Poison Your Own System 2/2
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Eames wasn't sure what was worse; how awkward Arthur looked when Cobb nearly crushed him with a hug or the way Cobb was near tears as he whispered 'thank you, thank you, thank you' over and over again. Arthur managed to get Cobb's octopus arms off of him only for Cobb to turn his attention on Eames to do the exact same thing. He only let Cobb hug him for a few seconds before Eames pushed him off. There weren't many people in the world that he was willing to hug for a long time and Cobb certainly wasn't one of them. Eames got to work building Cobb a new identity to travel with while Arthur began to make some phone calls about jobs they could work. When Arthur suggested some down time Cobb just said that he wanted to get back to his kids sooner rather than later. It wasn't the best idea but Cobb seemed adamant.
Arthur could understand his need to get back to his kids. Their previous fight didn't matter anymore; Cobb was a friend that needed their and Arthur was going to give it. He hadn't agreed with Cobb and Mal studying depth but Arthur also understood their curiosity and how they couldn't let dreaming go. It was a drug that got into their system and wouldn't let them go despite how much logic dictated otherwise. Despite how much he didn't want to admit it Arthur knew that if he was in the same position he probably would have done the same thing. Cobb and Mal would have taken care of him if he was the one that needed help. He knew for a fact that Cobb and Mal had lied to several people and said they had no idea who Arthur and Eames were to protect them. Despite how disappointed he was Arthur knew he was going to help Cobb in every way he could and not just out of obligation. Mostly because he could see the roles easily reversed and Cobb and Mal would have helped him.
It took almost two weeks for Arthur to find someone who was willing to bring a point man, forger, and architect in on a job. These days it seemed like more and more people were becoming teams instead of just hiring freelancers. Eames, on the other hand, spent the entire two weeks building the most elaborate identity he could for Cobb. He and Arthur had plenty of passports and names they could travel under but Cobb could get extradited to the States if he went into the wrong country. Eames had just finished when Arthur found them a job.
The extractors name was Crystal and Eames had worked with her before. She was a petite woman, rail thin, but Eames once watched her take out a bodyguard that was twice her weight at least. She was fierce, competent, and loved taking on jobs that paid extremely well. She was also wanted for murder in three different countries.
They were going to be extracting a series of bank accounts from a highly paid lawyer in Oslo, Norway named Ruben Freberg. There were rumors that has was not only taking bribes from the opposing side but turning to his own side and asking for even higher bribes to defend the right person. The latest person caught in the middle was a rather well off man, Anders Thorkelson, whose son Klaus was currently stuck in prison because Thorkelson couldn't meet the bribe demands and couldn't prove that Freberg was extorting him either.There wasn't anything they could do about the prison sentence, at least not right now, but Thorkelson wanted Freberg to lose everything for what he did. So like most people above a certain tax bracket he thought the best way to destroy a man was to take his money.
"Boring," Eames said when he finished reading what Arthur got from Crystal on the plane. "Do these people care about anything in the world but money?"
"You're asking the wrong person," Arthur replied, snatching the file from Eames' hands.
"Do you think this will be enough?" Cobb asked earnestly.
"It's a start," Arthur said without looking at Cobb. Eames had a bad feeling about this job even if it was a little on the boring side. Crystal was offering a lot of money for some bank account numbers which usually meant there was some sort of wrinkle that she wasn't telling them yet. Eames watched how twitchy Cobb was and didn't want him anywhere near Eames' mind. He hoped they could work it out that Cobb stayed topside but he had a feeling he wouldn't be that lucky.
Crystal met them at the airport and greeted them like old friends. Her curly brown hair was long and hung to her mid back, and her eyes were as large and dark as always. She reminded him of a smaller female version of Arthur. Sly, dark, and extremely deadly. Eames twirled her around a little because Crystal always made her teams greet her like old friends to keep their cover. Cobb looked like his eyes were going to bug out of his head but Arthur just looked amused. She was bubbly, bouncy even, as they walked to her car but as soon as the door closed her entire demeanor changed.
"So this is the architect you told me about?" Crystal said. Arthur was in the passenger seat so they could talk about details while Eames put himself behind Crystal's seat for optimal leg room. Cobb looked extremely uncomfortable in the tiny back seat.
"He was trained by one of the best in the field," Arthur replied which was about as close to a compliment as Cobb was going to get. Crystal glanced at Cobb in the rear view mirror.
"Eames has told me so much about you, Arthur," she said slyly.
"It was all lies I'm sure," Arthur replied dryly.
"Like I believe anything he says," Crystal said, smiling.
"I'm right here, you two. I won't have you ganging up on me." Eames said, but he was smiling. Crystal and Arthur working together was going to be an interesting pairing if nothing else. They were either going to blend flawlessly or clash in a way that would be result in spectacular fireworks. Either way Eames was looking forward to it.
There was a car waiting for them when Crystal pulled up to the office building but she didn't seemed too worried about it. She knew them, though, because she pulled out two pistols from the glove compartment and handed one to Arthur and the other to Eames.
"It's our client, but I know you won't feel comfortable without one," she said, but she looked at Cobb. "I don't know him so he doesn't get one."
"What about you?" Cobb asked. Crystal raised an eyebrow and lifted her skirt just high enough that the edge of a thigh holster was visible. Cobb looked a little embarrassed and averted his eyes which was probably for the best. "Shall we?"
"Lead the way, my dear," Eames said. Crystal flashed a smile and walked them through an empty office building until they came to a locked door. She knocked twice, waited a beat, then knocked a third time. A man that looked like he could bench press Arthur opened the door and let them in. An older man with gray hair and a perfectly tailored suit was waiting for them in the middle of the room.
"Mr. Thorkelson, nice to see you again," Crystal said offering her hand.
"Miss. Crystal, is this your team?" Thorkelson asked.
"Yes, they are, no introductions necessary," she said sharply and Eames smiled to himself; he loved working with competent people. "I've explained to my team that you want to take everything that Mr. Freberg owns."
"Not just what he owns; everything," Thorkelson replied darkly. "His home, his business, I want him to lose it all."
"As of right now we are going to focus on draining his savings. If we find anything that could be incriminating enough to destroy his business or his family we'll talk about adjusting our price for that information." Crystal smiled pleasantly but she bared her teeth.
"Freberg is a very private man," Thorkelson said after a moment of silence.
"Then we'll need plenty of time to get everything together," Arthur said. "Are we on a strict timeline for any reason?"
"No, we're not," Crystal answered for Thorkelson. "At least I sincerely hope we aren't."
"No, take all the time you need. Time is all my family has right now," Thorkelson said bitterly, no doubt thinking about his sons prison sentence. "I own this building. You may use it and no one will bother you."
"I prefer to find my own locations, but thank you for the offer," Arthur replied.
"Do we have a deal?" Crystal asked.
"Yes. I will pay each of your team members $150,000 each for his bank accounts," Thorkelson said.
"I'll be in touch to negotiate that number should we find other pertinent information." Crystal held out a hand and Thorkelson shook it. "We'll be in touch." Crystal turned on the heel of her boots and strolled out of the room. Thorkelson looked a little surprised, like he couldn't believe that this tiny woman just steamrolled him, but Crystal always used her small frame to lure people into underestimating her. "Thoughts, Eames?" She asked when they were all in the car and heading back toward the city.
"I don't think he was lying or thinking about betraying us for any reason. If anything he seemed a little taken aback by you, my dear," Eames replied.
"As they should be. Arthur?" Crystal said glancing at Arthur.
"I don't see any reason why there should be any issues. I've dealt with private people before. No one is ever as private as they might appear to be." he said.
"Good," Crystal said as she stopped the car in front of a rental place. "Now get the hell out and get your own cars. We'll convene at whatever location Arthur finds tomorrow at 0900."
"You're as sweet as ever," Eames said. Crystal flashed a smile and sped away, leaving the three of them standing on the sidewalk in her dust. Eames cracked his neck and sauntered up to the desk. “Hello my dear, I'm looking into getting a car,” Eames said, his accent suddenly several degrees more posh than usual.
+++
The next few days were fairly typical for a job by Arthur's standards. He spent a lot of time going over what kind of man Freberg was and how hard it was going to be to find anything about his private life. This meant he made a lot of phone calls, bribed a few people, did some light hacking, and staked out an apartment building one night with Eames. Freberg had a secretary named Janis and after some brief deliberation they decided that she would be the best bet for Eames to forge. Then Arthur had to find ways for Eames to learn about Janis that wasn't going to get him a stalking charge. Cobb began to work on a basic design while Arthur kept in constant talk with Crystal about what they were going to do as far as the actual extraction.
Eames was not entirely happy when he found out that Arthur got him a job doing basic maintenance at Freberg's office, but it let him get close to Janis. Crystal decided that an office building was going to be their best option and Cobb began to modify the maze. Everything seemed to be going smoothly yet Cobb could not relax. Arthur could only assume it was because this was the most illegal thing Cobb had ever done and he was already a wanted man, but something didn't sit right with him. Eames seemed concerned too but he also couldn't pin it down.
"There isn't any indication that he is militarized, but he's a control freak," Eames said three weeks into the job. They were trying to figure out exactly how they were going to go about getting the information.
"Control freaks always jump the gun faster than anyone else," Crystal said. "Arthur, do you mind being the dreamer? We need someone who can keep everything steady until we get the information that we need."
"Sure, I'll start to look over the maze." Arthur said.
"I can show up at a lawyer saying that I'm doing an investigation while Eames forges Janis and lets us in," Crystal said.
“That won't work,” Arthur said as he looked over a file. “This guy doesn't take woman seriously. Even if you walk in there and pretend to be the best lawyer in the world he won't believe you.”
“Then Cobb will come with me,” Crystal said. “If the two of us show up as a team he'll take at least one of us seriously. Can you go into the dream and act the part of a cocky lawyer?”
“I can manage,” Cobb said and she nodded.
"So that's settled; Cobb will be my partner. Freberg will project all of his secrets into a file that he'll hand Eames and we'll have everything we need. Sound good?" Cobb nodded but he looked a little uncertain. It made the hairs on the back of Arthur's neck stand on end, but there wasn't any indication that anything was going to go wrong.
A week later and they were going into the dream as a team for the first time. Arthur had the layout memorized and a good idea where he could go if everything went to hell. He finished setting up all of the lines, set the timer for five minutes for this first line, and pushed the button.
+++
Cobb did good work, Cobb always did good work, and this dream was no different. The office building looked similar to the one that Freberg worked in but was just different enough that no one would forget this was a dream. It was an intricate maze of loops, turns, and paradoxes that had plenty of places for Arthur to run to if needed.
"Excellent work, Cobb," Crystal said. Eames, Crystal, and Cobb discussed the plan a little more but Arthur wandered off a little. He wanted to make sure everything in the dream looked solid. There were a few projections wandering around but no one that seemed to notice or care that he was there. Arthur turned down a hallway and there was a gunshot. The sudden pain in his stomach knocked the air out of Arthur's lungs as he stared at the blood on his hands. It never got any less surreal when this happened but everything was stable. There wasn't even a hint that things were about to go south.
"I can't imagine how much that must hurt," an all too familiar voice said. Arthur looked up and watched as Mal emerged from the room at the end of the hallway, gun in hand. "A through and through wound that misses all the necessary organs so all the victim can do is bleed out." Arthur tried to take a step back away from her but the blood loss and pain were too much. He stumbled and collapsed to the ground as he slowly began to bleed to death.
"Why are you here, Mal?" Arthur asked.
"I'm trying to help Dom, of course, and I can't have you getting in the way. I'm sure Eames will be here soon. You two are always more dangerous when you're together," Mal replied. She knelt down next to Arthur and pressed the gun to his knee. "Say one word, my dear, and I'll make it so you can't even walk when you wake up." Someone was running toward them and Arthur hoped it was Crystal because she would shoot first and ask questions later. The universe was not on his side because it was Cobb of all people that came around the corner.
"Mal?" Cobb said his voice small and broken.
"Hello my love," Mal replied pleasantly, like she wasn't letting Arthur bleed out on the ground.
"Shoot her, Cobb," Arthur said through his teeth.
"Dom can't do that." Mal pressed the gun to his knee harder and released the safety. "One more word from you and I'll shoot." Arthur already couldn't see straight he was in so much pain, and the entire dream was going to crumble if he died, but bleeding out always took so long.
"Mal, why did you do this?" Cobb whispered, still not shooting the projection, and Arthur was going to kill him when they got topside.
"I'm trying to help you," Mal said earnestly. "You promised that we were going to be together. You promised we were going to grow old together." Before Cobb could reply Eames came around the corner, gun in hand.
"What the fuck?" he said. Arthur opened his mouth to say 'no', to tell Eames not to hesitate and to just shoot her, but it was too late. Mal was too fast, and she fired three quick rounds into Eames' chest. He stumbled back and collapsed to the ground and trying to stem the bleeding with his hands.
"Cobb, shoot her, she's not real," Arthur yelled. Cobb didn't move. He was frozen and staring at Mal like he'd seen a ghost. Mal put the gun to Arthur's knee and sneered down at him. She was terrifying in a way that the real thing had never been.
"I warned you," she said.
"Cobb, shoot her!" Arthur said, a little frantic now. The pain in his stomach was starting to dull which meant that he was going to die soon, but the thought of Mal putting a bullet in his knee made Arthur feel sick. Cobb just stood there. He didn't even have a gun in hand and he wasn't going to shoot her. Arthur squeezed his eyes and braced himself for the pain. Then the entire world tilted to the side and he was falling.
+++
Arthur blinked and realized he was lying on the ground of their office. Crystal was standing over all three of and she looked furious. Eames had a hand on his chest and it looked like he was having trouble getting himself back together. Cobb was white as a ghost and shaking. Arthur couldn't hear Crystal over the ringing in his ears but he thought he heard her say something about needing some smokes and storming out of the building. There were awkward silences and then there was the moments after Crystal slammed the door shut.
"What the fuck was that?" Eames asked as he managed to get to his feet. Arthur wasn't quite up for that yet; it had been a long time since he had died slowly in a dream, and his body was still figuring out that it wasn't real.
"Sometimes projections follow us into dreams," Cobb said but his eyes were on the floor.
"Yeah, they do, and when they do we shoot them." Eames held out a hand and helped Arthur to his feet. "You stood there and let Arthur bleed out. You stood there and let her shoot me and you still didn't shoot her."
"She's my wife," Cobb whispered.
"No." Arthur said and Cobb looked at him. "Mal is dead and that wasn't her. She was just a projection."
"Is this going to be an issue?" Eames asked.
"No." Cobb said. "I'm grieving so she's on my mind but it won't be an issue."
"That's not the part I'm worried about," Eames snapped. "It's the fact that you didn't shoot her that I'm worried about." Cobb tensed but kept his eyes on the floor.
"Is this going to be an issue?" Arthur repeated.
"No, I have it under control." Cobb said. Arthur wasn't sure he believed Cobb, and when Crystal came back they decided to call it a day early.
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Apparently Eames and Cobb had very different definitions of 'under control,' because over the course of the next two weeks the projection of Mal literally tore them apart. It didn't matter what they were doing or who was in the dream, if either Arthur or Eames was there she found them and she killed them in the slowest way possible. Eames hadn't had phantom aches since the first few days of the program, when they were still figuring out how pain in dreams worked, but now he felt like an old man. The projection of Mal was vicious and seemed even worse when Arthur and Eames were both in the dream. It was like she knew that they were more dangerous when they were together than when they were apart. That wasn’t exactly something that Eames found comforting. Cobb brushed it off every single time they tried to confront him about. He kept saying that he was fine and he had it under control but this projection was different from any that Eames had ever seen before.
When Mal managed to kill Arthur and make the entire level collapse Crystal threatened to walk away from the entire job. She screamed about how that thing was going to ruin everything and how she wouldn't have that unstable mind anywhere near her. It took Arthur and Eames nearly an hour to convince her that they could do this. Arthur swore to her that he would keep the level stable no matter what happened. Eames didn't really like the implications of that but he didn't say anything about it. Crystal finally agreed but she also said that she wouldn't be going on any jobs where Cobb built. Crystal suggested they change the plan and have her go in alone but Arthur told her that they couldn't risk Freberg closing up on them because he didn't trust a female attorney. Crystal still wasn't happy but decided that some changes had to be made to accommodate the new projection.
According to their revised plan as soon as Eames got the file with the information he was to drop his forge and go back up Arthur. Crystal and Cobb were going to find a way to get more information on Freberg to, in Crystal's words, “Make the job worth all of this bullshit.” Eames was more than a little inclined to agree.
"She's going to go after you again," Eames said. He was with Arthur at a 24 hour gym across the street from their hotel at three in the morning trying to burn off excess energy. Since they were no where close to sane Arthur and Eames burned off their excess energy by sparring. Arthur rolled his neck and shoulders; watching the muscles in Eames' arms and undershirt distracted him for only a moment.
"Of course she will. Projections always go after the dreamer," Arthur replied.
"The mark's projections go after the dreamer, not some projection of a dead woman that's coming exclusively from our architect." Eames stretched and kicked off his shoes. They were both down to sweatpants and undershirts so it was time to burn off that energy. Arthur smirked, raised his hands, and before Eames could say 'how do you do' ran at Eames. Eames managed to block Arthur's fist, which felt like a rock, but Arthur swiftly avoided his counter attack. There was always the chance they would have to run tomorrow, so they couldn't really hurt each other, but bruises were fair game.
Eames charged forward and volleyed a series of quick punches. Arthur ducked or blocked almost all of them but one to the stomach. He stumbled back a step but regained his footing right away. Arthur swept his foot out and knocked Eames straight on his ass. Eames kicked his own foot and knocked Arthur down. Eames took both of Arthur's wrists and pinned him down to the mat. They were both breathing hard as they stared at each other.
"Ready to go back?" Arthur asked as he licked his lips.
"Yes." The mad scramble for their shoes and clothes would have been funny if they were teenagers, but they were adults, damn it, they should be beyond this. Yet, as soon as the door to their hotel room was closed Eames pushed Arthur to the cool wood and kissed him. It still amazed him to that day how well they just seemed to fit together. Eames knew exactly where to touch Arthur to make him arch and Arthur knew exactly where to touch Eames to make him moan loud enough that they could wake up the people next door. Eames walked the two of them into the room and sat down on the bed, pulling Arthur onto his lap.
Eames couldn't lie; he was a little worried about the job tomorrow, so maybe he kissed Arthur a little harder than usual. Maybe he pulled Arthur so close that they weren't so much in each others space as they were trying to break the laws of physics. Dying slowly in a dream was horrible, and the projection of Mal seemed angrier when they were both in the dream. She seemed more inclined to make Arthur bleed longer, drag the process out even further, and Eames knew how it could linger for days afterwords.
"Hey," Arthur said. His voice was uncharacteristically soft and he took Eames' face in his hands so they were looking into each other's eyes. "We're going to be fine, I'm going to be fine, I can handle it."
"You shouldn't have to deal with that," Eames replied.
"We'll figure something out once this job is done." Arthur didn't let Eames protest anymore; he just shoved Eames back and kissed him. If there was anyone capable of handling a crazy projection it was Arthur. He could pull the trigger on anyone, and if it meant keeping the dream steady for the job Arthur would do anything. Eames just hoped it wouldn't come to that.
+++
Cobb at least looked a little guilty as they broke into Freberg's apartment. They had bribed the cleaning lady to let them in. Crystal dropped a sedative in a tea kettle and they waited outside until Freberg got himself something to drink. As soon as Freberg was out Arthur began to set up the PASIV.
"Eames, as soon as Freberg hands you that file I want you to go give Arthur back up," she said. "Are you going to be able to find him?"
"Yes," he and Arthur answered instantly. Crystal rolled her eyes and smiled a little but as soon as she looked at Cobb it faded.
"You stay with me and don't do anything stupid. If this goes to hell I'm blaming you," she warned.
"It's going to be fine," Cobb said, but he didn't sound too sure. Crystal got a local friend of hers to watch the PASIV and Eames just hoped no one shot him. Dying in a dream was not the way he wanted to go at all.
"Ready?" Crystal asked and they all nodded. She pushed the button and Eames watched as the entire world bled into white.
+++
Eames blinked and he was standing in the middle of the office building. There were projections moving around him and he waited a moment to see if they would lash out. No one seemed to care that he was standing there which was a good sign. Eames made his way to the conference room where the rest of the team was waiting. Arthur opened the door and he had the pinched expression he always got when he expected things to go very wrong.
“Are we ready?” Crystal asked and everyone nodded. “Okay, Arthur, go make yourself scarce and try not to get killed by the stalking bitch.” Cobb stiffened and for a moment he looked like he was going to try and defend Mal's honor. Eames was glad he stopped because Arthur probably would have busted a blood vessel. “Cobb and Eames, you're with me.”
“The dream won't collapse,” Arthur said. He didn't say he wouldn't die. That seemed good enough for Crystal.
“Good luck.” Arthur was the first to leave and Eames really wished he didn't have to do any forging for this job. He knew something terrible was going to happen because Mal seemed to target them much more when both of them were in the dream. He did have to forge though so Eames rolled his shoulders and let him himself slip into the skin of Janis. She was an older woman with graying hair and kind eyes. She was very unassuming which is why she made the perfect secretary for a big attorney like Freberg. Crystal and Cobb followed Eames across the office and he knocked on the door.
“Mr. Freberg?” he asked.
“No now, Janis,” Freberg called out.
“Mr. Freberg, it's very important,” Eames said again and opened the door without waiting for permission to do so. It would throw Freberg off his guard and make it easier to get the information from him. Freberg was a cocky young man who thought he was untouchable. His hair was slicked back but it just looked greasy to Eames.
“Janis, who are these people?” Freberg asked.
“Mr. Freberg, my name is Lydia Elliot and this my PA Jim Todd. We're here to serve papers that you're being sued by one Mr. Anders Thorkelson,” Crystal said easily. Freberg jerked like someone slapped him but put the cocky facade back into place quickly.
“And what, may I ask, does Mr. Thorkelson think he's going to sue me for?” Freberg asked.
“He's accusing you of accepting bribes and trying to get Mr. Thorkelson to give you bribes.” she said.
“I'm afraid I have no idea what you're talking about,” Freberg replied. Crystal held out a hand and Cobb handed her a file. “It's all right here.” Freberg twitched and stared at the file.
“I think I have the right to see the papers,” Freberg said carefully but Crystal smiled sweetly.
“I thought you had nothing to worry about? We have all of your secrets in this file.” That was the line that planted the bait. Freberg would think about his secrets and put the numbers in that file. Crystal handed Freberg the file and Freberg almost tore it when he took it from her hands. “Careful Mr. Freberg. We'll be seeing you soon.” Crystal turned on her heel and walked out of the office with her head held high. Freberg stared at the file with wide eyes and Eames stood there waiting.
“Mr. Freberg? Would you like me to take care of that?” he asked.
“Yes, yes I would,” he said slowly. Freberg handed Eames the file and straightened his shoulders. “I want you to shred it. That idiot Thorkelson isn't getting anything from me.”
“Yes sir.” Eames took the file and walked out of the office. It was easy to make his way through the office to the conference room. So far the dream was steady so Arthur must be fine. Eames dropped his forge as soon as he closed the door; Crystal and Cobb were waiting. “How long do you need?” Crystal opened the file and began to look through the information.
“As long as possible. We have a code to a personal safe that probably have some good dirt,” she said. Cobb looked a little guilty but he helped Crystal without a word.
“I can do that.” Eames didn't wait for Crystal to tell him anything else. Mal was somewhere in this building and she was going to tear Arthur apart. Eames just hoped he got there in time.
+++
Arthur tried not to rely on luck but he considered himself lucky that Freberg's mind didn't seem too twitchy. The fact that Mal was somewhere in the dream looking to kill him was bad enough, but an entire mind gunning for him as well would be worse. It meant he wanted to get as far away from these projections as possible to keep himself safe. The top three floors and the roof were all locked to the public because of 'renovations,' but really they were just a similar maze blocked off from projections. Arthur glanced over his shoulder and easily picked the lock to the abandoned floors. No one saw him but that didn't mean Mal wasn't already up there waiting for him. He locked the door behind him because Eames could get in here himself.
Arthur hadn't told Cobb but he had made a few changes to these floors. Instead of locked doors between each floor the staircases were open so he could easily jump from one floor to the next. He tweaked some of the twists and turns but it wasn't going to be enough to throw off Mal completely. It seemed like she went out of her way to make sure that he died as slowly and painfully as possible. If Cobb knew that Arthur had to stay alive or the job would fall apart then Mal did and she took advantage of that.
He kept his gun in hand but Arthur hadn't heard anyone else moving around the floors. The silence was eerie but he knew it wouldn't last long. He promised the dream wouldn't fall apart, and he was going to make good on that promise. Maybe he wasn't so lucky when the first shot clipped his left shoulder. Arthur took cover and ignored the sting in his arm.
"Did you really think tweaking my husbands maze could keep me from finding you?" Mal called out. Arthur couldn't tell where she was or even where the shot came from.
"Why are you doing this, Mal?" Arthur called out. "You said you're trying to help Dom but causing the job to fail isn't helping. He needs this money to buy his way back to the kids, because you implicated him of murder." Mal's laugh echoed over the maze like he just said the funniest thing in the world.
"Oh Arthur, poor, naive Arthur, you really have no idea what's going on here, do you?" Arthur saw movement around a corner and fired a few shots but wasn't sure if he hit her. He crept forward and followed the flash of brown curls. He knew exactly where he was going and he wasn't stupid enough to think that Mal wasn't leading him exactly where she wanted.
"I'm not going to let you ruin this for us," Arthur said. He glanced over his shoulder to make sure that his back was clear and went around a corner.
"I wouldn't be so sure," Mal said from behind him. Arthur turned, his gun raised, but Mal knocked it out of his hand so hard she snapped several of his fingerbones. He powered through the pain, tried to hit her, but Mal blocked his punch like he was a child. He was about to dream up something to stop her when she dug her nails into his wrist. "Go ahead, dream something up, make this mind aware you're here. I want to watch them tear you apart." Arthur tried to get his arm free of her but her hand was like a vice.
"Why are you doing this?" Arthur repeated.
"It's all just a dream." The first shot punched through his shoulder and the impact made Arthur stumble back a step. Mal fired two more shots into his chest and Arthur knew she missed anything that could make him die quickly. She kicked him in the stomach and Arthur fell onto his back, hard, coughing as he tried to get air back into his lungs. "Perhaps I should take pity on you this time, Arthur. After all, if you die the dream collapses and your job fails." Mal raised her gun and pointed it directly at his head. Arthur stared down the barrel of the gun and refused to look away. A shot rang out but it wasn't from Mal. He blinked and Arthur watched as Mal fell to the ground. Bits of skull and brain were on the ground and her dead eyes stared at him.
"You're late," Arthur said as Eames ran over and knelt down next to him.
"I got caught up in your stupid maze," Eames replied as he looked at the wounds.
"Can you move me? I don't want to look at--" Arthur cut himself off and nearly bit through his tongue as Eames moved them around a corner so they were away from Mal. Arthur blinked the spots from his vision at he stared at the ceiling. "How long?"
"It's been long enough. I'll call them and we'll get you out of here," Eames said.
"No. I said I wouldn't let this dream collapse until the job is done and that's what I intend to do." Arthur took a shallow breath and released it slowly. "Will you--?"
"Like you even need to ask, idiot," Eames said.
"Don't make me laugh you jackass," Arthur said, smiling. Eames watched him for a moment until he lay down next to Arthur. Eames lay on his side and put his mouth next to Arthur's ear so neither of them had to talk very loud. "Mal told me about a theory she had. About how to tell the difference between reality and a dream."
"We saw how well that worked out," Eames grumbled.
"Yes, but it's still a good idea. She called it a 'totem.' An object that only you could recreate because only you know the weight or an imperfection or something like that. It couldn't hurt anyway." Arthur coughed and he could taste some blood on his lips.
"That's enough out of you," Eames said shushing him. "You just keep listening to my voice and I'll tell you about some of the incompetent people I worked with when we were pretending not to know each other." There was something about Eames' voice that was soothing in a way that nothing else ever could be. It was probably because of how much Arthur trusted Eames. The pain in his chest hurt enough to make his eyes water but he refused to let the tears fall. That felt like letting her win. When Arthur clenched his fist without the broken fingers in pain Eames paused to let Arthur grasp Eames' hand. It felt like a tether, like it grounded him a bit more, and Arthur listened as Eames whispered stories into his ear.
+++
It took nearly two hours for the dream to tilt and the job to end. Eames opened his eyes and immediately rushed to Arthur's side. He was pale and looked like he was going to be sick but all he did was excuse himself outside. Eames watched him go and was so angry at Cobb that he thought he was going to hurt the man. Crystal watched Arthur go and narrowed her eyes. She seemed to understand that it hadn't gone well on Arthur's end.
"We got the bank account numbers as well as plenty of blackmail material," she said without addressing Arthur leaving the room. Cobb starred in the direction that Arthur had walked and looked like he wanted to go say something.
"So we'll be expecting a bigger pay day then?" Eames asked, surprised at how calm he sounded.
"Yes and I'll be sure that he gets a bonus as well." Crystal was a good extractor and an even better businesswoman. She understood that Arthur had gone through hell in this job and that he deserved something more for that. Cobb didn't argue and didn't say anything about it either.
"Excellent. Can you take care of the clean up?" Eames asked and Crystal nodded. "Good, we'll see you in the morning for the final meet up. Good night." He was almost out the door when Cobb took his arm and stopped him.
"Eames, is he okay?" Cobb asked.
"It would be in your best interest not to touch me right now Cobb." Eames warned, and Cobb released his arm. "As for Arthur, he'll be fine. As for you, I'm not as sure." Eames walked outside and found Arthur waiting in the car. He looked a little better but there was still a tremble to his hands that Eames didn't like. They drove in silence until Arthur asked him to stop at a small shop on the side of the road. Eames didn't ask why but Arthur vanished for only a few moments and returned with a small bag and a large bottle of wine. There didn't seem like a better time to get shit faced than right now.
Arthur's hands weren't shaking by the time they got back to the hotel room but he excused himself to the bathroom anyway. Eames sighed and began to dig through his bag to see if he had anything comfortable to sleep in. Instead he found one of the counterfeit poker chips he forged back when he was in Africa. It was right after he and Arthur split up stuck in the seam of the bag. They were perfect save for a misspelling on them and thus were rendered useless. He thought he had thrown them all out yet one must have gotten stuck in the bottom of the bag. Eames flipped the chip and looked it over. He thought about what Arthur told him about a totem. He made these chips, so only he knew exactly how much they weighed. He was the one that painted them and he could see their imperfections. Still, there needed to be more if this was going to work.
Eames pulled out the knife he had strapped to his ankle and carved a small set of numbers in the back of the chip. They were numbers he knew right away and they were numbers only he would know. He was looking over the chip when Arthur emerged from the backroom.
"Why do you have a poker chip?" he asked.
"You said something about making a totem so I made one," Eames replied. Arthur stared at him before he started to laugh. It was a laugh Eames hadn't heard from Arthur since the first time Mal appeared in a dream and shot him. For half a moment Eames was sure the dream had broken Arthur. Instead Arthur sat next to him and opened his hand. A single red die sat in his palm.
"I thought it sounded like a good idea too," he said smiling and shaking his head. "Of course we both pick gambling pieces. Of course." It was good to see Arthur smiling and laughing again but there were very important things they needed to discuss.
"Cobb is off his rocker," Eames said. "I'm very sorry about what happened to Mal too, you know that, but his mind is poisonous. We can't keep going in there and letting it into ours."
"Are you saying we should abandon him?" Arthur asked.
"For our own sanity it would be for the best," Eames replied. Arthur shoved the die into his pocket and walked across the hotel room to the window.
"Do you remember the barbecue we had at the Cobbs' house that one summer?" he asked, and Eames nodded. "You remember how Mal dragged me off to tell me something away from Cobb? She asked me to always protect her family. Cobb is her family, Eames, and I gave her my word." Several comebacks were on the tip of Eames' tongue but he managed to stop all of them. At the end of the day if Arthur gave someone his word about something that was as good as a binding contract.
"She'll tear us apart," Eames said softly. "I think I know what she is. I was thinking about my old days in the program and someone mentioned something called a 'shade.' A persistent and often deadly projection. One of my old mates did a lot of extensive research on them."
"She said we're more dangerous together than we are apart," Arthur said. Eames tensed up because he knew where this was going and he hated everything in the universe for it. Arthur joined him on the bed and sat close enough that they were shoulder to shoulder. "I can try and keep Cobb together, maybe even find out what really happened with Mal, and help him raise the funds needed to buy his way back into the states."
"Meanwhile, I can find loopholes that Cobb could slip through in the law, because no one knows the law better than a criminal, so he can get home, and in the meantime I'll see what I can find on shades," Eames finished, and he laughed bitterly. "She’s less aggressive when we’re apart. I can't believe we're doing this again. You and I are a much better team than you and him."
"No one is better than us." Arthur replied matter-of-factly, "but yes, I guess we are doing this again. " Eames knocked his shoulder into Arthur's and tried to smile.
"At least this time we can remain in contact and we don't have to pretend we don't know each other." Eames wasn't sure whose mood he was trying to improve or if it really mattered. "And once all of this is sorted out I'm locking you in one of our apartments and you're not leaving for at least a month."
"You have yourself a deal," Arthur said smirking. They ended up not drinking the wine but that was probably better. There was no telling when they would be able to work together again and Eames didn't want this to be another drunken haze. Instead they turned on a bad movie and traded stories like they used to when they first met. Instead they turned on a bad movie and traded stories like they used to back in their shitty New York apartment, when they first met. They made do with bad takeout and ratty clothes back then, but Eames still cherished those moments.
In the morning they would meet Crystal to finish the job and Eames would go off on his own while Arthur fulfilled a promise to a dead woman. Even though they were going to be separated again Eames wasn't worried like he was the last time. What he and Arthur had was unlike anything else, it had no name and it didn't need one, and some distance wasn't going to change that. They were Arthur and Eames, Eames and Arthur, whether they were in the same room or on different continents, what they had wasn't going to change.
<-- back | masterpost -->
Eames wasn't sure what was worse; how awkward Arthur looked when Cobb nearly crushed him with a hug or the way Cobb was near tears as he whispered 'thank you, thank you, thank you' over and over again. Arthur managed to get Cobb's octopus arms off of him only for Cobb to turn his attention on Eames to do the exact same thing. He only let Cobb hug him for a few seconds before Eames pushed him off. There weren't many people in the world that he was willing to hug for a long time and Cobb certainly wasn't one of them. Eames got to work building Cobb a new identity to travel with while Arthur began to make some phone calls about jobs they could work. When Arthur suggested some down time Cobb just said that he wanted to get back to his kids sooner rather than later. It wasn't the best idea but Cobb seemed adamant.
Arthur could understand his need to get back to his kids. Their previous fight didn't matter anymore; Cobb was a friend that needed their and Arthur was going to give it. He hadn't agreed with Cobb and Mal studying depth but Arthur also understood their curiosity and how they couldn't let dreaming go. It was a drug that got into their system and wouldn't let them go despite how much logic dictated otherwise. Despite how much he didn't want to admit it Arthur knew that if he was in the same position he probably would have done the same thing. Cobb and Mal would have taken care of him if he was the one that needed help. He knew for a fact that Cobb and Mal had lied to several people and said they had no idea who Arthur and Eames were to protect them. Despite how disappointed he was Arthur knew he was going to help Cobb in every way he could and not just out of obligation. Mostly because he could see the roles easily reversed and Cobb and Mal would have helped him.
It took almost two weeks for Arthur to find someone who was willing to bring a point man, forger, and architect in on a job. These days it seemed like more and more people were becoming teams instead of just hiring freelancers. Eames, on the other hand, spent the entire two weeks building the most elaborate identity he could for Cobb. He and Arthur had plenty of passports and names they could travel under but Cobb could get extradited to the States if he went into the wrong country. Eames had just finished when Arthur found them a job.
The extractors name was Crystal and Eames had worked with her before. She was a petite woman, rail thin, but Eames once watched her take out a bodyguard that was twice her weight at least. She was fierce, competent, and loved taking on jobs that paid extremely well. She was also wanted for murder in three different countries.
They were going to be extracting a series of bank accounts from a highly paid lawyer in Oslo, Norway named Ruben Freberg. There were rumors that has was not only taking bribes from the opposing side but turning to his own side and asking for even higher bribes to defend the right person. The latest person caught in the middle was a rather well off man, Anders Thorkelson, whose son Klaus was currently stuck in prison because Thorkelson couldn't meet the bribe demands and couldn't prove that Freberg was extorting him either.There wasn't anything they could do about the prison sentence, at least not right now, but Thorkelson wanted Freberg to lose everything for what he did. So like most people above a certain tax bracket he thought the best way to destroy a man was to take his money.
"Boring," Eames said when he finished reading what Arthur got from Crystal on the plane. "Do these people care about anything in the world but money?"
"You're asking the wrong person," Arthur replied, snatching the file from Eames' hands.
"Do you think this will be enough?" Cobb asked earnestly.
"It's a start," Arthur said without looking at Cobb. Eames had a bad feeling about this job even if it was a little on the boring side. Crystal was offering a lot of money for some bank account numbers which usually meant there was some sort of wrinkle that she wasn't telling them yet. Eames watched how twitchy Cobb was and didn't want him anywhere near Eames' mind. He hoped they could work it out that Cobb stayed topside but he had a feeling he wouldn't be that lucky.
Crystal met them at the airport and greeted them like old friends. Her curly brown hair was long and hung to her mid back, and her eyes were as large and dark as always. She reminded him of a smaller female version of Arthur. Sly, dark, and extremely deadly. Eames twirled her around a little because Crystal always made her teams greet her like old friends to keep their cover. Cobb looked like his eyes were going to bug out of his head but Arthur just looked amused. She was bubbly, bouncy even, as they walked to her car but as soon as the door closed her entire demeanor changed.
"So this is the architect you told me about?" Crystal said. Arthur was in the passenger seat so they could talk about details while Eames put himself behind Crystal's seat for optimal leg room. Cobb looked extremely uncomfortable in the tiny back seat.
"He was trained by one of the best in the field," Arthur replied which was about as close to a compliment as Cobb was going to get. Crystal glanced at Cobb in the rear view mirror.
"Eames has told me so much about you, Arthur," she said slyly.
"It was all lies I'm sure," Arthur replied dryly.
"Like I believe anything he says," Crystal said, smiling.
"I'm right here, you two. I won't have you ganging up on me." Eames said, but he was smiling. Crystal and Arthur working together was going to be an interesting pairing if nothing else. They were either going to blend flawlessly or clash in a way that would be result in spectacular fireworks. Either way Eames was looking forward to it.
There was a car waiting for them when Crystal pulled up to the office building but she didn't seemed too worried about it. She knew them, though, because she pulled out two pistols from the glove compartment and handed one to Arthur and the other to Eames.
"It's our client, but I know you won't feel comfortable without one," she said, but she looked at Cobb. "I don't know him so he doesn't get one."
"What about you?" Cobb asked. Crystal raised an eyebrow and lifted her skirt just high enough that the edge of a thigh holster was visible. Cobb looked a little embarrassed and averted his eyes which was probably for the best. "Shall we?"
"Lead the way, my dear," Eames said. Crystal flashed a smile and walked them through an empty office building until they came to a locked door. She knocked twice, waited a beat, then knocked a third time. A man that looked like he could bench press Arthur opened the door and let them in. An older man with gray hair and a perfectly tailored suit was waiting for them in the middle of the room.
"Mr. Thorkelson, nice to see you again," Crystal said offering her hand.
"Miss. Crystal, is this your team?" Thorkelson asked.
"Yes, they are, no introductions necessary," she said sharply and Eames smiled to himself; he loved working with competent people. "I've explained to my team that you want to take everything that Mr. Freberg owns."
"Not just what he owns; everything," Thorkelson replied darkly. "His home, his business, I want him to lose it all."
"As of right now we are going to focus on draining his savings. If we find anything that could be incriminating enough to destroy his business or his family we'll talk about adjusting our price for that information." Crystal smiled pleasantly but she bared her teeth.
"Freberg is a very private man," Thorkelson said after a moment of silence.
"Then we'll need plenty of time to get everything together," Arthur said. "Are we on a strict timeline for any reason?"
"No, we're not," Crystal answered for Thorkelson. "At least I sincerely hope we aren't."
"No, take all the time you need. Time is all my family has right now," Thorkelson said bitterly, no doubt thinking about his sons prison sentence. "I own this building. You may use it and no one will bother you."
"I prefer to find my own locations, but thank you for the offer," Arthur replied.
"Do we have a deal?" Crystal asked.
"Yes. I will pay each of your team members $150,000 each for his bank accounts," Thorkelson said.
"I'll be in touch to negotiate that number should we find other pertinent information." Crystal held out a hand and Thorkelson shook it. "We'll be in touch." Crystal turned on the heel of her boots and strolled out of the room. Thorkelson looked a little surprised, like he couldn't believe that this tiny woman just steamrolled him, but Crystal always used her small frame to lure people into underestimating her. "Thoughts, Eames?" She asked when they were all in the car and heading back toward the city.
"I don't think he was lying or thinking about betraying us for any reason. If anything he seemed a little taken aback by you, my dear," Eames replied.
"As they should be. Arthur?" Crystal said glancing at Arthur.
"I don't see any reason why there should be any issues. I've dealt with private people before. No one is ever as private as they might appear to be." he said.
"Good," Crystal said as she stopped the car in front of a rental place. "Now get the hell out and get your own cars. We'll convene at whatever location Arthur finds tomorrow at 0900."
"You're as sweet as ever," Eames said. Crystal flashed a smile and sped away, leaving the three of them standing on the sidewalk in her dust. Eames cracked his neck and sauntered up to the desk. “Hello my dear, I'm looking into getting a car,” Eames said, his accent suddenly several degrees more posh than usual.
+++
The next few days were fairly typical for a job by Arthur's standards. He spent a lot of time going over what kind of man Freberg was and how hard it was going to be to find anything about his private life. This meant he made a lot of phone calls, bribed a few people, did some light hacking, and staked out an apartment building one night with Eames. Freberg had a secretary named Janis and after some brief deliberation they decided that she would be the best bet for Eames to forge. Then Arthur had to find ways for Eames to learn about Janis that wasn't going to get him a stalking charge. Cobb began to work on a basic design while Arthur kept in constant talk with Crystal about what they were going to do as far as the actual extraction.
Eames was not entirely happy when he found out that Arthur got him a job doing basic maintenance at Freberg's office, but it let him get close to Janis. Crystal decided that an office building was going to be their best option and Cobb began to modify the maze. Everything seemed to be going smoothly yet Cobb could not relax. Arthur could only assume it was because this was the most illegal thing Cobb had ever done and he was already a wanted man, but something didn't sit right with him. Eames seemed concerned too but he also couldn't pin it down.
"There isn't any indication that he is militarized, but he's a control freak," Eames said three weeks into the job. They were trying to figure out exactly how they were going to go about getting the information.
"Control freaks always jump the gun faster than anyone else," Crystal said. "Arthur, do you mind being the dreamer? We need someone who can keep everything steady until we get the information that we need."
"Sure, I'll start to look over the maze." Arthur said.
"I can show up at a lawyer saying that I'm doing an investigation while Eames forges Janis and lets us in," Crystal said.
“That won't work,” Arthur said as he looked over a file. “This guy doesn't take woman seriously. Even if you walk in there and pretend to be the best lawyer in the world he won't believe you.”
“Then Cobb will come with me,” Crystal said. “If the two of us show up as a team he'll take at least one of us seriously. Can you go into the dream and act the part of a cocky lawyer?”
“I can manage,” Cobb said and she nodded.
"So that's settled; Cobb will be my partner. Freberg will project all of his secrets into a file that he'll hand Eames and we'll have everything we need. Sound good?" Cobb nodded but he looked a little uncertain. It made the hairs on the back of Arthur's neck stand on end, but there wasn't any indication that anything was going to go wrong.
A week later and they were going into the dream as a team for the first time. Arthur had the layout memorized and a good idea where he could go if everything went to hell. He finished setting up all of the lines, set the timer for five minutes for this first line, and pushed the button.
+++
Cobb did good work, Cobb always did good work, and this dream was no different. The office building looked similar to the one that Freberg worked in but was just different enough that no one would forget this was a dream. It was an intricate maze of loops, turns, and paradoxes that had plenty of places for Arthur to run to if needed.
"Excellent work, Cobb," Crystal said. Eames, Crystal, and Cobb discussed the plan a little more but Arthur wandered off a little. He wanted to make sure everything in the dream looked solid. There were a few projections wandering around but no one that seemed to notice or care that he was there. Arthur turned down a hallway and there was a gunshot. The sudden pain in his stomach knocked the air out of Arthur's lungs as he stared at the blood on his hands. It never got any less surreal when this happened but everything was stable. There wasn't even a hint that things were about to go south.
"I can't imagine how much that must hurt," an all too familiar voice said. Arthur looked up and watched as Mal emerged from the room at the end of the hallway, gun in hand. "A through and through wound that misses all the necessary organs so all the victim can do is bleed out." Arthur tried to take a step back away from her but the blood loss and pain were too much. He stumbled and collapsed to the ground as he slowly began to bleed to death.
"Why are you here, Mal?" Arthur asked.
"I'm trying to help Dom, of course, and I can't have you getting in the way. I'm sure Eames will be here soon. You two are always more dangerous when you're together," Mal replied. She knelt down next to Arthur and pressed the gun to his knee. "Say one word, my dear, and I'll make it so you can't even walk when you wake up." Someone was running toward them and Arthur hoped it was Crystal because she would shoot first and ask questions later. The universe was not on his side because it was Cobb of all people that came around the corner.
"Mal?" Cobb said his voice small and broken.
"Hello my love," Mal replied pleasantly, like she wasn't letting Arthur bleed out on the ground.
"Shoot her, Cobb," Arthur said through his teeth.
"Dom can't do that." Mal pressed the gun to his knee harder and released the safety. "One more word from you and I'll shoot." Arthur already couldn't see straight he was in so much pain, and the entire dream was going to crumble if he died, but bleeding out always took so long.
"Mal, why did you do this?" Cobb whispered, still not shooting the projection, and Arthur was going to kill him when they got topside.
"I'm trying to help you," Mal said earnestly. "You promised that we were going to be together. You promised we were going to grow old together." Before Cobb could reply Eames came around the corner, gun in hand.
"What the fuck?" he said. Arthur opened his mouth to say 'no', to tell Eames not to hesitate and to just shoot her, but it was too late. Mal was too fast, and she fired three quick rounds into Eames' chest. He stumbled back and collapsed to the ground and trying to stem the bleeding with his hands.
"Cobb, shoot her, she's not real," Arthur yelled. Cobb didn't move. He was frozen and staring at Mal like he'd seen a ghost. Mal put the gun to Arthur's knee and sneered down at him. She was terrifying in a way that the real thing had never been.
"I warned you," she said.
"Cobb, shoot her!" Arthur said, a little frantic now. The pain in his stomach was starting to dull which meant that he was going to die soon, but the thought of Mal putting a bullet in his knee made Arthur feel sick. Cobb just stood there. He didn't even have a gun in hand and he wasn't going to shoot her. Arthur squeezed his eyes and braced himself for the pain. Then the entire world tilted to the side and he was falling.
+++
Arthur blinked and realized he was lying on the ground of their office. Crystal was standing over all three of and she looked furious. Eames had a hand on his chest and it looked like he was having trouble getting himself back together. Cobb was white as a ghost and shaking. Arthur couldn't hear Crystal over the ringing in his ears but he thought he heard her say something about needing some smokes and storming out of the building. There were awkward silences and then there was the moments after Crystal slammed the door shut.
"What the fuck was that?" Eames asked as he managed to get to his feet. Arthur wasn't quite up for that yet; it had been a long time since he had died slowly in a dream, and his body was still figuring out that it wasn't real.
"Sometimes projections follow us into dreams," Cobb said but his eyes were on the floor.
"Yeah, they do, and when they do we shoot them." Eames held out a hand and helped Arthur to his feet. "You stood there and let Arthur bleed out. You stood there and let her shoot me and you still didn't shoot her."
"She's my wife," Cobb whispered.
"No." Arthur said and Cobb looked at him. "Mal is dead and that wasn't her. She was just a projection."
"Is this going to be an issue?" Eames asked.
"No." Cobb said. "I'm grieving so she's on my mind but it won't be an issue."
"That's not the part I'm worried about," Eames snapped. "It's the fact that you didn't shoot her that I'm worried about." Cobb tensed but kept his eyes on the floor.
"Is this going to be an issue?" Arthur repeated.
"No, I have it under control." Cobb said. Arthur wasn't sure he believed Cobb, and when Crystal came back they decided to call it a day early.
+++
Apparently Eames and Cobb had very different definitions of 'under control,' because over the course of the next two weeks the projection of Mal literally tore them apart. It didn't matter what they were doing or who was in the dream, if either Arthur or Eames was there she found them and she killed them in the slowest way possible. Eames hadn't had phantom aches since the first few days of the program, when they were still figuring out how pain in dreams worked, but now he felt like an old man. The projection of Mal was vicious and seemed even worse when Arthur and Eames were both in the dream. It was like she knew that they were more dangerous when they were together than when they were apart. That wasn’t exactly something that Eames found comforting. Cobb brushed it off every single time they tried to confront him about. He kept saying that he was fine and he had it under control but this projection was different from any that Eames had ever seen before.
When Mal managed to kill Arthur and make the entire level collapse Crystal threatened to walk away from the entire job. She screamed about how that thing was going to ruin everything and how she wouldn't have that unstable mind anywhere near her. It took Arthur and Eames nearly an hour to convince her that they could do this. Arthur swore to her that he would keep the level stable no matter what happened. Eames didn't really like the implications of that but he didn't say anything about it. Crystal finally agreed but she also said that she wouldn't be going on any jobs where Cobb built. Crystal suggested they change the plan and have her go in alone but Arthur told her that they couldn't risk Freberg closing up on them because he didn't trust a female attorney. Crystal still wasn't happy but decided that some changes had to be made to accommodate the new projection.
According to their revised plan as soon as Eames got the file with the information he was to drop his forge and go back up Arthur. Crystal and Cobb were going to find a way to get more information on Freberg to, in Crystal's words, “Make the job worth all of this bullshit.” Eames was more than a little inclined to agree.
"She's going to go after you again," Eames said. He was with Arthur at a 24 hour gym across the street from their hotel at three in the morning trying to burn off excess energy. Since they were no where close to sane Arthur and Eames burned off their excess energy by sparring. Arthur rolled his neck and shoulders; watching the muscles in Eames' arms and undershirt distracted him for only a moment.
"Of course she will. Projections always go after the dreamer," Arthur replied.
"The mark's projections go after the dreamer, not some projection of a dead woman that's coming exclusively from our architect." Eames stretched and kicked off his shoes. They were both down to sweatpants and undershirts so it was time to burn off that energy. Arthur smirked, raised his hands, and before Eames could say 'how do you do' ran at Eames. Eames managed to block Arthur's fist, which felt like a rock, but Arthur swiftly avoided his counter attack. There was always the chance they would have to run tomorrow, so they couldn't really hurt each other, but bruises were fair game.
Eames charged forward and volleyed a series of quick punches. Arthur ducked or blocked almost all of them but one to the stomach. He stumbled back a step but regained his footing right away. Arthur swept his foot out and knocked Eames straight on his ass. Eames kicked his own foot and knocked Arthur down. Eames took both of Arthur's wrists and pinned him down to the mat. They were both breathing hard as they stared at each other.
"Ready to go back?" Arthur asked as he licked his lips.
"Yes." The mad scramble for their shoes and clothes would have been funny if they were teenagers, but they were adults, damn it, they should be beyond this. Yet, as soon as the door to their hotel room was closed Eames pushed Arthur to the cool wood and kissed him. It still amazed him to that day how well they just seemed to fit together. Eames knew exactly where to touch Arthur to make him arch and Arthur knew exactly where to touch Eames to make him moan loud enough that they could wake up the people next door. Eames walked the two of them into the room and sat down on the bed, pulling Arthur onto his lap.
Eames couldn't lie; he was a little worried about the job tomorrow, so maybe he kissed Arthur a little harder than usual. Maybe he pulled Arthur so close that they weren't so much in each others space as they were trying to break the laws of physics. Dying slowly in a dream was horrible, and the projection of Mal seemed angrier when they were both in the dream. She seemed more inclined to make Arthur bleed longer, drag the process out even further, and Eames knew how it could linger for days afterwords.
"Hey," Arthur said. His voice was uncharacteristically soft and he took Eames' face in his hands so they were looking into each other's eyes. "We're going to be fine, I'm going to be fine, I can handle it."
"You shouldn't have to deal with that," Eames replied.
"We'll figure something out once this job is done." Arthur didn't let Eames protest anymore; he just shoved Eames back and kissed him. If there was anyone capable of handling a crazy projection it was Arthur. He could pull the trigger on anyone, and if it meant keeping the dream steady for the job Arthur would do anything. Eames just hoped it wouldn't come to that.
+++
Cobb at least looked a little guilty as they broke into Freberg's apartment. They had bribed the cleaning lady to let them in. Crystal dropped a sedative in a tea kettle and they waited outside until Freberg got himself something to drink. As soon as Freberg was out Arthur began to set up the PASIV.
"Eames, as soon as Freberg hands you that file I want you to go give Arthur back up," she said. "Are you going to be able to find him?"
"Yes," he and Arthur answered instantly. Crystal rolled her eyes and smiled a little but as soon as she looked at Cobb it faded.
"You stay with me and don't do anything stupid. If this goes to hell I'm blaming you," she warned.
"It's going to be fine," Cobb said, but he didn't sound too sure. Crystal got a local friend of hers to watch the PASIV and Eames just hoped no one shot him. Dying in a dream was not the way he wanted to go at all.
"Ready?" Crystal asked and they all nodded. She pushed the button and Eames watched as the entire world bled into white.
+++
Eames blinked and he was standing in the middle of the office building. There were projections moving around him and he waited a moment to see if they would lash out. No one seemed to care that he was standing there which was a good sign. Eames made his way to the conference room where the rest of the team was waiting. Arthur opened the door and he had the pinched expression he always got when he expected things to go very wrong.
“Are we ready?” Crystal asked and everyone nodded. “Okay, Arthur, go make yourself scarce and try not to get killed by the stalking bitch.” Cobb stiffened and for a moment he looked like he was going to try and defend Mal's honor. Eames was glad he stopped because Arthur probably would have busted a blood vessel. “Cobb and Eames, you're with me.”
“The dream won't collapse,” Arthur said. He didn't say he wouldn't die. That seemed good enough for Crystal.
“Good luck.” Arthur was the first to leave and Eames really wished he didn't have to do any forging for this job. He knew something terrible was going to happen because Mal seemed to target them much more when both of them were in the dream. He did have to forge though so Eames rolled his shoulders and let him himself slip into the skin of Janis. She was an older woman with graying hair and kind eyes. She was very unassuming which is why she made the perfect secretary for a big attorney like Freberg. Crystal and Cobb followed Eames across the office and he knocked on the door.
“Mr. Freberg?” he asked.
“No now, Janis,” Freberg called out.
“Mr. Freberg, it's very important,” Eames said again and opened the door without waiting for permission to do so. It would throw Freberg off his guard and make it easier to get the information from him. Freberg was a cocky young man who thought he was untouchable. His hair was slicked back but it just looked greasy to Eames.
“Janis, who are these people?” Freberg asked.
“Mr. Freberg, my name is Lydia Elliot and this my PA Jim Todd. We're here to serve papers that you're being sued by one Mr. Anders Thorkelson,” Crystal said easily. Freberg jerked like someone slapped him but put the cocky facade back into place quickly.
“And what, may I ask, does Mr. Thorkelson think he's going to sue me for?” Freberg asked.
“He's accusing you of accepting bribes and trying to get Mr. Thorkelson to give you bribes.” she said.
“I'm afraid I have no idea what you're talking about,” Freberg replied. Crystal held out a hand and Cobb handed her a file. “It's all right here.” Freberg twitched and stared at the file.
“I think I have the right to see the papers,” Freberg said carefully but Crystal smiled sweetly.
“I thought you had nothing to worry about? We have all of your secrets in this file.” That was the line that planted the bait. Freberg would think about his secrets and put the numbers in that file. Crystal handed Freberg the file and Freberg almost tore it when he took it from her hands. “Careful Mr. Freberg. We'll be seeing you soon.” Crystal turned on her heel and walked out of the office with her head held high. Freberg stared at the file with wide eyes and Eames stood there waiting.
“Mr. Freberg? Would you like me to take care of that?” he asked.
“Yes, yes I would,” he said slowly. Freberg handed Eames the file and straightened his shoulders. “I want you to shred it. That idiot Thorkelson isn't getting anything from me.”
“Yes sir.” Eames took the file and walked out of the office. It was easy to make his way through the office to the conference room. So far the dream was steady so Arthur must be fine. Eames dropped his forge as soon as he closed the door; Crystal and Cobb were waiting. “How long do you need?” Crystal opened the file and began to look through the information.
“As long as possible. We have a code to a personal safe that probably have some good dirt,” she said. Cobb looked a little guilty but he helped Crystal without a word.
“I can do that.” Eames didn't wait for Crystal to tell him anything else. Mal was somewhere in this building and she was going to tear Arthur apart. Eames just hoped he got there in time.
+++
Arthur tried not to rely on luck but he considered himself lucky that Freberg's mind didn't seem too twitchy. The fact that Mal was somewhere in the dream looking to kill him was bad enough, but an entire mind gunning for him as well would be worse. It meant he wanted to get as far away from these projections as possible to keep himself safe. The top three floors and the roof were all locked to the public because of 'renovations,' but really they were just a similar maze blocked off from projections. Arthur glanced over his shoulder and easily picked the lock to the abandoned floors. No one saw him but that didn't mean Mal wasn't already up there waiting for him. He locked the door behind him because Eames could get in here himself.
Arthur hadn't told Cobb but he had made a few changes to these floors. Instead of locked doors between each floor the staircases were open so he could easily jump from one floor to the next. He tweaked some of the twists and turns but it wasn't going to be enough to throw off Mal completely. It seemed like she went out of her way to make sure that he died as slowly and painfully as possible. If Cobb knew that Arthur had to stay alive or the job would fall apart then Mal did and she took advantage of that.
He kept his gun in hand but Arthur hadn't heard anyone else moving around the floors. The silence was eerie but he knew it wouldn't last long. He promised the dream wouldn't fall apart, and he was going to make good on that promise. Maybe he wasn't so lucky when the first shot clipped his left shoulder. Arthur took cover and ignored the sting in his arm.
"Did you really think tweaking my husbands maze could keep me from finding you?" Mal called out. Arthur couldn't tell where she was or even where the shot came from.
"Why are you doing this, Mal?" Arthur called out. "You said you're trying to help Dom but causing the job to fail isn't helping. He needs this money to buy his way back to the kids, because you implicated him of murder." Mal's laugh echoed over the maze like he just said the funniest thing in the world.
"Oh Arthur, poor, naive Arthur, you really have no idea what's going on here, do you?" Arthur saw movement around a corner and fired a few shots but wasn't sure if he hit her. He crept forward and followed the flash of brown curls. He knew exactly where he was going and he wasn't stupid enough to think that Mal wasn't leading him exactly where she wanted.
"I'm not going to let you ruin this for us," Arthur said. He glanced over his shoulder to make sure that his back was clear and went around a corner.
"I wouldn't be so sure," Mal said from behind him. Arthur turned, his gun raised, but Mal knocked it out of his hand so hard she snapped several of his fingerbones. He powered through the pain, tried to hit her, but Mal blocked his punch like he was a child. He was about to dream up something to stop her when she dug her nails into his wrist. "Go ahead, dream something up, make this mind aware you're here. I want to watch them tear you apart." Arthur tried to get his arm free of her but her hand was like a vice.
"Why are you doing this?" Arthur repeated.
"It's all just a dream." The first shot punched through his shoulder and the impact made Arthur stumble back a step. Mal fired two more shots into his chest and Arthur knew she missed anything that could make him die quickly. She kicked him in the stomach and Arthur fell onto his back, hard, coughing as he tried to get air back into his lungs. "Perhaps I should take pity on you this time, Arthur. After all, if you die the dream collapses and your job fails." Mal raised her gun and pointed it directly at his head. Arthur stared down the barrel of the gun and refused to look away. A shot rang out but it wasn't from Mal. He blinked and Arthur watched as Mal fell to the ground. Bits of skull and brain were on the ground and her dead eyes stared at him.
"You're late," Arthur said as Eames ran over and knelt down next to him.
"I got caught up in your stupid maze," Eames replied as he looked at the wounds.
"Can you move me? I don't want to look at--" Arthur cut himself off and nearly bit through his tongue as Eames moved them around a corner so they were away from Mal. Arthur blinked the spots from his vision at he stared at the ceiling. "How long?"
"It's been long enough. I'll call them and we'll get you out of here," Eames said.
"No. I said I wouldn't let this dream collapse until the job is done and that's what I intend to do." Arthur took a shallow breath and released it slowly. "Will you--?"
"Like you even need to ask, idiot," Eames said.
"Don't make me laugh you jackass," Arthur said, smiling. Eames watched him for a moment until he lay down next to Arthur. Eames lay on his side and put his mouth next to Arthur's ear so neither of them had to talk very loud. "Mal told me about a theory she had. About how to tell the difference between reality and a dream."
"We saw how well that worked out," Eames grumbled.
"Yes, but it's still a good idea. She called it a 'totem.' An object that only you could recreate because only you know the weight or an imperfection or something like that. It couldn't hurt anyway." Arthur coughed and he could taste some blood on his lips.
"That's enough out of you," Eames said shushing him. "You just keep listening to my voice and I'll tell you about some of the incompetent people I worked with when we were pretending not to know each other." There was something about Eames' voice that was soothing in a way that nothing else ever could be. It was probably because of how much Arthur trusted Eames. The pain in his chest hurt enough to make his eyes water but he refused to let the tears fall. That felt like letting her win. When Arthur clenched his fist without the broken fingers in pain Eames paused to let Arthur grasp Eames' hand. It felt like a tether, like it grounded him a bit more, and Arthur listened as Eames whispered stories into his ear.
+++
It took nearly two hours for the dream to tilt and the job to end. Eames opened his eyes and immediately rushed to Arthur's side. He was pale and looked like he was going to be sick but all he did was excuse himself outside. Eames watched him go and was so angry at Cobb that he thought he was going to hurt the man. Crystal watched Arthur go and narrowed her eyes. She seemed to understand that it hadn't gone well on Arthur's end.
"We got the bank account numbers as well as plenty of blackmail material," she said without addressing Arthur leaving the room. Cobb starred in the direction that Arthur had walked and looked like he wanted to go say something.
"So we'll be expecting a bigger pay day then?" Eames asked, surprised at how calm he sounded.
"Yes and I'll be sure that he gets a bonus as well." Crystal was a good extractor and an even better businesswoman. She understood that Arthur had gone through hell in this job and that he deserved something more for that. Cobb didn't argue and didn't say anything about it either.
"Excellent. Can you take care of the clean up?" Eames asked and Crystal nodded. "Good, we'll see you in the morning for the final meet up. Good night." He was almost out the door when Cobb took his arm and stopped him.
"Eames, is he okay?" Cobb asked.
"It would be in your best interest not to touch me right now Cobb." Eames warned, and Cobb released his arm. "As for Arthur, he'll be fine. As for you, I'm not as sure." Eames walked outside and found Arthur waiting in the car. He looked a little better but there was still a tremble to his hands that Eames didn't like. They drove in silence until Arthur asked him to stop at a small shop on the side of the road. Eames didn't ask why but Arthur vanished for only a few moments and returned with a small bag and a large bottle of wine. There didn't seem like a better time to get shit faced than right now.
Arthur's hands weren't shaking by the time they got back to the hotel room but he excused himself to the bathroom anyway. Eames sighed and began to dig through his bag to see if he had anything comfortable to sleep in. Instead he found one of the counterfeit poker chips he forged back when he was in Africa. It was right after he and Arthur split up stuck in the seam of the bag. They were perfect save for a misspelling on them and thus were rendered useless. He thought he had thrown them all out yet one must have gotten stuck in the bottom of the bag. Eames flipped the chip and looked it over. He thought about what Arthur told him about a totem. He made these chips, so only he knew exactly how much they weighed. He was the one that painted them and he could see their imperfections. Still, there needed to be more if this was going to work.
Eames pulled out the knife he had strapped to his ankle and carved a small set of numbers in the back of the chip. They were numbers he knew right away and they were numbers only he would know. He was looking over the chip when Arthur emerged from the backroom.
"Why do you have a poker chip?" he asked.
"You said something about making a totem so I made one," Eames replied. Arthur stared at him before he started to laugh. It was a laugh Eames hadn't heard from Arthur since the first time Mal appeared in a dream and shot him. For half a moment Eames was sure the dream had broken Arthur. Instead Arthur sat next to him and opened his hand. A single red die sat in his palm.
"I thought it sounded like a good idea too," he said smiling and shaking his head. "Of course we both pick gambling pieces. Of course." It was good to see Arthur smiling and laughing again but there were very important things they needed to discuss.
"Cobb is off his rocker," Eames said. "I'm very sorry about what happened to Mal too, you know that, but his mind is poisonous. We can't keep going in there and letting it into ours."
"Are you saying we should abandon him?" Arthur asked.
"For our own sanity it would be for the best," Eames replied. Arthur shoved the die into his pocket and walked across the hotel room to the window.
"Do you remember the barbecue we had at the Cobbs' house that one summer?" he asked, and Eames nodded. "You remember how Mal dragged me off to tell me something away from Cobb? She asked me to always protect her family. Cobb is her family, Eames, and I gave her my word." Several comebacks were on the tip of Eames' tongue but he managed to stop all of them. At the end of the day if Arthur gave someone his word about something that was as good as a binding contract.
"She'll tear us apart," Eames said softly. "I think I know what she is. I was thinking about my old days in the program and someone mentioned something called a 'shade.' A persistent and often deadly projection. One of my old mates did a lot of extensive research on them."
"She said we're more dangerous together than we are apart," Arthur said. Eames tensed up because he knew where this was going and he hated everything in the universe for it. Arthur joined him on the bed and sat close enough that they were shoulder to shoulder. "I can try and keep Cobb together, maybe even find out what really happened with Mal, and help him raise the funds needed to buy his way back into the states."
"Meanwhile, I can find loopholes that Cobb could slip through in the law, because no one knows the law better than a criminal, so he can get home, and in the meantime I'll see what I can find on shades," Eames finished, and he laughed bitterly. "She’s less aggressive when we’re apart. I can't believe we're doing this again. You and I are a much better team than you and him."
"No one is better than us." Arthur replied matter-of-factly, "but yes, I guess we are doing this again. " Eames knocked his shoulder into Arthur's and tried to smile.
"At least this time we can remain in contact and we don't have to pretend we don't know each other." Eames wasn't sure whose mood he was trying to improve or if it really mattered. "And once all of this is sorted out I'm locking you in one of our apartments and you're not leaving for at least a month."
"You have yourself a deal," Arthur said smirking. They ended up not drinking the wine but that was probably better. There was no telling when they would be able to work together again and Eames didn't want this to be another drunken haze. Instead they turned on a bad movie and traded stories like they used to when they first met. Instead they turned on a bad movie and traded stories like they used to back in their shitty New York apartment, when they first met. They made do with bad takeout and ratty clothes back then, but Eames still cherished those moments.
In the morning they would meet Crystal to finish the job and Eames would go off on his own while Arthur fulfilled a promise to a dead woman. Even though they were going to be separated again Eames wasn't worried like he was the last time. What he and Arthur had was unlike anything else, it had no name and it didn't need one, and some distance wasn't going to change that. They were Arthur and Eames, Eames and Arthur, whether they were in the same room or on different continents, what they had wasn't going to change.
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