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Disclaimer: I own neither the song Speeding Cars, nor the work of Inception.

Speeding Cars

Chapter 22: Glistening in the Cold Sweat of Guilt

Arthur wheeled around in his spin chair and turned to face Ariadne. Arthur, Ariadne and Eames were back in the wear house, going over ideas and modifying ways to build a defense within Ariadne's mind. Arthur was beyond stressed out.

Two days ago Arthur received a rather threatening phone call from his employer, Saito, who was becoming less and less patient. Arthur had swallowed hard, knowing well that this was his fault entirely. He was so distracted with Ariadne, and diving deeper into her persona that he barely remembered that this was a job. Sure, he had thought of countless ideas, but nothing of true substance.

Saito accepted no excuses, nor did he feel obliged to be apologetic for sending his personal minion after the pair of dreamers. And so, it boiled down to Arthur's supposed incompetence for the job. Arthur attempted to assure Saito that his work was fully detailed, and was in great progress. In other words, Arthur presented Saito with a half- lie. Yes, Arthur worked in great detail, building a manual for Saito to use on others by leading through example, while including the history of dream construction for further information. However, the work lagged simply because Arthur indulged himself in who he found to be the most intriguing and complex woman he had ever met.

Saito didn't care, and gave Arthur two weeks to get the job done.

It was preposterous, and made for a stressed Arthur. In two weeks he had to work Ariadne's mind to its full potential in order to meet Saito's deadline…he didn't want to think what Saito would do if he did not meet it. The three of them would be on the run, and it would all be Arthur's fault.

Arthur gulped nervously.

"So, as you know we need a protective service that goes at least two layers deep into your mind. We can either use two different tactics, or one universal one. The benefits of a universal one is that a third layer- if someone managed to intercept their way through your subconscious so far- would automatically hold that defense. Like Fischer, he had a militarized based defense from start to finish." Arthur explained to Ariadne who nodded in understanding before Eames cut in.

"Because you have some experience in the field, we believe that you would be able to tell that you're dreaming before a third layer is pushed upon you. Statistically speaking, no one would be able to make it past your second layer even without a defense simply because of you knowledge of extraction." Eames said. He looked as rugged as ever and seemed to have a permanent hang over that would slowly ebb away during the day, only to return in full the next morning.

"How can you say that I have so much experience? I did one job, and I was only the architect." Ariadne argued against them, she was undoubtedly nervous beyond belief. All of this was hitting her hard, like a boxers glove smacking against her cheek making her head spin all the way around. "And Arthur, didn't you say you needed to revisit some of my subconscious?"

Ariadne noticed the appalled look that Eames gave Arthur. It was one of shock, but mostly anger. She attempted to decipher what hidden message was in Eames' look because the moment Arthur saw it his expression turned to one filled with guilt and shame. However, it was all gone before Ariadne could blink twice.

"You are an experienced dreamer, not many people can say they witnessed and undertook an entire inception case. Plus, you made it out of limbo alive," Ariadne suppressed a shiver when Arthur mentioned 'limbo.' "And I will, but I feel confident that we can start your training now. In two weeks Saito wants to come personally and pick up my documents, and I have no doubt that he will want a full demonstration."

Ariadne nodded. "So, what are we thinking for my first layer?"

"Because of your knowledge, not only as a dreamer, but also as an architect we imagine you being able to alter the realities of your dream automatically." Eames began to explain. "Your first layer, we hope, can act like a Rubik's cube of sorts. Being able to take whatever maze has been implanted into your mind, and alter it without the immediate need of your projections." Ariadne looked wide- eyed at Eames.

"So, you want my projections to sense it's a foreign dream, and then alter the reality of it?" She questioned in an exasperated tone of voice.

"What is reality when you're in a dream darling?" Eames challenged her cheekily and Ariadne clenched her jaw. "Think of a Rubik's cube. What is the objective?"

"To get all the sides to match up by twisting the rows." Ariadne answered him like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Exactly," Arthur replied. "Now a maze is just a confused bunch of rows. We want you to be able to manipulate the maze, and make it so it matches what you wish it to be. Change it, alter where it leads, give it dead ends, and winding staircases to nowhere. Twist and turn each alleyway to your hearts content. This will also alert any projections to the high changing and level of instability in your dream. This will make your extractors confused and waste their time. They won't have a plan, because this would be a defense that they can't avoid."

"So, you want me to become the architect, even when I'm not?" Ariadne asked again, attempting to wrap her mind over this complex though. She was doubtful. She was doubtful that she would not be able to perform as the boys wished she could. It made her feel like an automatic failure of sorts, and she hated the feeling.

Arthur nodded excitedly at her. "Exactly," he said. "That's exactly what we want you to do! Want to give it a try?" He asked her.

Ariadne hesitantly nodded after a few moments and Arthur began hooking the three of them up to the dream-inducing machine.

"You look nervous," Arthur muttered quietly to Ariadne while inserting the syringe into her arm. "We don't have to do this today if you don't feel ready Ari."

"No, no. I'm fine. I trust that you know what you're doing. It's just nerve wrecking but I'm sure I'll be fine. You're coming with me right?" She questioned him. She ignored Eames' snort, but noticed how it made Arthur glare at the floor furiously. Arthur simply nodded and left to situate himself in his chair.

"I gave us fifteen minutes, let's see what we can do."

And as Arthur pressed the rubber button on the middle of the machine, the three dreamers were dropped into a world of the imaginable and the unknown.

Ariadne opened her eyes in a library. The high ceilings seemed ancient and detailed. Carvings out of stone with detailed gold leafing made her feel like she was studying in her Paris based university. She saw books with French titles lining the shelves and wandering students who weaved between the desks and bookshelves. Ariadne smiled slightly to herself, she was not the dreamer in this case, but she reckoned that Eames was. He always did think of her being quite the book nerd.

Walking out of the library building, she spotted Eames and Arthur in a near by stone courtyard, standing patiently for her. As she walked up to them, she noticed that Eames' jaw line looked hard, like he was clenching his teeth madly at Arthur who avoided his gaze.

She cleared her throat quietly, pretending to admire the courtyard. It was obvious that this place was slightly thrown together. She knew it was some one else's dream simply for the lack of detail. The angel engravings on the stone pillars had no faces and no hair. There was no vine twisting its way across the pavement, and the stone squares all seemed to be in perfect condition. Not one single crack lay beneath their feet. The dream gave a small tremble.

"That shows you know it's already a dream. Come on, let's walk around a bit." Arthur said, leading her out of the courtyard and into a city center. She saw the bustling cars and buses zooming past her on the street. She saw the crowds of people walking along the sidewalk, or stopping to enjoy the river scenery.

"Eames is somewhere else in the dream," Arthur suddenly said. "He is going to observe what he feels happening, he is the one that designed this, so it should be interesting assuming this works."

"How am I supposed to change a maze when I don't know what it looks like?" Ariadne asked Arthur.

"Well, you don't know the details of it, but you know that there's edges of some sort, start by altering those and the move your way towards the center." Before Arthur could finish his thought, he felt a jolt. Something to the effect of an earthquake startled him and he saw corners of the city rising up and crashing down like waves of water crashing along the sea. He looked over at the brunette beside him and saw her eye brows knitted together in focus making small wrinkles appear on her forehead. The walls of the courtyard began to change and suddenly, one wall was completely gone and the others were sealed shut. Another corner of the maze folded up and rested there as if it were on hinges. He saw buildings disappearing, and alleyways becoming major roads, and roads becoming dead-ends as pathways. It was truly amazing.

Arthur opened his eyes to find himself back in the wear house. He heard a gasp from his right and saw Ariadne awake and panting slightly. Arthur rushed over to her, grabbing the garbage bin by his desk along the way.

"This is completely normal. Sometimes there are side effects to these defenses. You are going to feel very tired for a few hours, and sick to your stomach. Headaches are rare, but not unheard of in this case. It'll mostly just be fatigue." He said quickly while sitting next to her, trying to act as calm as possible. Ariadne continued to breath deeply, her face paled just as she upchucked into the bin.

After a few moments, Arthur put the bin aside and pushed Ariadne down on the couch. "Rest for a few hours, then we'll talk about technique. You'll feel better if you sleep," Arthur said in a quiet voice, Ariadne simply nodded.

Arthur turned around to leave Ariadne resting on the worn couch before he felt her catch his hand. "How'd I do?" She asked.

"Bloody brilliant I'd say; bloody well had me running around with your damn projections." Eames said from the side, he looked worn himself, his usual swagger was gone and instead was a tired looking man. "You've always been quick to pick up on this nonsense."

Ariadne smiled, dropped Arthurs hand and within a few minutes she fell asleep. She had no idea what was in store for her when she woke up, but in the mean time she intended to fully enjoy her nap. Heck, maybe she would even have a dream of her own.