1Author's Note: I'm back! I know I haven't updated in a while, and I'm sorry. I hope I can make up for it by making this chapter really good! Reviews appreciated! Ciao!
Disclaimer: I do not own Inception... blegh
Ariadne was standing in a wide, dimly-lit room, facing a wall of windows that looked out over an expansive city far below her. For a second, she forgot why she was there. Then she remembered, getting a sinking feeling in her stomach, and a tingle of excitement in her muscles, at the same time. Arthur's going to teach me self-defense. As much as she wanted to pretend that she wasn't excited, the uncomfortable knotting feeling in her stomach reassured her that she was, in fact, very excited.
"Hopefully we shouldn't have any trouble with projections up here." Arthur's sudden voice made her jolt slightly. "Since we don't have too much time, I can only teach you a few basic techniques."
She nodded slowly, returning her gaze back to her faint reflection in the window. "Like what?"
"How to get out of a choke hold, how to get away from them if they grab you, stuff like that." Arthur replied nonchalantly, glancing down at her quickly as he toyed with his red loaded die.
Suddenly, curiosity began to rise within her. How the Hell did Arthur know all of this stuff? "How do you know all of this stuff, Arthur? Like, fighting and stuff like that?"
It was probably only a few seconds before he replied, but for some reason it felt like an eternity. In those few seconds, she was able to mull over whether or not she had asked him a question that was too personal, whether or not she had worded it right.
"I was, um, in the army for a while." He said, staring ahead blankly at the window.
That made sense. Ariadne found it surprisingly easy to picture him in army camouflage, despite his usually impeccable appearance. Now all she wondered was how he went from serving in the U.S. Army to stealing ideas.
"And how did you end up doing this?" She asked with a slight chuckle, crossing her arms.
"That is a story best reserved for another time." He turned towards her, and stuck his die in his pocket. "Now, shall we get started?"
Ariadne nodded, unsure of what he would teach her first. Her skin tingled with anticipation, but she tried to ignore it.
"Okay, let's start out with something simple." Arthur said, his hands in his pockets. "Say that a Cobol agent grabs you by the wrist."
Suddenly he grabbed her wrist, his grip firm but not tight. A fluttering sensation rippled through her muscles. God, this was awkward.
"Don't try to pull away, that's not going to do you any good." He said, his gaze darting repeatedly from her wrist to her eyes. "Instead, try twisting your arm around until you can break their grip."
Tentatively at first, Ariadne began to twist her wrist around, Arthur's fingers rubbing against her pale skin. Finally, she broke his grip, and stepped back. Her heart was thudding against her ribs.
"Good, good." Arthur commented with a quick nod, glancing away rapidly before looking back at her. "Alright, now we're going to try something else. Now, this may seem a little awkward, but I have no doubt they'll do this."
She nodded as if she were perfectly fine with it, but her mind became a muddle of different ideas as to what he could mean by "awkward".
Cobb leaned against the stiff seat of the train compartment, arms crossed and eyes narrowed. Ariadne and Arthur slouched on the seat across from him, both hooked up to the PASIV. What was it about those two? Whenever they were together, Ariadne seemed to get quiet. She became a much more timid version of the inquisitive, intelligent Architect he was used to. He could only imagine how awkward it would be between those two once they had to travel together.
His gaze roved lazily towards the window, where he could see a large city outside. It was then that he realized that the train was now slowing down, and that there was what looked like a train station ahead. But they couldn't be in Madrid yet... They must be making a stop. The train suddenly entered a black tunnel, then ended up in a train bay with a domed ceiling. Dim orange lights filled the bay, illuminating the weary faces of the men and women who sat on benches, waiting for their train.
Then he noticed the group of men dressed in suits and sunglasses, not carrying any bags. There was about three of them, all standing together. As the train finally reached a stop, they began walking towards it.
His entire body tightened. It could be anyone. The odds were high that he was just jumping to conclusions, that he was still jumpy and nervous from the fact that he was on the run. But at the same time, it seemed like his worst fears had been confirmed.
Those men were from Cobol.
"I highly doubt they'd actually try to kill you, but there's always the possibility they may grab you by the neck." He said, rolling back his sleeves. "Now, I'm not going to hurt you, I'm just going to put my hands near your neck."
Her entire body seized as he gently placed his hands on her neck, his fingertips brushing lightly against her skin. She breathed in and met his gaze, shifting her weight from one foot to the other.
"There are two ways to escape from something like that. You can either stick your arms in between theirs and force them apart, or you can slam against their elbows." Arthur explained, removing his hands from her neck.
At that moment, an invisible weight that had felt as if it were bearing down on her was suddenly lifted. The memory of their kiss in the Fischer Job was still replaying in her head, though. It tended to whenever she was around him... Alone. She couldn't fight the urge to wonder whether or not it ever replayed in his head when he was around her. Judging from his casual, nonchalant behavior, probably not. But even with the odds stacked against her, she still found herself noticing "little things" that he did that could possibly mean had feelings for her, and then analyzing them thoroughly for meaning.
"Since you're smaller, you might be better off hitting them in the elbows." He placed his hands on her neck once more, his thumb brushing against her clavicle momentarily. "Just bring your arms up, and slam them against your opponents elbows."
She nodded, and raised her arms up, then hit Arthur's elbows. He let go and stepped back, hands in his pockets.
"Good job," He ran his hand over his slicked-back hair and glanced around awkwardly, "I'm trying to thi-"
Suddenly, he just fell back and hit the floor. At first, Ariadne thought maybe she had just imagined it. But after blinking several times and rubbing her eyes, she realized that he had actually fallen backwards. But it didn't look like he had just fallen. It looked like he had been pushed...
"Are you okay?" She said, quickly walking towards him.
He nodded rapidly, his hand placed on the back of his head and his dark eyes narrowed in confusion. "Yeah, yeah... Did you push me?"
She shook her head. "No... But it did look like you had been pushed."
"That's what it felt like." His voice began t trail off as he looked away, then right back at her. "I think Cobb's trying to wake us up."
Cobb leaned over the PASIV and check the clock on it as it slowly counted down. They had at least ten minutes left. Shit. He looked back at the Architect and Point Man, trembling fingers placed on the PASIV. His attempt to awaken Arthur by shaking him hadn't seemed to work. But they needed to wake up. Unfortunately, he really had no way to administer a kick, not in the train compartment.
"What?" Ariadne asked, both eyebrows raised as if she didn't understand what he had just said.
Arthur pushed himself up. "I think he was shaking me, which is why I fell back. External factors can affect what's going on inside the dream. If someone shakes one of the dreamers, they might fall back for no apparent reason, like what happened just now."
His mind was already searching for a reason for Cobb to try and wake them up. Obviously it had to be an emergency. But what exactly was going on? His first assumption was that Cobol had caught up with them.
"Can't he improvise some sort of kick?" She said, crossing her arms.
He shook his head. "No, not in the train compartment. A kick comes from the feeling of falling, that's what snaps you out of a dream."
At the same time, though, he couldn't be completely sure that it had been Cobb. The train might have hit a bump and shaken. There could be plenty of other external stimuli that could have caused that.
"Ow." Ariadne's voice made him turn around and find the petite Architect lying on the floor, rubbing the back of her head.
"You okay?" He asked, outstretching a hand towards her.
Ariadne grabbed his hand and pressed herself up. "Yeah."
Suddenly he felt once again as if he were being pushed, and stumbled backwards, his heart convulsing rapidly as he caught his balance just in time. "Shit." He muttered under his breath, glancing quickly towards Ariadne.
"I definitely think it's Cobb." He announced with a sigh, wrapping his fingers around the handle of his handgun. "I hate doing this, but there's only one way out of this."
His eyes stayed fixated on his handgun as he pulled it out of it's holster, then moved to Ariadne, who's wide-eyed fearful expression told him that she knew exactly what she meant.
"Do we have to do it like this?" Her voice was neutral, but he had the sense that she was actually pleading for him not to shoot her.
He didn't want to shoot her. He didn't like the idea of shooting her. Normally, after being in the dream-sharing business for such a long time, he could shoot a comrade in the head or stab them in the heart without a second thought. But somehow whenever he thought about doing something like that to Ariadne, well... It almost felt like he was shooting her or stabbing her in reality. He had this odd fear that somehow by killing her in a dream her opinion of him would change, which was odd, because they hadn't known each other that long.
"I can do it for you, if that will make you feel any better." He offered with an apologetic cringe, stepping closer to her.
Ariadne inhaled slowly, then nodded, and brushed her hair back and made her way towards him. "Okay."
Part of him wondered why she seemed so scared of being shot. When he had still been new to the dream-sharing business, he had been pretty reluctant himself. But with Ariadne, it seemed like there was something else going on that was causing her fear, some hidden reason that she refused to share with the rest of the world.
"Close your eyes." He said, pressing the gun against her forehead.
He also closed his eyes. Just do it, Arthur. Do it. He squeezed the trigger.
There was a thunderous boom, and Ariadne collapsed to the floor, a bullet lodged in her forehead. The image was rather haunting. It sent disturbed chills through his body, but he ignored them, focusing only on what he had to do now.
Arthur now pressed the gun to his own head, and closed his eyes, the image of Ariadne lying dead still stuck in his mind.
Then he pulled the trigger.
_Short chapter, I know. I think that my chapters will be shorter from now on, but I'm not sure if updates will be faster. It's getting harder for me to write, mostly because I haven't seen Inception in a while. Also, I've got my grades to think about. Anyway, reviews are always appreciated. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, I'll try to make my next update soon.
