Author's Note: Bit of a shorter chapter this time, so I'm updating a little earlier to make up for it somewhat. Just as a warning, I've changed the rating of the story to T for this chapter. Nothing too serious, but hopefully that doesn't bother anyone. Let me know if it does. Thanks to everyone who's read or reviewed. Hope you enjoy!
Disclaimer: Inception isn't mine.
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Chapter Eight
Cobb spotted the passengers when he was a couple of cars away. Eames was sliding the door shut to block off the back car where all the passengers sat, watching him, scared. There wasn't anything alarming to the situation at first, but as Cobb watched he spotted a man in the car behind Eames walking towards the almost-shut door, his hand going to the inside of his coat...
"Eames! Duck!" Cobb yelled as he neared the car, bringing up his Beretta as he sprinted.
Eames didn't even glance back at Cobb's voice as he instinctively threw himself out of the way. The gunfire ripped through the spot he had been a millisecond later. Screams broke out through the back car again as not one, but five militarized projections barged through the nearly closed door between the cars. Cobb recognized one of them as Fischer's security guard before he was forced to dive behind a block of subway seats for cover.
Arthur, Ariadne and Mal did similarly, Ariadne and Mal ducking back into the adjoining car for cover. A few of the projections focussed on Eames, lying between a gap in the seats and perfectly within their range.
Cobb nailed one projection immediately between the eyes from across the car and the projection dropped like a stone, temporarily distracting the other projections. Simultaneously, a bullet from Arthur's gun narrowly missed another man. The projections were forced to throw themselves behind seats for protection from Arthur and Cobb's fire, allowing Eames to right himself and get his gun up, no longer within their immediate range.
Cobb continue firing shots in the projections' direction but was forced back behind the seats as the projectors retaliated. One bullet missed his right shoulder by an inch, and he felt his heart skip a beat. Across the aisle, Arthur was also ducking down behind the seats and back up to shoot periodically as Eames took down a second projection from behind.
In the adjoining car, Mal pushed past Ariadne to have a clear shot at the projections around the door frame. Fischer's initial bodyguard spotted her and aimed, but hesitated for a split second as he saw her. That was all she needed and her bullet clipped him in the side, sending him down. His yells mingled with those of the of the passengers crammed in the other car where the door was still open.
Eames popped up over the seat for a clear shot at the projection crouching a row in front of him, peppering the seats Cobb was behind with gunfire. As Eames was exposed, the final projection also raised himself slightly from across the aisle. He aimed and fired just as Eames shot the other projection from close range. The man's bullet missed Eames by an inch, instead hitting the top of the seat and the wall of the car, causing plastic splinters to shoot up from the top of the seat. One of them cut into Eames' cheek at the same time as Arthur took the projection out before he could fire again with a well-aimed shot from across the car.
There was a long beat of silence as the gunfire ceased and everyone realized that they had gotten all the projections. The quiet seemed abnormal as the ringing of the gunfire stayed in their ears for several moments.
Finally, Eames broke the silence to swear quietly, seemingly realizing the cut in his cheek, his hand going to his face. Cobb stood, hurrying over to finish closing the door to the passengers' car. Arthur breathed in relief, sinking to his knees from his crouched position to reload his gun. His eyes went to Mal and Ariadne as they hurried into the car to join the rest of the team, Mal going over to check Eames at the other end of the car.
Ariadne felt her knees weaken, and she sank into a seat across the aisle from where Arthur was kneeling.
"Are you okay?" he asked her.
"Yeah." She looked over at Eames and Mal. "Is Eames alright?"
"He'll be fine, I don't think it's too deep," Arthur replied, also looking over at the two. He gave her a small reassuring smile. "He's probably just milking it for Mal."
Ariadne smiled slightly weakly as Cobb finally fully blocked off the passenger's car from the rest of the subway and joined Mal to check Eames. Her eyes drifted down as she thought of Fischer still in the conductor's car and her gaze landed on his security guard. She saw him struggling on the floor of the subway, partially hidden in the gap between the floor and the underside of the seats, and she realized with a jolt of her stomach that he wasn't fully dead yet. One of his hands was stemming the flow of blood from his side, but the other was still holding his gun as he struggled to lift it as he lay, sprawled out, still beneath the seats.
"Cobb! The body guard!" she yelled at Cobb from across the car as the projection continued struggling to raise the gun high enough to aim at anything.
Cobb wheeled around, looking for the projection, but before he could spot him, a shot rang out and suddenly Arthur was falling to his side from his kneeling position, screaming as the bullet blew out his leg. There was another shot as Cobb shot a final bullet into the security guard's skull, then Ariadne found herself scrambling out of her seat and over to Arthur's side. Her hands fluttered around, not knowing what to do in panic as blood spurted from Arthur's leg and his breaths began to come in gasps of pain.
Cobb was kneeling beside her in an instant. "Thank god, it's just his leg," he muttered in relief as he pushed her out of the way so he could assess his partner. For a moment, he found the peculiar similarities of the extraction job they had performed on Saito when Mal had shot Arthur and what was happening now strike him. He shoved the coincidence from his mind, ripping the bullet whole in Arthur's pant leg open so that the injury was fully exposed. He looked up as Eames hurried over. "Eames, help me move him into the aisle."
Eames nodded, nudging Ariadne out of the way. She stepped back and watched as he and Cobb dragged Arthur as quickly and gently as they could away from the subway seats and into the aisle of the car where there was more room.
"His kneecap's shattered," Cobb said quickly, still assessing the damage. "Judging by the amount of blood, it's gone straight through the main artery. We need to stop the bleeding."
Eames nodded, shrugging off his jacket hastily and beginning to rip it into strips. Mal hurried past them. "I'll go finish getting Fischer ready and set up the PASIV for the rest of you," she said.
Cobb nodded, not looking up. "Ariadne, I'm going to need you to hold him still."
She nodded, trembling a little, and knelt down beside them, putting a hand on either side of Arthur's shoulders. She could feel him starting to shake slightly, his eyes somewhat panicked and unfocused. Eames seemed to hesitate, looking at her, before moving to her side.
"Here, I've got him," he said softly, looking at her reassuringly. "It'll be fine."
She nodded, not meeting his eyes, her breath catching in her throat slightly. Unsure of what to do now, she moved to Arthur's head as Eames took up her position more firmly.
"Are you gonna try to get the bullet out?" Eames asked.
"No. Hopefully we'll only be on this level for a few hours, so he'll be fine so long as we can stop the bleeding. I'll just wrap his leg for now and see how it holds up."
Eames nodded his assent as Cobb picked up a strip torn from Eames' jacket. He folded it over several times then placed it over the bloody mass of Arthur's knee to hopefully absorb much of the blood. He grabbed another strip and wrapped it gently around overtop the make-shay bandage and around the joint. He overlapped the two ends of the cloth loosely, then looked up at Ariadne hesitantly.
"This is going to hurt him," he warned her. She hesitated then nodded, her hands going to either side of Arthur's head instinctively.
Cobb wrenched the ends of the cloth together as hard as he could in one swift movement. Arthur yelled out in pain, struggling, but Eames held him still until Cobb finished tying the ends of the strip together. Finishing, Cobb rocked back on his ankles, wiping the blood from his hands on the remains of Eames' jacket. "That should keep the pressure on while we're asleep," he told Ariadne. "I don't think we'll be able to elevate his knee much, so that'll have to do. If you have to, tie a tourniquet around his leg, but only if the bleeding doesn't stop and only if you're really worried. Do you know how to make one?"
She nodded, not moving from Arthur, wiping the sweat from his forehead gently with one hand. She looked down at him and saw his eyes focussing briefly on her before he looked away again, shutting his eyes for a moment.
Eames leant back, his eyes going to the passenger's car uneasily. "Shall we move him now?"
At Cobb's nod, Eames leant forward again and tapped Arthur gently on the cheek to get his attention. As Arthur's eyes centered on him he said, "Do you reckon you can hop at all, love?"
Arthur hesitated for a moment then managed a nod, and Ariadne watched as Cobb and Eames each grasped one of Arthur's arms and pulled him into an upright position. They each pulled an arm around their shoulders.
Cobb saw Arthur's jaw tighten as his knee was jostled slightly, but other than that he didn't say anything. Cobb looked down at Ariadne, still kneeling on the floor. "Ariadne, you'll need to get the doors for us."
She nodded, hastening to her feet to pull the first door to the next car open for them. Cobb looked back one last time to check on the passengers, before he and Eames began to help Arthur slowly down the aisle, taking care not to move his injured leg too much. It was slightly unnerving as they made their way precariously over the gap between the cars, whizzing past a station as they went. The wind whipped at Cobb's hair and he focussed on making it the step into the next car and then they were through the doorway and into the safety of the next car.
It was slow going, but they finally made it to the front car of the subway. They set Arthur down gently on the ground next to Fischer leaning against the bottom of a seat, and Ariadne hurriedly closed the door to the car behind them. She sat down next to Arthur, looking at him carefully. He looked paler than before and his forehead was slick with sweat again, but his eyes still met her's briefly as she sat next to him, his breath coming quick and shallow.
Mal was still busy with the PASIV, now pulling out IV lines for the rest of them. Eames paced around the car and wiped a drop of blood from his cheek, something clearly on his mind. He finally turned to Cobb.
"Do you know how his leg's going to be, next level down?"
"It should be fine," Cobb replied steadily, but his eyes didn't meet Eames'.
"It should be, but you don't know for sure, do you?" Eames said. "They blew out his kneecap; how do you know he'll still be able to walk alright in the next level? We're depending on him to protect us down there while we're in the third level."
"I know, but it should be fine," Cobb repeated.
"But what if it isn't?" Eames insisted. "You don't know anything for sure. Saito was still feeling the effects down there during the inception."
"But not at first he wasn't," Cobb replied, trying to keep his voice neutral. "Arthur should be fine long enough for us to finish the job in the third level. Saito was shot in the chest, it was completely different. We'll just have to be quicker."
"If he can't even walk in the next level, he won't be able to do a bloody thing. We'll be like sitting ducks down there, except we'll be asleep!" Eames yelled, his anger starting to bubble over.
"Well what do you want me to do about it?" Cobb shouted back, his anger matching the other man's, closing the distance between them.
Eames took a calming breath, his eyes moving to where Ariadne was sitting. Beside her, Arthur was watching their conversation, and his eyes met Arthur's for a moment, before he flicked his attention back to Cobb. "You be the dreamer," he said.
There was a beat, then, "Are you crazy?" Mal said softly behind him.
Cobb's eyes didn't move from his. "I can't."
"Why the hell not? You know the hotel level somewhat from before, you know all of the rooms Fischer in. He's already remembering the inception from this level, and once I dream the third level, just like the inception and just like the plan, that should be all he'll need. Two levels down, Arthur's leg should be less problematic, and he should be able to do your job and guide Fischer into the vault, whereas we don't know how he would be one level down."
Cobb raked his hands through his hair in frustration. "It's too risky to be changing everything this far in. I don't know the level!"
"You know enough!" Eames snapped back.
Mal shook her head. "Dom, this is madness."
Cobb looked over to Arthur for reassurance. "You're not for this, are you? You've never been that far down in the dream."
Arthur shook his head, his face pinched together. "Let's just go for it," he said, his voice strained.
"And I'll brief Arthur on the level," Eames added urgently, seeing the argument beginning to turn in his direction.
"Dom," Mal warned again. "Please, let's stick to the plan."
"Shut up!" Eames yelled, suddenly turning on her. "Of course you want to stick to the plan, you're his subconscious and you're just telling him what he wants to hear!"
Cobb looked at his wife, his face betraying the first hint of uncertainty.
Ariadne spoke up quietly, looking at Arthur beside her. "You said yourself in the inception, Cobb. The pain will be less intense the deeper the level. I agree with Eames; it's safest if you're the dreamer for the next level."
And then, for the first time, Cobb's anger exploded directly at her. "Of course you're going to side with Arthur!" he shouted. "Eames was right from the beginning wasn't he? All that you're saying now is what your emotions are telling you! You two, I should never have let anything happen between you, it's jeopardizing everything!"
Ariadne narrowed her eyes, her anger rising as well. "You shouldn't have let anything happen? As if that would have made any difference! You're not the only one who has a say in this job! It's our lives that you've put in danger as well as your own, so I have just as much say as you. I know exactly what I'm saying, so mind your own damn business. You can do it, Cobb, it's just you that's afraid and your emotions that are talking."
Cobb stared at her for a moment, then his anger seemed to ebb slightly. "I don't know if I can do it," he said quietly.
She continued to look at him evenly. "Yes, you can. Because if you don't, you'll never know for sure whether or not you'll see your kids again. This is our best bet."
Cobb stared at her for a moment, before he finally threw his hands up. "Fine!" he snapped. "Alright, fine! But if anything goes wrong, don't pit it on me."
"Sure, of course not," said Eames quickly, relieved. He sat down in a subway seat by the PASIV, taking an IV line from Mal.
Cobb walked over to him and sat down as well, injecting a different needle from the device into his wrist. "And if I don't see my children again, Mr. Eames, I'm holding you accountable for this plan."
Eames didn't look away from Cobb's challenging gaze. "Fair enough."
Mal lay down, connecting herself to the PASIV as well. "You'll be alright, you know exactly what to do?" she asked Ariadne.
"Yeah," Ariadne said. "Good luck."
Eames cleared his throat, looking at Ariadne with a half-smile, attempting to lighten the mood before they went under. "So it that it, then?" he said. "There's no chance of you and me then?"
"Go to sleep, Mr. Eames," Ariadne said, echoing those words Arthur had said so long ago.
Cobb closed his eyes. "Don't forget the music," he said.
Ariadne grabbed an IV line for Arthur and inserted it into his wrist gently. His eyes were still slightly glazed over, but they nevertheless met her's when she looked up at him. "Be careful," she started, but Eames interrupted her.
"Just shut up and press the button," he said.
Ariadne smiled slightly. "Sweet dreams," she said, then with a hiss of the PASIV, they were asleep and she was left alone in the subway car.
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Liked it, hated it? Please drop me a review and let me know what you think! Next chapter should be longer, it just seemed like a good cut-off place for this one. Thanks for reading!
~kat