A/N: Okay, so the general concensus so far is that the previous chapter was fine as it is, so I shall leave that for now and concentrate on the subsequent ones. Speaking of which ...
Yes, you guessed it! Here's the next one. Enjoy!
29.
Ariadne ripped the needle from her wrist and jumped out of the chair as soon as her eyes were open. She was vaguely aware that her cheeks were wet here, too, but didn't much care. She hurried into the bathroom before anyone could speak to her and slammed the door behind her. Drawing a shaky breath in, she collapsed onto the lid of the toilet and buried her face in her hands.
How had things gone so wrong? A week ago she had been revelling in the still-new, exciting experience that was shared-dreaming. She had been eagerly anticipating the Inception, despite her frayed nerves, not knowing what to expect once they were under. She had been swept away by the intense thrill of creating something she couldn't possibly construct in reality, desperate to try out any- and everything just to stay connected to the world of shared-dreaming. Overcome by her sense of loss after completing the job, she had vowed to do whatever it took to experience it again, just once more, to test her Architectural abilities one last time.
But now ...
All she wanted was to be out of it, to be rid of the dreams forever.
She knew it was her anguish talking, that she was letting her revulsion, her fear influence her decision. But right then, sitting in the pokey little bathroom, fresh tears welling in her red eyes – right then, she knew it would be the right choice. The sensible choice.
A soft knock on the door snapped her out of her sorrowful stupor. She hastily rubbed her eyes with her sleeve and coughed to clear her throat. Please, don't be Arthur. She didn't think she could bear to face him just yet.
'Yes?' she croaked.
'Can I come in?'
To her surprise the voice on the other side of the door was British. She stood up and opened it to find Eames looking down at her, his expression altogether far too serious for her liking. She took a step back to allow him to squeeze into the small room, trying not to think about how strange the situation appeared.
'I suppose you know what happened,' she muttered, slumping back onto the toilet lid.
'Cobb told me,' Eames admitted. 'Are you all right?'
Ariadne shook her head. 'No, not really. I don't ... I'm not sure I can go through with what Arthur wants to do. It's just ... so wrong.'
Eames sighed and squatted down so that he could look her in the eye. 'I know it sounds horrible, but I'm sure he gave you all the reasons why it's the only option available to us. It's self-preservation, nothing more, nothing less. Us or them. You understand, right?'
Ariadne nodded this time. She did understand, but that didn't mean she had to be happy with the idea, nor even agree with it. But despite this – despite her repulsion at the very thought of what they had to do – she still trusted Arthur implicitly. If he said it was the only choice ... then perhaps it was. And if Eames, of all people, was agreeing with him ...
'Come on, love. Chin up, eh? Just think of everyone we're doing this for. Think of your professor, Cobb's kids, Yusuf's daughter ... heck, even Saito and his stupid company. I mean, do you really want premiums to go up on your energy bills?' Ariadne looked at him, one eyebrow cocked at his poor attempt at humour. 'No, I didn't think so.'
He offered her a small smile and stood back up, holding out his hand to her. She took it and allowed herself to be pulled to her feet.
'Don't be too hard on him,' Eames said quietly as he put his hand on the doorknob. 'He's only doing what he has to. And for what it's worth, I think it's a bloody brilliant plan. For a stick-in-the-mud with no imagination, anyway.'
He gave her a quick wink over his shoulder and pulled the bathroom door open. Ariadne took a deep breath, wiped her eyes again, and followed him out. She immediately noticed the eyes of all three of Denley's men, trained on her as she left the bathroom. Arthur's earlier words rang through her mind: 'He's been watching you every time you leave the bathroom.' She stared at the same dark-haired man, now realising what Arthur had meant; the expression on his thin face was enough to make her cringe.
'What's up with her?' he shouted at Eames, gesturing to Ariadne with the point of his gun.
'Women's problems,' Eames replied, sounding so sincere even she nearly believed him. 'You don't want to know, trust me.'
Ariadne couldn't help but smile at the nervous glances the men gave her before turning away, clearly determined not to catch her eye again. She slapped Eames on the arm as she hurried to keep up with him, eliciting a sly grin in response. Of all the excuses to use ...
The smile quickly faded from her lips as she looked up and saw Arthur standing before her, his eyes raking over her entire body as he scrutinised her appearance. She put a hand up to her red cheek without thinking, wincing when she realised how swollen her own eyes must be, how terrible she must look to the others. Cobb appeared sympathetic; Yusuf slightly bewildered; and Saito somewhat impatient. Sometimes she really hated being the only woman on the team.
'Everything okay?' Cobb asked, looking between Eames and Ariadne. The Forger must have nodded, for Cobb continued without waiting for Ariadne's response. 'All right then. We have the essentials in place. We just need to figure out the timing of it all, how we're going to pull it off.'
Ariadne glanced at Arthur as Cobb spoke, desperately trying to convey an apology of some sort to him. She wanted him to know that she understood; that she knew he only had their best interests in mind; that she trusted him to make the right decision. But he kept his eyes on his partner, never once looking away from Cobb's face. She wondered why he had suddenly taken over; whether Arthur was taking a back seat for a reason, or just allowing Cobb to assume the lead as he was used to doing.
'We just need to get into the dream all together now,' Cobb said, lowering his voice. 'We need a practice run of sorts, just to make sure we all know what we're doing.'
'Yusuf and Saito won't be coming under,' Arthur chipped in, looking at everyone except Ariadne. She felt her heart sink at his obvious unease. 'It'll just be the four of us. Yusuf will be monitoring the PASIV, to make sure nothing goes wrong. And Saito will be there as back up, in case Yusuf needs help and to keep a lookout.'
'I still do not know why I'm even here in the first place,' Saito grumbled. 'I'm of no practical use to you, or them. I'm simply a 'tourist', after all. Am I not?' he added with a pointed look at Eames; the Forger flashed him a sheepish grin in reply.
'Insurance,' Arthur said. 'Denley and Browning need us all here. That way there's no loose ends. You still took part in Fischer's Inception, so you know what happened down there.'
'Even if you were semi-conscious or dead for most of it,' Eames smirked, earning a glare from the businessman.
Arthur rolled his eyes before carrying on. 'The maze was near-perfect,' he said, with the briefest of glances at Ariadne. 'It just needs to have a taller building somewhere near the centre. That way it'll draw his' – he avoided saying Denley here, just in case his goons were listening in – 'attention, and provide you with a good spot to look out over the rest of the maze,' he added, nodding at Eames. 'You need to be able to see everything up there since you'll be the dreamer. That way you can change things if necessary.'
Eames nodded in agreement. Ariadne immediately began to change the design in her head, trying to work out where to alter things to suit Arthur's needs. He made a good point about a tall building drawing Denley's focus, and she wondered why she hadn't thought of it before.
'So how are we going to get four of us under with them watching our every move?' Eames asked, his voice barely above a whisper.
'I'll think of something,' Arthur replied, frowning as he looked over at the men in question. 'Right now we need to get the particulars down, make sure we're clear on everything before testing it out. Do you think you could make a quick three-dimensional model and teach the layout to Eames?'
It took Ariadne a few seconds to realise that he was addressing her. Her eyebrows shot up, her mouth forming a small 'o' as she stumbled over her words.
'Oh, er – yeah, sure. I'll ... get right on it, shall I?'
'Please. If you could have it done by tomorrow morning at the latest, that would be great.'
Ariadne nodded, managing to stop the look of disbelief from showing on her face. That gave her less than twelve hours to knock up a full-scale model that usually took her at least three days to complete. She would have protested, saying that it was impossible but for the look in Arthur's eyes. He was depending on her. He needed her to finish it on time so that Eames could memorise the design. If something went wrong at the beginning, it would only snowball from there. Her conscience was already racked with guilt – the last thing she needed was the failure of their attempted escape on her mind, too.
'Thank you,' Arthur said. 'I'll come by to check on how it's going throughout the night, if that's all right with you?' Ariadne nodded her assent. 'Okay, this is the last stretch. By tomorrow we need to have everything perfected. I'll work on the last few details tonight, and we'll run through it in the morning.'
The others voiced their approval with various mutterings and nods of the head, before dispersing once more. Ariadne watched them walk away before turning back to look at Arthur. But he had already disappeared, sitting down at the table again with Cobb, no doubt finalising their plan. She felt her stomach churn as she thought about it and forced herself over to her own workspace. She needed to throw herself back into her task if she was to forget about her misgivings and do her bit for the team. They were counting on her.
There was no time to waste.
A/N: It's getting close now - is everyone as excited as I am? No, probably not, heh. But for those of you wondering where Arthur's POV has gone to - never fear, we shall have our beloved Point Man back soon enough. Though I'm not making promises on when, as you've all seen how bad I am at keeping them! Let's just hope Arthur is better than me ...
Again, any typos and whatnot that you spot, feel free to point them out. I've given this the once-over, but it's late here and I need to get to bed (what's new?). I'll give it another look tomorrow and edit it when I get back from work if need be. Enjoy, and goodnight from me!
