Author's Note: I know, I know! It's been forever. Who would have thought that summer would be busier than my senior year? My mom decided to work me full time the summer, which SUCKS MAJORLY. Anyways, you are looking at a graduate of high school! Yay me! Well, not technically looking at, but…shut up. You know what I mean. I know you want me to update more often, but with a full-time job this summer, it'll be hard. I do what I can, but life just takes over sometimes. I owe all my faithful reviewers a big thank you, and a thank you to all of my subscribers. Every time I get an email saying I have a new subscriber, it makes my day. Thank you, again!
Disclaimer: Sadly, I do not own Inception, though I should, since I know almost every line of the movie.
Chapter Twelve
"You lasted longer than I expected. Can I ask you what kept you going?" Browning inquired, actually sounding curious.
Ariadne closed her eyes. She was so, so dizzy. She knew it was only a matter of minutes before she passed out. "I still had hope," she said, the words sounding weak even to her. "I wanted to believe that it had all been a nightmare. That none of it happened, that the most dramatic thing to have happened to me was Arthur finding out I liked him." Her attempt at a chuckle turned into a sob.
"Hope," he repeated, rolling his eyes and sitting on the sofa. "Hope is a futile effort in this line of work. There's reality, and then there are dreams. No gray areas, just black and white."
Ariadne just stared at him.
He continued. "This dream will end in a few minutes. We will wake up in reality, and you will begin the planning of the expulsion."
"I'm just an architect. How do you expect me to do this?" she snapped, her sudden anger giving her a newfound strength. She sat up and glared. "I wasn't kidding earlier when I said I can't tell the difference between dream and reality anymore. You have officially fucked up my mind."
Browning merely raised his eyebrows. "I'll give you your totem back. You will be provided a team to work with. Though the memories from my nephew have already been shown to the team members, you will take your memories and show the team how exactly you pulled the job off."
"My totem won't work if you've touched it. That's the whole point of it," Ariadne retorted, her voice haughty.
"Which is why I took it using a bag. Are you done?"
She didn't respond, only curling up into a ball on the floor. The last thing she remembered seeing was Arthur's blood on the carpet.
AxA AxA AxA AxA AxA
The first thing Ariadne noticed when she woke up was that she was in a warehouse, similar to the one in Paris. Though they weren't near her, Ariadne could feel the gaze of each man on her as she sat up. Cheeks flaming, she tried to ignore them, but with each passing second, she could feel her grip on the chair getting tighter and tighter until her knuckles were completely white. A repeated tap on her shoulder finally got her attention, and when Ariadne turned around, a paper bag was thrust in front of her face and she hastily grabbed it, the mounds of pressure melting off of her shoulders as she held her totem. Without wasting another second, she put the bishop on the ground and flicked it. When it toppled to the floor, her entire being sagged with relief. She gazed around until her eyes met Browning's then raised her eyebrows in expectation.
"Gentlemen," he called, walking towards her. "This is Ariadne, your new architect. With her assistance, you will all destroy this absurd idea in my nephew's mind."
The group of men eyed her, their looks skeptical. Knowing her physical appearance wasn't doing much to help her, Ariadne stood from the lawn chair, crossed her arms, and returned each of their gazes defiantly until they looked away in embarrassment. Just wait until they saw what she could do, what she could create.
"In a couple of hours, all of you will enter a dream controlled by me, but filled with Ariadne's subconscious. In her subconscious, we will watch how she and her team managed to pull off the inception. By doing so, we will be able to backtrack their steps in order to pull off the complete opposite: expulsion. Report back here in three hours and be prepared to take notes," Browning ordered.
The circle of men dissipated, and Ariadne looked at Browning, irritation flashing through her eyes.
"Three hours? You want me to have the entire inception mapped in three hours?" she asked, incredulous.
"They don't call you the brightest architect for nothing. Start mapping your memories," Browning said, tossing a pen and a sketchpad into her lap. "Don't even think about leaving anything out. You know what will happen if I find out you left out a key memory," he said darkly, walking away.
Ariadne sighed and opened the sketchbook. It was going to be a long three hours.
AxA AxA AxA AxA AxA
"Okay, everyone. Here's the plan: We will enter Ariadne's subconscious. Because we are viewing her memories, it will be her dream. However, I will be the one in charge of the dream, just in case she decides to try anything," Browning said, shooting Ariadne a dangerous grin. She glared at him, wondering if she could glare at him hard enough that he would catch on fire, like she had read in a book.
"Everyone grab a needle," Browning ordered.
Reluctantly, Ariadne took a needle. She surreptitiously glanced at the men around her. All of them looked so…serious. Granted, this whole project was a serious matter. But what had happened to the power, the freedom, that was supposed to come with the ability to create anything-to become God? Slightly shaking her head, Ariadne tried to block was she was about to do. When the waves of unconsciousness began to pull her under, she had one thought that drifted through her mind.
I'm sorry, Arthur.
A/N: Whaddya think? :) Reviews are love!