Thank you for reading! Here's the next chapter.

Arthur, Ariadne, Eames, and Yusuf sat at the café where Arthur and Dom had previously met. It was busy, a typical Saturday afternoon.

"So," Ariadne started. "What does she look like?"

"She's probably wearing heels," Eames started. "Brown hair, unless she dyed it. Medium length, unless she cut it."

He noticed Arthur staring into the distance. He looked to where Arthur was staring. He noticed a familiar face, ordering her coffee.

Avery stood there, wearing a grey short-sleeved sweater dress that hit mid thigh. Her patterned tights led to her black patent leather pumps. She looked over to the table and noticed Arthur staring, the same look he had given her when they had last seen each other. Eames gave her a friendly wave. She waved back and made her way to the table.

"Nice to see you, Ave" Eames greeted her as she took a seat.

"Thank you, nice to see you too." Her gaze switched to Arthur. "Hello, Arthur."

"Hello, Avery" he said. "As he said this, Avery's arms began to feel chilled. His voice always did that to her.

"So, who are the newbies?"

"This is Ariadne, an architect, and Yusuf, a chemist." Eames introduced.

"Very nice to meet you two. Now, what is going on with my brother?"

"His mind functions like a hotel." Ariadne started.

"On each floor is a different memory of Mal," Arthur added. "We need to kill her on each floor-"

"to erase her from his subconscious." Avery finished.

"Are you sure that will work?" Ariadne asked.

"Killing her in his subconscious means he can have memories, but not live in Retention. This means he won't be able to just dream about her. He will remember her, just not in his dreams." Avery explained.

"So you'll do it?" Eames asked. "You'll help us?"

"Here is where things get complicated," Avery started. "First, the question is whether or not I will do it. I can get into my brother's subconscious. That doesn't mean will. Second, when I get there, the question is no longer will I kill Mal, it is can I kill her. I want to stop my brother living in Retention, but I may not be able to kill her."

"Can I just ask a question?" Ariadne asked. "Sure, go ahead."

"What exactly is Retention?"

Avery looked at Arthur. "You haven't showed her Retention?"

"No, it's too risky."

Avery looked back to Ariadne. "Why don't I show you what Retention is?"

Arthur and Eames looked at each other,

"I don't know if that's such a good idea, Ave." Eames responded.

"You don't think Dom trained his sister to be smarter at dreaming than he is? It is possible to have a harmless retention dream. The point is to know how. Let's go back to your lab, and I'll enlighten Ariadne to the world my brother is living in."

Avery walked into the ranch style house with the others. Eames and Arthur began to set up the dream machines. Yusuf went to watch some television. Ariadne and Avery sat down, waiting to be hooked up to the machines. Avery smiled.

"It's been a long time since I've done this."

"How long?"

"About a year."

Arthur began to hook up the women to the machines. "You sure you're good to go under?" he asked.

"Give us five minutes. It shall only take that long."

The girls closed their eyes as they entered Avery's dream.

Ariadne and Avery found themselves on a warm beach. The setting was clear, no one was around. Ariadne saw two figures in the distance, a man and a woman. The man and woman were sitting on the shore line, laughing as the small waves would crash against their legs.

Avery walked until she was next to Ariadne.

"I probably should preface my Retention explanation by letting you know that Arthur and I used to be a 'thing'."

"I kind of guessed that. What happened?"

"Life got in the way. Now, Retention is reliving memories through dreams. This can be harmless: remembering something in order to gain information, to remember something you may have forgotten. When you lean on Retention to relive memories of, say, a dead loved one, that is when Retention becomes dangerous. When you begin to bring people back, you blur what is reality and what isn't, which is what my brother is doing. You have to be a very sane person to successfully dream using Retention and my brother is not very sane right now."

Ariadne thought for a moment. "So, how is this a Retention dream?"

Avery smiled. "Look closely at the two figures over there."

Ariadne looked closer, and began to recognize the facial features of both Avery and Arthur.

"I've never seen Arthur smile like that." Ariadne pointed out.

Avery sighed. "So I've been told by many."

"How long did you two date for?"

"Almost a year."

"How long has it been since you've seen him?"

Avery paused. "About ten months."

Just then, the sound of a French woman came into their ears.

"Almost done." Avery said. "Do you have anymore questions?"

"No, I think I understand it. I just hope Cobb will be alright with this."

"What he doesn't know we have planned won't hurt him."

Ariadne saw Avery's gaze, which was upon the figures of herself and Arthur in the distance. She watched as she relived her and Arthur, beginning to kiss, the two of them laughing underneath their embrace.

Ariadne noticed Avery's change of emotion. Avery looked to Ariadne, a glaze of anger in Avery's eyes.

"If this dream wasn't so close to ending," Avery said. "I would ask you to kill me right now."

Avery and Ariadne both awoke in the house. Avery ripped the tube from her arm and rushed into another room. Arthur tried to stop her, but failed.

"What happened?" he asked.

"I bet you already know." Ariadne said coldly.

Arthur became confused as Ariadne followed after Avery.

She found Avery standing in the kitchen, digging something out of her pocket. Avery pulled out a small, purple, wooden high-heeled shoe. She placed it on the table and pushed it down. She picked it up and placed on the table again, before pushing it over once more. She breathed a sigh of relief.

Ariadne looked worried. "Are you alright?"

Avery looked up at her, breathing deeply. "Yeah, I'm fine. It's just…damn, even the strongest and sanest of us can become weak at times. Dreams just have to find our blind spot and BAM! We're gone in a matter of seconds."

R&R. Peace. Love. Lauren.