[Inception] Rebirth Through Refusal
prequel. this was actually two or three tidbits that refused to be properly sewn together into a real fic.
warnings: pre-movie (slightly AU?). taking liberties with character backstory. two fairly blatant crossovers. language: pg (for bastard).
pairing: none/gen (well, implied Ivan/Victoria).
timeline: starts a long time pre-movie. Eames is about five-ish at the beginning.
disclaimer: Chris Nolan owns Inception and its characters.
notes: 1) the word little Nicholas is looking for is protege. 2) how do you become the world's greatest forger? learn to lie from the world's foremost expert on lying. 3) i'm using the actors' real ages as a frame of reference here. Lightman's probably in his late twenties here, and probably had a raging crush on Victoria at some point (because i can't imagine she'd give in to his womanizing ways). 4) "getting on" in this case means "doing all right." 5) Eton is a prestigious boys' secondary school in Windsor (near London). 6) by "the Minister," Victoria probably means the British Minister of Intelligence. 7) "holidays" = "vacation." 8) "tut" is a curious and wonderful little interjection rarely used in American English; it expresses (in this case) disdain. 9) to the best of my knowledge (i'm admittedly a bit behind on my Lie to Me), Emily has never actually been held hostage in this way.
Rebirth Through Refusal
Nicholas Winslow has decided he Does Not Like London. They’ve only been in the city for two days, and he hates nearly everything about it. It’s cold, it’s gloomy, the air is disgusting, the food is absurd, the people dress funny…
“I want to go back to Cairo,” he tells his mother, just as he did when they arrived the day before. Today, Uncle Cal is with them, and Nicholas hopes that Uncle Cal will agree that Nicholas should be kept someplace warm and comparatively clean. (Uncle Cal is not actually Nicholas’ Uncle, not really, just one of his mother’s closer colleagues; like an apprentice, but there’s a better word for it that Nicholas can’t remember just now.)
Disappointingly, Uncle Cal raises his eyebrows and keeps quiet.
“We are not going back to Cairo,” Nicholas’ mother says firmly. “Mummy’s arranged to get you a stepfather so you can stay here.”
He puffs out his cheeks. “I don’t want a stepfather.”
“Well, you must have one all the same.”
“But why?” he whines. “Why must I have a stepfather?”
Sighing, she purses her lips and looks at him. “Because, darling, Mummy can’t keep dragging you around the world. It’s high time you got to school, and you’ll have to stay in one place for that, so you’ll need a stepfather to look after you.”
“You said Uncle Cal was planning to settle down in London,” Nicholas argues. “Why can’t he be my stepfather?”
Uncle Cal laughs. “Out the mouths of babes, my dear.”
“Because Uncle Cal is an impertinent scoundrel, and far too young besides,” Nicholas’ mother says ruthlessly. “I fear he’s already had a dreadful influence over you.”
“He is one of the best little liars I’ve ever met,” Uncle Cal admits.
Nicholas’ mother gives Uncle Cal a sharp look. “One day, Cal, I hope you have a child of your own so that you can see what an unfortunate impact you have on the upbringing process.”
Uncle Cal just grins cheekily.
Nicholas’ mother snorts and turns back to Nicholas. “Mister Wright will manage your accounts, and Uncle Cal shall pop in from time to time to make sure you’re getting on. It won’t be so bad, love-once you’re old enough for Eton, you’ll hardly ever see the man.”
“It’s not the stepfather, it’s London,” Nicholas announces, and folds his arms over his chest in a deep sulk. “It’s cold and wet and dirty and the food is yuk and I don’t like it.”
“Don’t be silly, London’s marvellous,” says Uncle Cal. “Hey-Sherlock Holmes loved it so much he hardly ever left. Knew the place back-to-front.”
Nicholas is slightly sceptical of the validity of this argument. Sherlock Holmes was a drug addict, after all, and fictional; his opinion, while educated, can still be considered quite unreasonable.
“Look, precious,” sighs Nicholas’ mother. “You’re stuck with it. The only way to have less of your stepfather and London in your life is to spend a rather distressing amount of time around religion, I’m afraid.”
“Why can’t I go and live with my real father?” Nicholas wants to know.
His mother’s face goes quite expressionless. “Because I shot your real father. Three times. In the chest.” She gives a businesslike little sniff. “And you wouldn’t like it where he’s from; it’s much colder there.”
“Where’s that?”
“Russia,” Uncle Cal answers. He’s looking at Nicholas’ mother with a queer sort of watchful smile, like he’s searching for something. Nicholas isn’t worried; he knows Uncle Cal wouldn’t hurt his mother.
“Oh,” Nicholas says. “Well, when I’m done with school, then can we go back to Africa?”
“Much sooner than that, my duckling,” his mother assures him, and rubs his back. “I shall make sure that the Minister lets us go on our holidays every year, nice and proper. And then we can go to Cairo, or Nairobi, or Cape Town, or wherever you like. I hear Southeast Asia is nice, except during monsoon season.”
“All right,” Nicholas concedes, mollified.
“You’ll like school, too,” Uncle Cal tells him with a nudge at his shoulder. “Just pay attention to what other kids seem to like and find a way to pretend that you like that stuff, too. Won’t do to get perfect marks, either. Find something to pretend you’re quite bad at. Then you’ll be popular in no time, and you can get away with anything you like.”
“You are horrible, Cal,” Nicholas’ mother says. “I hope you have a daughter, and I hope someone tells her how to be a smouldering temptress.”
“Tut, Vicky.”
In fifteen years, when Uncle Cal has retired and gone to work in America, Nicholas will find that he’s unwittingly followed in his mother’s footsteps. Then the Minister of Intelligence will ask him in person to find and kill a ‘rogue agent.’ Only years of practice with masks will let him hide his shock at seeing his mother’s photograph.
There will be no use in asking ‘what’s she done,’ because the phrase ‘rogue agent’ says it all. He doesn’t believe for a moment that she would betray Queen and Country. Perhaps she was given an order she refused follow, or perhaps she was simply tired of the kind of work they do. The academic side is one thing, but the killing side…they don’t let you out of that easily. The Minister will say that he doesn’t expect even Nicholas will be able to find her, talented and promising as he is-they’re just putting all their best men on watch, that’s all.
Nicholas won’t bother to look for her.
And six years after that, when he’s tracked down a bastard of a Serbian to Washington, D.C., he’ll get the order to wait. Wait, even though the man has schoolchildren for hostages. One of those little children will be a girl called Emily. It will be the order Nicholas refuses to follow. He’ll slip in, kill the target and every last one of his men, and carry little Emily to her father.
Uncle Cal will nod gratefully.
Nicholas Wright will vanish somewhere over the Atlantic, and Sean Eames will step off a plane in France, nervous and paranoid and inches from shooting anyone who looks at him too long.
.End.
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