Chapter Six

Cobb managed to catch Ariadne before she fell to the ground. She was too shocked to be embarrassed about her sudden weakness in front of him. Arthur couldn't die!

Breathing fast Ariadne felt the room spin around her. Her hands sweaty and shaking she felt she was going to explode. Cobb tried to steady her holding onto her tightly.

"There must be away to stop them!" she shouted.

"Yusef is working on it at this very moment Ariadne, he is very talented. Arthur is in the best hands he could possibly be in".

"That's not enough" Ariadne breathed in sharply. She was not an emotional girl she barely raised her voice let alone shouted like this Before she had met Cobb she had been a very controlled individual who knew exactly what she wanted and how she was going to get it. Now she had lost that control and didn't know what to do anymore. All she could think about was Arthur and how she didn't want to loose him.

"Ariadne calm down" Cobb was holding her close to him in a suddenly very unfatherlike manner. He withdrew from the hug to place two hands on her shoulders and look her in the eyes. "This is why I called you here".

Ariadne looked up at him surprised by his steely blue eyes that seemed to strike her own. The roles were suddenly reversed. She was the silly child and he was the educator. "It's not just because I had to warn you but because I also need your help".

"How do you mean?" Ariadne asked slowly regaining her composure.

"We need to enter Arthur's subconscious and lure the virus out".

Ariadne's tears stopped. She was relieved that there was a solution and suddenly embarrassed that she reacted the way she had. She'd always suspected that Cobb knew about her feelings for Arthur. She had no idea how he knew and it concerned her sometimes that he could read her so well but at least there was no need to be so secretive around him anymore.

"So what do we do?" Ariadne asked trying to wipe up her tears in the most dignified way possible.

"It's just like an extraction job with a few minor adjustments" Cobb smiled as if the extra challenges amused him. "It won't be difficult to access his subconscious, we can tell him we're simply running a test. The difficulty is going to be in concealing our presence from him else we alert the virus. For that I need you to build the most elaborate dreamscape that you're capable of".

"Why me?" Ariadne folded her arms. "I thought you were able to build mazes yourself now".

"Arthur knows me too well. He'd recognize one of my mazes straight away. You on the other hand he is not so familiar with". Cobb's tone was suggestive and Ariadne blushed before a thought occurred to her.

"But how can we trick Arthur into this? He spends as much time in dreams as he does in reality he able to recognize that's he's in a dream in a second".

"I'm not saying it will be easy but we definitely stand more of a chance if you design the dream scape"

The world of study and reality that Ariadne had worked so hard to maintain had all but slipped away as Ariadne realized that she would be committed herself this to world all over again.

"Besides" Cobb continued a strange look on his face. "As sick as it sounds in this way the virus will actually work in our favour. If Arthur reports dreams about us then we can blame the devices if anything suspicious arises".

"You're right that is sick" Ariadne frowned she didn't think it was right to tamper with someone's head like that especially when their grasp on reality was slippery enough already.

"We're not exactly spoiled for choice here Ariadne" Cobb said growing annoyed. Ariadne was surprised despite the obvious stress that Cobb was under Ariadne knew that he wasn't the type of man to yell and lose his temper. The only time she could think of was when they first found out that Fisher's subconscious was actually armed once they entered his dream. But Arthur and Cobb were like brothers free to express their emotion to one another.

"I'm sorry" Cobb stepped back after he saw the hurt in her eyes. "It's just we don't' have a lot of time. I know how quickly this virus takes over".

"Eames called them seekers" Ariadne questioned and Cobb turned back to her a flash of anger in his eyes and for the shorted moment Ariadne thought he was going to hit her but he instead took a deep breath.

"You know how Eames is with his little jokes, forget it" he said shortly.

But Ariadne wouldn't' and she made a note to ask again later when she knew more about what was going on.

"So what's our strategy?" she asked eager to turn the conversation around into some positive action.

"We have to think about what sort of scenario we're going to bring Arthur into. Eames and I already have some ideas but nothing's decided yet".

Ariadne opened her mouth to ask Cobb was he had in mind when Arthur suddenly appeared before her. She had to blink to make sure her eyes weren't tricking her. But when she had paused for a moment she realized that the dark haired man was standing there just a few feet from her a puzzled expression on his face. Cobb didn't seem to have noticed at all even though Arthur was only standing right beside him.

"Arthur?" Ariadne cried confused. She had no idea how he had just emerged like that. "You're meant to be in testing".

"Ariadne" Arthur muttered softly as if he were in great pain.

Cobb was staring at her strangely but he still hadn't turned back to look at Arthur even when he had spoken.

"Ariadne what are you talking about?" Cobb said his eyes full of worry and concern. "Arthur isn't here".

"What?" Ariadne's body filled up with an unpleasant icy shock. She started to shake by now she was so unnerved that she could barely articulate her thoughts.

"Ariadne" Arthur sighed slowly reaching out to stroke her check brushing by Cobb who still didn't seem to notice him. Ariadne closed her eyes despite the confusion his touch felt nice it brought peace to her for a second. "Ariadne you can't do this" he said.

"Arthur I-" Ariadne tried to speak the words but they just wouldn't come out it was as if she had suddenly turned mute.

"Ariadne" Cobb said more sharply gripping onto her hsoulders so tightly that it hurt. "Arthur isn't here".

Ariadne was so confused that she felt dizzy. She tried to grab hold of them both to steady herself. It didn't work and she just fell to the ground. "What is going on?" she tried to ask but couldn't and suddenly both of the men and the whole world around her had disappeared.