"Paradox," he said with a smirk, walking back away from her as she looked on in amazement. He stopped for a few seconds, waiting, and when she finally turned around to follow him, carefully walking around the projection that had dropped some papers.

Ariadne watched him step down the stairs carefully, hands in the designer pants he was wearing. She was beginning to see how he liked everything to be perfect.

She was beginning to see the real person in him, not just the point man.

She was quiet for a long time after he had told her about Cobb's wife. He didn't press, naturally quiet all the time, not offering anything to say.

"So," she said, and he snapped his head to the side, seeing she was ready to continue on, pushing Cobb to the back of her mind for a second. "What's with you and paradox's?"

"It's my specialty. Well, one of my specialties," he said with as much humility as he could. "Mazes can be extremely hard to navigate, but if you need to get to someone quickly, or trick them into walking right to you when they think they're walking away from you, a paradox comes in handy."

"And, you became so good at it because?"

He flashed a smirk, liking the course of where the conversation was going.

"Because being a point man, I need to know all the angles. Architects before had used paradox's, but I was the first to use it as defense. Or, offense. When I first began to dream, I was interested in paradox's already, and built on that."

"Oh. It's quite amazing. Being able to use paradox's."

"Thank you."

He stopped on the stair case they were climbing, and looked down at her.

"How about a test. I'll set up a huge paradox, and if you can keep yourself from returning to me, you'll understand how to get out of a paradox, and how to create a good enough one to keep the mark in one."

She nodded, and quickly walked away from him. She decided to try going in random, walking up some steps, then going down a hallway, then turning around and going into a room. When she opened the door, Arthur grinned at her as she opened her mouth in shock, seeing that she was back where she was started.

"Try again Ms. Architect."

She wrinkled her nose, and turned around, trying to do something different. It took even less time for her to be led back to Arthur, who was now leaning against a rail, and was smirking at her face of confusion.

"Again."

She tried it again, and again, growing more frustrated each time. Each time his smirk seemed to get bigger, and each time she tried a different way of going.

"C'mon Ariadne. You can't get through mazes if you keep going in circles, and you certainly can't beat them if you do."

Feeling very childish, she had an overwhelming desire to stomp her foot in frustration.

"This is impossible! There's no way to beat a paradox!"

He straightened his tie, smirking and not saying a word. She stomped, and walked off, going the same way the first time.

When he was out of sight, she stopped. She was going in circles, and Arthur seemed to think of everything.

But what if she added something that pulled her out of the paradox. Like a ladder?

Quickly thinking, she wasn't so sure if she would be able to do anything since this was his dream. She was right, even with the image of the simplest ladder she could make, nothing appeared before her.

"Damn it."

She had no control over the surroundings. As the subject, she had no control over the environment at all.

With a sigh, she continued on her way, trying to find anything that might keep her from returning to Arthur. She paused in front of an elevator, something she had passed by several times, but never went in. She decided she would this one time.

Stepping into it, she went one floor down, hoping it would finally stop the loop. The doors open and she was face to face to a smirking Arthur.

"B-but… it can't work like this! This is… I can't… not really… what is…"

His smirk grew.

"Paradox."

AUTHORS NOTE: I don't usually do this, but today I have just been watching Inception over and over again today, trying to find moments that would be perfect for this, which has made me get more ideas for it. Usually, I wouldn't do this, but I'll most likely upload a lot at a time, be gone for awhile, then come back again.

And I realize I haven't done any disclaimers, so let me just say here. I DO NOT OWN INCEPTION OR IT'S CHARACTERS. IT BELONGS TO IT'S RESPECTIVE OWNERS.

...I have another chapter to upload right after this.