Dream on...

Two years after the Fischer Inception. The Team re-unites to face a darker force then COBAL. The 4th in my series after "Dream", "Bliss, and "Dream a Little Bigger Darling." LOTS of A&A. I thought it would be best to reintroduce some characters and the other names I use for them.

Cobb- The Extractor

Arthur- The Point Man

Ariadne- The Architect

Eames- The Forger

Saito- The Business Man

Yori- The Doctor

Sybil- The Control, The Teenage Girl

Hecate- The Chemist

Braker- The Australian Extractor

James & Phillipa- The Children

Shin- Saito & Yori's son

Yuseff- The Chemist

Hagion- The Sanctuary

Thailand

The Architect was looking over exotic fruit in the beautiful anarchy that was the local market. One of the best parts of traveling the world was being in places just like this. She snapped some pictures of the colorful produce. The smiling old vendors nodded their approval at the pretty American girl. She strolled happily though the maze of market goers and stands. It suddenly came on her that this market, would make an excellent maze for dream extraction.

"Still have the bug huh?" Arthur asked that evening. They were fixing dinner together and she had told him of the mass confusion of the market. How when they decided to work in dream extraction again, that she intended to use the market.

"So do you." She accused chopping onions. He laughed.

"Course I do." He admitted. "I never did dream extraction for any other reason then the thrill of it." He shrugged and looked at her slyly. "Also for the women." She playfully slapped his hands away from advancing on her and tried not to blush. Arthur had shared her home on "The Minotaur" for a year now. They had started their journey from Greece and sailed to Australia to see Braker and his Team. All of them were making remarkable strides in coming back from the mind manipulation of the PASIV-4.

Looking at the Architect and Point Man now, they were remarkably different from their first meeting in Paris 2 years ago. They were both tan and less careful with there looks. Ariadne had grown her hair out and had taken to dressing even more bohemian. Arthur had gotten tired to trying to maintain his usual style. It was to difficult to make port for such things as a hair cut and he refused his lover's suggestion of letting it grow out. So he had allowed her give him a very close cropped hair cut that he found much more freeing. He had given up his habit of careful suits in favor anything casual. The couple had learned to adapt to the colorful countries they had visited. They were never tourists, they never stood out, they were just stopping by. Arthur left his Lady to finish coking their simple meal and checked his email.

"We got an email from Saito." He told her. She nodded.

"I can't believe we'll be in Japan next month for Saito and Yori's ceremony." She said with a smile. "Get to see Cobb, and the Kids. Eames." She said with a laugh. "I hope Sybil can make it. You know how teenagers are. She's already 15 now." Ariadne shook her head. "Cobb sent us those pictures of the kids last week, I can't believe how big they are." She sighed "And little Shin, Yori sent us pictures last week. He looks just like his mother."

"Ariadne." Arthur said coldly. She turned and looked the Point Man. He was hunched over the much used laptop, he tore his eyes away form the screen. "Yuseffs dead." He said softly.

Tokyo

The Forger and the Teenage Girl sat in a hole in the wall sushi hut. It was pouring down rain and the city still hummed along, despite the wet.

"Nothing like sushi in Japan." Sybil said woofing down her selection.

"Thought you didn't like Japanese cuisine." Eames said with a laugh.

"That was along time ago." She said shocked.

"It was only a year ago, Little One." He corrected. She shrugged. Eames looked the same as always. He had put on a few pounds from the comfortable life he lead in Amsterdam. He shared the city in the Netherlands with Sybil. She lived with her Mother's old friend Hagion. The Teenage Girl was now much taller and had taken on the lovely proportions of a young woman. Her style however, was just as bold as ever. She was still blond, but with bolts of pink running down her tresses. Despite always wanting to remain a shade in the minds of people around her, she always stood out. Being a shade was still important. The Team still had to remain below radar. COBAL was no longer the force it had been a year ago, but they were still out there. The Team had to blend in.

"So when did they say they were gonna get here?" Sybil asked looking around the empty restaurant.

"There on a sail boat, Darling." Eames said. His gaze never left the wall of rain that hid the city from him. He couldn't help but think that the rain hid everything. In a good way. Suddenly he saw two figures coming out of the shadow of the storm. Man and woman. Eames smiled as they approached the restaurant and the man held the door open for his companion.

Ariadne and Arthur looked wonderful. They booth looked healthy and happy. Arthur shook out the two umbrella's and nodded at the Forger.

"Good to see you." Eames said standing up and giving Ariadne a quick hug. He was surprised when Arthur embraced him as well. "My God you two look amazing." Eames said looking them over. "The love boat agrees with you then?" The couple laughed and turned their attention to Sybil. After quick hugs and exclamations over how much she had changed, how good everyone looked, Things became more serious.

"Cobb will be down in a few hours." Sybil said. "He had to arrange for James and Phillipa to be taken care of."

"Why didn't he just bring them to Japan?" Ariadne asked. The Teenage Girl shrugged.

"I'm sure he has his reasons." Eames said.

"Tell us what happened to Yuseff." Arthur said. His voice had returned to the stoniness he had not used in so many months.

"He was in London." Eames began "Running his little 'Dreamers Den', he was found last month in a warehouse, He had been shot in the head. His employees said he had been missing for 6 weeks. Forensics said he had only been dead a few hours before his body was found. There was also evidence of torture." The Forger finished looking uncomfortable.

"It was to precise to be COBAL." Sybil said nonchalantly. "He was taken quickly and quietly. No ransom demands, no evidence, nothing. We still don't know where he was being kept." She shrugged as if the Chemist's death was nothing to her. "COBAL never dose anything that cleanly."

Arthur nodded remembering Ariadne's apartment in Paris after COBAL grabbed her. He looked at Ariadne then and saw she was lost in thought. The gravity of what was happening was hitting her very hard.

"What say we all head home?" Eames said, his voice suddenly bright. "Saito has kept the old place up. He and Yori are going to bring the baby by later." Ariadne's face brightened at this. She smiled at Arthur and nodded.

A quick stop in the market and the group of four were back in Ariadne's old apartment. It was true Saito had kept it up. It was as if they never left. There was not even a musty smell. It felt like they had only been gone 15 minutes instead of 15 months. Eames immediately went to the T.V. And started watching his games shows. Sybil put her travel bag in the guest room that had been hers, and stayed there with the door closed. Arthur and his lady quickly unpacked in the room they would share before starting dinner. It had become their habit on ship to cook together, eat together, and clean up together. The confines of the ship made it hard to do things separately. It felt suddenly that the apartment was to big. They had more space then was needed.

"I bet it will be nice to sleep on dry land for a change." Eames said during a commercial break.

"Yeah." Ariadne said, "It will. I'll be glad to use my dark room again." She added cutting up vegetables. "I can't count how many rolls of film I have from India and Tibet. I haven't even touched them."

There was a soft knock on the door and Arthur let Saito and Yori in. Yori held a small baby in her arms swaddled in a home made blanket. (A present from Ariadne) The Architect gasped when she saw them. In a sacred bond known only to women, Yori and Ariadne exclaimed over the baby. Saito beamed with the pride of new Fatherhood. The Doctor handed her son over to the Architect who couldn't decide if she wanted to laugh or cry over the new life. She found herself doing both.
"He's so warm." She said softly holding Shin and laughing.

"Watch yourself, Mate." Eames said to Arthur quietly. "I see the start of being baby crazy." The Point Man cast the Forger a filthy look.

"Cobb's flight came in an hour ago. We picked him up." Saito said. He looked nervous. "He is downstairs with his new Chemist." He finished.

The group was silent at this.

"New Chemist?" Arthur repeated. Saito nodded.

"She came from America with him." Yori added. The group didn't have time to ask anything more of him because Cobb made his entrance. Behind him was his new Chemist.

She was tall, lean, exotic and very stunning. She had to be in her late 30s and looked very self poised. The kind of woman who took care of herself and had a very simple but elegant style.

"Hi guys." Cobb said. He seemed shy. "I'm glad to see everyone again." The Team all looked at the woman. Cobb held out his arm and she stepped to his side.

"This is Hecate*." He said introducing her. "She and I have been working on extractions for a few months now." the Team said nothing and only exchanged nervous glaces. It was a relief when Sybil broke the tension by noisily coming out of her room. She stopped when she saw the visitors. Her eyes widened. She help out a hand and pointed it at Hecate.

"She works for COBAL." The Girl said plainly.

* Hecate - death and vengeance goddess, originally from Babylonian myth, but depending on the source, carried over to Greek.