Inception does not belong to me.
Arthur paused in his work. His eyes were beginning to swim with the information he was having to process. He leaned back in his seat, and heard his stomach growl.
"Arthur?" He looked up. Robert Fischer was smiling at him from the doorway.
"Come with me." He spoke gently. "There's a reception on I'd like you to attend."
Mechanically, Arthur got up, and pulled on jacket. Fischer stood, watching as it gaped around his diminishing frame.
"Come on." He smiled.
"So," the younger man said, leaning forward, his blue eyes intense. "You call me, get me to leave my day job...what is it, Dom?"
Cobb leaned back, eyeing the other man. "You haven't changed, Trent," he commented. "Still always questioning."
His companion smiled, flicked his lighter, and put it to his cigarette. "Absolutely." He blew out a lungful of smoke.
Dom looked at the other man. The original Point now worked in investment banking, and the Extractor thought wryly that his training in extraction made him ideal for the job. "Listen, Trent, the reason I called..."
Trent's eyes met his. "Yes, the reason?" his expression turned serious. "What is it, Dom? I haven't heard from you for easily three or so years, and then you call me. What's going on?"
Cobb swallowed. "Arthur. Remember him?"
"Yep. Good Point. Glad he took over from me."
"Well, when you trained him, did you realise...?" his voice broke off. It felt too uncomfortable to say.
"Did I realise what?"
Cobb took a deep breath. "That he's bulimic?"
Trent leaned back in his seat, and lifting a hand, ran it through his dark blonde hair. "I didn't." He sucked on the cigarette, and looked at Cobb. "I just thought he was thin, fast metabolism."
Cobb nodded. "We all did." He looked at Trent. "But its bulimia. And...its caused a lot of problems."
Trent mashed his cigarette in an ashtray, and picked up his vodka and tonic. "Begin."
"Well, we had a blast from the past." Cobb swallowed. "An old colleague of ours, Elise. Turns out her boyfriend is a computer magnate. Saito, a man I should never have involved the team with, wanted Arthur to extract from him."
"And?"
"He got Arthur into a clinic. We got in, got him out, and tried to perform an inception to stop the bulimia." He swallowed, watching Trent's face darken slightly. "Then it-"
"Hang on," Trent interrupted. "You tried to use inception? On a bulimic? Jesus, Dom!"
"I know," Cobb said, tiredly. "You don't have to tell me. It was stupid thing to do."
"Yep." Trent raised an eyebrow. "It was. To incept someone to tell them to eat normally again-"
"Wasn't like that," Cobb interrupted. "We tried to build upon how he feels about himself, how his relationship with his parents could have triggered it-"
"And right there you have problems, due to you never having met Art's parents."
"You don't have to tell me."
Trent leaned back in his seat. "Cobb, I can see why you did it. I really can. But it wasn't going to help."
Cobb swallowed. "I know. And just to make it more complicated - our Architect is in love with him."
"OK."
"So, what happened is that it turned out that Elise was really working for Saito. She played us off against him. Saito is working with Robert Fischer, a magnate who Saito requested we incept...he now has Arthur. And they are working on him to use him. And they're doing it to get me."
Trent swallowed, and put his glass down. "Jesus. So Fischer has Arthur?"
"Yes."
"Have you solid proof of this?"
"Yes. Eames was there and saw him yesterday."
"What do you think they're planning on doing?" Trent's face creased in puzzlement.
"Fischer has a problem with his godfather, Peter Browning. We performed an inception on Fischer for him to break up his father's empire. This threatens Browning, and he's been interfering in the company-"
"So he's taken Arthur to make him perform an extraction on Browning," Trent finished. "Makes sense."
"Yes. And he can-"
"Use his illness against him. If he doesn't do what Fischer says, he'll dump him in a clinic." Trent shook his head. "Dom, I hate to say this, but boy have you opened a can of worms."
"What would you have done?" Cobb stared at the other man in anger. "You should have seen him. He was wasting away, his teeth were getting discoloured-"
"Dom, I'm not doubting that he's ill." Trent tapped his lighter on he table. "But he needs help, thats all."
"So what do you think we should do?"
Trent leaned back again. "You hired me for a reason. What do you want me to do?"
Cobb licked his bottom lip. "I want you to help me break him out. And perform an extraction."
"An extraction of his bulimic thoughts?"
"No." Cobb shook his head. "I want you to help me erase any trace of us in his thoughts. We won't exist."
"You're giving up on him?" Trent's jaw dropped.
"Its the only way." Cobb mumbled. His hand was shaking as he reached for his scotch. "The only way."
Arthur stood in the reception room. A large number of people were passing through, mostly hovering around the buffet that had been set up. He felt uncomfortable.
And hungry. He closed his eyes. The pain in his stomach appeared to be omnipresent.
"Art!" he looked up. Allie was walking towards him, smiling. Before he could move, she leaned over and kissed him.
"Hey," he said, feeling slightly dazed. His life was feeling increasingly incomprehensible to him. He blinked. Only a few short weeks ago, he had been with Ariadne, and the team. He'd felt cared for, loved even...
They lied to you. They betrayed you.
"Arthur!" Fischer made his way over. "Here is someone you may remember. Mike Greenwood."
Arthur looked at the other man. His eyes creased slightly. "Yes," he said, taking in the psychiatrist. "I do remember you."
The shrink beamed. "I thought you would. How are you Arthur?"
"I'm-"
"He's doing really well," Allie broke in, smiling at Arthur.
"Yes," Greenwood said, taking in Arthur's diminishing frame. "He is. Excuse me."
He turned away, and walked to Fischer. "What is it you want again?"
Fischer drained his martini. "Very simple. For him to have a little idea planted. An idea of 'I can't stand Dominic Cobb.'"
Greenwood smirked. "Shouldn't be too hard."
"It isn't. I don't even need you to do anything." He turned to Arthur. "Art, over here."
The younger man walked over, obediantly. He looked at Fischer.
"Listen, Arthur," Fischer began. "You know Dom Cobb and his team, right?"
Arthur's mouth twisted. "You could say that."
"Well, its time to perform a little extraction on them." Fischer smiled. "I need you to find the team, and bring them back here."
Arthur raised an eyebrow. "After what they did to me?" he shuddered.
"I know, I know." Fischer turned to face him. "But, thats the point. If we can extract Dom Cobb's secrets, he's out of business. You know I want you to be my extractor, right?" His voice hardened slightly. "I need you, Arthur. I don't trust Browning, not one little bit."
Arthur looked at him. "Yes."
"So, will you go to them for me? Please?"
Arthur couldn't suppress a smirk. "Of course."
"So, the plan is..." Eames looked at the others. "Tell me."
Trent swallowed. "Very simple. There is a really good clinic only a short drive from here. We get Arthur, check him in, and entrust him to get the care he needs. When he's feeling better, we extract every trace of us."
Ariadne made a stifled sound. Cobb turned to her, and reached out his arm. "Come here." She buried her face in his shoulder, choking slightly. "Ari, Arthur will never be content until he's better. And the best way to help him with that is make him think we don't exist."
"But-" Ariadne faltered, and then fell silent.
"We want him to recover," Eames said quietly, "but we're part of the reason he's ill."
"Yep." Trent nodded.
Ariadne's eyes were full of tears. "I'm not happy about this, but-"
"Neither am I." Cobb spoke.
"Right." Trent spoke, decisively. "We go into Fischer's base, we get him out. It should be-"
He was interrupted by the shrill bleep of Cobb's cell phone. The extractor frowned. "Excuse me." Going into the next room, he pulled it out of his pocket.
"Hello?"
"Dom?"
"Arthur?" Cobb gripped the side of the table. "Where are you?"
"Coming to see you." The Point Man smiled as he stood outside the apartment block the team was renting in. "That is ok, isn't it?"
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