AN: I only watched Inception one time, so I don't know how they really transition into the next dream. So I'm just going to say they "woke up" in that place. Disclaimer: I do not own Inception or any of its characters, Christopher Nolan does.
I awoke outside of a grand concert hall with high towers and marble columns. Of course Arthur would dream with something high class and luxurious! I carefully arose from the cold, cement ground and saw Eames, Arthur, and Miles enter the concert hall through large oak doors. I headed over quickly, moving with the sea of projections into the concert hall.
The concert hall had an extravagant ballroom adjacent to it. We were supposed to meet in there for the before party. The actual ballroom was quite beautiful. The cherry wood floors gleamed with a new finish; the ceiling looked like that of a church with the roof peaking gracefully at the center of the room. The marble white walls accented the stain glass windows perfectly. Each stain glass was an exquisite piece of art on its own, all of the colors blended beautifully with the brightest blues, the deepest reds, and the emerald greens. There was a small stage where a band was performing. All of the projections were in the middle of the dance floor.
Through the loud mindless chatter of the ballroom, Arthur suddenly came up from behind me and touched my shoulder and whispered, "We need to blend in. Shall we dance?" he asked with a small smile on his face.
"Of course," I giggled.
We headed for the dance floor and took our dance positions. Arthur took my hand and placed his other hand gently at the small of my back. I held his hand lightly and placed my hand graciously on his shoulder. I glanced around before the music started and saw that all of the men were dressed in black tuxes with bow ties and a red rose in each of their breast pockets. I looked down at myself to find that I was in a black strapless silk dress with a heart shaped neckline and ruffles that gently flowed like a river down the skirt of the dress. I had on black heels and my hair was in an elegant half-up half-down do with soft curls that rested gently on my bare shoulders.
The music began and we started dancing to lively dance. I let Arthur lead and after a few elegant twists, turns, and dips, the dance required the dancers to switch partners. While still keeping up with the quick tempo of the dance, I switched to Miles and then eventually to Eames. Even Eames held me at a respectful distance during the dance!
"You're not too bad as a dancer, love," Eames chuckled.
I laughed and then we switched partners once again. Now I was dancing with Strauss, but he held me a little too close for comfort. Strauss was in a navy blue tux which accented his bright blue eyes. Before I could tell him to back away, it was time to switch dancers again. I ended back up with Arthur and we finished the dance with an elegant twist and then a deep dip. Arthur bowed slightly with a smile on his face and I curtsied awkwardly.
Miles then came up to me and whispered in my ear, "Arthur and I are going to go talk to Strauss backstage. Stay here and try to blend in. We'll come get you when it's time to go."
Arthur and Miles left with Strauss to convince him that he needs protection from dream theft. It was almost exactly what Cobb said to Fischer during the Inception job. They would tell him that in order to be protected from dream theft, he would need to show them all of his secrets.
Now the only thing I needed to worry about was the projections recognizing us as something foreign. Even though Strauss's mind was untrained to fight intruders, I haven't dealt with an untrained subconscious before. I didn't know what could happen.
I briskly walked toward Eames who was standing by a food table with fancy appetizers. I was horrified when I saw Eames flirting with a blond projection in a bright red dress. Arthur would probably throw up at the thought of it. Flirting with someone's subconscious was just…wrong. Talk about messing with someone's mind.
I felt eyes on my back and I looked over my shoulder to find the projections staring at me with fiery hatred in their eyes. I now started to run towards Eames. He looked over shoulder with a quizzical look on his face. On any other day I would find that look hilarious, but now I was terrified.
The projections were now starting to run around in a panic because they didn't know what to do. As I started to push threw the increasing buzz of confusion, some of the projections violently bumped into me and I tumbled down hard on my butt. I tried to protect myself from being trampled by the panicking projections. Eames, now seeing the chaos that was occurring in the ballroom, ran towards me and helped me up. He guarded me as we plowed our way out of the chaos.
He loosened his grip on me when we were on the safety of the pine wood stage. As Eames was helping me up onto the stage, a projection latched a sweaty hand onto my ankle and harshly pulled me down. Eames then quickly switched his grip from my wrists to under my arms so he wouldn't break my wrists. He kicked at the projection until it let go and then swiftly pulled me up onto the stage. With the momentum of the pull I accidentally fell forward and landed awkwardly in Eames's arms. I quickly backed away and felt a blush creep up my neck as Eames chuckled and patted me on the shoulder.
"That was a close one! Gosh you can't even last five minutes without getting into some trouble, darling!" he exclaimed sarcastically.
"Eames, stop being so arrogant and sarcastic! We are on a mission! You need to be more serious!" I scolded, though I didn't know why I was angry all of the sudden.
"Ariadne, calm down! You're safe now, and that's what matters. And I can be serious when I want to!" he said, sticking his tongue out at me.
"You're not helping your case," I mumbled and rolled my eyes.
Arthur and Miles then appeared and dragged us backstage. Strauss was already hooked up to the PASIV as he slept on a fold out chair that stood on the brink of the concert stage. I slid down on the floor as Eames and Arthur began to slide the needles into their arms. Miles was going to watch over us and inform Eames when to set the explosives to wake us up. Miles wished us luck before I finally jammed the needle into my arm and felt the heavy, cold liquid course through my veins. I felt extreme exhaustion quickly take over and before I knew it, my eyes shut and I was falling into the third level.
In 3, 2, 1.
AN: Sorry this took a long time to put up. I've been really busy, though I know that's never a good excuse. So, yeah, here's the second level, I hope you like it. It is a little shorter than usual and I'm sorry. I need to stop apologizing :D Oh, I do need ideas for places where the third level can be because I can't think of any at the moment. So if you do give an idea, I'll try to put it in the story! Sorry the second level isn't that exciting but I promise the next couple of chapters will be filled with action and drama! Oh, and I did try to add more detail. Thanks for reading! Review please!