Ariadne lay unconscious in my arms. The full impact of what she said was starting to hit me. I betrayed her. I misused her trust; I shattered it into a thousand, tiny little pieces just when she gave it to me. Even though I was doing it for her own good and safety, I still felt guilty; I felt that I should apologize to her. Quietly I whispered, "I'm sorry."

"What did you say?" Yusuf asked.

"Nothing." I dismissed his question.

"Well we have to get started, bring her to her bedroom," Yusuf said, heading off to Ariadne's room with the PASIV.

I heaved her unconscious body up in my arms and walked delicately to her room, careful not to hit her into something. She was surprisingly light. I laid her on the bed carefully, pulling part of the midnight blue comforter around her and then brought out her right arm and laid it delicately on top of the blanket, hand up. Her hair fell in a slightly damp halo around her pale face. The golden light that streamed in through the windows softened her face, making her look younger and peaceful. But, the ghost of betrayal and anger was etched into her face and it sent a painful pang through my chest.

Yusuf gave a loud cough that snapped me out of my thoughts. I forgot he was in the room. He already had the PASIV set up and started to take Ariadne's pulse. After he was done checking her pulse he turned to me, raised an eyebrow, and said, "She's ready. Are you?"

"Yeah, I just need to call Arthur and Cobb," I replied.

I promptly got out my phone and dialed Arthur's number. He picked up immediately. "Hello? Eames?" he asked.

"Yes, it's me. We're about to do it. She's sedated. Wish us luck," I said with more calmness then I actually felt.

"How long will she be sedated?"

"Four to five hours, at least, maybe six."

"Six hours? That's a long time! Why would you need that much time?" Arthur exclaimed.

"We need that time because this is Ariadne and I going to give her as much time as she needs. It's better to have more time than not enough," Eames explained.

"Will she go into Limbo if she kills herself?"

"No, the sedative is not strong enough, she'll just wake up."

"But what if she does kill herself before you get the job done?"

"I've got that taken care of, stop asking so many damn questions!" Eames exclaimed in frustration.

"But~" Arthur was cut off when Eames snapped the phone shut. He sighed and mumbled something about Arthur being an overbearing stick in the mud. He opened up the phone again and called Cobb.

He picked up the phone on the fourth ring, "Hello?" Cobb said breathlessly, like he ran to pick up the phone.

"Hey, Cobb, we're about to begin." Eames said shortly.

"You know what to do?" Cobb asked, his breath becoming less ragged, his voice becoming more serious.

"Yes, wish us luck."

"Good luck Eames, she's in your hands, take care of her," Cobb whispered and then ended the call.

Eames turned to Yusuf and said, "Let's get started."

Eames lied down on the bed carefully next to Ariadne. Yusuf passed him two needles and Eames inserted one carefully into Ariadne's wrist and then did the same with the other needle to himself. Yusuf made some adjustments to the PASIV and then turned to Eames and said, "We should get started. You do need to give yourselves the kick to get out, have you come up with one?"

"Yes, but first I need to find something," I said, a thought dawning on me. I hastily removed the needle and hurriedly started to look around the room. Yusuf gave me a confused look but I waved his curiosity away.

Ariadne was going to need her totem when she woke up. I knew she hid it, but not somewhere personal like Mal did. She hid it somewhere casual, where no one would think to look. I searched under the bed, in the closet, in the medicine cabinets, and then I finally looked in the drawers. I searched through the upper right drawer which had many colorful scarves in it. My fingers searched to the very back, only feeling the silk scarves until suddenly I felt a plastic sandwich bag. Gently, I withdrew the bad and gave a small cheer when it was Ariadne's brass bishop. I rushed over to Ariadne, opened her small had and slid the bishop carefully out of the bag into her cold, unresponsive fingers. I then closed her fingers around the bishop and said to Yusuf, "Now we can begin."

I climbed back into the bed, reinserted the needle, and situated myself in a comfortable position. I gave Yusuf a nod to give him the go-ahead and Yusuf pressed the white button, gave a small smile, and said quietly, as though not to wake Ariadne, "Good luck."

Instantly my eyes began to droop with exhaustion and before I knew it, I was falling deep into the recesses of the dream world, into Ariadne's dream world.

Break

I woke with a gasp. It was nighttime, pale moonlight flooded through the windows. I faintly realized that I was in my room in my apartment. I was drenched in sweat and the covers were pulled tight against me. I got out of bed to look around and waited for my eyes to adjust to the darkness. The city was unnaturally silent; usually there was a steady stream of city noise every day and night, but tonight, the city seemed asleep. I looked out the window: no cars, no people, no anything. Everyone seemed to have just…disappeared.

I stepped away from the window and went into the living room. A bone-chilling cold wrapped around my body, sending involuntary shivers down my spine. Something was wrong. Someone was here. Suddenly, one of the lamps on an end table flickered on, casting a sickly yellow light that encased only one part of the room, leaving the other half in total darkness. Mal was seated on my burgundy chair with a wine glass filled red wine in one of her hands. The other was clenched around something. She smirked at my horror. I stood there frozen as she continued to examine me, eyes piercing through me. It seemed as though she could see right through me, see right into me, and not in a good way.

She stood up gracefully, like a panther. She was wearing a long, black, floor-length, v-neck dress. She purposefully dropped the wine glass, letting it shatter to the floor, leaving tiny shards of glass scattered about the floor and a huge blood-red stain that started to seep through the floor boards.

"Whoopsies," she giggled, stepping purposefully closer to me, taking each step with ease, but very calculated.

I just stared in gaping horror, unable to do anything. I was somehow lost in this trance of some sort, a trance that she seemed to cast on everybody she came in contact with. Her presence alone demanded attention.

"Do you know what it's like to be in love? To find the other half to your whole?" she asked mockingly, watching me squirm under her gaze, "I've already asked you this question, and yet you haven't given me an answer. Have you ever been in love?"

I stood there, silent, digging my finger nails into the palm of my hand. I wasn't going to take her bait, I wasn't going to lose control even though I wanted to smack that smirk off of her face. She started to circle me, trailing her free hand across my shoulders. The touch was freezing and it made me shiver uncontrollably.

"I don't think you have been in love. I'll tell you all about it. It's a wonderful feeling. You feel complete. You don't have to keep searching, you don't have any doubts. You know right away that you want to marry that person and start a family with them. The best part is that they completely understand you. I didn't ever have to lie to Dom about what I did for a living because he did it too. But the worst part is that they can break your heart, like Dom did. He didn't believe me, he thought that we were in reality, but we weren't, we were in a dream. But he chose to break my heart when he refused to jump with me. He broke my heart when he took me away from the reality we made in Limbo. He betrayed me by doing Inception on me. But I loved him through it all. That's what true love is. You understand each other, you forgive each other," Mal ended her speech and stopped directly in front of me.

"But poor you, you haven't experienced true love. Maybe that's a good thing," she shook her head, her curls bouncing, and then smiled evilly and raised her clenched fist. Slowly she uncurled her long fingers to expose a bishop, my bishop. "Oh, I think you might need this," she started to hand it to me but then snatched it back.

She slowly closed her hand, crushing my bishop into an unrecognizable lump of metal. She cackled at my fear and terror. She dropped what used to me my bishop to the floor with a thud were it splashed in the red wine. I screamed at her, I screamed that she destroyed what I used to distinguish reality from dreams, or what I used to use. Now my only hope was gone. I cried and hot tears ran down my face as she laughed even harder, the harsh sound echoing through the eerily quiet room. I sank to my knees, hugging myself as if I had lost a part of me, still screaming and crying. Mal was going to make me mad and insane like she was. She was going to be my downfall. Like she said in my previous dream, "No one can save you now."

I faintly heard the sound of footsteps, it barely registered in my mind, but they were there, slowly coming closer, tentatively walking toward Mal and me. The owner of the footsteps sounded like a man.

"Ariadne?"

AN: I am truly sorry this took so long to get out. Time just slipped away from me with all the stuff that has been going on. Thanks to Royleen (I hope I spelled that right), I remembered that I still have a story to write. Oh, I just want to tell you what I think about Eames' personality (from what I've seen in the movie). I think he has a good sense of humor but is very smart and can be very serious at times. I don't think he's a playboy as some stories portray him to be, or a severe drunk. So yeah, that's what I think. I promise to be a little more consistent with my story and I promise that I haven't fallen of the face of the Earth. Reviews are nice!