Terrible Things, 4/4. NC-17.
Title: Terrible Things
Author: Eustacia Vye
Author's e-mail: eustacia_vye28@hotmail.com
Rating: NC-17
Pairing: Ariadne/Arthur, Cobb/Mal
Disclaimer: They belong to Christopher Nolan, and I borrow them out of love.
Spoilers/Warnings: Post-movie. For the second round of i_reversebang. I received prompt #1033 by nessismore. Additional warnings for violence and mentions of suicide. It's similar in scope to the movie.
Summary: One day, Arthur woke up and discovered that no one remembered Ariadne and the Fischer job never happened. Finding her only led to even more problems...
Prior chapters:
One - Defining Reality
Two - Shadow Play
Three - On A Mission
Four - Between Levels
"You chose her over me," Mal said, eyes flashing with irritation and grudging respect. She hadn't thought he would get one over on her. She was in her quarters, tied down to her bed in four point restraints. Arthur was sure that if these places still used straightjackets, she would be in one of them. "I won't make that mistake again."
"I'm trying to keep everyone safe, Mal," Arthur told her. "I can't let you hurt her and I can't let you kill Dom."
"He's mine," Mal hissed. "They have no business keeping him from me."
He thought of Joseph's earnest expression as he asked his questions, as he went through the protocols to bring Eames in and out of the dream state. He cared and absolutely thought he was doing the right thing. In a way, that almost made it worse. Arthur knew that Joseph was dead wrong, and that this persona was his way of hiding his expertise as Yusuf. He hadn't seen Cobb or Saito in their awake states, but he was sure that Eames' ability to be alert and fully cognizant of his surroundings was because of the myriad personae he regularly inhabited. It wouldn't particularly faze him to be someone else for a time, since he naturally did it anyway. Even in dream share he had several identities to choose from, not even counting the ID's he forged to get in and out of countries unseen. Arthur's identity in contrast had always been more solid. He knew who he was and where he was.
But you don't have a totem. You can't be sure, can you? his mind taunted.
"I've memorized the map."
Mal stilled and looked at him with large eyes. "What?"
"I haven't been violent, so they let me roam around unchecked. Couple that with my eidetic memory..." He smiled faintly when Mal laughed. "I don't intend to leave anyone behind."
"Meaning?"
"Meaning, you have to calm down so they'll let you out. Then we get Dom and the others and get the hell out of here."
"Your Ariadne is one of them." Mal looked at him shrewdly. "You count her and Joseph as ones you need to save."
"The army is manipulating them somehow. Yusuf is mercenary, but he's not a heartless bastard. He's a brilliant chemist. It's probably why they've co-opted him for this."
"Your Ariadne went from architecture to neurology." Mal gave him a pitying smile. "Hardly the same field." She looked at him calmly, with the clearest eyes he had ever seen her with. "She isn't yours, Arthur. She isn't real. She went into the dreams and fucked with your head, and that's the only reason you love her. You would never have gone for her type otherwise."
Arthur bristled. "And what type is that?"
Mal laughed delightedly. "You're a sophisticate, my darling. She isn't, not by any stretch of the imagination. And you have such an imagination, don't you?"
"Eames thinks I don't," Arthur replied without humor.
"Bah. He thinks a painting of dogs playing poker is high art." Mal would have waved dismissively if she could. "Whatever will they do with you, Arthur?" she asked, lips curling into an almost manic smile. "You know they don't trust you. You spend far too much time with me, and I'm hazardous to your health. I'm mad, bad and dangerous to know."
"That was Byron," Arthur replied with a faint smile.
"Am I any different?" she asked in an arch tone. "Don't answer that," she said with a smile.
Arthur gave her a sad smile in return. "I'm working on them, Mal."
"Ariadne, you mean."
"She's the lead researcher."
"Oh, you're not nearly as merciless as that sounds. You saved her from me, after all."
"You would have killed her, then? Knowing how I feel?"
Mal gave him that flinty eyed look that could be terrifying. "I would do anything for Dom."
He nodded, understanding her answer. "I would do anything for her."
"Then we are at an impasse."
"I suppose we are, though we do have a common goal. I don't see why we can't work together. We both want out with our loved ones."
"She doesn't love you, Arthur," she said softly. "Not the way you love her."
"She'll remember," Arthur told her confidently. "I'll make her remember."
"Oh? This should be interesting."
Arthur's lips stretched into something that vaguely resembled a smile. "I'm getting back into Project Somnus," he said. "An added piece to the protocol, where I would dream separately from the others. They don't want to contaminate the shared experience." Mal snorted indelicately, making Arthur smile slightly. "But I'm in proximity with her."
"You're going to bring her under," Mal murmured.
"If I have to."
"Oh, you terrible, terrible man," Mal said in appreciation, beginning to laugh.
Arthur stood and patted her shoulder. "I'll come back for you, I promise."
"If you can't, I'll understand. Survival of the fittest."
He stopped and looked at her closely. "You have something planned."
"Of course I do, chère," Mal said sweetly. "You didn't think I would just let things happen to me if I didn't want them to, did you?"
A feeling of dread settled into Arthur's stomach. "What can you tell me?"
"Smart man," she laughed. There was a crazed edge to it, reminding Arthur of Cobb's shade. He managed to keep a straight face until she stilled. "They'll think they've cowed me, of course. They'll think they've drugged the resistance out of me. They'll think I'm broken. But I always get what I want, Arthur. You know that."
"I do." He leaned over Mal, eyes flashing. "Leave Ariadne alone."
"Then make sure she doesn't get in my way."
To anyone else, the threat might have seemed laughable. But Arthur knew Mal and what she was capable of. He knew what lengths she would go to in order to get what she wanted.
"I suppose we have an understanding."
Arthur left, knowing he could never tell Alice or Yusuf that Mal was up to something. If they truly believed she was contained, they were fools. He didn't think they were fools. Self deluded, perhaps, and definitely sincere to a fault, but not fools.
Arthur was starting to wonder if he was.
***
Ariadne was shaking. "I shouldn't be here."
Arthur spun around, checking that the room they were in was safe. He didn't have equipment to check for listening devices or pinhole cameras, but at least there weren't any guards in the room. He knelt beside her huddled form and pulled her arms away from her knees. "Sh. You're okay. It's going to be all right. I'm here with you."
She looked up at him, her golden eyes shimmering with unshed tears. "They're keeping us apart, Arthur. I shouldn't be here. I can't get you into trouble. I won't see you in danger. But I couldn't help it, I needed to see you again..."
He pulled her into his arms and kissed her hungrily. She ran her hands along his face, then threaded her fingers through his hair. It was long and loose, nothing like how he liked to keep it on a job. He was dressed in the same army issue sweats that he had been wearing for the past several days on the base. She was in khakis and a camisole beneath a button down shirt. It wasn't too far off from how Alice Riordan dressed underneath her white lab coats. But she responded more enthusiastically to his kiss, and her fears weren't of him but for him.
"I love you, Ariadne," Arthur told her, moving to get his hands under her shirt.
She helped him, grinning even though she was clearly still worried. "I know. I love you, too."
There was no time to do more than kiss and touch, even if he wanted to push her onto her back and fuck her senseless. He didn't know when he would see her again, when he would have the opportunity to be this close to her. There were flashes of her in Alice, but it wasn't exactly the same. It was just enough to get him to doubt himself.
Ariadne placed her palm over his heart. "You know I'll watch over you. I'll do whatever it takes to keep you safe." She bit her lip uncertainly. "I've done terrible things, Arthur. I had good reason to, and my intentions are good. But they're still terrible and I don't regret a thing. I can't, if you stay safe."
Cupping her face in his hands, Arthur nodded. "I understand. Sometimes you have to do things you know are morally wrong in order to preserve the greater good. It'll be all right, Ariadne. I would do the same for you. I would do anything for you."
There was a rumble from outside of the door. Ariadne scrambled to her feet and backed away from the door, her back to the wall. "They're coming for me. I know they are. Arthur, I love you. I love you. I love you. Whatever else they say, that's the only truth you need to know about me."
Arthur moved to her side and covered her body with his. "Whatever happens here, we'll be together." She looked up at him in distress, shaking her head. Before she could speak, Arthur put his hand over her mouth. "Together, Ariadne."
The door banged open behind him. Her eyes went wide with fear, and he could almost see a shadow reflected in the whites of her eyes.
He was struck on the back of the head. He fought to stay conscious, but he was sagging forward onto Ariadne. She was screaming, hands clutched tightly around him. You can't take him, she was saying. He's mine!
Arthur wanted to ask who she was screaming at, but he was yanked sideways and dumped onto the floor. The last thing he heard was the report of a pistol.
***
Arthur's eyes snapped open in a room similar to the one he had just left. This time he was lying on a hospital bed, the net of electrodes and paste on his head, drips attached to his arm. There was a rustling sound next to him, and he turned his head.
Alice was lying on a hospital bed beside his, IV drips attached to her arm and a net of electrodes on her head. Her eyes moved as if she was dreaming, and Tadashi was standing over her with a syringe and glass vial. He was withdrawing five mL's of the clear fluid in the vial and then tapped the syringe to shake loose any air bubbles that he might have drawn up. Arthur watched in fascination as he checked to be sure that the bubbles were gone, pushing on the plunger until a drop beaded at the top of the needle. He moved slowly and precisely, as if still uncertain about what he was doing. Alice could do all of that without thinking about it, and the entire syringe's contents would have been inside the IV line already.
She jerked on the bed as soon as the syringe's contents hit her bloodstream. "What's that?" Arthur asked, sitting up abruptly in the bed.
Tadashi spun around, surprise on his face. "What?"
Arthur yanked the net of electrodes off of his head and the needle out of his arm. He ignored the smear of blood on the inside of his elbow and the saline running out of the line onto the floor. He stared at Tadashi, jaw clenched tight in anger. "What did you just give her?"
Alice's monitor started screaming its alarms as Tadashi stuttered "The antagonist."
Arthur didn't know what that was, and pushed him out of the way. Alice's eyes had stilled, as if she was no longer dreaming. She wasn't waking, either. He glared at Tadashi. "What the hell is going on? She's not waking up."
"The antagonist should help her wake up," he replied, shaking his head. "There wasn't any sedative in her prep."
Arthur picked up the discarded vial. "Haloperidol," he read aloud.
Tadashi looked stricken. "No, I didn't take that from the cabinet. I took the somnacin antagonist." He yanked the vial from Arthur's hand and blinked at the label. "I didn't take this vial."
"What's this going to do to her?"
"She's going to be knocked out for a while," Tadashi said, shrugging helplessly. "It wasn't meant for her. It was supposed to be for Annabelle..." An alarm sounded overhead. He pointed his finger at Arthur. "You have to stay here while we're on lockdown." He left before Arthur could reply, and he heard the locks falling into place.
He was locked in with Alice, who was sedated and dreaming. This had to be sheer nerves on Tadashi's part, but Arthur wasn't about to question his good fortune.
Arthur pulled her bed closer to his and then climbed back onto it. He carefully reattached the net of electrodes and put the settings back to where Alice had originally set them. He didn't stop to question why she had gone under when he was supposed to be dreaming alone. Ariadne had been in his dream when he went under, and she hadn't been a projection. Was Alice truly Ariadne and didn't want anyone to know?
He didn't even flinch as he pushed the IV needle into his arm. Fuck proper technique and a new prep set. With the way dreams worked, he was already woefully behind Ariadne, wherever she was in the dream. He had to find her and figure out the truth.
***
The base was on fire.
Arthur coughed and fought his way through the maze screaming for Ariadne or Alice, either name would do. Faceless guards poured out of the doors, hands empty and masks clouded over with smoke. They ignored him as they left, so he didn't bother to try to beat them. He moved through the hallways, pulling his sweatshirt over his mouth and nose to try to filter out the smoke. He saw Eames and Yusuf in one of the debrief rooms, stretched out on the floor unconscious with bleeding gashes. He seized them one at a time and dragged them into the main sleep lab, then manhandled them onto one of the hospital beds. Saito, Cobb and the others weren't in the lab. Arthur didn't have time to check records and all of the equipment was dark. He could only assume that they had been cycled down when the fire started.
Pushing the hospital bed through the halls, Arthur's eyes watered from the smoke. If this was a different kind of research, he could have gotten goggles to protect his eyes.
There was a shadow in one corridor and muffled shouts. Without meaning to, Arthur headed in that direction. The voice sounded vaguely familiar, but it wasn't Ariadne's.
It was Mal.
She had her hands locked around Ariadne's throat. Or was it Alice? She had a button down shirt and khakis on, Ariadne's usual comfortable boots and there was no lab coat in sight. She was trying to peel Mal's fingers from her throat and breathe, her golden eyes wide with fear. Mal was screaming random obscenities, and the most that Arthur could glean from it was that Mal blamed Ariadne for everything going wrong.
It took Arthur a moment, but he soon realized that Cobb was slumped on the floor and wasn't waking up. In fact, he was barely even breathing.
Arthur pulled Mal off of Ariadne, tossing her aside. The two women were sprawled on the floor and Ariadne coughed as she tried to fill her lungs with air. Mal turned to face Arthur, snarling with her teeth bared. "I told you to keep her out of my way."
Arthur paused; he thought he was supposed to be dreaming. Or had he been kicked out of the dream because he hadn't inserted the needle properly after all? He couldn't remember how he got there. He couldn't remember what he was doing before he had come into the room. Had Yusuf and Eames been doing their debrief for that long? It was such a thick binder, and time moved differently when in the dreaming state.
"You can't kill her. I don't care what name she uses, you can't kill her."
Mal launched herself at him, hands around his throat. "She's killed Dom! His mind is shattered now and he won't wake up! It's all her fault!"
The coughing behind him had slowed and stopped, and Ariadne staggered to her feet. Arthur managed to get out of Mal's grip and throw her to the floor. He wasn't intending to harm her, and merely pinned her to the ground. "I told you that you had to let him wake up to this level. You couldn't just fuck with the doses. I told you about the risk of limbo!"
"I'll kill her," Mal snarled at Arthur, all traces of their former friendship gone. "As soon as you let me go, I'll kill her for what she's done."
There was the unmistakable sound of the safety being taken off of a gun. Arthur looked up in time to see Ariadne standing there with a Beretta in her hand. She had a desperate expression on her face as she looked at Mal. "I didn't want to do this," she said, her voice wavering though her hands didn't shake. "Not again."
Arthur held up a hand to stop her, but Ariadne pulled the trigger. Mal's face exploded in a wash of blood and bone.
Skittering back, Arthur tried to wipe the spray of blood from his face. "What the hell was that?" he cried, staring at her.
"Hollow point bullets," she said, voice even. She put the gun back in a holster at the small of her back, hidden beneath the button down shirt. It was like watching a mask settle into place. "I didn't want this, but she left me no choice."
"Who are you?" Arthur asked, staring up at the woman in front of him. He loved her desperately, still, but something was so very, very wrong with this picture. He didn't think he could trust her any longer.
"Does it matter?" she asked quietly, the façade slipping slightly. She extended a hand out toward him, intending to help him to his feet. "I said I would do whatever it took to protect you. I told you I loved you at least a thousand times. I meant it."
"Ariadne?" he asked, taking her hand. There was wariness in his heart, but he schooled his face impassive as he always used to do. It wouldn't help him if she knew the trust was gone.
She seemed to sense it anyway. Ariadne had always been perceptive that way. "I can't tell you so many things, Arthur," she whispered. "It isn't safe here."
Turning to the open doorway, Arthur saw that Eames and Yusuf were no longer on the stretcher. He could only hope that they got away. "Then where is?" he asked her, eyes snapping back to her face. He thought of taking her gun from her. He could put a bullet in her head the same way she had done it to Mal, but he might as well shoot himself as well. Whatever else she had done, he was still tied to her.
"You're not safe if I'm with you." she cupped his face in her hands. "I've broken all the rules to stay with you. I've done terrible things I can't tell you about. I love you, Arthur. I love who are and who you've been and who you're going to be." Tears shimmered in her eyes. "You might not feel the same, but it's bearable if you survive."
Was she real? Was he still dreaming and she was just a figment of his imagination? Did he corrupt one of his own projections and turn her into someone he could love as desperately as Cobb and Mal had loved each other? He used to be jealous of their attachment to each other and hadn't ever thought he could have that for himself. Did he create Ariadne out of Alice Riordan? He didn't know anymore. He didn't know anything anymore.
When he didn't respond, Ariadne pulled back and half covered her face with her hands as she struggled to take in a breath to steady herself. Arthur thought of the photo he had shown Cobb, the hand in her face and the quirky smile on her lips that her hands couldn't quite hide. He found himself reaching for her even though he hadn't meant to.
"I would do anything for you," Ariadne whispered. "Anything at all."
Arthur took the gun from her hand as she drew it from the holster. "I won't let you kill yourself," he said in grave tones. "Whatever else happens, we're together, got it? Just like I said before." As he said the words, he knew them to be true. Trust or no trust, he couldn't let her die and he couldn't let her out of his sight. "You don't have to tell me what you've done. I can't say I've done any better over the years."
Her relieved smile loosened his chest; Arthur hadn't even realized how tense he had been up until that point. "So now what?"
"We go somewhere safe. We can let them assume that we died in the fires."
"It won't be that easy. They'll do a body count."
"Let them." Arthur's eyes swept over Cobb's prone form and Mal's shattered face. "There's been too much loss already."
She nodded, her gaze lighting on Mal's corpse. "She was going to kill us," Ariadne murmured before looking up at Arthur. "I don't regret it. I'd do it again if I had to."
"Why are you telling me this?" Arthur asked, hand tightening around the Glock.
"Because I don't regret the other things I've done either. If we're leaving together, you need to know that much." Her expression was so earnest, the same way it used to be when she was showing him her models before taking him under for a walkthrough. "I know she was your friend, I know you wanted to save her if you could. You'd never leave someone behind if you had an option."
"And so you took it out of my hands," Arthur murmured.
"Yes."
"Why are you making a point of telling me this?"
Ariadne's eyes searched his face. "You know how to find things out, how to uncover traces that others want to keep hidden. I'm nowhere near as good as you are in covering tracks. I'm not an innocent anymore, Arthur, and I don't want you to regret this moment," she said quietly. She pulled his arm with the Glock so that it was pointed at her chest. "If you have to, I'd rather you do it than anyone else."
Arthur looked at her with a stricken expression. "Ariadne..."
"If you had to choose, you or me, I want you to choose you. That's what I want you to know. Everything has been to make sure you survive." Her voice cracked and a tear fell down her face. "Because I love you, Arthur. Because you're everything to me. I couldn't bear it if something happened because of me and my choices. I could stand you hating me if you had to, leaving me if it came down to it. But I need to know you're okay." She took a hitching breath and her hand tightened over his. If Arthur's finger had been on the trigger and not the guard, he would have blown a hole through her chest. "I love you. And I will do anything to keep you safe."
He pulled his hands out of hers and swept her tightly in his arms. "When you left me, it was like someone ripped out a part of me," Arthur said quietly. "We can rebuild the trust, but only if we're together. Only if you tell me what I need to know."
"I've killed, Arthur. I've killed so many times." She buried her face in his chest and sobbed. "I can't even recognize myself sometimes. I'm not the same and I can't even regret it because you're here and they haven't destroyed you."
Arthur held her tightly. "Is that all?" he asked, relief evident in his voice. "You should know better, Ariadne. I can't tell you how many people I've killed in and out of dreams. That won't make me hate you."
She looked up, a plaintive and lost expression on her face. "It wouldn't? Not even Mal?"
Arthur looked over at the body with a pained sigh. "We told each other it would end this way. That I couldn't allow her to kill you. She would have killed me if it would allow her to get Dom back." He looked back at Ariadne. "That doesn't make it any less painful, but it's a necessary evil to keep you alive."
Understanding what he meant, Ariadne nodded. "Then let's go, before the guards come looking for us."
Arthur tipped her head up toward his and kissed her thoroughly. Ariadne made a soft mewling noise deep in her throat and clung to him desperately. "Where would we go?" she asked in a soft voice. "We wouldn't have anything."
"I've left with nothing before," Arthur told her with a negligent shrug as he guided her down an empty hallway. "I can do it again. In fact, it'll be easier this time since I already have contacts in Europe and Asia. I might have to burn my contacts in the CIA to be sure they won't look for us." He kissed her forehead. "But all that's a moot point if they catch us."
Ariadne was shaking in his arms. "We need to get out of here fast, then."
He had a soft twist to his lips that was almost a smile. "I know the way out."
"You do?"
"I've memorized the map."
Ariadne laughed a little. "I have, too. Mazes are kind of my thing."
Hands linked, they made it out of the base without any difficulty.
***
Alice Riordan gasped awake, eyes flying open. She looked over at Tadashi, who was monitoring her vital signs. He took in her wild eyed appearance and frowned. "Should I get Joseph? I think he should be done with his debrief around now."
A small choking sound came out of her throat, and she started scratching at it desperately, the IV lines tearing out of her arm. Alarmed, Tadashi slammed his hand on the red code button. He fought with Alice to keep her hands away from her throat, though there already were large red welts over her delicate skin. She made guttural screams as she fought him, golden eyes large and wild. Joseph accompanied the guards that rushed in, and he took in her appearance. "Jesus!" he cried. "Did she say anything on waking?"
"Nothing," Tadashi told him, shaking his head. He still struggled with one of her arms while the two guards pinned her legs and other arm to the bed. He nodded in the general direction of the other sleeping figure on the nearby hospital bed. "That one's out."
"Readings?" Joseph asked in clipped tones as he moved to the medication cabinet.
"Stable and slow. Wherever he is, he's deep and he's out of our reach."
"And Alice?" he asked, taking a bottle of lorazepam to reconstitute.
"They looked fine, and then this happened."
Frowning, Joseph put down the lorazepam and moved to Alice's line of sight. "Hey!" he called, drawing her attention. Her eyes were wild and panicked, and she continued to make guttural sounds of fear. He held up his hands for her to see. "You're okay. You're okay. You're safe, I promise. You were hurting yourself, and we're trying to keep you safe." Alice let out another choked sound, and it sounded like she was wheezing. "Can you breathe?"
She shook her head and wheezed again as if trying to speak. Guttural sounds that might have been k's were all that came out.
"I'm going to get you something that should help the panic, okay? If we need to, I'll get the nebulizer to open up your airways." Joseph smiled when he saw the relief in her eyes. "I've got you, Alice. Okay?"
She nodded and watched as he set about reconstituting the lorazepam and prepping it for injection. "One milligram to start," he told her as he swabbed her deltoid muscle. "If you need more, I'm giving you the other one."
It kicked in quickly and she stopped trembling. The guards only released her when Tadashi did, and they remained nearby just in case. Alice waved at Joseph and the needle, so he injected the other milligram. He coached her breathing, and Tadashi indicated that the crisis was over and he didn't need the guards any longer.
"What happened?" Joseph asked her.
"There's another me in the dream. A whole other base, whole other world. That's why he won't wake up." Alice wheezed and grasped the side rail tightly. "He doesn't need to wake up. He doesn't want to wake up. There's a corrupted version of me down there, and she's keeping me out. She set fire to the base to kick me out."
Joseph blinked in surprise, mouth dropping open. "What?"
"Yeah," she rasped, concern and distress both in her expression. "I had to change my appearance after I got kicked out the first few times. I couldn't confuse him with two of me running around in there, not after the others went psychotic and committed suicide. I had to..." Alice gulped. "I watched her pretend to be me to try to sever their connection, and it was just... I couldn't let him fall in deeper, but I couldn't save him. It's just like the others…
"I remember," Joseph said encouragingly as Tadashi surreptitiously took notes. It was always best to get the first impressions, especially after a violent death. If the memories weren't retrieved as fresh as possible, they suffered the natural degradation of dreams. Even traumatic ones faded if given enough time.
"I managed to get into the other base's data files. The other me kept notes that look pretty similar to mine about Somnus' start," Alice rasped. She pulled on the rails to give her better leverage to sit up. Joseph helped her as Tadashi kept scribbling. "Multiple levels, drops within drops, trying to go between levels, tracking projection changes as they went. I think she was supposed to keep him on track in case he got lost in there. The notes were impeccable at first. But then they started getting incoherent and she was signing them 'Ariadne.' I think she was trying to sever their connection, but he just couldn't let go."
"So let me get this straight. She was helping you in the beginning?" Joseph asked.
"I managed to get in a few times to try to pull him up a few levels, but his connection to her kept dragging him down." Alice coughed and shook her head in grudging respect. "He loves her. Or she made him love her, I don't know. I tried to use that connection to bring him up further, something to anchor him to reality. He needed something real, some reason to come back." Alice coughed again and didn't quite manage to hide the guilty look on her face. "I didn't want to lose another dreamer, not after Annabelle killed those guards and then herself. I couldn't let that happen again."
"Of course," Joseph said soothingly as Tadashi scribbled.
"I think that's when she stopped helping me. I don't think Ariadne wanted me using emotions to manipulate him, not when he truly loved her. She's killed me a few times, as well as the other projections who threatened him."
"But he would have had to realize what was happening. Projections aren't real," Joseph said, turning to look at the other sleeping body in the room. His chest rose and fell evenly, tracings on the EEG showing no appreciable change.
Alice coughed and managed to swing her legs over the edge of the bed. "Whenever he started realizing he was dreaming, she upped the level of detail. It was amazing. I'd be more impressed if I wasn't fucking pissed. He lost reality testing."
Joseph stilled, frowning at Alice. "So he's lost, then?"
"Yes," she told him. She licked her lips and was surprised when they didn't feel dry and cracked from heat and smoke.
"Another one?" Tadashi couldn't help but blurt out.
"We need to shut it down. That's too many losses, and he had the strongest willpower and reality testing in the early evaluations."
"Sullivan's not going to like it..." Joseph said. Tadashi nodded as he scribbled, agreeing.
"We fried his brain, Joseph!" Alice cried. "This was meant to be a training exercise and research. We weren't supposed to trap him inside his own mind between levels."
"If we shut down the program, he definitely won't wake up," Tadashi told them quietly, putting aside his pen now that he was caught up transcribing Alice's comments. He didn't include her recommendation to shut down the program. "That would lock him into a coma until the body finally dies."
"He's not coming out on his own and I can't get to him. I can't even get close without something happening to wipe me out," Alice said, shaking her head. "Ariadne wins. She's got him trapped in the maze now."
"Like the others," Joseph murmured, crossing his arms over his chest sadly. He dropped his chin down as he thought. "It doesn't matter who goes in to get them. They all choose the dreamed up reality over this one. They don't care if that world isn't real."
"We can't do this to anyone else," Alice said, looking at the two men with an almost pleading expression. "We have to pull the plug and save the last few volunteers before they succumb, too. It won't be much longer until they question reality, too."
"Then we'll deal with the consequences," Joseph said after a moment. He looked up and nodded sharply in agreement. "We have to save the ones that are left."
"We can always try again in a little while," Tadashi said, reaching out to touch Alice's arm. "If it was me or Joseph, this Ariadne projection won't have as tight a hold. We'd be attacking it from a different angle."
"It didn't work for the two specialists," Alice murmured. "But then, their grasp on reality was weak to start with. Give it a few hours before you go in," she advised. "He'd be expecting another challenge right away."
They looked at the sleeping figure in the next bed. The rise and fall of his chest was steady, his eyes closed and unmoving. The EEG tracing remained the same.
Good luck, Arthur, wherever you are, Alice thought as she climbed down from the hospital bed. I hope you find what you need.
She was the last one out of the room, and she shut off the lights before closing the door.
The End
Author: Eustacia Vye
Author's e-mail: eustacia_vye28@hotmail.com
Rating: NC-17
Pairing: Ariadne/Arthur, Cobb/Mal
Disclaimer: They belong to Christopher Nolan, and I borrow them out of love.
Spoilers/Warnings: Post-movie. For the second round of i_reversebang. I received prompt #1033 by nessismore. Additional warnings for violence and mentions of suicide. It's similar in scope to the movie.
Summary: One day, Arthur woke up and discovered that no one remembered Ariadne and the Fischer job never happened. Finding her only led to even more problems...
Prior chapters:
One - Defining Reality
Two - Shadow Play
Three - On A Mission
Four - Between Levels
"You chose her over me," Mal said, eyes flashing with irritation and grudging respect. She hadn't thought he would get one over on her. She was in her quarters, tied down to her bed in four point restraints. Arthur was sure that if these places still used straightjackets, she would be in one of them. "I won't make that mistake again."
"I'm trying to keep everyone safe, Mal," Arthur told her. "I can't let you hurt her and I can't let you kill Dom."
"He's mine," Mal hissed. "They have no business keeping him from me."
He thought of Joseph's earnest expression as he asked his questions, as he went through the protocols to bring Eames in and out of the dream state. He cared and absolutely thought he was doing the right thing. In a way, that almost made it worse. Arthur knew that Joseph was dead wrong, and that this persona was his way of hiding his expertise as Yusuf. He hadn't seen Cobb or Saito in their awake states, but he was sure that Eames' ability to be alert and fully cognizant of his surroundings was because of the myriad personae he regularly inhabited. It wouldn't particularly faze him to be someone else for a time, since he naturally did it anyway. Even in dream share he had several identities to choose from, not even counting the ID's he forged to get in and out of countries unseen. Arthur's identity in contrast had always been more solid. He knew who he was and where he was.
But you don't have a totem. You can't be sure, can you? his mind taunted.
"I've memorized the map."
Mal stilled and looked at him with large eyes. "What?"
"I haven't been violent, so they let me roam around unchecked. Couple that with my eidetic memory..." He smiled faintly when Mal laughed. "I don't intend to leave anyone behind."
"Meaning?"
"Meaning, you have to calm down so they'll let you out. Then we get Dom and the others and get the hell out of here."
"Your Ariadne is one of them." Mal looked at him shrewdly. "You count her and Joseph as ones you need to save."
"The army is manipulating them somehow. Yusuf is mercenary, but he's not a heartless bastard. He's a brilliant chemist. It's probably why they've co-opted him for this."
"Your Ariadne went from architecture to neurology." Mal gave him a pitying smile. "Hardly the same field." She looked at him calmly, with the clearest eyes he had ever seen her with. "She isn't yours, Arthur. She isn't real. She went into the dreams and fucked with your head, and that's the only reason you love her. You would never have gone for her type otherwise."
Arthur bristled. "And what type is that?"
Mal laughed delightedly. "You're a sophisticate, my darling. She isn't, not by any stretch of the imagination. And you have such an imagination, don't you?"
"Eames thinks I don't," Arthur replied without humor.
"Bah. He thinks a painting of dogs playing poker is high art." Mal would have waved dismissively if she could. "Whatever will they do with you, Arthur?" she asked, lips curling into an almost manic smile. "You know they don't trust you. You spend far too much time with me, and I'm hazardous to your health. I'm mad, bad and dangerous to know."
"That was Byron," Arthur replied with a faint smile.
"Am I any different?" she asked in an arch tone. "Don't answer that," she said with a smile.
Arthur gave her a sad smile in return. "I'm working on them, Mal."
"Ariadne, you mean."
"She's the lead researcher."
"Oh, you're not nearly as merciless as that sounds. You saved her from me, after all."
"You would have killed her, then? Knowing how I feel?"
Mal gave him that flinty eyed look that could be terrifying. "I would do anything for Dom."
He nodded, understanding her answer. "I would do anything for her."
"Then we are at an impasse."
"I suppose we are, though we do have a common goal. I don't see why we can't work together. We both want out with our loved ones."
"She doesn't love you, Arthur," she said softly. "Not the way you love her."
"She'll remember," Arthur told her confidently. "I'll make her remember."
"Oh? This should be interesting."
Arthur's lips stretched into something that vaguely resembled a smile. "I'm getting back into Project Somnus," he said. "An added piece to the protocol, where I would dream separately from the others. They don't want to contaminate the shared experience." Mal snorted indelicately, making Arthur smile slightly. "But I'm in proximity with her."
"You're going to bring her under," Mal murmured.
"If I have to."
"Oh, you terrible, terrible man," Mal said in appreciation, beginning to laugh.
Arthur stood and patted her shoulder. "I'll come back for you, I promise."
"If you can't, I'll understand. Survival of the fittest."
He stopped and looked at her closely. "You have something planned."
"Of course I do, chère," Mal said sweetly. "You didn't think I would just let things happen to me if I didn't want them to, did you?"
A feeling of dread settled into Arthur's stomach. "What can you tell me?"
"Smart man," she laughed. There was a crazed edge to it, reminding Arthur of Cobb's shade. He managed to keep a straight face until she stilled. "They'll think they've cowed me, of course. They'll think they've drugged the resistance out of me. They'll think I'm broken. But I always get what I want, Arthur. You know that."
"I do." He leaned over Mal, eyes flashing. "Leave Ariadne alone."
"Then make sure she doesn't get in my way."
To anyone else, the threat might have seemed laughable. But Arthur knew Mal and what she was capable of. He knew what lengths she would go to in order to get what she wanted.
"I suppose we have an understanding."
Arthur left, knowing he could never tell Alice or Yusuf that Mal was up to something. If they truly believed she was contained, they were fools. He didn't think they were fools. Self deluded, perhaps, and definitely sincere to a fault, but not fools.
Arthur was starting to wonder if he was.
***
Ariadne was shaking. "I shouldn't be here."
Arthur spun around, checking that the room they were in was safe. He didn't have equipment to check for listening devices or pinhole cameras, but at least there weren't any guards in the room. He knelt beside her huddled form and pulled her arms away from her knees. "Sh. You're okay. It's going to be all right. I'm here with you."
She looked up at him, her golden eyes shimmering with unshed tears. "They're keeping us apart, Arthur. I shouldn't be here. I can't get you into trouble. I won't see you in danger. But I couldn't help it, I needed to see you again..."
He pulled her into his arms and kissed her hungrily. She ran her hands along his face, then threaded her fingers through his hair. It was long and loose, nothing like how he liked to keep it on a job. He was dressed in the same army issue sweats that he had been wearing for the past several days on the base. She was in khakis and a camisole beneath a button down shirt. It wasn't too far off from how Alice Riordan dressed underneath her white lab coats. But she responded more enthusiastically to his kiss, and her fears weren't of him but for him.
"I love you, Ariadne," Arthur told her, moving to get his hands under her shirt.
She helped him, grinning even though she was clearly still worried. "I know. I love you, too."
There was no time to do more than kiss and touch, even if he wanted to push her onto her back and fuck her senseless. He didn't know when he would see her again, when he would have the opportunity to be this close to her. There were flashes of her in Alice, but it wasn't exactly the same. It was just enough to get him to doubt himself.
Ariadne placed her palm over his heart. "You know I'll watch over you. I'll do whatever it takes to keep you safe." She bit her lip uncertainly. "I've done terrible things, Arthur. I had good reason to, and my intentions are good. But they're still terrible and I don't regret a thing. I can't, if you stay safe."
Cupping her face in his hands, Arthur nodded. "I understand. Sometimes you have to do things you know are morally wrong in order to preserve the greater good. It'll be all right, Ariadne. I would do the same for you. I would do anything for you."
There was a rumble from outside of the door. Ariadne scrambled to her feet and backed away from the door, her back to the wall. "They're coming for me. I know they are. Arthur, I love you. I love you. I love you. Whatever else they say, that's the only truth you need to know about me."
Arthur moved to her side and covered her body with his. "Whatever happens here, we'll be together." She looked up at him in distress, shaking her head. Before she could speak, Arthur put his hand over her mouth. "Together, Ariadne."
The door banged open behind him. Her eyes went wide with fear, and he could almost see a shadow reflected in the whites of her eyes.
He was struck on the back of the head. He fought to stay conscious, but he was sagging forward onto Ariadne. She was screaming, hands clutched tightly around him. You can't take him, she was saying. He's mine!
Arthur wanted to ask who she was screaming at, but he was yanked sideways and dumped onto the floor. The last thing he heard was the report of a pistol.
***
Arthur's eyes snapped open in a room similar to the one he had just left. This time he was lying on a hospital bed, the net of electrodes and paste on his head, drips attached to his arm. There was a rustling sound next to him, and he turned his head.
Alice was lying on a hospital bed beside his, IV drips attached to her arm and a net of electrodes on her head. Her eyes moved as if she was dreaming, and Tadashi was standing over her with a syringe and glass vial. He was withdrawing five mL's of the clear fluid in the vial and then tapped the syringe to shake loose any air bubbles that he might have drawn up. Arthur watched in fascination as he checked to be sure that the bubbles were gone, pushing on the plunger until a drop beaded at the top of the needle. He moved slowly and precisely, as if still uncertain about what he was doing. Alice could do all of that without thinking about it, and the entire syringe's contents would have been inside the IV line already.
She jerked on the bed as soon as the syringe's contents hit her bloodstream. "What's that?" Arthur asked, sitting up abruptly in the bed.
Tadashi spun around, surprise on his face. "What?"
Arthur yanked the net of electrodes off of his head and the needle out of his arm. He ignored the smear of blood on the inside of his elbow and the saline running out of the line onto the floor. He stared at Tadashi, jaw clenched tight in anger. "What did you just give her?"
Alice's monitor started screaming its alarms as Tadashi stuttered "The antagonist."
Arthur didn't know what that was, and pushed him out of the way. Alice's eyes had stilled, as if she was no longer dreaming. She wasn't waking, either. He glared at Tadashi. "What the hell is going on? She's not waking up."
"The antagonist should help her wake up," he replied, shaking his head. "There wasn't any sedative in her prep."
Arthur picked up the discarded vial. "Haloperidol," he read aloud.
Tadashi looked stricken. "No, I didn't take that from the cabinet. I took the somnacin antagonist." He yanked the vial from Arthur's hand and blinked at the label. "I didn't take this vial."
"What's this going to do to her?"
"She's going to be knocked out for a while," Tadashi said, shrugging helplessly. "It wasn't meant for her. It was supposed to be for Annabelle..." An alarm sounded overhead. He pointed his finger at Arthur. "You have to stay here while we're on lockdown." He left before Arthur could reply, and he heard the locks falling into place.
He was locked in with Alice, who was sedated and dreaming. This had to be sheer nerves on Tadashi's part, but Arthur wasn't about to question his good fortune.
Arthur pulled her bed closer to his and then climbed back onto it. He carefully reattached the net of electrodes and put the settings back to where Alice had originally set them. He didn't stop to question why she had gone under when he was supposed to be dreaming alone. Ariadne had been in his dream when he went under, and she hadn't been a projection. Was Alice truly Ariadne and didn't want anyone to know?
He didn't even flinch as he pushed the IV needle into his arm. Fuck proper technique and a new prep set. With the way dreams worked, he was already woefully behind Ariadne, wherever she was in the dream. He had to find her and figure out the truth.
***
The base was on fire.
Arthur coughed and fought his way through the maze screaming for Ariadne or Alice, either name would do. Faceless guards poured out of the doors, hands empty and masks clouded over with smoke. They ignored him as they left, so he didn't bother to try to beat them. He moved through the hallways, pulling his sweatshirt over his mouth and nose to try to filter out the smoke. He saw Eames and Yusuf in one of the debrief rooms, stretched out on the floor unconscious with bleeding gashes. He seized them one at a time and dragged them into the main sleep lab, then manhandled them onto one of the hospital beds. Saito, Cobb and the others weren't in the lab. Arthur didn't have time to check records and all of the equipment was dark. He could only assume that they had been cycled down when the fire started.
Pushing the hospital bed through the halls, Arthur's eyes watered from the smoke. If this was a different kind of research, he could have gotten goggles to protect his eyes.
There was a shadow in one corridor and muffled shouts. Without meaning to, Arthur headed in that direction. The voice sounded vaguely familiar, but it wasn't Ariadne's.
It was Mal.
She had her hands locked around Ariadne's throat. Or was it Alice? She had a button down shirt and khakis on, Ariadne's usual comfortable boots and there was no lab coat in sight. She was trying to peel Mal's fingers from her throat and breathe, her golden eyes wide with fear. Mal was screaming random obscenities, and the most that Arthur could glean from it was that Mal blamed Ariadne for everything going wrong.
It took Arthur a moment, but he soon realized that Cobb was slumped on the floor and wasn't waking up. In fact, he was barely even breathing.
Arthur pulled Mal off of Ariadne, tossing her aside. The two women were sprawled on the floor and Ariadne coughed as she tried to fill her lungs with air. Mal turned to face Arthur, snarling with her teeth bared. "I told you to keep her out of my way."
Arthur paused; he thought he was supposed to be dreaming. Or had he been kicked out of the dream because he hadn't inserted the needle properly after all? He couldn't remember how he got there. He couldn't remember what he was doing before he had come into the room. Had Yusuf and Eames been doing their debrief for that long? It was such a thick binder, and time moved differently when in the dreaming state.
"You can't kill her. I don't care what name she uses, you can't kill her."
Mal launched herself at him, hands around his throat. "She's killed Dom! His mind is shattered now and he won't wake up! It's all her fault!"
The coughing behind him had slowed and stopped, and Ariadne staggered to her feet. Arthur managed to get out of Mal's grip and throw her to the floor. He wasn't intending to harm her, and merely pinned her to the ground. "I told you that you had to let him wake up to this level. You couldn't just fuck with the doses. I told you about the risk of limbo!"
"I'll kill her," Mal snarled at Arthur, all traces of their former friendship gone. "As soon as you let me go, I'll kill her for what she's done."
There was the unmistakable sound of the safety being taken off of a gun. Arthur looked up in time to see Ariadne standing there with a Beretta in her hand. She had a desperate expression on her face as she looked at Mal. "I didn't want to do this," she said, her voice wavering though her hands didn't shake. "Not again."
Arthur held up a hand to stop her, but Ariadne pulled the trigger. Mal's face exploded in a wash of blood and bone.
Skittering back, Arthur tried to wipe the spray of blood from his face. "What the hell was that?" he cried, staring at her.
"Hollow point bullets," she said, voice even. She put the gun back in a holster at the small of her back, hidden beneath the button down shirt. It was like watching a mask settle into place. "I didn't want this, but she left me no choice."
"Who are you?" Arthur asked, staring up at the woman in front of him. He loved her desperately, still, but something was so very, very wrong with this picture. He didn't think he could trust her any longer.
"Does it matter?" she asked quietly, the façade slipping slightly. She extended a hand out toward him, intending to help him to his feet. "I said I would do whatever it took to protect you. I told you I loved you at least a thousand times. I meant it."
"Ariadne?" he asked, taking her hand. There was wariness in his heart, but he schooled his face impassive as he always used to do. It wouldn't help him if she knew the trust was gone.
She seemed to sense it anyway. Ariadne had always been perceptive that way. "I can't tell you so many things, Arthur," she whispered. "It isn't safe here."
Turning to the open doorway, Arthur saw that Eames and Yusuf were no longer on the stretcher. He could only hope that they got away. "Then where is?" he asked her, eyes snapping back to her face. He thought of taking her gun from her. He could put a bullet in her head the same way she had done it to Mal, but he might as well shoot himself as well. Whatever else she had done, he was still tied to her.
"You're not safe if I'm with you." she cupped his face in her hands. "I've broken all the rules to stay with you. I've done terrible things I can't tell you about. I love you, Arthur. I love who are and who you've been and who you're going to be." Tears shimmered in her eyes. "You might not feel the same, but it's bearable if you survive."
Was she real? Was he still dreaming and she was just a figment of his imagination? Did he corrupt one of his own projections and turn her into someone he could love as desperately as Cobb and Mal had loved each other? He used to be jealous of their attachment to each other and hadn't ever thought he could have that for himself. Did he create Ariadne out of Alice Riordan? He didn't know anymore. He didn't know anything anymore.
When he didn't respond, Ariadne pulled back and half covered her face with her hands as she struggled to take in a breath to steady herself. Arthur thought of the photo he had shown Cobb, the hand in her face and the quirky smile on her lips that her hands couldn't quite hide. He found himself reaching for her even though he hadn't meant to.
"I would do anything for you," Ariadne whispered. "Anything at all."
Arthur took the gun from her hand as she drew it from the holster. "I won't let you kill yourself," he said in grave tones. "Whatever else happens, we're together, got it? Just like I said before." As he said the words, he knew them to be true. Trust or no trust, he couldn't let her die and he couldn't let her out of his sight. "You don't have to tell me what you've done. I can't say I've done any better over the years."
Her relieved smile loosened his chest; Arthur hadn't even realized how tense he had been up until that point. "So now what?"
"We go somewhere safe. We can let them assume that we died in the fires."
"It won't be that easy. They'll do a body count."
"Let them." Arthur's eyes swept over Cobb's prone form and Mal's shattered face. "There's been too much loss already."
She nodded, her gaze lighting on Mal's corpse. "She was going to kill us," Ariadne murmured before looking up at Arthur. "I don't regret it. I'd do it again if I had to."
"Why are you telling me this?" Arthur asked, hand tightening around the Glock.
"Because I don't regret the other things I've done either. If we're leaving together, you need to know that much." Her expression was so earnest, the same way it used to be when she was showing him her models before taking him under for a walkthrough. "I know she was your friend, I know you wanted to save her if you could. You'd never leave someone behind if you had an option."
"And so you took it out of my hands," Arthur murmured.
"Yes."
"Why are you making a point of telling me this?"
Ariadne's eyes searched his face. "You know how to find things out, how to uncover traces that others want to keep hidden. I'm nowhere near as good as you are in covering tracks. I'm not an innocent anymore, Arthur, and I don't want you to regret this moment," she said quietly. She pulled his arm with the Glock so that it was pointed at her chest. "If you have to, I'd rather you do it than anyone else."
Arthur looked at her with a stricken expression. "Ariadne..."
"If you had to choose, you or me, I want you to choose you. That's what I want you to know. Everything has been to make sure you survive." Her voice cracked and a tear fell down her face. "Because I love you, Arthur. Because you're everything to me. I couldn't bear it if something happened because of me and my choices. I could stand you hating me if you had to, leaving me if it came down to it. But I need to know you're okay." She took a hitching breath and her hand tightened over his. If Arthur's finger had been on the trigger and not the guard, he would have blown a hole through her chest. "I love you. And I will do anything to keep you safe."
He pulled his hands out of hers and swept her tightly in his arms. "When you left me, it was like someone ripped out a part of me," Arthur said quietly. "We can rebuild the trust, but only if we're together. Only if you tell me what I need to know."
"I've killed, Arthur. I've killed so many times." She buried her face in his chest and sobbed. "I can't even recognize myself sometimes. I'm not the same and I can't even regret it because you're here and they haven't destroyed you."
Arthur held her tightly. "Is that all?" he asked, relief evident in his voice. "You should know better, Ariadne. I can't tell you how many people I've killed in and out of dreams. That won't make me hate you."
She looked up, a plaintive and lost expression on her face. "It wouldn't? Not even Mal?"
Arthur looked over at the body with a pained sigh. "We told each other it would end this way. That I couldn't allow her to kill you. She would have killed me if it would allow her to get Dom back." He looked back at Ariadne. "That doesn't make it any less painful, but it's a necessary evil to keep you alive."
Understanding what he meant, Ariadne nodded. "Then let's go, before the guards come looking for us."
Arthur tipped her head up toward his and kissed her thoroughly. Ariadne made a soft mewling noise deep in her throat and clung to him desperately. "Where would we go?" she asked in a soft voice. "We wouldn't have anything."
"I've left with nothing before," Arthur told her with a negligent shrug as he guided her down an empty hallway. "I can do it again. In fact, it'll be easier this time since I already have contacts in Europe and Asia. I might have to burn my contacts in the CIA to be sure they won't look for us." He kissed her forehead. "But all that's a moot point if they catch us."
Ariadne was shaking in his arms. "We need to get out of here fast, then."
He had a soft twist to his lips that was almost a smile. "I know the way out."
"You do?"
"I've memorized the map."
Ariadne laughed a little. "I have, too. Mazes are kind of my thing."
Hands linked, they made it out of the base without any difficulty.
***
Alice Riordan gasped awake, eyes flying open. She looked over at Tadashi, who was monitoring her vital signs. He took in her wild eyed appearance and frowned. "Should I get Joseph? I think he should be done with his debrief around now."
A small choking sound came out of her throat, and she started scratching at it desperately, the IV lines tearing out of her arm. Alarmed, Tadashi slammed his hand on the red code button. He fought with Alice to keep her hands away from her throat, though there already were large red welts over her delicate skin. She made guttural screams as she fought him, golden eyes large and wild. Joseph accompanied the guards that rushed in, and he took in her appearance. "Jesus!" he cried. "Did she say anything on waking?"
"Nothing," Tadashi told him, shaking his head. He still struggled with one of her arms while the two guards pinned her legs and other arm to the bed. He nodded in the general direction of the other sleeping figure on the nearby hospital bed. "That one's out."
"Readings?" Joseph asked in clipped tones as he moved to the medication cabinet.
"Stable and slow. Wherever he is, he's deep and he's out of our reach."
"And Alice?" he asked, taking a bottle of lorazepam to reconstitute.
"They looked fine, and then this happened."
Frowning, Joseph put down the lorazepam and moved to Alice's line of sight. "Hey!" he called, drawing her attention. Her eyes were wild and panicked, and she continued to make guttural sounds of fear. He held up his hands for her to see. "You're okay. You're okay. You're safe, I promise. You were hurting yourself, and we're trying to keep you safe." Alice let out another choked sound, and it sounded like she was wheezing. "Can you breathe?"
She shook her head and wheezed again as if trying to speak. Guttural sounds that might have been k's were all that came out.
"I'm going to get you something that should help the panic, okay? If we need to, I'll get the nebulizer to open up your airways." Joseph smiled when he saw the relief in her eyes. "I've got you, Alice. Okay?"
She nodded and watched as he set about reconstituting the lorazepam and prepping it for injection. "One milligram to start," he told her as he swabbed her deltoid muscle. "If you need more, I'm giving you the other one."
It kicked in quickly and she stopped trembling. The guards only released her when Tadashi did, and they remained nearby just in case. Alice waved at Joseph and the needle, so he injected the other milligram. He coached her breathing, and Tadashi indicated that the crisis was over and he didn't need the guards any longer.
"What happened?" Joseph asked her.
"There's another me in the dream. A whole other base, whole other world. That's why he won't wake up." Alice wheezed and grasped the side rail tightly. "He doesn't need to wake up. He doesn't want to wake up. There's a corrupted version of me down there, and she's keeping me out. She set fire to the base to kick me out."
Joseph blinked in surprise, mouth dropping open. "What?"
"Yeah," she rasped, concern and distress both in her expression. "I had to change my appearance after I got kicked out the first few times. I couldn't confuse him with two of me running around in there, not after the others went psychotic and committed suicide. I had to..." Alice gulped. "I watched her pretend to be me to try to sever their connection, and it was just... I couldn't let him fall in deeper, but I couldn't save him. It's just like the others…
"I remember," Joseph said encouragingly as Tadashi surreptitiously took notes. It was always best to get the first impressions, especially after a violent death. If the memories weren't retrieved as fresh as possible, they suffered the natural degradation of dreams. Even traumatic ones faded if given enough time.
"I managed to get into the other base's data files. The other me kept notes that look pretty similar to mine about Somnus' start," Alice rasped. She pulled on the rails to give her better leverage to sit up. Joseph helped her as Tadashi kept scribbling. "Multiple levels, drops within drops, trying to go between levels, tracking projection changes as they went. I think she was supposed to keep him on track in case he got lost in there. The notes were impeccable at first. But then they started getting incoherent and she was signing them 'Ariadne.' I think she was trying to sever their connection, but he just couldn't let go."
"So let me get this straight. She was helping you in the beginning?" Joseph asked.
"I managed to get in a few times to try to pull him up a few levels, but his connection to her kept dragging him down." Alice coughed and shook her head in grudging respect. "He loves her. Or she made him love her, I don't know. I tried to use that connection to bring him up further, something to anchor him to reality. He needed something real, some reason to come back." Alice coughed again and didn't quite manage to hide the guilty look on her face. "I didn't want to lose another dreamer, not after Annabelle killed those guards and then herself. I couldn't let that happen again."
"Of course," Joseph said soothingly as Tadashi scribbled.
"I think that's when she stopped helping me. I don't think Ariadne wanted me using emotions to manipulate him, not when he truly loved her. She's killed me a few times, as well as the other projections who threatened him."
"But he would have had to realize what was happening. Projections aren't real," Joseph said, turning to look at the other sleeping body in the room. His chest rose and fell evenly, tracings on the EEG showing no appreciable change.
Alice coughed and managed to swing her legs over the edge of the bed. "Whenever he started realizing he was dreaming, she upped the level of detail. It was amazing. I'd be more impressed if I wasn't fucking pissed. He lost reality testing."
Joseph stilled, frowning at Alice. "So he's lost, then?"
"Yes," she told him. She licked her lips and was surprised when they didn't feel dry and cracked from heat and smoke.
"Another one?" Tadashi couldn't help but blurt out.
"We need to shut it down. That's too many losses, and he had the strongest willpower and reality testing in the early evaluations."
"Sullivan's not going to like it..." Joseph said. Tadashi nodded as he scribbled, agreeing.
"We fried his brain, Joseph!" Alice cried. "This was meant to be a training exercise and research. We weren't supposed to trap him inside his own mind between levels."
"If we shut down the program, he definitely won't wake up," Tadashi told them quietly, putting aside his pen now that he was caught up transcribing Alice's comments. He didn't include her recommendation to shut down the program. "That would lock him into a coma until the body finally dies."
"He's not coming out on his own and I can't get to him. I can't even get close without something happening to wipe me out," Alice said, shaking her head. "Ariadne wins. She's got him trapped in the maze now."
"Like the others," Joseph murmured, crossing his arms over his chest sadly. He dropped his chin down as he thought. "It doesn't matter who goes in to get them. They all choose the dreamed up reality over this one. They don't care if that world isn't real."
"We can't do this to anyone else," Alice said, looking at the two men with an almost pleading expression. "We have to pull the plug and save the last few volunteers before they succumb, too. It won't be much longer until they question reality, too."
"Then we'll deal with the consequences," Joseph said after a moment. He looked up and nodded sharply in agreement. "We have to save the ones that are left."
"We can always try again in a little while," Tadashi said, reaching out to touch Alice's arm. "If it was me or Joseph, this Ariadne projection won't have as tight a hold. We'd be attacking it from a different angle."
"It didn't work for the two specialists," Alice murmured. "But then, their grasp on reality was weak to start with. Give it a few hours before you go in," she advised. "He'd be expecting another challenge right away."
They looked at the sleeping figure in the next bed. The rise and fall of his chest was steady, his eyes closed and unmoving. The EEG tracing remained the same.
Good luck, Arthur, wherever you are, Alice thought as she climbed down from the hospital bed. I hope you find what you need.
She was the last one out of the room, and she shut off the lights before closing the door.
The End