supernova. The room filled with a deafening silence that seemed to stretch out far beyond the walls of the house.

"Cobb!" Ariadne rushed to the side of her unconscious mentor, who lay in a spray of shattered glass, a massive welt already forming on his forehead.

"Diana!" Arthur yelled at almost the same moment, crossing the kitchen quickly to where the woman sat crumbled against the center island. "Are you alright!?" He knelt beside her, wrapping his arms around her, trying to calm her shaking "God damnit -"

Diana buried her face against his chest, clutching his crisp plaid button up shirt as though it were armor. Her breath caught in her throat. She was unaware of the tears that streamed down her face. The room felt hazy. The only sure thing was the man in the plaid shirt, whose strong arms held her close and whose fingers trailed instinctively through the hair at the back of her head. She clung to him like a life vest.

"I'm okay. I'm okay, I'm okay." She nodded, her voice sounding foreign in her ears as she refused to look up. She opened her eyes. Dom lay on the floor, the soles of his feet facing her. Ariadne knelt over him, herself recovering from the near-horror of the almost events. The gun lay on the floor between them. Breaking free of Arthur's embrace momentarily, she stretched forward, picking the gun up from the floor and removing the clip before dropping it again as though it seared her hands. She collapsed back against the island, exhaling sharply.

"Oh, God, Diana -" Panic shot through Arthur's voice as he gingerly reached for the woman's arm. Blood trickled from Diana's upper left bicep, just below the shoulder. Her gray off-the-shoulder shirt shorn away at the sleeve by the bullet.

Diana looked down.

"It just grazed me." She said, watching the blood flow from her arm with a mix of shock and fascination, as though failing to register it as her own. "I'm okay."

Arthur straightened partially, reaching over the edge of the island for the dish towel laying on the counter top. Hurriedly, he wrapped it around her arm, pressing hard to stem the steady flow of blood.

"Arthur," She reached up, taking his hand in hers, her fingers wrapping around onto his palm as her breathing returned to normal. He raised his coffee brown eyes, his face drained of color, and she met him with her own green eyes. "I'm okay." She squeezed his hand unconsciously. "Really."

Arthur let out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding, his panic-stricken features relaxing slightly. Diana sat for a moment, collecting herself and holding the dish towel against the stinging, but relatively minor wound.

"Let's get him under." A hard edge of determination laced Diana's words as she stood, wiping her eyes quickly and crossing the kitchen to where her brother lay in the doorway.

"Ariadne, get the bag." Arthur ordered briskly as he stood, following Diana and helping her lift Dom's limp body and drag it back toward the living room.

"You're going to go under? Now?" Ariadne sounded shocked as she retrieved the duffel bag from behind the open staircase at the edge of the living room.

"Now might be the best chance we get." Diana straightened as Dom slumped back onto the couch. "Not likely that he'll go under willingly, and we can't sedate him if this is going to work."

"But he could have a concussion! He could be seriously hurt -" Ariadne watched, mildly horrified as Arthur opened the duffel bag and began setting up the dream sharing device on the coffee table. Diana disappeared momentarily down the hall, toward the darkened end of the house.

"He'll be fine." Arthur dismissed her concern, unbuttoning the cuff of his shirt and rolling the sleeve back. "There's a first responder kit in the duffel bag. Use that to monitor him."

"And if something's wrong?" Ariadne demanded.

"Alarm clock." Diana reappeared, tossing a small metal alarm clock to Ariadne quickly.
"Should be all I need. We can deal with Dom up here when I wake up."

She crossed to the coffee table, inserting a small vial into the device.

"What's that?" Arthur asked as he connected the IV tubes.

"New compound." Diana replied, checking to make sure it had loaded correctly. "I've been working on it with Mark."

"Sheridan?"

Diana glanced up, arching a brow at the derisive edge in Arthur's voice. She frowned as she realized he had connected three IV tubes and was settling himself in a chair.

"I can do this myself." She said shortly, reaching for the free IV tube.

"We have no idea what's waiting down there." Arthur retorted. "I've seen what he's capable of these days. I'm coming with you."

"I don't think that's a good idea." Diana pushed up the sleeve on her gray jersey top and sitting next to Dom on the couch.

"I'm coming with you." Arthur repeated with finality.

Diana pursed her lips, but didn't argue as she inserted the needle into her vein. Arthur did the same as Ariadne hooked up Dom.

"Ready?" Diana glanced from her unconscious brother to where Arthur sat in the club chair.

Arthur shifted in his seat, tilting his head back to rest on the back cushion. "See you down there."

Ariadne swallowed nervously, looking to Diana for her cue. The woman nodded. Ariadne pushed the button. A subtle whoosh from the machine, and she was left with only Morpheus the dog for company.