Ariadne was scared to look. The throbbing in her head was almost deafening and she was sure she looked like hell. She heard low chatter in the background and couldn't stop the goose bumps from rising.
Opening her eyes a sliver, she could see Arthur, still unconscious, about three feet from her. The angry purple bruise that had blossomed on his neck made her cringe.
"Arthur?" she whispered, inching over to him. She shook his shoulders, and whispered his name again. Groaning, he grabbed her arm and worked himself into a sitting position, rubbing his neck. "Arthur, where the hell are we?"
"Your guess is as good as mine," he said, looking around. "But it's not good."
"How did they get to us so fast? I thought we'd have weeks, not five minutes."
"I don't know," he replied, helping her up. "Unless they got Boda."
Arthur and Ariadne took quick stock of their surroundings, checking for the totems first and then their weapons, shocked to find them still there.
"I don't understand," he said, checking the clip of his gun. "Something isn't right here." He tossed his die on the floor, pursing his lips when it flipped right to the four. "We're not dreaming."
"No, you wouldn't be, would you Arthur?" A short, skinny man appeared from the other room, rubbing his hands together. Arthur's eyes bugged as he stepped in front of Ariadne. "Sorry about you neck."
"Omar?" he asked, confused. "What the…"
"I wish I'd had a more elegant solution, but we caught wind that Cobol was meeting you at the airport and we had no choice. Ariadne, are you okay?"
"This is who we're looking for?" Ariadne whispered into Arthur's back. He nodded.
"You're not looking for me anymore, are you?" Omar grinned, gesturing for them to follow him. "My friend is a doctor, he needs to make sure you don't have a concussion." Omar pulled a chair out for Ariadne, who was still eyeing him warily, and sat her down. As another man, taller and heavier than Omar, flashed a light in Ariadne's eyes and asked her a series of questions, Omar sat across from Arthur, offering him a drink.
"Something heavy," Arthur replied, rubbing his neck. "Jesus, did you really have to kick me?"
"I didn't, Jafar did," Omar said, nodding to the behemoth of a man over his shoulder. Arthur considered the man for a minute, thankful his neck hadn't been broken. "Cobol doesn't know this place, so you'll be safe. We got your bags after we did a sweep of the airstrip and the PASIV arrived this morning."
"You're going under?" Ariadne asked, thanking the doctor with a nod. "Why?"
"Not just Arthur, you too. We need to submerge you in a dream for a while, get your subconscious ready for war, because there's a whole lot of ugly coming your way," Omar said, pulling a manila file from the briefcase at his side. "Here is what we were able to glean concerning your tail. I'm sure you can find more than we could, eh Arthur?"
"Are Boda and Asuntha alright?" Arthur asked, flipping the file open. Omar nodded, telling them that they had eluded Cobol easily in their rice fields, and that the children had retreated to family in the North.
"Are you two hungry?" Omar asked. When they both shook their heads no, he left the room, returning with the PASIV and two reclined chairs. "Then we need to get to work."
Ariadne and Arthur rolled up their sleeves almost automatically, checking for their totems, and lay down, not even noticing the prick of the needle. A gentle whoosh sounded and a second later, they were both asleep.
Ariadne wasn't surprised when she found herself walking down a city street, dressed in her normal clothes. She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw Arthur walking towards her.
"We need to find Omar again," he said when they met. She nodded. "It looks like it's just us for now."
"Why is that?" Shouldn't our projections be here?"
"I don't think this is our dream, I think it's his," Arthur said, crossing to the sidewalk. "That's why it's so minimalistic."
They started to walk, passing empty restaurants, stores and homes, until the road melted into countryside. For almost an hour they trekked, not saying much, finally reaching a small, cinder block house set amongst some trees.
Arthur knocked twice, standing back with his arms crossed. Ariadne fingered her totem nervously, casting a sideways glance at Arthur. He was entirely too calm.
"How do you know there's not an army in there?"
"I don't," Arthur replied simply, "but that wouldn't be the worst thing I've ever encountered behind a closed door before."
Ariadne frowned, wondering exactly what he meant. The door swung open and before she had a chance to react, Arthur pulled her in.
"The city was a nice touch," Omar said, sitting at the table.
"Why aren't there any other people here?" Ariadne asked. Omar grinned.
"If you dream long enough, Ariadne, you develop startling amounts of control."
Omar poured a cup of coffee for himself and the other two, and peeked out of the blinds.
"What are you looking for?" Ariadne asked, stirring creamer into her coffee.
"Projections," he replied. "Now that you're here, it will be harder to hold them off. Arthur, I only put seven minutes on the PASIV, because all I need to tell you that Cobol is willing to negotiate for your life."
"What do they want?" Arthur asked, leaning back in his chair.
"Ariadne."
"No," Arthur said, ripping the needle out of his arm.
"Arthur, you didn't even consider it," Omar said, respooling the lines. Arthur shook his head.
"Absolutely not. I don't pawn people off, Omar, this isn't a game."
"I would like to have an opinion in this-"
"No, just stop." Arthur said, holding his hand up. "How do you know they'd take her?
"I really hate where this is going," Ariadne groaned.
"We found and tortured your original detail, a man named Sohail. We had to go pretty far to get what we needed, but…"
"Omar," Arthur said suddenly. "That's brilliant."
"What is?" he asked, confused.
"All you have to do is destroy those memories." Arthur was smiling to himself, laying back down.
"I…"
"Go deep," Arthur said. "Take anything that would lead them to her, to Cobb and Eames."
"Arthur!" Omar snapped, slamming his hand down on the table. "This isn't as cut and dry as extraction. It is more difficult than inception, not to mention incredibly dangerous. If I mess up, you would be in a coma for the rest of your life, if it didn't kill you."
"Omar, they'll kill me anyway if they get here."
Omar left the room without responding, closing the door behind him. Arthur followed him with his, before turning to Ariadne.
"It's called elimination and it's taboo, even in the dream community. It involves a massive amount of work, but it can be done."
"How does it work?" Ariadne asked, shifting uncomfortably. She didn't like either one of the proposed plans. "And why did we spend so much time crafting new memories if you knew this was possible?"
"Omar and I would go in together and he would destroy everything I built from memory. He would kill every projection, destroy every building, leaving the memory empty."
"Well, that's lovely."
"It is dangerous, but when done right, it can be enough to completely derail an extraction. It would give you enough time to get out of Afghanistan, find Eames and come up with another plan."
"You won't remember this?"
"I won't remember much of the last five years, no."
"That doesn't seem like a fair compromise. Besides, Cobol knows where you've been. Just because the memories aren't there doesn't mean that they don't have solid proof that you were with Cobb. You signed a contract."
"I know that, but these men deal in total truths. You work with dreams enough, you live in a constant state of paranoia."
"So what?" Ariadne asked, leaning forward. "I'm just supposed to sit here while he takes an ice pick to your memories?"
"No," Arthur replied, tugging his coat off. "You'll go find Eames in Bucharest and then go to Kyoto and lie low at Saito's until I can get back to you."
"You won't even know who we are!"
Arthur frowned, and pulled out his die, handing it to her. Ariadne shook her head no, sitting on her hands.
"Take it. If you don't, I'll have no reason to believe you are who you say you are when I get there."
"It will be useless then!"
"Just take it, Ariadne. I have a plan."
Ariadne held her hand out reluctantly, swallowing dread when the cube fell into her hand. He closed her fingers with his and kissed her knuckles.
"See you soon, alright?"
"Alright."