A.N. LOL, if you read just the chapter titles in order it sounds like a TOTALLY different story. I love it! Anyway, Chapter Twenty One. We're about one fourth through the story, if you're interested… Again, sorry about the science chapter, but Arthur & Ariadne really do love that stuff and I think it would show…also, I had so much fun writing the fluff at the end.
"Alright, so….rules of Extraction," Arthur said, helping Ariadne to her feet and loading a gun, which he then handed to her.
"I thought you said…"
"We're in my subconscious this time; if we went into yours your subconscious in the level above would have torn us to pieces."
"But now your subconscious is going to tear us into pieces."
"That's the plan, anyway," He said offhandedly, shrugging. The alarm on Ariadne's face must have shown, for he gave her a reassuring smile. "It won't hurt; mine are professionals."
She sighed and inched a little closer to him, just in case. They appeared to have woken up in a dimly lit industrial type room, with white beams near the ceiling, cracking paint on concrete walls, and a cold hard floor. Arthur flicked the light switch and the whole room seemed to flicker and crackle.
"Where are we?" Ariadne asked, tucking the gun into the waistband of her jeans. Arthur caught her arm.
"Keep it out. We have five minutes at most, and that's if you're a good shot. Learning to shoot under pressure isn't the best way to learn technique, but it's the quickest way to learn to kill projections. We're in an abandoned warehouse- industrial- I thought it might help you feel less empathy toward my subconscious. I'm going to show you what happens when you try and break into someone's mind, because you've never seen it in action, but I'm going to fail on purpose. This is a serious business; the Extractor you choose will need to be warned, but if you can't explain the consequences the warning won't stick. But also, you should never go in for an extraction guns blazing and just a straight sprint for the finish with someone familiar to the dream world."
"Arthur-" Ariadne stopped him, fidgeting like she wanted to say something. She tried, several times, but nothing seemed to come out. "Never mind," She said weakly, after a moment.
"No, what?" He turned from his stance and bent until he was eye-level with her. "You're supposed to be learning here, you can ask me any question you need to."
She wouldn't meet his eyes, however, looking away and biting her lower lip. He waited patiently, still peering into her face, because he knew her, and there was only so long she could go before her curiosity and her sense of needing to understand and comprehend everything won out.
"Ariadne," He said softly, persuasively, because damn it if she didn't make him want to know everything going on inside her capable head. The two of them could talk –and had, during the Fischer case, waiting for Cobb to return- having spirited discussions on dream architecture, dream space, dream…everything. The two of them shared similar passions for their job, and quite frankly loved and enjoyed it more than anything else they'd ever done. Sharing that gift with someone else had, for both of them, been an irreplaceable experience, and led to a deep bond between the two.
"Can you be the one to talk to the new Extractor?" She said after a moment. "I-I don't…want the responsibility of that, and you're really….you're really good at it."
He understood the reason she wouldn't meet his eyes then- guilt. He smiled slightly and straightened up, turning towards the darker area of the warehouse.
"I can," He said gravely. "But I do want you to remember not every job you do will be like this one. Sometimes in this field you will have to do things you don't want, and don't feel comfortable with. Because they have to be done. You're right- I probably would be a better fit to talk to the new Extractor, but I want you there too, so you can see how it's done, because on another job you might be the most…moral member of the team, and you should use that to try and prevent the new member from becoming to corrupt."
"What other jobs are you expecting me to get, Arthur?" She asked in bewilderment. "Nash said after the job he's going to kill us."
"Well, I'm getting you out, at least," Arthur said resolutely. He turned his head to the side and looked back down to see her expression. But she shook her head.
She felt the need to remind Arthur of the truth. No doubt he was planning on saving her (and she did appreciate the gesture) out of a sense of friendship, and what was right, and because he cared about her, but the odds of him succeeding were small at best. "Nash wants me dead the most, Arthur, I don't see what you can do."
"Nash isn't working for himself though, he has to answer for Cobol, and Cobol won't be as likely to kill you seeing as you have all sorts of traces in the real world. Not only that, but you're a professor at a University who knows about dream share- a position of real power they can try to exploit. You're too valuable to them."
"Even if that's true Arthur, why would I go back into the business?"
"Because you're exceptionally good at it." He felt the need to be brutally honest. He had wanted to have this conversation up top, but now that it had come up he felt he couldn't just ignore it for later. He had more respect for Ariadne than that. She was not a woman who let people promise her answers later- she wanted them now. "And I'd hate to think Eames and I made your life that horrible that you'd want to stop."
"Eames hasn't really had much to do with it," She said drily. He gave her his customary smirk and decided to wrap up this conversation and return to the point of the 'lesson'. He wasn't sure when he had decided to slip into the role of Mentor for her, especially when she was practically as skilled as he was, but argued to himself his experience in the field gave him the right to help her out with the little things.
"Well, we can return to this discussion later, but I set the timer up above so we have to move, I'm afraid," He gave his gun a once-over to see if it was ready for the task at hand and then politely inquired if he could double-check hers as well. She nodded and handed it over, but her mind was clearly still somewhere else.
"Alright," He said after he was finished, handing it back to her with as warm a smile as he could muster, though it was tight and didn't reach his eyes. "The Extractor will need to be tested on three things. The first; their ability to get through a maze, which you will be designing. Second- their ability to think under pressure and react creatively to problems. And the final ability: whether they can get to a safe or not in a dream. So- my safe is two floors above us, in the Northeast corner. We're currently in the southwest corner of the building. See if you can make it there."
"What if I get shot but don't die?" Ariadne asked. Arthur grimaced.
"Have you been shot before?"
She wasn't usually an eye-roller, having outgrown that skill years ago for the more professional "why?", but two years in the classroom and the ridiculousness of Arthur's question broke down her habit of not rolling her eyes.
"No," She snapped, "I haven't. Seeing as you've been with me in nearly every single dream, I would have thought you'd remember-"
"I wasn't in 'every single dream'," Arthur snapped back, rolling his eyes at his friend's antics. Truth was, he sometimes forgot she was younger and in a different stage of her life than himself, and when she acted out like this he was glad for the reminder. Working with her was a study in learning new things and mentoring, but he was secretly glad of the entertainment. Watching Cobb squirm had been especially satisfying, in a vindictive way, but now that he was her apparent new target, he felt empathy for the man. "You were in at least three without me. The point is, Ariadne," (he hastened to add, for she had opened up her mouth to no doubt put him in his place), "getting shot doesn't necessarily have to hurt. It will, but theoretically you can trick your mind into thinking it won't, like when you're dreaming and you get shot and it doesn't actually hurt."
"It always hurts."
"Yeah well, some people have that skill. It'll hurt, painfully so, but it's better than a stabbing."
He saw her shudder and remembered –too late- the first time she'd been taken out by a projection in a dream. "I'm sorry," He said quickly and sincerely. "I forgot about-"
"It's fine." She squared her shoulders but glanced up at him and gave him what was meant to be a reassuring and forgiving smile, though it was quick and looked much more like a grimace. "Northeast corner, two floors up. And if I get shot, I'm screwed. Got it."
The smile she flashed him over her shoulder was genuine now, and mischievous, but she looked worried as well. He had made a face at the last point her debriefing of his debriefing, but she had already begun to walk away, and didn't see it.
"If you get shot just shoot yourself in the head to get out of it," He called, "Wait for me back up top. And if you don't feel comfortable doing that you can wait it out, or yell for me and I'll try to come help you. If I don't-"
"-Got it, Arthur," She yelled from the distance. He grinned and turned in the opposite direction from her, looking for an external stairwell he'd put in in the opposite corner. She'd be dead in five minutes- this floor would be marked as dangerous, but the factory level above would be swarming with projections.