5- The Knight's Arrival

"So where were we?" Arthur said calmly. He sat down in the chair opposite of Ariadne's. As much as she looked unnerved and distracted Arthur remained determined to put aside everything that had happened since. In between them was a coffee table with a silver suitcase on it. He opened the suitcase and began preparing for the next training session.

Ariadne looked at him strangely. "What are you doing?"

"Don't tell me you forgot our little arrangement." Arthur smirked.

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry Arthur. It's just been a crazy week since the accident and-"

"Don't think too much," Arthur answered quickly. "Here put this on." He handed her the tubing.

Ariadne smiled and kept quiet.

"How are you feeling anyways?"

Ariadne chuckled. "Other than feeling like I was almost ran over, pretty good I could say."

"And the dreams, are they still bothering you?" Arthur listened carefully.

Ariadne didn't know what to say except, "I guess."

Arthur attached the tubing to his own arm and leaned back in his chair. He was about to time the music player to play "Dream a little dream" when Ariadne gasped.

"What's wrong?" Arthur asked.

"I think I want to hear something else."

"Oh? What did you have in mind?"

"I want to hear your favorite cue."

Arthur laughed. "That old song?"

"Sure, what was it called again?"

"Listen closely," Arthur pronounced it with great fluency, "Non, je ne regretted rien by the great Edith Piaf."

"Why do you like it so much?" Ariadne was intrigued by his fixation with the French song.

"Well, it's kind of fitting. It's my song choice to know when time is almost up and that we need to wrap things up."

Ariadne was paying close attention but more so in the way he moved his hands. She felt a calming and warm sensation when he described things with his hands. She couldn't look away.

"It also signifies that we should move on. Translated down to a simpler level, the song sort of celebrates living life without regrets. We do what we want to do in our dreams and we move on."

"You've got a way with words."

Arthur shrugged with a smile hanging over his face. He changed the song and leaned in closer to Ariadne who was all set to go.

"Now before we begin, I need to know if you're ready for this."

Ariadne felt the urge to embrace him like she did before and keep him close.

"Sure... yeah I mean." Ariadne nodded quickly.

"I mean I know how fragile your body is right now and I don't want to push you."

Ariadne scoffed playfully and hit the trigger button in the center of the dream device.

"Just because I have boobs doesn't mean I'm fragile."

Arthur smiled and closed his eyes. He thought very deeply about what she meant. In seconds both Ariadne and Arthur faded into blackness with a hissing sound lingering in their ears.

The first training session involved Ariadne designing paradoxes in Arthur's dreams. She meant to design streets that never ended but instead found that she had forgotten the junction between planes. After several minutes of driving Arthur and Ariadne met the end of the street by running over the edge of her constructed city and into a bright oblivion. It was a failure but a failure that Arthur was proud of. It was his intention for Ariadne to learn. The more she failed, the more he grew fond of her stubbornness and frustration.

The second training session required Ariadne to maintain small town with even smaller communities inside without have any projection cross the communal boundaries. Ariadne was successful but only to a point. Eventually Arthur noticed that there was also no way they could travel between other communities. He noticed the anger building up inside her and sensed his own passion to cool that tension.

In Ariadne's final session Arthur placed them both in the middle of Times Square. The streets were packed with thousands of passing projections. The lights surrounding them were glistening brilliantly. A rose cart was conveniently placed behind that sold hundreds of beautiful flowers. Ariadne eyed the flowers but Arthur shook shi head no. Her objective was simple: to cross Time Square without getting caught.

"What's the hard part?" Ariadne joked.

Arthur motioned towards One Times Square, the tallest building on the street.

"And?"

"I want that building on the other side."

Ariadne looked at him bizarrely but found his cheeky grin too cute to turn down. They crossed the street together and pushed themselves into the thick crowd of colliding bodies. She tried to stay calm while she imagined the massive buildings circling around the intersection. But the more she concentrated the more paranoid she became by the projection's sudden behavior. They slowed their walk across the intersection and stared.

"Don't look at them, just keep walking." Arthur's voice was comfortable and soothing.

"Ok…" Ariadne said uneasily. She continued to move the building around and picked up her pace.

"No, don't walk fast. The key is to be as low key without being low key."

"What? That's doesn't even make any sense!"

"Show them that you're one of them. Make them see you're not a threat."

Ariadne nodded and slowed her walk. As the buildings turned and the crowd continued to walk, she slowly felt her hand wrap around his. Arthur noticed this as well and responded by curling his fingers inwards. A strange and fluid like attraction then enveloped their bodies. To some it was called the "spark", to Arthur and Ariadne it was simply the best thing ever.

"In a dream if you ever get lost, just keep going," Arthur began, "don't look back…"

One Times Square finally stopped moving and the two of them finally reached other side of the intersection without attracting any of Arthur's projections. Ariadne realized that they had walked into the exact same location that they ended up. As they walked back onto the curb, Arthur stepped up to the rose cart and picked out the reddest of them all. He gently handed the rose to Ariadne.

"…and you'll end up right where you were." Arthur watched as Ariadne blushed and felt his fingers tingle.

Ariadne turned the rose around in her hands and felt silent. Arthur grew worried.

"Is something the matter?"

Ariadne suddenly reached up and pecked Arthur on his cheek. He looked at her and saw the street's lights reflecting off of her large brown eyes. She had answered his question.

Then Arthur head a French woman's voice fill the air around them in a stirring daze.

When Arthur and Ariadne returned to the real world, Ariadne realized how strange the dream world was in comparison. She looked at her own hands and saw that they were empty. There wasn't a rose to be found.

Arthur noticed her disappointment and leaned forward. He touched the bottom of her face gently and smiled.

"Hey," he said softly.

Ariadne saw Arthur reach deep into the suitcase. He finally pulled out a rose that looked identical to the dream flower and slid it into her open hands. She held the rose close to her chest and then finally embraced him with all of her strength. Arthur never gave her a chance to let go.

"There's something that I want to show you." Ariadne whispered into his ear. She moved away from his shoulders and sighed.

Arthur could see the same look on her face as she did whenever she woke up from her dreams.

"What's bothering you, Ariadne?"

"Please don't think of me differently," Ariadne's voice tensed.

"Is it the dreams you've been having?" Arthur was suspended. The thought never escaped him but he also didn't try to make his passion to know too obvious.

"You won't understand at first but there are things that I should've taken care of before I signed up for this job. I didn't know that this was going to be so hard."

"Ariadne, who's Thomas?" Arthur's own question had split him in half. His mind couldn't make up whether he wanted to know or not.

She didn't answer him. Ariadne only pressed the trigger button again but was the first one to fall asleep. Arthur saw her drift away with the rose still tightly clutched in her hands. Then he heard the hiss in his ears and he too fell back into his chair. Although his body stopped, he could feel himself pass through the chair and descend into a dark abyss…


Arthur saw giant chess pieces instead of the usual cityscape. The sky was a blanket of blood red. He followed Ariadne as they passed one chess piece after another. He noticed that even the asphalt ground they were walking on was designed like a chessboard.

Arthur looked around at the strange environment and saw that they were the only two inhabitants. "Where is everyone? I've never been in a dream without a single projection."

Ariadne continued to walk as she spoke back. "I don't know. Lately my dreams have been getting stranger, as if I don't have any control over what's going on."

Arthur didn't like the sound of that.

"Ariadne, you mind telling me what's this all about?"

"When I left that evening I remember going back to my University."

"Was that where you were? Is that why you didn't come back?" Arthur looked up at the hundred foot tall Pawn that towered above him.

"I didn't mean to. I mean, I lost track of time."

"What were you doing there?"

Ariadne remembered the watching the young man with glasses. The man who was called Thomas.

"I couldn't help not going back. I had to see what I left behind."

"Left behind? You mean school? Ariadne, you don't have to quit college."

Ariadne stopped and turned around him angrily. "No! That's not what I mean. Dammit, why is this so difficult?"

Arthur held her close. He didn't want her to stress too much and more specifically in her dream.

"Ariadne, whatever is going on I want to help."

Ariadne began to sniffle as she touched his shoulders and arms. "The truth is I don't even know what's going on. It's like I'm being forced to have these dreams. I can't escape them. I can't escape him."

"Who?" Arthur asked. "Who is bothering you?"

"A distant memory, that's all he is. Why is he tormenting me? Why can't I understand that?" A single tear rolled down her cheek when she looked up.

Arthur saw that she was practically talking with herself. Then she asked the million dollar question.

"Arthur, help me. Please," Ariadne grabbed onto his shirt.

Arthur nodded and said nothing more. Suddenly Ariadne felt a deep rumble beneath her feet. Vibrations from below the ground began to rattle her bones. Arthur looked around them and saw that the giant chess pieces were beginning to fracture. A crack started at the top of each piece and then as they split in half smaller chunks began to roll downwards. Each piece was literally collapsing or tipping over into a pillar of dust.

He held her close as they watched the pieces fall, except two. One was a Bishop and the other was a Knight. When the dust settled and the ground ceased shaking, Arthur and Ariadne stood in their place as they heard footsteps. Ariadne tore herself away from Arthur and walked towards the giant Bishop piece.

"That's my totem," she gasped. "Why is it here?"

The footsteps neared.

Arthur heard the noise closing in and he reached out for her. "Ariadne, I think we had enough."

Ariadne shook her head. The footsteps were getting louder. Arthur turned around in circles to see where the footsteps were coming from. Then Ariadne heard a noise deep within her massive totem.

"No, please no," her voice trembled.

Somehow the Bishop piece began to move. It slowly inched over on one side as if a giant invisible hand was pushing it over. First the knob gave out and it broke away from the base, where it finally exploded as it touched the ground. The base simply crumbled into a pile of debris and dust.

Ariadne couldn't take seeing her totem fall. She placed her hands over her mouth and stood silent as the final remains of her totem finally sprinkled down upon them.

"My totem is not supposed to do that."

"What do you mean?"

"I hollowed out my totem so that I could tip over easily in the real world but in here…"

"It would never tip over," Arthur finished.

The footsteps were gaining on them and when they finally saw a dark silhouette in the midst of the dust, Arthur leapt in front of Ariadne.

"Who is that?"

Ariadne didn't answer but she kept looking ahead of Arthur's shoulder and into the silhouette.

The silhouette broke through and with each step the new stranger took, Arthur realized how helpless he felt. He was an imaginary shield to Ariadne; a thought bubble.

"Don't come any closer!"

The stranger didn't look at Arthur. He kept his eyes on Ariadne. Ariadne looked back at him and then the Knight piece that towered alone behind him.

"I'm glad you're feeling better Ari," the stranger said. "You had me really worried there."

"I missed you…" Ariadne whispered.

Arthur looked back at Ariadne with wild eyes.

"Ariadne?" Arthur choked. He turned back to the stranger. "Who the hell are you?"

The stranger offered his hand to Ariadne who took his immediately. Arthur saw Ariadne's eyes go blank. She was simply staring without response. She was a human doll. When the stranger finally wrapped his arms around Ariadne he smiled at Arthur and adjusted his glasses.

"Why, I'm her Knight in shining armor. I'm her past, present and future. I'm everything she ever wanted and everything she'll ever want."

"Ariadne, come back over here." Arthur sound almost desperate. His eyes shined with every wave of his hand. "This is just a dream, he's not real."

Ariadne shook her head.

The stranger smiled. "Incorrect. Watch this." The stranger pulled out a small bishop piece from his pocket and dropped it on the floor.

Arthur saw it flip out three times before hitting the ground. It bounced up and then fell on its side. The piece rolled around and stopped at Arthur's shoe. He bent down and picked it up.

"Impossible. This is bullshit! Ariadne, I don't know how he's doing this but we're still dreaming!" Arthur's voice became hysterical.

"Who are you!" Arthur pointed at the stranger with glasses.

"I'm Thomas."

(Cue Inception Theme! BUUUUUUM! BUUUUUUM! BUUUUUUM! Again the chills never fail to come. Well now here you are. We've come so far and yet there are still so many more questions that are left unanswered. As I stated in the previous chapter I originally wanted this in Chapter Four but I knew many of you might've been Inceptioned out by the time you had reached this ending. Personally, I love this ending and I can't wait to write more into the story that I have planned. So, should I continue? Yes? No? Find another day job? Regardless, only your reviews will determine that. Please let me know how my writing is doing and your own personal experiences with reading this fanfic. I want nothing more than to know that I'm doing my job right. Am I?)