Inception: Dreams or Reality? Part 1
A/N: I return once more and this has been a crazy week at work, and I'm about ready to drop. _
Read, review, and enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own anything from Inception, Batman, or Doctor Who. I only own the characters that I created.
CHAPTER THREE: A NEW JOB OFFER
It was nighttime in Tokyo and a helicopter flew over the city toward a landing pad on a high-rise apartment.
Inside the building, Emma was washing her face in the sink of the rooms she and Arthur were renting, and they were getting ready to leave; once she was done, she dried her face with a towel and peered into the mirror, examining her appearance. The good news that her headache had faded, along with the phantom pain in her leg, but she couldn't chase away the uneasy feeling that they weren't out of the woods just yet; what did Saito mean when he said that it was an audition? An audition for what exactly?
'We were so close,' Emma thought sourly, tossing the towel into the hamper and then headed out into the living room, where Arthur was making sure that they had everything packed up, and she pulled on a shirt over her black tank top. "So, do we have everything?"
"I think so," Arthur responded, zipping up his bag and turned to his wife. "How're you feeling, honey?"
Emma sighed, buttoning up her shirt. "Well, my headache is fading, but those dreams-within-a-dreams keep doing my head in." And rolled her eyes when he chuckled. "Sure, laugh it up."
Arthur just smiled and pulled her close, getting a small protest about wrinkling her shirt. "It's just a shirt, silly," he teased, kissing her on the lips. "Besides, you don't complain when you're working on your parents' farm," he added as she rolled her eyes again.
"You know, if I didn't love you so much I would smack you right now, Mr. Gordon," Emma retorted, but she was smiling and she wrapped her arms around his neck.
"And I love you, too Mrs. Gordon," Arthur responded, nuzzling her neck – just then the phone rang and they both sighed, the moment gone; pulling away he went to answer it while Emma finished up with her shirt, slipped a long silver chain with a raindrop-shaped diamond pendent over her head, and pulled her shoes on. "Hello? Okay."
"Who was it?" Emma asked as he put the phone down.
"Our ride's here," Arthur informed her as he picked up his brown coat and pulled it on. "Time to go."
Emma nodded, pulling on her own coat. "Right, we better get Cobb and Nash."
Arthur agreed, collected their bags, and they headed out.
In a different part of the same building, Cobb, now wearing causal blue clothing, was seated in a chair in the living room, waiting, and he checked his watch, feeling restless. Deciding something, he pulled out a handgun, checked it was loaded, and he placed it on the table in front of him. He then pulled out a familiar-looking pewter top, and spun it on the table.
Watching the spinning top intently, Cobb picked up the gun, cocked it, and held it near his head; after a few seconds, the top began wobbling, and it then tipped over. Letting out the breath he was holding, he shut his eyes and set the gun back down on the table, proving once again that he was still in the real world and wasn't dreaming…this time.
Just then the phone started ringing and Cobb picked up on the first ring. "Hello?"
`"Hi, Daddy!"` said a girl's voice.
`"Hi, Dad!"` said a boy's voice.
Cobb smiled when he heard his children voices, guessing it was probably afternoon back in the states. "Hey, guys," he said, closing his eyes, visualizing the last time he'd got to see his kids. "How are you?"
`"Good."`
`"Okay, I guess."`
"Who's just okay?" Cobb asked, standing up and walked around, carrying the phone cradle in one hand, visualizing his son. "Is that you, James?"
`"Yeah,"` James answered. `"When are you coming home?"`
Cobb sighed, wishing that he could go home and be with his kids again. "I can't," he answered. "Not for a while."
`"Why?"` James asked.
Cobb couldn't help but smile at his son being curious, especially since it reminded him so much of himself at that age. "Well, James, like I've told you, I'm away because I'm working," he explained gently.
`"Grandma says you're never coming back,"` said the girl, Philippa.
Cobb grimaced, hating his mother-in-law at that moment for putting the idea in his kids' heads. "Philippa, can you ask Grandma to pick up the phone?" he requested, wanting to talk some sense into the older woman.
`"She's shaking her head,"` Philippa informed him.
'Damn that woman!' Cobb tensed and tightened his grip on the phone as he sat back down in the chair, resisting the impulse to smash it into the table. "Well, we'll just have to hope Grandma's wrong about that won't we?" he suggested.
`"Daddy?"`
"Yes, James?" Cobb asked.
`"Is mommy with you?"` James asked.
Unbidden, the memory of Mal, with the wind blowing through her hair, and smiling calmly at him, flashed through his mind, and he shivered. "No," he answered, wishing that she was. "No, we talked about this, James. Mommy's gone."
`"Where?"` James asked.
Before Cobb could answer, Mal's mother, Marie Miles, spoke up with her thick French accent. `"Time to go, kids. Say bye-bye."`
"I'll give some presents to Grandpa to bring to you, okay?" Cobb said quickly. "Just be good for-" and sighed when all he heard was dial-tone; frustrated, he put the phone down, downed the drink he'd poured earlier and hadn't touched, and then slumped back in his chair, dejected.
Just then there was a knock at the door, grabbing the gun, Cobb stood and went to the door; peering through the eyepiece, he opened it partway to reveal both Arthur and Emma on the other side, their bags swung over their shoulders.
"Our ride's on the roof," Arthur informed him.
Nodding, Cobb let them in and headed back into the living room; Arthur shut the door and both he and Emma followed their friend, just in time to see him pick up the top and pocketed it, and it wasn't hard for them to guess what he'd been doing prior to their arrival.
"Cobb, are you okay?" Arthur asked, watching his friend as he stuffed his gun into his bag and zipped it up.
"Yeah, why?" Cobb asked, glancing up as he grabbed his coat.
Arthur shrugged. "Down in the dream…Mal showing up like that…"
Cobb understood what his friend was trying to say and nodded. "Yeah," he agreed. "Look, I'm sorry about your legs."
"It's getting worse, isn't it?" Emma asked, concerned.
Cobb ignored the question. "One apology's all you're getting, Arthur, Emma," he lectured, pulling his coat on. "Now, where's Nash?" he asked, surprised that the older man hadn't arrived with them.
"Hasn't shown," Arthur answered, concerned as well since Nash hadn't been in his rooms when they checked earlier. "Wanna wait?"
Cobb shook his head and swung his bag over his shoulder as he headed for the door and the couple followed. "We were supposed to deliver Saito's expansion plans to Cobol Engineering two hours ago," he stated, pulling the door open. "By now they know we failed. Time to disappear."
Agreeing, Arthur and Emma headed out, and Cobb followed, shutting and locking the door behind him, leaving the key in the lock.
Taking the elevator to the roof, they climbed a flight of stairs to reach the area with the helipad.
"Where will you go?" Arthur asked, checking his watch as they headed across the roof for the waiting helicopter.
"Buenos Aires," Cobb answered. "I can lie low there. Maybe sniff out a job when things quiet down. You two?"
"Stateside," Arthur responded.
"Going to see my parents," Emma added.
Cobb smiled wistfully, wishing he could go with them. "'Course. Send my regards," he requested and the couple nodded, fully understanding.
"We will."
Waiting for them was a white helicopter, and as they drew closer to the door, a waiting Japanese man pulled the door open, and the trio froze when they saw Nash, bloody and beaten, slumped in the far seat, and seated across from him was Saito, who nodded politely at their startled expressions.
"He sold you out," he explained with an air of disappointment. "Thought to come to me and bargain for his life." And nodded to the guard, who held out a gun to Cobb. "So I offer you the satisfaction."
Cobb shook his head, knowing full well of what the Japanese businessman was offering. "That's not how I deal with things."
Saito was impressed by his refusal. "Would you work with him again?" he asked and when Cobb shook his head again, he rapped on the side of the chopper, and the pilot started the engine and the rotors as a second bodyguard opened the other door, and dragged Nash out; the businessman then gestured to the trio to board.
Having no choice, they climbed aboard and seated themselves down across from Saito as they rose into the air; through the window, they watched as the guards dragged a struggling Nash across the pad and toward the stairs, panic spreading across his battered face.
"What will you do to him?" Cobb asked, partly concerned for the older man. True he'd screwed up on the dream and had betrayed them, but he had been a pretty good architect, too.
"Nothing," Saito answered, looking out the window. "But I can't speak for your friends from Cobol Engineering."
Hearing this, Arthur and Emma shot concern looks with Cobb, who was looking equally worried of what would happen if and when Cobol caught up with them, and from the way that Saito was talking, it was probably going to be soon, unless they got out of the country first.
As they few over the city, Cobb was curious as to why Saito had sought them out after they had tried to extract his plans from him. "What do you want from us?"
"Inception," Saito answered, getting raised eyebrows from Arthur and Emma, while Cobb kept his face blank, but it was clear that his mind was reeling upon hearing the word. "Is it possible?"
"Of course not," Arthur scoffed.
Saito didn't believe him. "If you can steal an idea from someone's mind, why can't you plant one there instead?" he asked, clearly intent on wanting inception.
Arthur rolled his eyes, but decided to human the Japanese businessman. "Okay, here's me planting an idea: I say to you, "Don't think about elephants"," he suggested and Saito nodded. "What are you thinking about?"
"Elephants," Saito answered, realizing he'd done the opposite of what Arthur had suggested.
"Right," Arthur confirmed. "But it's not your idea because you know I gave it to you."
Saito still didn't look convinced. "You could plant it subconsciously-"
Emma shook her head. "The subject's mind can always trace the genesis of the idea," she countered. "True inspiration is impossible to fake, which also makes inception impossible, too."
"No, it isn't," said Cobb, staring out the nearest window and ignoring the curious looks that Arthur and Emma were exchanging behind him.
"Can you do it?" Saito asked, looking at the blonde-haired man.
Cobb shook his head. "I won't do it."
"In exchange, I'll give you the information you were paid to steal," Saito offered, hoping to get through to him.
"Are you giving me a choice?" Cobb asked. "Because I can find my own way to square things with Cobol."
Saito nodded. "Then you do have a choice."
"Then I chose to leave, sir," Cobb stated and looked away.
It wasn't long until the helicopter landed at a airstrip located somewhere outside the city limits and there was a private jet wanting for them; Saito nodded to the waiting jet. "Tell the crew where you want to go, they'll file the plan en route." He waited as Arthur, Emma, and Cobb grabbed their bags and got out of the chopper before he played his trump card.
"Mr. Cobb? There is one other thing I could offer you," said Saito, watching as Cobb stopped to listen, and even the couple paused, too. "How would you like to go home?" he asked. "To America. To your children?"
Cobb turned to face him with barely control anger that this man would even offer him something that would build up false hope. "You can't fix that," he protested. "Nobody could."
Saito smirked. "Just like inception."
Cobb considered that and this worried his friends, and Arthur touched his arm to get his attention.
"Cobb, come on-" he began.
"How complex is the idea?" Cobb asked, ignoring his friend.
"Simple enough," Saito answered vaguely.
Cobb didn't believe that. "No idea's simple when you have to plant it in someone else's mind," he pointed out.
"Cobb this is a bad idea," Emma hissed, but Cobb waved her off.
"My main competitor is an old man in poor health," Saito explained. "His son will soon inherit control of the corporation. I need him to decide to break up his father's empire. Against his own self interest."
"Cobb, we should walk away from this," Arthur insisted, not liking where this was heading.
Cobb shushed him and returned his attention to the Japanese businessman. "If I were to do it. If I could do it…how do I know you can deliver?" he asked, feeling the hope grow inside him.
"You don't," said Saito. "But I can. So do you want to take a leap of faith, or become an old man, filled with regret, waiting to die alone?" he then smiled when Cobb, after a few seconds, nodded slightly, and he beamed while Arthur and Emma both groaned and shook their heads. "Assemble your team, Mr. Cobb," he advised. "And choose your people more wisely."
And the chopper returned to the air, Cobb, Arthur, and Emma headed for the jet.
Elsewhere and on the grounds of a fancy estate, a man with graying brown hair, a graying brown beard, icy blue eyes, and was dressed in a well-cut gray suit and tie, was watching as a large number of men, all wearing black ninja-like outfits, practiced fighting each other on the large back lawn; he was only known as Henri Ducard, and he served the mysterious Ra's Al Ghul, the leader of the League of Shadows, also known as the League of Assassins, an organization created to fight injustice throughout the world and restore balance to places that have, apparently, reached the point of being decadent.
He turned his head slightly when one of the ninjas approached him and bowed respectfully. "Yes?"
"Sire, I have received word that Cobb and the Gordon's have failed the job given to them by Cobol Engineering," the ninja reported, "and Cobol is requesting that we hunt them down."
Henri shook his head. "Please inform Cobol Engineering that we do not work for them any longer, and that if they persist, then Ra's Al Ghul himself will pay their families a visit during the night," he instructed, mildly annoyed that the owners of Cobol Engineering thought they could control the League of Shadows. "Anything else?"
"Yes, sire," said the ninja. "Saito has located Cobb and the Gordon's, and they are currently heading to Paris, France to do the inception job for him."
This made Henri smile with approval. "Very good, keep everyone involved with the forthcoming job under a close watch; we don't want any of them slipping through our fingers just yet."
"Of course, sire," said the ninja, bowing again, and disappeared without a sound.
Still smiling, Henri turned and went inside the manor; he then went up several flights of stairs to a study, crossed to the large bay window, and examined a framed drawing on a slightly yellowed napkin, the drawing was done in blue ink and looked like a pepper shaker with three sticks sticking out at different spots, and there were two other framed drawings: a blue box and a humanoid cheetah. "No, we don't want you slipping out of our grasp just yet, dream child, not while our real target still breathes."
A/N: Yep, the League of Shadows is still keeping tabs on our heroes, and I challenge you to figure out what those drawing are. R&R everyone!