Title: Abandon All Hope, Ye Who Enter Here
Word Count: 4008
Pairings/Characters: Arthur/Eames, Ariadne, Cobb
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Violence, Language
Summery: Arthur refuses to populate the dreamscape, and Ariadne is determined to find out why. It's really not the greatest plan in the world. Written for a prompt on the kink meme.

"Alright," Cobb announced, "we're ready for a trial run now. Eames is the dreamer. Who wants to be the subject?"

"How about Arthur?" Ariadne piped in. "He's never the subject."

"Alright, let's get-"

"No!" Arthur cut Cobb off. "That is a bad idea. Cobb, you be the subject."

Cobb shrugged. "It's all the same to me. Let's go."

Ariadne shot Arthur a contemplative look, which Arthur pretended to ignore, before sitting back and plugging herself up to the PASIV.

"Afraid of what we might find, Arthur?" Eames teased as his eyes slid shut.

Arthur gave a snort before he fell into the dream.

The run went off with only a few hitches, putting everyone in a good mood for what was left of the day.

Twenty minutes before the end of the day, Arthur asked Eames to watch him while he fiddled around with a few things in the dreamscape. As soon as Arthur was under, Ariadne grabbed one of the other leads.

"Ariadne, just what do you think you're doing?" Eames caught her hand before she could slide the needle into her wrist.

"We need to find out why Arthur refuses to ever populate a dream. He could have a major psychological issue that he's hiding from us," Ariadne said seriously.

"I fail to see why we need to go creeping around Arthur's mind to find that out."

"He could compromise us on a job."

"Arthur is not Cobb, sweety, and he seems to have things under control by simply not populating the dreams. There isn't a problem."

"But there is potential for a problem."

"You can't invade a bloke's head on the potential for problem. If you're acting based on potential, you'd have to snoop around the head of everyone you ever worked with."

"And why shouldn't I do that?"

"Because it's a bloody invasion of privacy!"

"He's working in dreamshare, Eames, he's practically asking for it."

"Ariadne, that is a ridiculous idea. How would you feel if the rest of us went poking around in your head, turning up everything in your past?"

"That is not the same. I am not posing a threat."

"And neither is Arthur."

"Cobb, tell Eames that I am right; Arthur's behavior is strange and warrants further investigation."

"I'm not sure that that is strictly true..." Cobb trailed off under the weight of Ariadne's glare.

"It was better once I knew about your projection of Mal, wasn't it? This is the same kind of thing."

"Except for the part that Arthur doesn't have projections of dead people killing us in our dreams all the time!" Eames threw up his hands in exasperation.

"Well, I, I..." Cobb tried and failed to come up with an argument that wouldn't allow Ariadne to point to Mal again, but failed. "I guess so."

"Christ, Cobb, you are useless. You will never be able to win an argument again."

Cobb at least had the decency to look a little shamed.

"Here, Cobb," Ariadne held out a lead to Cobb. "Come under with me."

"Hold onto your horses there, missy, you seem to have overlooked the fact that I'm not letting anyone go under with Arthur just now." Eames crossed his arms over his chest.

"And how do you plan on stopping us?" Ariadne looked defiant.

"Sweetheart, did you really just ask me that?" Eames gave a grin that was all teeth. Ariadne seemed to catch on.

"If you don't let me under, I'll never go under with Arthur again."

"That's just fine. Architects rarely have any actual reason to go under."

"Then I'm never working with you again."

"That's fine. There are plenty of perfectly fine architects out there. We don't need inception every time, you know."

"I'll quit this job."

"Go ahead. The architecture is already finished, that's just more money for us."

"But it's not perfect."

"But Arthur is more than capable of perfecting it by himself, not to mention we still have Cobb."

"But-"

"But you have no leverage!" Eames crowed in triumph. "Now go back to your desk, Ariadne, and if you're lucky I won't mention this little incident to Arthur."

"Cobb!" Ariadne demanded, "Make him let us under!"

Cobb sighed at the floor before raising his eyes to Eames's.

"Eames, let us under, or I'll cut you from the job."

"Cobb," Eames laughed, "You need me to forge for this job, have you forgotten?"

"I can hire someone else."

"Sure, and you can waste weeks while they get enough observation in to forge properly, and after all that, they will be worse than me."

"I'm not on a time schedule, and, as you said yourself, we don't need inception every time."

"You fucker, you know I have debts."

"Yes, that was how we managed to snag you in the first place."

"Cobb, why are you doing this? This is Arthur your trying to screw with. You have every reason not to do this. Does Ariadne have some really potent blackmail?"

"No..." Cobb kicked at the floor again.

"Oh god, you're dating, aren't you. This is a disaster. Remind me not to work with you ever again."

"I'm hardly likely to do such a thing. Now are we going under or not?"

"Fine, but I'm coming with you. If you ever get out of my sight, you will regret it when we wake up."

"Great!" Ariadne melted into a smile, all traces of nosy, manipulative bitch once again hidden away. "We still have fifteen minutes under. Let's go."

They all plugged themselves in, falling into the same dreamscape from earlier, an open air market in a moderately sized city. Eames looked around interestedly at Arthur's projections, which he had never seen before. They all managed to look sharp and remarkably dangerous, despite doing mundane things like buying apples or trying on shoes. Cobb was the first to speak.

"Right, well everything looks normal. We can go, yeah?" Cobb looked distinctly uncomfortable with invading Arthur's head, as he bloody well should.

"No no. We've hardly seen anything! He wouldn't have a trauma right on the surface. We have to dig."

A couple of the projections began casting baleful glances their way, which was making Eames uncomfortable, and giving him an inkling of why Arthur didn't populate.

"I think this is the wrong sort of dream, Ariadne. Arthur isn't one who puts his secrets in an open air market." Eames frowned at a particularly inquisitive projection.

"Sure he would, we've just got to find the right place."

A few projections stopped and stared as Ariadne paused and admired a piece of silver jewelry in a stall.

"Things like this could tell us something, couldn't they?" She picked up the necklace and showed it to Cobb.

"Potentially." Cobb took the necklace and squinted at it.

"I doubt Arthur would be that obvious..." Eames looked around nervously at the small crowd of projections that had gathered to watch them. Or, Ariadne and Cobb, more like. They seemed to stare straight through Eames. Ariadne initiated a conversation with the jewelry vendor just as Eames spotted the first armed projection. "Um," he stated eloquently, "that guy has an RPG. We should move."

"What?" Cobb spun around in a dramatically obvious fashion. Eames would've been distressed by that (really, didn't Cobb know better by now?) if he was not busy working out an escape plan. The projection slung the RPG over his shoulder and took aim at the jewelry booth. Eames bodily threw Ariadne over his shoulder and took off running a few seconds before the booth exploded.

"What the fuck?" Ariadne shouted, elbowing Eames' back. "Put me down Eames!"

"Just a moment, dear," Eames kept running, projections on all sides pulling guns out.

"What is happening?" Cobb screeched from beside Eames. "We weren't doing anything! Why did they attack?"

"This could be why Arthur doesn't populate! He has a rather vicious subconscious."

"You don't say?"

They skidded into an alley ahead of the rush of projections that had taken up following them. Eames put Ariadne down and pulled out his own handgun. He frowned at it. "This isn't nearly big enough." He morphed it into an assault rifle. "Much better. Now, we need some kind of plan, because it only took," Eames consulted his watch, "five minutes for them to realize we didn't belong, and that time is only going to get shorter from here on out."

"I guess we could-" Cobb cut off.

"Oh god, I should've known." Arthur came walking down the alley, carrying a rifle. "I can't be down here for more then, what, five minutes topside, before I'm interrupted with a minor catastrophe? On the bright side, it looks like this alley was a good revision after all."

"Yes, I'd say it was," Cobb fidgeted. "There was a guy with a bazooka-"

"RPG," Eames corrected.

Arthur gave a dry laugh. "You'd be happy for him when the others catch you. He's only meant to scare you into a trap. The alley screwed them up, though, I only created it ten seconds before you stumbled into it."

"Much obliged, I'm sure, but can we get moving before they find us again?" Eames glanced over his shoulder as a shout rang out close to them.

"Come on, then. Watch our backs, Eames?" Arthur turned and began to trot away before Eames answered.

"Yeah, 'course. Go on, Ariadne, Cobb." Eames gave one last glance towards the entrance to the alley before jogging after Arthur.

They managed to get three blocks before they were ambushed by a flock of projections. Ten seconds into the fight, Eames realized that he was being ignored by the projections just as much as Arthur was. Arthur made his way to another alley and ordered everyone to run while he held off his own projections.

"Um, Arthur?" Eames said as Ariadne and Cobb took off.

"What, Eames?" Arthur was busily scanning the area, looking for more projections.

"Your projections are ignoring me."

"What?" Arthur looked up at Eames briefly before returning to scanning. "What do you mean, they're ignoring you?"

"Er, exactly that."

"That's- oh, shit." A scream came from somewhere down the alley, and Arthur took off running.

Eames trailed behind a bit slower, wondering as a very armed projection sprinted right past him. Eames shot it in the back of the head.

The same thing happened a few seconds later.

"Well, this is a strange experience," he mused as he stepped over the body.

He turned a corner, and there was Ariadne, sitting on the ground and cradling her hand, blood all over her shirt. Arthur and Cobb were busy fighting the projections.

"Ariadne, love," Eames crouched down next to her and set down his gun, "what's happened to you?"

"I got-" Ariadne gulped, biting back a scream, "-got shot in the hand."

"Let me see it, angel," Eames held out his hand, and Ariadne hesitantly put hers in it. She had a gaping hole torn through the middle of her hand, blood running down her arm. "Aie, that's ugly, hang on a moment," Eames dug into his pocket and pulled out a handful of bandages.

"You just... carry that around with you?" Ariadne asked, voice tight with pain.

"It's a dream, darling," Eames flashed her a smile. "This is going to hurt, now."

Ariadne bit the knuckles of her other hand, hard, as Eames wrapped up her wound.

"There. That's the best I can do for now, sorry."

"It's-it's fine," Ariadne scrubbed at her teary eyes.

"Do you think you could move now, Ariadne?" Arthur asked from where he was kneeling behind a pile of crates. The remaining projections all lay dead.

"Yes," Ariadne grit her teeth and stood up. If she was a bit shaky, no one was going to fault her for it.

"Let's go, then. They'll find us if we stay in one place." Arthur began to trot away, Cobb following close behind. Ariadne jogged doggedly after. Eames trailed behind again, keeping his eyes peeled for projections coming from behind.

Five projections came sprinting up behind them at the same time that Arthur encountered five in front of them. Eames tackled Ariadne from behind and laid on top of her to shield her from bullets while he shot at the projections.

"Eames, what the fuck are you doing?" Cobb yelled.

"It's fine, Cobb, I'm fine, watch yourself!" Eames shouted back as he blew off a projection's head.

"What-" Cobb cut off and returned his attention to the front when a bullet whipped by close enough to mess his hair.

"Eames- Eames, what?" Ariadne gasped from under Eames.

Eames pumped the last projection full of lead before answering. "Arthur's projections aren't attacking me for some reason."

"And so you just going to- to lay down in front of them and hope they keep that up?"

"I might as well make use of it while it lasts." Eames got to his hands and knees and looked over towards Arthur. "Are you clear over there, darling?"

"Yeah, yeah we're-" Arthur turned around. "What the fuck are you doing, Eames?"

"Covering Ariadne."

"What, but, how are you still here?"

"I told you, didn't I? Your projections aren't attacking me."

"But, you're just laying there and they're not dragging you off?"

"As you see."

"Arthur," Cobb crossed his arms and did his level best to look threatening. "Why is this happening?"

"Damned if I know." Arthur swiped at his nose with the back of his hand.

Eames grinned. "You're lying, pet."

"Fuck off, Eames," Arthur glared dangerously.

"Why does your subconscious do any of this?" Ariadne asked.

"We need to keep moving," Arthur jerked his head and trotted away.

"Stalling tactic!" Ariadne called, staying rooted to the spot.

"I'll tell you while we walk, just come on," Arthur tossed over his shoulder. The others trailed in his wake, Eames right beside Ariadne, who winced with every step that jarred her hand.

"Spill, Arthur," Cobb growled.

Arthur sighed. "As you have discovered, my subconscious hates intruders."

"That's news," Eames snorted.

"It's worse then you think."

"I don't know, I'm thinking it's pretty bad."

"Eames, shut up, or I won't tell you anything. Notice how Ariadne was shot in the hand. The projection was actually going for foot or ankle, but she tripped and fell right as he was shooting."

"What does this-"

"Eames!" Ariadne glared.

"This is important," Arthur continued, "because they are not looking to kill. They are looking to disable and retrieve."

"Wait, what?" Cobb interjected.

"They want to to bring you back for interrogation."

Eames laughed. "Why does that not surprise me at all?"

"But why do they want to interrogate?" Ariadne looked confused. "What is there to gain?"

"Well," Arthur screwed up his face and checked a corner before turning. "It's because I really don't trust anyone, and I want to see what they betrayed me for this time."

"But we haven't betrayed you!" Ariadne exclaimed indignantly.

"Er..." Arthur trailed off uncomfortably.

"How have I betrayed you? I have never betrayed you!"

"What do you call this?"

"Call what?"

"Right now, why are you in my head?"

"Because I wanted to see why you refused to let anyone inside it before."

"And in does not occur to you that this is a breach of trust?"

"I- oh. But your subconscious didn't know I was going to do that."

"But I guessed you would. You did the same to Cobb, didn't you? No reason you wouldn't do it to me. And I was right, wasn't I?"

Ariadne bit her lip and looked a bit shamefaced. "What about Cobb, then?"

"Do you even have to ask?" Arthur raised an eyebrow.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Cobb snapped.

"Look at the shit you pulled on all of us during inception, Cobb."

"But I-"

"Cobb, no, there was no reason for that. Don't even try to justify yourself."

Cobb frowned hard, but he kept his mouth shut.

"But Eames came into your head just like I did." Ariadne looked truly puzzled.

"Yes, that's true," a smile tugged at Arthur's mouth. "What is your excuse, Mr. Eames?"

"Cobb said he would fire me," Eames pouted.

"Ah, yes, and you have the debts." Arthur was still smiling minutely.

"Shouldn't you not trust Eames if he has debts? I mean, Cobb got him to come into your head just by threatening to fire him." Ariadne frowned.

"Eames is only paying his debts because he wants to be able to use the alter egos that they are tied to. He could slip them if he really had a reason to."

"Could you really?" Ariadne looked wonderingly at Eames.

"Oh ye of little faith!" Eames smirked. "Yes, I could, but it would be one hell of a pain in the arse. Arthur's own lovely arse would have to find itself in grave danger before I did so."

"Eames, please," Cobb growled.

Eames opened his mouth to reply, but he swung his gun to his shoulder and shot a projection off of a roof before he got anything out. "They're on to us," he stated grimly.

"Hurry, we might be able to out run them yet," Arthur picked up a sprint, and the others followed suit.

More projections began appearing on the surrounding rooftops, and Arthur, Cobb, and Eames gunned them down as best as they were able while running.

Eames happened to glance behind himself just in time to see a projection with a very explosive weapon taking aim at Ariadne. Eames grabbed her and threw her as far as he could just in time to be caught in the explosion. He lost consciousness for a few seconds. He came to face down on the pavement, Arthur trying desperately to get back to him.

"Ar-," he tried, voice coming out as no more then a whisper. He tried several more times before working up a shout. "Arthur!" Arthur's eyes snapped to Eames'. "Arthur, I'll be fine! Look out for Ariadne and Cobb!"

"You will not be fine!" Arthur screamed back. "You don't know what they'll do to you!"

"I do know that I'll take it better then Ariadne! Go, Arthur! I'll be fine!" Another explosion rocked the road, and Ariadne screamed. Arthur shot Eames one last pained glance, then scrambled after Ariadne and Cobb.

Eames' head was still spinning, his ears were still ringing, and apparently his body was still in shock, because he didn't hurt yet. He could feel blood sliding down his back and legs, though, so he knew it was only a matter of time.

A projection knelt next to him and put a hand on his shoulder; Eames flinched violently away, not having heard him approach thanks to said ringing in ears.

"Hey, hey, it's ok, it's ok. We're here to help you," The projection assured him.

"Oh... sure..." Eames glanced behind him and saw two other projections with a stretcher.

"Here, get him on," the first projection directed the other two. They approached and eased Eames onto the stretcher. Eames' body decided to come out of shock at this point, and Eames yelped in pain.

"Shh, shh, don't worry, we'll get you some morphine as soon as we get back." The projection ran his fingers through Eames' hair. Eames shut his eyes and concentrated on breathing while the projections carried him swiftly away, the sounds of the gunfight fading into the distance.

They entered an unassuming building soon enough.

"Sir, we've retrieved Eames." The first projection saluted.

"Good job, Benny." a projection in a black uniform returned the salute before approaching Eames.

"What shall we do with him, Sir?" Benny asked.

"Take him to the med bay, of course," the projection in charge raised an elegant eyebrow in one of Arthur's 'are you an idiot' expressions.

"Right away, Sir."

The projection in charge followed after the projections who carried Eames until they set him down on a bed in what seemed to be a small IC unit. A nurse gave Eames a cursory examination, and the black-suited projection dismissed the others.

"Oh, Benny," he called as Benny was walking out the door.

"Yes Sir?"

"Tell Wilson to lay off the explosives. That would've torn the little bitch in half if it had hit her."

"Yes Sir." Benny walked out.

"Sir," the nurse drew his attention as she slid an IV into Eames' arm, "should I give Eames some morphine now, or do you want to talk to him first?"

"Give us a few moments, Lila, will you?"

"Yes Sir," Lila walked away.

"What were you thinking, Eames?" He carded his fingers through Eames' hair. "Jumping in front of an explosive like that. You're a moron." He sighed. "Just look at the state you're in," he ran his fingers down Eames' lacerated back. Eames whimpered, to weak from pain and blood-loss to do more than flinch away. "Ah, well," the projection continued, "I've got you now. I'll keep you safe." the projection set his hand back on Eames' head, them bent down and kissed him on the mouth.

Eames gave a surprised "mmph," but the projection was standing again before Eames had time for anything else.

"Alright, Lila," he called, "we're ready for the morphine."

"Yes, Sir." Lila returned and drugged Eames.

"You sleep tight now, Eames," the commander patted Eames' mostly unwounded shoulder and kissed his temple. "I'll be here when you wake up."

Eames managed only a puzzled look before the morphine dragged him under.

When Eames woke again, it was with the expiration of the timer on the PASIV. He blinked stupidly up at the ceiling, the effects of the dream morphine chasing him into reality. Arthur was standing over him in an instant, gently pulling out his needle.

"Eames, are you all right? What did they do to you?"

"Oh, I'm good, I'm good. It's just, just ... phantom morphine."

"Phantom morphine?"

"I dunno what to call it. Dun' worry, they were good to me." Eames sat up and winced while the room spun.

"Are you sure you're ok?" Ariadne looked at him worriedly.

"'M good. Jus' gimme a minnit t' forget 'm s'posed t' 'ave a concussion 'n' lacerations all over my back. 'Ll be fine."

"O-oh." Ariadne looked a bit queasy at that.

"'Ey, I took an, an... exploding... thing for you, ya know. Ya can't laugh 't me."

"I- but- I wasn't laughing..." Ariadne just looked confused now.

"Come here, Eames," Arthur pulled him to his feet, where he swayed a tad before balancing.

"Oh, how did you lot do after I went down?"

"Fine. Cobb got shot in the shoulder, and Ariadne took another bullet to the foot, but we lasted until the timer."

"Tha's good." Eames' eyes wandered around the room before fixing themselves on Arthur's. "Oh! Your commander kissed me."

"Pardon?" Arthur's forehead wrinkled.

"He kissed me. Your projection. The general person. They all called 'im Sir. He wore black, yeah?"

"I don't know, I didn't see him."

"Hmm. Well, 'e did. Was. Yeah. He kissed me."

"Did he?"

"Yeah," Eames tried to take a step forwards, but the floor spun sideways, and he toppled into Arthur's chest instead. "The floor is moving," he announced.

"Is it?" Arthur raised an eyebrow coolly, while Ariadne tried and failed to stifle her laughter in her hand. Cobb was frowning at Eames, not sure he was happy with what was happening between his forger and his point man.

"We should get you to a bed, Eames," Arthur hauled Eames' arm over his shoulders.

"Oh, yeah?" Eames grinned lecherously. "Beds are useful."

"Eames, you're traumatizing Cobb." Arthur rolled his eyes.

"I am?" Eames swung around to look at Cobb, nearly sending both he and Arthur to the ground. "I am," he grinned as he saw the look on Cobb's face.

"Yes, and you should stop before he cuts you from the job." Arthur urged Eames forwards again.

"But he can't do that! I have debts, you know."

"Yes, Eames," Arthur grinned, "I know."