Arthur waited. He waited for the light. His eyes had slipped into darkness about half an hour ago. He could hear Ariadne's voice screaming at him to wake up. He could hear laughing. Cruel laughing. Someone had hit him over the head with something hard and blunt. He would not tell them were the warehouse was. He refused to put the others in danger. He had slipped into darkness, trying to escape. His head collapsed on to his shoulder. Nothing. He thought. Nothing can break me. Cobb…were are you…
"Arthur?…Arthur, pet can you hear me?"
He woke again. How long had he been asleep? He saw Eames and Cobb standing over him and Ariadne. They exchanged concerned looks. He felt disorientated and sick, but he smiled. He gave a small laugh, only to see Cobb's eyebrows raise and Eames roll his eyes.
"Eames?" he asked, a hoarse, quiet voice. Eames looked at Ariadne who shrugged her shoulders.
"Yes?"
"You were right…we are friends." What? Why did I say that?
"Bloody hell, they've drugged him."
"No, he's just a little dizzy." Arthur leaned over Eames shoes and threw up. Just to establish that they definitely were not friends.
"These are bloody Italian!"
"Eames shut up." Cobb bent over and leaned down to talk to Arthur.
"Arthur, do you know who I am?" Arthur nodded, feeling like he was going to throw up again.
"You're…Yusuf-no…Cobb!" Cobb nodded. He pointed to Ariadne. "and her?"
"Ariadne." Cobb smiled.
"Good."
A couple of minutes later, Arthur was fully functional.
"I'm sorry guys. We took longer than expected. We had to deal with…you." Cobb looked at Arthur. Just then, Phillips walked in, gun in tow. Cobb straightened.
"Ok, you've got what you wanted. Let them go." Phillips kept a straight face.
"You didn't think we were just going to let you walk out?" Cobb's eyes narrowed. "No, no, we need you do to something for us. We have an Inception coming up, and we need to do it for us." Cobb walked closer.
"You asked us to bring the PASIV. We did. We held up our end of the bargain, now you hold up yours." Phillips clicked his fingers and in one swift movement, 2 men walked in and grabbed Cobb and Eames by the shoulders. Eames flailed his arms, but Cobb looked at him and shook his head. There was no point in fighting now.
Eames and Cobb were soon tied down to chairs, in the same position as Arthur and Ariadne.
"Now listen…" Phillips said, as he pointed a gun towards Arthur's head. "Help us complete this Inception, or you're all dead by the end of the week. " He turned around and started walking towards the door, before turning around and saying "You have till tomorrow morning to decide."
As the door shut, Eames turned to his team members and gave a small, unconvincing laugh.
"Well…" he said. "At least Yusuf is alright."