A/N: First of all I want to say that all your responses literally made my day. I was angry, but after reading them I had a huge smile on my face. Please, keep it up! As for this chapter: it turned to be much darker than I wanted it to be, but I hope it won't dissapoint you. Anyway: time to read and don't hesitate to share your opinion!
Ariadne opens her eyes, gasping.
It's not the first time she died in Dream. Hell, it's not even the first time she has been killed by someone!
But it's the first time when her death was caused by person she loves and learned to trust.
She takes a single look on Arthur and something inside her flinches.
The gun barrel aiming her head.
And this familiar hand with long, slim fingers, holding it so firmly, without the slightest tremble.
She turns rapidly and rushes from the room.
This night she'll spend alone.
Ariadne is unusually quiet during their breakfast. She sits on her place, sipping coffee and slowly eating toasts, never raising her eyes to anyone at the table. Arthur, on the other hand, tries to look unbothered and for the first time ever his capability to regain calmness seems not working. It alarms Eames: all they need right before performing inception is a team member with life difficulties. He catches her as soon as they have finished eating. He doesn't even have to ask anything, it's Ariadne who speaks first.
"Have you ever been in Arthur's subconscious?"
Eames inhales sharply. "I see you had the unpleasantness of being torn apart by his projections.", he says dryly.
Ariadne frowns. "No, it was Arthur who killed me.", she admits slowly.
It surprises Eames, as far as he knows Arthur's projections can take care of everybody within seconds. In a really nasty way.
"Ariadne… You'll have plenty of time to think and talk after we finish our work, but right now I need you to be focused. And please, act normally with Arthur, we can't afford to having him distracted."
Ariadne agrees with Eames with nothing more than a nod of her head. Eames suppose it's everything he can request from her now.
They're riding to the stud farm in two cars; Arthur have chosen for Ariadne and himself an old and classic Porsche, which should give a topic to conversation with Williams. The older one loves old cars.
The rest of the team travel in a huge black van, when they'll go under.
"Ariadne?", Arthur starts as soon as they start driving. Ariadne looks at him, noticing the desperate catch on the steering-wheel. His fingers whiten because of it.
"I don't want to think about it and I definitely don't want to speak about it. ", Ariadne responses quietly. "Right now we need to be nothing but professional."
"Right.", Arthur agrees barely above the whisper.
It's not hard to notice their marks: brothers are standing with saddled horses, ready to leave. It's not how it was supposed to be: they should be sitting and drinking tea right now. Ariadne sees Arthur tenses for a tiniest part of time, before he heads for them.
"Morning.", he says in a happy tone. "I believe we almost met before.", he adds quickly, seeing surprise in younger Williams eyes.
Ariadne isn't able to react for a moment. It takes her a minute to realize that Arthur is improvising and he's using every possible advantage to gain Williams' trust.
"Almost?", the younger one repeats.
"Yes, a couple of days ago, in the restaurant…", Arthur's voice falters, giving Williams a chance to interrupt.
"You must be Kathy's brother!", he exclaims happily. "What a coincidence! I really wanted to speak with you, but you disappeared."
In this moment Ariadne decides she should appear and goes closer to them. Arthur immediately takes her elbow with smile.
"Unfortunately yes, because of this beautiful woman. Marie didn't feel well that evening.", he explains. Ariadne reaches her hand with smile and blinks when Williams kisses it.
"It's a pleasure.", he says and Ariadne feels a knot in her stomach tighten. Arthur seems to notice her uneasiness.
"We're stopping you, aren't we?", he says and takes a step back. Williams seems to hesitate for a second.
"Fancy joining us?", he finally says, glancing quickly on his older brother.
Huge smile on Arthur's face is enough as an answer and Ariadne vaguely wonder why she hadn't noticed how brilliant actor he is.
"With pleasure.", she says, when both brothers look at her.
It's not long after that, when Ariadne is sitting on the horse and pretend she has everything under control. No matter how hard Arthur tried is not possible to learn somebody how to ride a horse within couple of hours.
Luckily is Arthur, who gives the pace, so Ariadne has the chance not to falling down.
Ariadne is amazed how smooth the first part of their plan is going; Arthur is so charming that they have no troubles to lead their marks into the appointed spot.
Within minutes they're done: both their marks are laying limply on the car' seats, the Pasiv humming quietly, ready to use. Now it's just a matter of seconds when they'll under.
Ariadne clutches her fists before sitting on her place, Arthur beside her. She feels the brush of his fingers, so light that she's not sure if it's real.
She doesn't get the chance to ask; her eyes close.
Luckily after opening her eyes Ariadne doesn't find herself sitting on the horse. No, she's standing on the firm ground, in addition supported with Arthur's strong arms. She looks over his shoulder and finds their marks standing beside them, expressions of pure admiration on their faces.
It's not strange, considering the beauty of landscape Cobb has created for this layer. Still, the rush of adrenaline doesn't allow Ariadne to admire anything right now.
She feels Arthur's mouth oh so close to her ear and freezes. The touch of him can't compared with anything, but Ariadne doesn't need any more distraction for now.
"It's amazing, isn't it?", she says and untangled herself from Arthur's hand. He lets her go very reluctantly and it startles her; it's not normal for Arthur to act like that during the job.
"I wasn't even aware that we have something like that in our country.", the older from brothers, Michael, says. Ariadne stifles the urge to enlighten him that actually they don't.
She feels the burning gaze of Arthur's eyes on her back, when she climbs on the horse. Men follow her example and Ariadne relies the breath she was holding.
Still everything goes according to the plan.
Even though she is prepared to the next happenings, she can't stifles the flinch, when Eames stops them. He's holding a gun and he points it on the younger from brothers. His eyes are dangerously narrowed, when he looks on them, measuring every single person.
"From horses, now.", he commands and Ariadne again realizes with how dangerous people she's working now. It's easy to forget about it while sharing with them a morning coffee or frying a scrambled eggs for them.
She jumps off the horse, feeling Arthur's doing the same. Both brothers follow them hesitantly, disbelief all over their faces.
Eames smirk, but it's not his usual infuriating smile; this one has a dangerous note, telling everyone it's better not to begin with this well-build man.
She feels Arthur behind her and leans toward him; it's planned, most women would look for safety in such way. Yet, in Ariadne case she doesn't have to play, she really wants to be close to Arthur.
Cobb appears in front of them, wearing the same expression as Eames.
"What do you want?", the younger Williams, Christopher, demands.
"Heard you're pretty important.", Eames drawls in answer taking a few steps toward Ariadne and Arthur. Ariadne tries to looks completely horrified when Eames touches her cheek and chuckles.
"Woman, a beautiful woman.", he states. "Seems we're lucky. Into the car, now.", he commands sharply and points with gun this time on the oldest of brothers.
He notices Williams tenses and raises his eyebrow. "One unnecessary movement and she'll die.", he warns, aiming at Ariadne. She gasps.
Of course, it's nothing more than a play, but the picture of Arthur doing the same is still to fresh in her mind. Arthur seems to realize her feelings as he covers her with the own body. The silent agreement passes from him to Eames.
The hint looks dramatically, as it landed on the one of the most vesseled parts of human body: the temple.
The blood starts pouring immediately and Eames grimaces. He hopes he didn't hit too hard, but in the same time is angry that Arthur played this trick.
Even though it makes both Arthur and Ariadne more reliable in Williams brothers eyes.
He sees Ariadne freezes, completely unable to react. He doesn't give her the chance to blow and with Cobb's help shoves her in the back of the van. The rest of prisoners join her quickly.
As soon as Arthur is beside Ariadne, she needs to stifle the urge to cry aloud. She's aware that they have to be trustful in Williams eyes, but it's so hard to look at Arthur's blood.
Christopher Williams gives her his handkerchief with sheepish smile.
She takes it with grateful look and gently put it against Arthur's bleeding temple.
Is Arthur, who breaks the heavy silence.
"They kidnapped us!", he almost yell, which makes Ariadne flinch. "What's happening here, why are you important?"
Michael Williams shakes his head in frustration. "We have no idea, both of us are in charge in companies, but…", his voice falters, when looks at his younger brother, who's pale.
"You're here because you take a ride with us.", he says quietly, staring at Ariadne and Arthur. He looks so lost that Ariadne clutches her fists until she feels her nails digging into skin.
She wishes she could say something, prove him wrong, but her loyalty to her friends is bigger than that.
She can't fail them.
"You couldn't know.", she stammer and hears Arthur cursing quietly, when the van jump on a bump. She takes a quick look at him: the temple is still bleeding, albeit slower.
"Are you ok?", she says, sounding much more vulnerable than she wanted to.
"Yes, it's just a scratch.", he reassures her immediately.
"They want money.", the older Williams says firmly.
"I told you that accepting Fisher offer will bring nothing more but problems.", his younger brother interrupts suddenly. Ariadne feels Arthur tenses beside her; that's their great chance.
"We're here, with two accident persons because of that!", Christopher continues, his voice dangerously raised. "Fuck, like we couldn't just stay low…"
Ariadne observes them with wide eyes.
"What do you mean?", she asks, hoping that she sounds enough despair.
"What I mean?", Christopher snaps angrily. "I mean that because of this fucking companies we can lose our lives!"
Ariadne curls instinctively, but Christopher doesn't get the chance to continue, as Eames yells at them angrily from the driver cab to shut up.
The silence is even heavier than at the beginning of the journey, but this time nobody tries to speak.
Both Arthur and Ariadne knows there's no need for that.
The first grain has been sowed.
Now they need to wait and see what happens next.
The atmosphere is so filled with fear and despair that Ariadne unwillingly starts to feel uneasiness. A quick glance on Arthur doesn't smooth her nerves.
Expression on his face is grim and concerned and Ariadne is sure she knows what he's thinking about.
His sister.
It still sounds strange in Ariadne's ears; Arthur has an older sister and if not this strange coincidence she could never find out about her.
Her thoughts are interrupted, when the car suddenly stops. The door are opened rapidly and Ariadne sees Cobb.
"You.", he gestures toward Ariadne. "Come on."
Ariadne freezes. It's not planned and she's not sure how she should react. Then she feels the lightest touch on her back, which has to mean: "Go."
Ariadne hesitantly gets off the car, while Eames is aiming at Arthur with his gun.
Then the door are closed again and Ariadne inhales sharply.
"Quick.", Eames grabs her and leads further from the car. She tears herself out from his grip.
"What are you doing?", she snaps angrily.
"Fulfilling the promise I gave Arthur.", Eames answers with sigh.
Ariadne blinks in disbelief. "What kind of promise?"
It's Cobb who answers the question. "Listen, Ariadne. You know that we couldn't find anything connected with positive emotions, right?"
Ariadne slowly nods her head. "Of course. This kidnapping is the first step that should make them hate their current work. Anyway, the job is partially done, they really don't like it, at least the youngest one."
"Exactly.", Eames says. "But we need something more and death of young and beautiful fiancée of the innocent man, who's been kidnapped by accident…"
Ariadne gasps. She has never thought that they'll be so cruel while working.
Cobb leans to her and brushes her arm. "Arthur didn't want you to be right in the middle of it.", he says quietly. "Can you scream?"
Ariadne feels that she's on the edge of crying, but even though nods her head.
She starts screaming at Eames sign and flinches involuntary when he fires into the sky. She hears a scream, almost a howl coming from the car and for the moment she feels like Arthur really doesn't know what's going on.
It's a soft touch of Eames' fingers, which wakes her up.
"It's just a Dream, remember about it.", he says gently and leads her to the car.
Arthur finds screaming surprisingly easy. All he needs to do is just imaging that the situation is real and somebody's really shooting to Ariadne and the yell escapes his throat.
He feels that one of brothers grabs him tightly and hears a stifles sob.
"I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry.", the older Williams is whispering and Arthur closes his eyes.
They have never gone so far.
Neither of their jobs lead them on a path of such cruelty and it's amazingly hard to watch those two men feeling so guilty.
Luckily it's a Dream.
And now it's time to begin the second part of their plan.