Dream a Little Bigger, Darling

Summary: What if the criminals that L hired in chapter 40 weren't Wedy and Aiber? What if it was Arthur and Eames? Take this as set after Inception occurred and in chapter 40 onwards.

"Hello, I'm Eames. I'm a con-artist." said the man in casual suit, that was slightly unbuttoned. He had a British accent and looked smug, with his hands shoved in his pockets. His brown hair was slightly unkempt, he wore the most atrocious bright pink shirt that Light's ever seen and he looked like he hadn't shaved for days. Light frowned, what was L thinking?

"Arthur. A thief and professional researcher." said the other man. He wore a three piece, grey suit, he was clean-shaven and his hair was neatly slicked back. If it weren't for the dark circles under his eyes, Light would have thought that he was a CEO of a major company or something like that.

"A thief and a con-artist?" asked his father looking shaky.

"Hey, don't be so disparaging, I'm the best at what I do. I have five degrees. One in psychology, diplomacy and then three different languages." Eames said, looking smugger. "All either from Oxford or Cambridge." Yet he still dressed like a cheap tourist wearing the tackiest suit that Light had ever seen.

"Not that they mean much when you're a criminal." Arthur said easily, a smirk tugging at his face, "You're also wanted for corporate espionage and scamming in 40 different countries."

"Hey, I thought you said you wouldn't mention that!" said Eames, looking offput. Light snickered a little.

"Arthur is also wanted in four different countries and has eight different bounty prices on his head from other corporate agencies." L said, looking very innocent as he declared this. "I would say that this puts him on the same level as Eames."

Arthur rolled his eyes a little. "I have three degrees as well as a Masters in psychology, and bit of military experience. Also, I'm good with security systems."

"Yes, he got into this building unnoticed; that was a bit of fine work, Arthur." said L, looking very pleased.

"Are…we going to investigate with criminals?" asked his father looking a little nervous.

"Not the sort that Kira punishes." L says, "I would think of them as…. professional consultants from the black market, if that will put you at ease. I have a few more possible helpers, but they're reluctant to show their face until absolutely necessary. And I completely agree with that sentiment. If we are still inefficient, even with the addition of these two to help us, then I shall draft them in. I couldn't do this while Yagami-san was still with the police, but now…"

"L's right, Dad," Light spoke up, after taking appraising looks of the criminals. "We'll need their help to crack Yotsuba. Let's do this together!"

Matsuda and his father agreed with reluctance, while Eames' look was firmly on the handcuffs that joined L and Light together.

"So what is that, L? Some kind of kink? I didn't think you were into that sort of thing." Eames asked, his voice sly and teasing as he motioned towards the handcuffs.

Arthur doubled over in a coughing fit and Light suppressed a sigh as L's face contorted into a wry amusement. This was going to be intolerable.

(X)

"So, here's the personal information of all 8 of the people that Matsuda saw in the meeting." Arthur said, handing out rather large files of information to everybody. "The main information that would be on passports and things is on the black marked pages. Personal information is marked with blue. Finances and work related things are in red."

"God, you really are OCD, aren't you darling?" asked Eames as he flicked through the sheets, indifferently, the grey jacket he wore contrasting awfully with his gaudy purple and yellow shirt. Arthur kicked his chair out from under him and Eames fell to the ground with a thud. Light smirked just a little, he'd deserved that.

"Payback." said Arthur, a smirk on his face and Eames shook his head.

"It's true what they say, isn't it? Elephants like yourself never forget stuff. That was a year ago!" he said, looking incredulous.

"Gentlemen." reminded Light and Arthur stiffened a little and took a seat.

"If you examine the data, there's no indication of any personal deaths around them, which means that Kira isn't using these murders are a personal thing like initially assumed, Light." said Arthur quickly, as he scanned through the information.

"Which means that they're solely using the deaths to further their business? Doesn't seem like something fits." said Light's father.

"No, it means that Kira is being held back. By the other eight perhaps?" Light asked and L nodded, inbetween eating Ohagi.

"That's right. The eight of them are tagged along and are playing together in this. I think this Kira must be a block-headed coward who cannot do anything by himself." L said, firmly

"I wouldn't say that, L. Sure, he's less competent than the previous Kira, but surely, he's clever in this at least? Assuming he knows that he isn't very clever, he's made himself a plan where that and his identity aren't revealed. The eight of them corroborate each death, if Matsuda is to be believed, to make sure that they don't make foolish mistakes. And they're all very different and see different perspectives. They could be fairly dangerous because of this, and we shouldn't underestimate them." Eames said, his voice serious as he looked through the file.

"Yes, but they've already made the mistake of centring the deaths around the weekend. This shows that amongst them, they are still pretty dumb." Light argued, looking up at the screen that was showing their faces and names.

"That might have been the choice of Kira rather than the whole group. We'll never know until we get evidence of their meetings." mused Eames. "I'm working on getting close to Kida, the man who contacted and asked for Eraldo Coil to investigate L, but that'll take a long time. He's agreed to give me five million dollars as an advance and as hush money but he wants to see my face and wants to talk to me."

Arthur sharpened, suddenly. "The surveillance however, is easily arranged. Their security system is nothing special, just got the added security guards, and their easy to get through. A simple sedative or buying off the guards on duty at the time, or even sneaking in between patrol times would be enough to bug the meeting room. That I could do in about half an hour once I get the info about Yotsuba."

"Then do it. Watari knows a spyware professional and the meeting is tomorrow night, Friday." L said, "If you can do it, we'll be able to monitor their meeting instantaneously."

(X)

"There's only seven of them." Light said quietly as the board members finally entered the room. He was leaning on L's chair.

"And they're wearing black suits. They're in mourning." Eames said, leaning on Light's shoulder. Light shrugged him off and Eames laughed.

"So one of the eight—" Light's father hesitated at stating his hypothesis, but L didn't.

"Has been killed by the others. Yes." L said calmly, as Ooi talked about who they would plan to kill. Light frowned and leant forward as he watched Namikawa explain why he was glad about his comrade's death. A clever man, Namikawa, good with words and with people's feelings. Though he felt bad about this, he sympathized most with Namikawa of the seven board members.

"Here's your part, Eames." Arthur murmured as Ooi passed around Eraldo Coil's information, "Let's hope that they can't see any irregularities."

"Don't patronize me darling, I'm not stupid. I have worked successful missions before. You actually have a lower success rate than me." Eames said, acidly.

Arthur merely inclined his head sideways. Light sighed and clicked his fingers impatiently. L shot him a grateful look. Light wondered why L worked with them sometimes, they never seemed to stop talking.

"They're spilling the beans like there's no tomorrow!" Matsuda exclaimed as the conversation progressed about the Yotsuba killing times and Higuchi generally disparaging Coil's existence.

"We can arrest them for sure with this tape." His father said. But Light saw L tense up at these words. Odd. Why was that more concerning to L than the fact that Higuchi was acting very suspiciously and that the people could determine the death's time?

"They're planning on reducing the deaths?" Eames said, with a frown as the first part of the meeting wrapped up. "That's good for the lives of people but bad for collecting evidence. With the scarcity of the deaths, it is more difficult to create a pattern…"

"We don't need a patterns, Eames." L said calmly, "We already know the motive. Monetary gain. What we want are the means. How are they able to kill the way that they are?"

Light suddenly gasped as they all agreed on the ELF corporation deaths. "What is this…just like that?!" he mouthed, feeling horrified. His father seemed to agree, judging by his face.

He felt Arthur's hand on his shoulder. "Death happens, kid. Sometimes, there's just nothing you can do." Light nodded, pulling his composure back together with a firm resolve.

"From this, it's definitely. They're asking for accidental deaths, from a stroke and they can specify time and location. Undoubtedly, we've got them."

"Not yet, Light-kun. Until the names mentioned actually die, we haven't sufficient evidence." L said, pressing a thumb to his mouth as he stared at the screen. "If we observe the words and actions of the seven at the meeting and then those two people die, we will undoubtedly find Kira."

L seemed set to take a large bite of ice-cream but Light growled. "Ryuuzaki!" he snapped and L shut his mouth and turned around to glare at Light balefully. His father had shouted it at the same time, sounding quite aghast.

"Must both of you shout in unison?" asked L, looking irked.

"You can't just wait for them to die! That's completely ruthless! I won't let you do it!" Light said, looking angry. L merely looked petulant.

His father stepped in. "The tape and Matsuda's evidence are more than enough to convict the criminals. There is no need to stand by and let murder occur."

"I never said anything about letting them commit murder yet. But we cannot prove anything unless those two die. What's important now, is that if we arrest them, we lose and everything is ruined." L explained quietly, as he sipped the melted ice-cream away from his bowl.

"Don't we have the mobile numbers of the seven people, Light? We can ask for the police's help for intercepting their calls to prevent the deaths from happening." His father appealed, looking a little desperate.

"The police aren't reliable right now." Arthur cut in, "That's why you were forced off the case; because the government are scared of Kira. You can't ask the police to do anything, because the information will leak."

"Then we'll just call them and tell them we've found them out." said Light's father, grabbing his mobile phone.

"No, you won't." Eames said, looking annoyed. "That would ruin all of the effort that I've put in to get close to them. They're figured out three days after I contacted them? They'll obviously connect me with L and my life will be in danger because the suspicion would be firmly on myself."

"That is right, Eames," L said, sipping his tea, "If we intervene now, we will likely lose our chance of catching Kira and all of our efforts will be in vain."

"But, isn't human life our priority?" asked Light, frowning as he crossed his arms over his chest.

"Perhaps, but we need concrete evidence to truly be able to defeat them. And if a few more lives are extinguished now to stop a thousand deaths later, I believe it is worth it." L interjected, sounding a little irritated. "If we continue to conduct our investigation, we will find the evidence we need, because it is there to be found."

"How can you be sure?" asked Light's father, and to everyone's surprise, Matsuda answered, looking very serious.

"It's because Kira killed the FBI Agents and Lind L Tailor." He said, evenly, "He killed them for a reason right? He wouldn't have broken his track record of killing only criminals without a huge motive behind that. And both the FBI Agents and Lind L Tailor issued a challenge as to finding his identity. The fact that he killed them, means that they were closing to figuring out who he was, which means that there is something to find?" He ended with a question and L nodded, a small smile playing on his lips.

"Correct, Matsuda-san."

"But we must intervene in some way. We cannot simply let all of the officials of ELF die!" said Light's father, and suddenly, the perfect solution hit Light, like a sack of bricks. He knew what to do.

(X)

Misa grinned as she held out a phone that played the condemning evidence. Matsuda gawked at her in shock and Eames looked grudgingly overwhelmed. L and Arthur however seemed less than impressed.

Light merely gaped at her. "Misa… How did you get Higuchi to say this?"

Misa grinned, and twirled her hair around her finger. "Higuchi has a huge crush on Misa and when Misa said she'd marry him if he were Kira, he admitted to it. Oh, and he thinks that I'm the second Kira."

Light felt his eyes widen, despite himself. "Misa! I thought we agreed that you wouldn't agree to that! You were to deny all accusation, and only agree that you'd been restrained for being the second Kira!"

"But, it worked didn't it?" she asked, looking sheepish.

"No, because if they discuss it in a meeting, we're no closer to finding out who's the killer is!" Light shouted and Misa looked despondent and slightly nervous. But then something occurred to him. "Wait…if the killings stop, we can ask Namikawa if it came up in the meetings or not, right?"

"Yes, that is correct, Light-kun. If Higuchi were Kira, nothing will have come up in the meetings, he can just stop killing. If he isn't, it will have come up."

"Can we guarantee that Namikawa will tell the truth though?" asked Light's father.

"Yeah, I should think so," Eames answered, "The guy's scared of L and L's reputation. He's torn between Kira and L in terms of action, but he'll give out information for no cost."

"In any case," L said, as he stacked a large amount of sugar cubes on top of each other, "If the killings stop, we can be certain that Higuchi is Kira."

Misa jumped up in delight but Light frowned. "We can't stop here though, we still haven't figured out how Higuchi is killing."

"Yes, that's right. I would like to know how he is managing to kill remotely before we capture him."

"Yes," Eames interjected, "But that part's easy, now we have a clear suspect."

"Easy?" Light asked, staring at Eames, who ignored him and turned towards L.

"Eames is suggesting Extraction." L says and the word sounds like L is not fond of the idea. His father and Matsuda both stare at L and Eames, with mingled looks of horror. Arthur straightens and smiles a little wistfully, the first positive emotion that Light has seen from him, other than smug satisfaction.

"What? What's extraction?" asked Light.

L ignores both of them. "Extraction costs an awful lot of money, Eames."

"Not really," Arthur interjects. "That's only to pay the people involved and to create a situation where the target is vulnerable. The people involved are me and Eames. You're already paying us a trifle amount, we don't need much more."

"The only other person we need is an architect, and the person I have in mind will do it for a pretty cheap fee, she loves the idea of dreamscaping and would most likely do it for us as a favour for lending her time on a PASIV." Eames said with a smirk.

Arthur frowned. "We're not getting Ariadne involved in this. She has a college degree to finish, in Paris, and risking her life in this way, again, might I add, is not going to happen."

"She's the best and we need the best." Eames said calmly and Light growled.

"What is extraction?" he demanded again and Matsuda answered, looking grim.

"Extraction is when you take information from a person's mind through their dreams, where their secrets are much more open. I'm not quite sure on the mechanics of it, but there's some machine called a PASIV that links the dreamers together and this allows people to steal information from others. It was developed by the military originally, if I remember correctly? The idea of shared dreaming?"

"However, the act of extraction itself is usually involved corporate crime nowadays though. You may remember Saito Industries flourished very suddenly not a year ago after the collapse of Fischer Inc? We had reason to believe that extraction was involved, especially since Cobol Industries brought up that concern to the FBI who in turn brought it to the ICPO, but the Kira case brought us all up short." Light's father said, sternly, as he took over from Matsuda.

Arthur coughed and looked to the side uncomfortably at this and Eames merely smirked and stretched out.

Light sighs. "You were involved with that, weren't you?"

"Yes." L answers. "They were. About the logistics of this case then?"

Arthur frowned. "Two levels at least, especially if the man's an experienced dreamer. Even if he isn't it is always better to give ourselves as many chances to extract it as possible. First would almost certainly be something like real life, his apartment, maybe? Then I'd have to do research into his likes and dislikes, but I'd find a place that he'd be comfortable in and choose that as the second dreamscape. Eames would distract, I'd do the actual stealing and we'd get out."

"Are we pulling the Mr. Charles Gambit with Higuchi?" asked Eames.

"I wouldn't be comfortable with pulling that off. That kind of bold manoeuvring was always Mal's field and Cobb inherited it. Unless you're willing to tell the subject that they're in a dream, I don't think we'll do it." Arthur said, looking pensive as he flipped open his notebook.

"I think Arthur," said L looking at him, "That I shall be coming along. I have utmost trust in your abilities, but there may be something important inside Higuchi's subconscious that isn't inside the safe. You are all very action oriented, but I need to figure how he's killing them and the two of you alone may miss some important clues."

"Us as well!" Matsuda said, immediately, "Who knows what's in his mind?"

Eames frowned and crossed his arms. "We don't need more tourists. It was bad enough with one tourist, but five of you? Not happening. The maximum we can take along is two people."

L nodded. "Then Light-kun and I will descend into the dream with you Eames."

Light felt his eyebrows rise. He would have liked an opinion, but his answer would have been yes anyway, so it didn't really matter.

"By the way, Misa?" asked Eames, "Will you be willing to help us out again?"

Light frowned and exclaimed. "What? No!" At the same time, Misa squealed and nodded enthusiastically. "Misa-Misa will be happy to help hunt Kira down!"

"Misa, you can't! What if he asks you to kill someone and you can't? That will prove that you aren't the second Kira, and your life will be put in danger." Light said, looking angry.

"In this situation, I think Eames is planning on drugging Higuchi before they can chat for too long." Arthur said slowly. "If Misa asks Higuchi out on another 'date' at her flat, he'll most likely be flattered. Once he comes in, Misa, you'll probably have to slip him a drug in his drink or something; you can toast to success or marriage or something. The drug I plan on using will knock him out immediately. From there, we can wait in the adjacent apartments and deal with the actual dreamscaping. I'll probably ask you to send us into the PASIV, so Eames will probably teach you how to activate it."

"Must it be my actual flat?" asked Misa, her face wrinkling. "I understand that we plan on capturing him, but I don't want him anywhere near my living things. I don't like stalkers…"

"No, it is much more convenient if we can buy out an entire floor of flats somewhere else to prevent any kind of trouble and to keep constant surveillance on the area." L said, pensively. "I would suggest this building, but the security measures would put Higuchi on guard."

"Agreed. I think the flat should be near the area where you live though, Misa," Arthur said, "It makes it slightly more realistic. I mean, Higuchi's not an idiot. You picked that area for a reason, because you're a Yoshida model and it's close to the area where they do most of their shootings."

Misa nodded, seriously. "Also, it's one of the cheaper areas that still manages to remain safe from crime."

Eames nodded. "Okay, let's see if we can get some research done into Higuchi and I'll call in Ariadne from Paris. Got a time limit, Ryuuzaki?"

"As soon as you can make it. Within the month, if possible." L said, as he toppled his tower of sugar cubes into the tea.

Eames and Arthur exchanged looks. "Well, we've worked with worse deadlines." Arthur said, after a while.

"Yeah, but not with a task this delicate." Eames retorted.

"We did Inception in a less amount of time. And that was with a new team member to train." Arthur said, with a frown. Light didn't know what Inception was, but judging by the looks on his father and Matsuda's face, it was unknown to even them. He would ask Eames later once the commotion had died down.

"We have two tourists coming along. They'll need to be trained as well." Eames retorted.

"One tourist. I have been in a dream before, Eames." said L, looking somewhat amused.

"Ariadne and I can deal with Light." Arthur said, "We'll get this done in a month, Ryuuzaki. Don't you worry."

(X)

Just a day later, a young girl with brown hair and a large blue scarf walked into the building, escorted by Watari. She carried a large amount of card and paper along with a carry-on suitcase.

"Hello, is Arthur here?" she asked, as she placed them down on one of the tables that scattered the room.

"Nope," Light said, as L ignored her in favour of his cheesecake, "Arthur and Eames are spying on Higuchi's activities to see what would function as the second level of the dream. The first level however, they've already decided, will be his apartment. They have pictures and textures and specifications for what they want designed into the level."

"Okay." She said, looking a little nervous. "Umm, my name's Ariadne. What about you?"

"Yagami Light." Light said, "And this is Ryuuzaki. You've arrived pretty late, so you just missed Matsuda and my father, but you'll see them in the morning. Are you going to be designing now, or will that wait for the morning?"

"Wait for the morning." She said, "I want to see if what Arthur's using for a sedative will hold a two layer dream. I've only ever used a stronger type of sedative, so I need to see what the normal one will be like."

"Need a hand?" Light asked. "I've got to get accustomed to the whole experience anyway."

"You're one of the tourists right?" she asked. Evidently, Arthur had very thoroughly informed her of their activities.

"Yes, but I prefer Light-kun as a moniker." He deadpanned and L snorted a little.

She giggled and extended the needles from the PASIV device. "Come on then."

"You'll have to come over here." Light said, holding up the handcuff. She looked somewhat worried.

"Umm…"

"Suspect for the Kira case and one of the leading detectives. Don't ask."

She happily complied.

(X)

The first thing that Light could feel about entering this new realm was the sheer potential that vibrated and hummed into the very matter that made up the whole area. He was currently on a warm beach with the sun beating down upon him and the sea gently lapping against the white sand. Ariadne waved at him from where she was currently building a sandcastle without even touching it.

"Can I do something like that?" Light asked as he approached her.

"Sure. Just don't go too crazy or my subconscious will start protesting." Ariadne said, easily, as she conjured up a lounge chair for herself and leant back in it."

"Crazy?" asked Light and she grinned a little sheepishly.

"The reason I exist at all as an architect, creating a plan of the whole dream layout beforehand, is because the mind doesn't like dealing with changes to the dream. Once a dream has been imagined, it must try and stay as similar as possible, otherwise the projections of the subconscious start reacting. They'll start to realize that they're in a dream and they'll stare at the dreamer. The more and more changes are made, the more and more hostile the subconscious becomes. My first dream-sharing experience ended with my subconscious stabbing me and bringing me out of the dream." She explains easily.

Light nodded. "Seeing as there seems to be a conspicuous lack of people here, am I free to create?"

Ariadne nodded. "The more you create, the more of your subconscious will flock here and eventually kill you. But we're counting on that, so don't feel shy."

Light nodded and concentrated on the sea. Slowly but surely, it started turning from its clear, almost blue colour to a vivid, uncomfortably familiar shade of blood red. He then concentrated very hard and the sky started change from the sunny, clear skies to a dark stormy weather. Almost immediately, the sea imitated the sky's tempestuous anger. From the depths of the water, a large dark castle, that Light had based on some of the designs he'd seen from England, rose up from the sea, perched on a volcanic style island. From there, he made a little lily pad path from the beach to the castle.

He turned back around to Ariadne whose eyebrows had risen. "Impressive." She said, "Almost like my first time."

"What did you do?" asked Light as they hopped along the lily pads, cutting off the pads behind them as they went.

"I made the city of Paris bend backwards on itself and defy the laws of gravity." said Ariadne, with a grin. Light stopped suddenly and gaped at her. Suddenly, his feats seemed a little less impressive.

"I think there was a mirror paradox there too, where I changed the layout of the city, but I can't really remember. This was almost two years ago now." Ariadne said, as they landed on the island.

Light shook his head, still feeling a little incredulous. He was going to top that. "Take a deep breath. You're about to get drenched."

Ariadne threw him a look of deep worry, but Light merely smiled and started turning the island upside down and submerging them under the blood-red water. Ariadne looked terrified and clung very tight to a nearby tree, her mouth inflated to an almost comical size, but Light merely grinned as he imagined two scuba masks and passed one onto Ariadne. She attached it over her mouth and breathed easily. Light grinned and beckoned her downwards.

She looked somewhat apprehensive but followed him downwards nonetheless, swimming strongly downwards, as the water's clarity got smaller and smaller. Light sends her the OK sign and she replies, then shrugs her shoulders. He knows that she's wondering about what he's doing, but Light's waiting-

Yes. Yes, he was waiting for that to start glowing. Ariadne stares at the large underwater city he's created. It's glittered and shining with hidden depths. It looks like a miniature version of Tokyo, complete with little crabs and fish as the people going about their daily business. It's created almost entirely out of jewels and rocks and coral. He's never been happier with his handiwork than when he stares at Ariadne's bulging eyes.

Suddenly though, the fish seems to flee. Ariadne and Light both turned to look at each other before a shadow loomed over his shoulder. Light didn't turn around to look he really didn't need to—

(X)

They both come out of the dream panting and gasping. Light pulls out the needle as he waits for his heart rate to calm down. Being eaten by some unknown entity was more terrifying than Light had expected. L looks somewhat surprised by Light's reaction to the dream.

"Is Light-kun feeling well?" he asks, mildly, taking a sip from his coffee. Light merely glares in response and leans back into the chair. Ariadne has walked out of the room, presumably to catch her breath out of the way of Light.

"Your first dream did not go too well?" he asks again, not sounding particularly concerned.

"It was fine, until we were eaten by a giant unknown aquatic entity." Light says, as calmly as he can. "Any new leads while we were out?"

"Nothing. Arthur has headed home for the night. I do believe Eames is continuing surveillance." L says, as he slurps and finishes his coffee.

"Right." Light says, shakily, as he runs a hand through his hair. The room feels confining; lacking in the sheer potential that Light had felt there in the dream world. He stares at the PASIV, he wants to head back into the dream, even if it means another dea—

"The PASIV is addictive." L says, almost sternly and Light turns around.

"Hmm?"

"It's addictive. The dream world. Arthur informed me that there are dream dens all over the world, filled with people willing to pay to sleep and create forever. Like opium dens but worse. Eventually, the person who uses the PASIV long enough is unable to dream properly in normal life and hallucinates often." L narrates, a bland tone to his voice.

"Hallucinates? How have Arthur and Eames escaped that fate?" Light asks, as he shuts the metal container with a soft thud. It would have been nice to know all of that before his first dreaming experience. Somehow the feeling of being withheld from crucial information feels achingly familiar, as so much else seems to about his current situation. But Light can't fight the fog that clouds his mind when he tries to remember specific memories and has resigned himself to being unable to solve the mystery of the missing memories.

"There are items called totems that ground you in reality." Ariadne says, as she comes back into the room, looking somewhat tired. "They're unique to your person and only you can ever touch it. It has something distinctive property about it that will change in a dream. A man I knew, called Cobb had a spinning top for a totem. In a dream, it will never stop spinning."

"Do you need a totem to dream, Ariadne?" asked Light.

"It's a fairly recent thing, but I'd say, if you plan on being embroiled in the world of dream espionage, it's pretty useful." She says, seriously. He sees her hand go to her necklace, where a bishop charm is hanging on the end of her necklace. Her totem? Most likely.

"Ariadne," L said, "I would appreciate it if you would take the PASIV with you when you retire. Just in case."

Light shot L a look. "I'm handcuffed to you. There's not really much I can do without you knowing about it."

"It's not for you." L says calmly as Ariadne waves a goodnight to the two of them and walks out.

(X)

It's 3am and L's computer is still on and Light can't sleep. The dream is too vivid in his mind and this whole thing to catch Kira is playing around his brain. He's tried stating all of Newton's Laws of Motion and the Laws of Thermodynamics. He's worked his way down the periodic table, listing atomic number, atomic weight and what other elements it reacts with, but that hasn't done anything, despite being one of the most effective sleep enablers of his junior high years.

"L, what was your first shared dream like?" Light asks.

L stops typing and looks at Light. "And why is Light-kun interested?"

"Because I'm attempting to gather information. In my first dream, I screwed with the laws of reality and of human limits. In Ariadne's first dream, she turned Paris on top of its head. I was curious about your own." Light explains, a little sleepily.

L is silent for a moment and Light turns over; if he doesn't want to answer, it's fine but slightly ann—

"I solved a crime. I was being 'tortured' by Watari and I still managed to solve a crime." L says. There's not a tinge of emotion in his voice, he's just stating the facts. "It was what it was used for in the military; to train soldiers with real guns and real situations they'd face without any adverse consequences. They forgot however that the mind is fragile. They died so many times in the dream and felt nothing, so they started taking unnecessary risks with their own lives on the battlefield, because their mind supplied them with evidence that the guns were harmless. They finally re-evaluated its use after 40 soldiers died on a mission after the team leader was unable to realize that they were in reality and not a dream."

Light winces a little. "Torture?" he asks.

L doesn't answer. And Light's fine with that, now. He needs that tempering, to understand that this whole new world of creation and possibility had its downsides. Hallucinations, instability, suicidal tendencies, desensitization and addiction? Light wasn't sure he wanted to risk that.

(X)

"So, the first level is the Yotsuba building?" asked Light, as he examined the complex 3D models that scattered the tables inside the main observation room. "With some extra modifications?"

"That's right," Arthur said, from where he was tapping away at his laptop. "Currently, Eames has been monitoring surveillance of Namikawa, who he will be impersonating in the first level. We think that information of his secret may be hidden inside the Yotsuba building where they hold their meeting, we can't know for sure. That's why we have the second level. That will be at Higuchi's house celebrating his birthday, which has already passed. We will be attempting to recreate the argument that Higuchi and his father had at the party about the company and hopefully, while disguising as guests, I will be able to sneak into the saferoom without any detection."

Right," Ariadne said, as she cut more card to create little images of the five dreamers, "The first level is more complex than the second, in the floor design in any case. The sheer amount of high-level security at Higuchi's house will be a problem to override, so Eames, you'll have to stall Higuchi as much as possible."

"I know," Eames said, sipping a glass of wine, from where he was currently imitating Namikawa's mannerisms and voice almost perfectly. "But what worries me if Arthur can't get through the security system or does it in a manner that is too obtrusive to the projections. Higuchi will be onto us immediately."

"I'm not an amateur, Eames. I broke into a realistic simulation of Fort Knox along with Cobb, trust me on this being the least of my worries." Arthur said, stretching his arm around Ariadne, who smiled a little. It was soon fairly obvious that the two were in a subtle relationship.

"Yeah. With Cobb." says Eames, dropping the act. "Cobb was brilliant, a natural with people, and with the dreams, you know that, Arthur. Every damn situation fell into his lap, and he got to pick and choose. The first bit of bad luck was him getting trapped in Limbo with his wife, and you know it, Arthur. That happened almost ten years after he got into dreaming. He never failed before that."

"And after that, it was nothing but failure until Inception. Think about it for a minute Eames. Do you want to succeed or not?" Arthur says coldly, as he stands up and walks out.

Light rolls his eyes and exchanges a wry look with L. He didn't think he'd be sympathizing with L, of all people, being the antisocial person that he was, but the drama and the constant sniping between Eames and Arthur was getting to him. At least he and L got out their physical tension with fighting or intense philosophical debates, rather than at a constant rate that never stopped.

"Look, what about L and I? We'll need to come with you, Arthur. What do we need to do?" asked Light, out of a need to divert their attention from their petty fight, rather than actual information.

"Stick close with me, shoot any projections if they get too aggressive, but generally try and stay out of attention's way." Arthur said, "Do you have any experience with a gun?"

Light gave him a gimlet stare, that clearly implied that Arthur was an idiot. "I'm seventeen years old in a country where civilian gun use in banned. No Arthur, I'm a veritable expert with guns!"

Eames snorted and Arthur rolled his eyes. L looked amused. "That was a little harsh, Yagami-kun." He said, crunching down on a thin chocolate wafer.

"Perhaps, but it was a rather stupid question, even if you disregard my nationality. Surely you don't expect American teens to have experiences with guns, Arthur?" Light asked.

Eames shuddered. "Gods, that would be a nightmare."

Arthur sighed. "Dream time. Come on, leaving you with next to no experience with guns is a bad idea."

"Matsuda, go with them." L said.

Matsuda looked shocked. 'Me?" he asked, looked slightly nervous.

"You are the person with the highest gun accuracy scores for Japan's NPA." L said and Light felt his eyebrows raise. This, he hadn't known.

"Umm, okay Ryuuzaki." He said, scratching the side of his head. "Whatever you say."

Arthur sighed. "Come on, hook up to the PASIV. Ariadne, can you just check with Namikawa while we're in, about when Eames is going to meet with him in person?"

"Sure Arthur." She said, not looking up from her model. 'I'll be adding a few paradoxes into the floor plan of the Yotsuba building actually, now you mention how dangerous it'll be." She said, not looking up.

"So, do you actually even know what a gun looks like, kid?' asked Eames conversationally and Light threw him another cold glare.

"Sorry Ryuuzaki." he said, and quickly disarmed Eames of his gun, clicked the safety off and pointed it in his face. A trick that his father had taught him and Sayu a long time ago. Light was surprised that he still remembered how to do it. The side-effect had been that L had been dragged out of his chair and was now sitting on the floor looking rather surprised, the same expression that Eames had.

Arthur laughed. "I think I won't have much to teach you Light. You did a good number on Eames."

Eames looked calmer now, though still a little shell-shocked. "Didn't expect that from you kid. That was impressive." Light pushed the safety back on and threw it back to Eames.

"I am the son of a police officer. Don't patronize me, please." Light said coldly before going to attach himself to the PASIV.

AN: Part 1. I usually finish both parts and post them together, but I am very stuck as far as writing this actual dream sequence will happen. Considering I have other stories that also wish to see the light, I'm going to focus on them and just post part 1 of the Inception Crossover and hope that part 2 will actually get written.