A/N: I'm really happy because of your responses. The moment I've reached 30 reviews was really a good one:D So, as always, don't hesitate to leave your opinion, all of them give the courage to write further chapters and help in making this story better.

I completely forgot about disclaimers last times so: I do NOT own Inception or its characters. Even though I do own a new and shiny Inception blu-ray:D

Hope you'll enjoy!

Only thing that breaks the silence is the sound of working engine.

Arthur sits with his arms around knees in the corner of the car. He looks lost and broken and, surprisingly, it's not only his talent to play, which makes him looks so.

He knows, perfectly well, that this time they crossed a line.

This job is completely different than the previous ones, even the Fisher Job.

They never tried to make somebody feel a guilt, guilt big enough to change the whole life. Using such tricks seemed bad, inhuman even.

And yet now they're using it.

And it goes smoothly, Arthur has to admit that: both brothers seem to be broken.

It's definitely time for a second layer and Arthur sighs in relief when the car stops again.

This time all of them are forced out of the car. However, this time nothing goes as easily as in the real world. Eames gets a kick from Christopher Williams and Cobb needs to use the butt of his gun to survive the skirmish with the oldest Williams. When they finally regain control of the situation Eames spits blood and Cobb is massaging his left wrist with a painful expression.

Ariadne reluctantly gets off the car and joins the rest of the team.

No matter how she hates it, they need to continue.

The familiar sensation of sedative in her veins she greets with relief; at least it means they no longer play "the kidnapping play".

She opens her eyes feeling the strong and characteristic smell of hospitals. It seems they're doomed to creating levels of Dreams as hospitals of various kind.

Ariadne stays motionless for a second. She knows perfectly that the nightmare she agreed to participate in haven't ended on the first level, but this time she isn't supposed to directly take part in it.

She hears footsteps behind her and manages not to turn over rapidly. That's most probably a projections and making them suspicious is the last thing she want to do right now.

She tenses on the sudden touch only to realize it's Cobb, who brushes gently her shoulder.

"Come on, you, as the dreamer, can't stand so openly in the middle of corridor.", he says quietly and Ariadne feels stupid: how could she behave so carelessly?

Arthur leans on the wall, right now he has nothing to do, he needs to wait.

Eames is laying on the hospital bed, whishing he'd somewhere else.

He forged many people in various kinds of situation, but forging an old woman with death sentence of lethal disease on her head.

The worst thing they couldn't find any other way: on the paper this mix of guilt and hope to have dreams come true looked good and Eames is longer sure if they should have been trying it.

Not with both Williams sitting beside his bed.

And definitely not with this complete emptiness in his mind.

Arthur shifts his position. He knows he should be focused on the job, but it's extremely hard to stop thinking about the look in Ariadne's eyes.

She is clearly terrified by they're doing, even though she mostly knew the plan before this mission started.

The involuntary sigh escapes his throat and he misses the moment Williams brother leave the room. Luckily, the sound of footsteps alarms him and he raises his head, looking at them intently. Both brothers notice him, while passing by him and it's the younger one, who stops.

"Do we know each other?", he asks hesitantly.

Arthur blinks and then nods his head. "I think so.", he answers reluctantly, although deep inside he's glad. The old trick turns to be useful once again; it was Mal, who taught him that is possible to convince somebody that you're his forgotten friend with one gaze. Surprisingly, Cobb never managed to learn it, Mal always laughed that nobody would trust a stranger with such face.

Arthur observes Christopher Williams, waiting if Christopher will find a proper identify by himself, or he'll need a little help from Arthur.

"You lived in neighborhood, didn't you?", younger Williams finally asks, frowning.

"Yes.", Arthur nods his head. "I was the little one, with longer hair.", he adds with a sad smile. luckily he found a photo taken in early childhood of younger Williams, which shows all his friends from backyard.

Christopher smiles, but then realizes where they're right now and becomes serious once again.

"Have you somebody here?", he asks with sympathy.

Arthur shakes his head and hesitates a moment before answering. "No… In fact I'm a patient."

The expression on both brothers faces tells him that Eames played his part of dying mother perfectly. All Arthur needs to do know is to take them to the hospital café and have a talk.

Hopefully, he'll be convincing enough.

"Funny thing, I thought about you last time.", he starts with a shade of smile. The oldest from brothers looks at him, frowning, with a question in his eyes.

"I reached the point, when I have enough time for thinking about the past.", Arthur explains, thanking in his soul for Mal. Without all her wistful advices he could never been such a good actor."And I realized that Christopher wanted to became a famous swimmer and I even checked if he actually managed it…", his voice falters, giving Christopher the chance to react.

"Well, not everything went as planned.", he says slowly.

Ariadne opens the window, not longer able to feel this horrible smell. When she created this place, it didn't have such a smell. It seems that the older Williams fills this level not only with his projections but also memories of places like that.

Ariadne shivers. She still feels dizzy after the first level, the guilt inside her huge and fresh. She hoped that one the second level she'd feel better, but here's even worse.

The whole building filled with projections suffering from lethal diseases.

And somewhere among them is Eames forging a dying woman. That thought makes Ariadne even more nauseated.

She doesn't even try to think about Arthur.

Not now.

She's distracted enough.

There'll be plenty of time later.

"Ariadne?", Cobb walks in with worried expression on his face.

His tone alarms her. "Yes?"

"We need to hurry, projections started to behave strangely. Could you give a sign Arthur? It'll probably look less suspicious…", Cobb answers, concern in his eyes.

"Um. Yes, of course.", Ariadne says, feeling uneasy.

Angry projections aren't a good sign.

Especially for Cobb and Ariadne herself, who are staying in this level of Dream.

As soon as she notices Arthur sitting with Williams brother in hospital café she realizes that she has no idea how she should call him. So, instead of calling him across the café, she comes close and gently pats his shoulder. She avoids looking on both brothers, the picture of them from the first level of Dream too fresh. Arthur turns over immediately and freezes for a tiniest moment.

"I'm sorry to interrupt, but I need to steal your companies.", Ariadne says with tender smile. "There's something doctor Snow would like to discuss with them."

Arthur nods his head in response. "I'll go too, I need to ask him about one thing. I'll wait on the corridor."

Soon both brothers, Cobb and Arthur are asleep. Eames is staying with Ariadne, as "body guard", due to anxious projections. Ariadne can't help but feel relief. The vision of staying alone was almost unbearable.

she takes a quick stare of Arthur and then turns her head.

She has to wait.

The space around him is filled with darkness and Arthur blinks, waiting his eyes to accustom to those condition. He holds his breath, when he hears a sudden creak of doors. It can be Cobb, but it's better to be safe than sorry: if projections started to act strangely on the second level is possible here could be the same.

His instinct doesn't fail him: in almost last second he avoids being cut in throat with knife. He manages to notice it only thanks to the moon light, shining through the window, but his movement is too late nevertheless. His mind explodes with the white light of pain, when the knife cuts through the suit and skin and reaches his ribs. Next reactions come from his long training and soon the projection of young man in military outfit lays on the floor in the pool of own blood.

Arthur stands up and curses silently, clutching the wounded side.

He hopes Cobb is better than that.

Luckily Cobb is definitely better: he finds the both subjects without being bothered by projections. He hesitates at the door frame, but seeing a projection heading his way he decidedly enters the room. Christopher Williams looks at him and frowns.

"This house needs renovation, yet it still can be sold for a decent price.", Cobb says with smile. "I'm sure it'll be enough for starting a new life."

Christopher narrows his eyes and Michael looks at him with frown.

"The half of Sydney is talking about your plans, actually.", Cobb says. "Nothing strange, after what happened…"

It's a dangerous step to take, yet the whole team accepted the risk; if they want the idea of giving back the parts of corporation back to Fisher plant, they need to take every possible chance.

The feeling of fear, that something wrong can happen, the shade of guilt and desire to fulfill dreams- all of those emotion mixed together should forced Williams to throw away their current work.

At least theoretically.

Christopher Williams cleans his throat. "Well, we decided we should fulfill at least a part of promises we gave each other in childhood."

His older brother nods his head in agreement and Cobb feels a wave of relief washes over him. That's the perfect reaction, it seems like the third level isn't really necessary.

But where is Arthur?

The moment this question crosses his mind, he hears a stifled scream coming from downstairs. He rushes toward doors, when the Dream starts collapsing around him.

It's the kick.

Cobb opens his eyes with terrifying sensation of falling down. He takes a deep breath to calm down his nerves and looks around. Ariadne, Eames and Yusuf are already awake.

Arthur…

Cobb stands up rapidly. For a tiniest moment Cobb is sure that Arthur's eyes won't open, but they flatter a second later. It seems to wake up the rest of the team.

"Did you manage?", Eames asks fervently, Ariadne and Yusuf have the same question written all over their faces.

"I think so.", Cobb responses hesitantly and notices a long, slightly shuddered breath coming from Arthur. Ariadne doesn't miss it too and she frowns, but doesn't say a word. "But we can discuss it later.", Cobb continues without skipping a beat.

They carry both brothers on the blanket laying on the ground. Luckily it's not uncommon for Williams to have a picnic during the horse riding and they planned such thing also for today. It definitely comes in hand.

Hopefully falling asleep won't look to suspicious.

Soon the van with Cobb, Yusuf and Eames disappears on the horizon, while Arthur and Ariadne rides back as fast as they can to the stud farm. Ariadne is silent and Arthur doesn't press her; they don't have time for such things like now, they need to disappear into nothingness before Williams will go back.

They drive about the whole of the way to the villa, when Arthur rapidly brakes and pulls off the road.

"What are you doing?", Ariadne protest, speaking for the first time since they woke up.

"Ariadne, what's wrong?", Arthur answers with own question immediately.

Ariadne's eyes widen with disbelief "You are asking me what's wrong! Hell, this whole job was wrong! We can't plant an idea to someone's mind by making him feel fear and guilt!"

Arthur stays calm on her sudden outburst. "It's just a part of the plan, remember: we're trying to convince them to make their dreams come true and that was the major part."

"The major part?", Ariadne repeats with disbelieving clear in her voice. "God, they were forced to believe that they were kidnapped, because of their work places!"

Arthur's dark eyes become even darker. "You sign for it Ariadne, too. It's not that you didn't know the plan before."

"I've never sign for a fake death!", Ariadne snaps angrily in answer.

Arthur at least seems to lose a part of his famous composure. "They won't remember that."

"But they will remember the general feeling! Arthur don't you see that all of this was wrong?", Ariadne yells in desperation.

"We didn't chose the take this job. We didn't have a choice."

"Yes, we didn't have a choice when we were forced to work for Fisher. But we had a choice here.", Ariadne answers quieter.

"Choice?", Arthur laughs bitterly. "Sweetheart, is that what you think? If so better recall the expression on Fisher's face. He's getting impatient and we still have one more inception to perform. We don't have many choices here."

Ariadne stays motionless during his short speech, her eyes wide. She has never heard him speaking to anybody, especially her, in such tone. There's a warn in his tone, mixed with pity. And the pity is what makes Ariadne furious: Arthur speaks to her like to a stupid child, who doesn't understand anything.

She wants to do something, maybe hurt him, or maybe kiss him hard until this strange look in his eyes will disappear. The sharp ring of Arthur's phone startles her. She wants to stop him before he answer, feeling that they have to do something right now or a new wall between them will be build, but Arthur's already picked up the phone.

"Yes.", he says shortly. "No problems, we'll be soon.", he adds a little later.

When he starts the engine Ariadne feels like her heart has been frozen.