Inception-bang Round 3: A Little Less Sixteen Candles (13/14)
Title: A Little Less Sixteen Candles
Author: osaki_nana_707
Artist: heavenly_rain
Type: slash, boarding school/secret agent AU
Word Count: ~57,500
Rating: R
Characters/Pairings: ArthurxEames, appearances by pretty much all of the Inception characters except Saito (though he is mentioned)
Warnings violence, language, mild dub-con, simulated!underage, character death
Summary: Arthur, covert agent, has his cover blown during a job hunting down an underground criminal ring. With a price on his head, Arthur's boss has no choice but to hide Arthur away under a new identity... which just happens to be that of a teenage boy at a boarding school. Now he's forced to play the part of a sixteen year old and deal with classes, a roommate, and bullies-- not to mention the fact that he still doesn't know how his picture ended up in the hands of his enemies. It isn't all bad though. At least he has an extremely attractive teacher named Eames.
Link to fic master post: Here
Link to art master post: Here
Chapter 13
Arthur lifted the door on the tunnel to find himself underneath a desk in Eames's office. "Well, I guess this explains how you know about the tunnel," Arthur said as he had Eames pull him out, keeping his head low so as not to bang it on the desk.
"I'd be lying if I didn't say I hid in there on occasion to avoid talking to some of my superiors," Eames admitted as he shut the lid. "Mal was the one to inform me about it, however. This used to be her office."
Arthur brushed dust and dirt off of his clothes and inhaled the fresh air. "You know, you might actually be a little bit insane."
Eames shrugged. "So, what do we do now?"
Arthur was already fishing one of his listening devices out of his bag, handing one to Eames. "You can communicate with me with this. It's subtler than a cell phone and isn't quite so traceable either. What I need you to do is keep watch for suspicious activity. I need you to tell me if you see someone you've never seen before."
"What are you going to do in the meantime?"
"I'm going to see if Cobb's on the premises. Maybe Nash is too. If the cops and security aren't even letting Fischer on and off campus, he's going to have to be playing this pretty damned close to the chest. This building was renovated and added on to- I noticed that the first day I was here. Maybe there's some secret rooms that only Fischer knows about where he's conducting his illicit activities."
"That might be a bit of a long shot."
"In my line of work, you find that long shots are usually the ones that hit their mark," Arthur said, "metaphorically, of course."
"You'll be all right with one arm out of commission?"
"I'll manage."
Eames didn't look too pleased with that answer.
Arthur sighed, scrubbing his hand over his face. "I'm not immobile. I'll be fine. I do this for a living. Stop seeing me as your weak, harmless student and you won't be so worried."
"I stopped seeing you as a student the moment you told me the truth, and I never saw you as weak or harmless," Eames replied. "I'm not stopping you, but you can't keep me from being concerned." He reached out and tugged Arthur closer, hand settling on the back of his neck. "You call me if you find them and tell me your whereabouts. I'll come to assist you. I know I'm not an agent like you, but I'm the best you've got right now, and I damn sure am not letting you go it alone. You're not alone anymore, Arthur."
Arthur just took a moment to look back into Eames's gaze, feeling the honesty of that statement radiating off of him and letting it warm him. "I know," Arthur said.
It seemed like an opportunity for a kiss, but Arthur avoided it for now, knowing he had to get some business taken care of. They parted and Arthur slipped off down one hall while Eames headed towards the back of the school. He seemed to be of the belief that, if suspicious people were getting inside, they weren't going to be using the front door. Arthur headed towards the dining hall, figuring it would be best to start his search at the front and work his way back. He turned on his listening device and slipped it into his ear and started searching.
The halls were basically empty since it was Saturday, which was a relief. Arthur could move freely without having to be discreet (a hell of a feat considering the sheer amount of supplies he had on him). He knew there were surely security cameras watching him, that Maurice Fischer was probably already well aware of his presence in the school, but at this point Arthur was ready for a fight. If Fischer came looking for him, that would just make Arthur's job a lot easier.
Still, he didn't like the idea that they had Cobb. If they hadn't already killed him (and Arthur would bet they hadn't), then they were holding him for some sort of leverage in case they needed it. Odds were that they were still trying to get certain codes and locations out him that Nash didn't know, and while Arthur was sure that Cobb could be cracked, he knew that Cobb was also already a little bit insane. There was no chance he was going to give into their demands.
Arthur soon found himself in the lobby of the school. As it was probably one of the oldest parts of the building, Arthur could guess that if there were any secret rooms, they would be here. He was displeased to discover a couple of students leaving the dining hall as he arrived at the entrance off the corridor, so he paused and pressed himself as flatly against the wall around the corner as he could muster until they passed. As he stood there his fingertips brushed against an indention in the wall that shouldn't have been there. He let his fingertips follow the line upwards for a few inches before his eyes lit up. He'd stumbled upon a secret door completely by accident. It had been painted over, and no one had used it in quite some time, but he could just about guarantee that it was an entrance he was looking for.
He immediately started feeling along the wall with his good hand, trying to figure out where best to attempt and bust it down, and that was when a voice piped up from behind him.
"What are you doing here?"
Arthur looked over his shoulder to see Kevin, of all people, and his asshole friends.
"They told us you were in the hospital," Kevin said. He looked a bit confused and nervous, but then again Arthur was wearing an alarming amount of weaponry in a place that didn't even allow students to carry x-acto knives. Kevin might not have been the best and brightest, but he would have had to have been blind to not see at least the gun on his hip.
Arthur watched them for a moment, and he realized with a bit of a thrill that they were intimidated. It felt entirely too good after what they'd put Arthur through, but that bliss faded away quite quickly and was done with. Now that Arthur was standing on the more powerful side, he could once again see the group of boys for what they really were: insecure, improperly raised children.
Arthur looked down at his wounded arm and then back up at the boys. "There's a door hidden in this wall," he said, stepping aside. "Feel the crease of it if you don't believe me. I need to get inside that door. Do you think you can help me?"
"You want us to help you?" Kevin asked, looking even more bug-eyed than before.
"Well," Arthur said lightly, looking the hidden door up and down, "I could do it myself, but I'd rather not risk throwing out my only good shoulder. I've kind of got a fight waiting for me and I already can't use one of my hands."
"A fight? Is that why our dads were here last night?" one of Kevin's friends (Arthur was pretty sure his name was Ethan) asked sheepishly.
It was Arthur's turn to be surprised. "Your fathers are here? All of them?"
There were nods from all of them. Ethan elaborated, "They were here yesterday evening before the dance. My dad said he'd come to help chaperone, but the whole time the dance went on I didn't see him there."
"My dad said he had business to attend to," Kevin added. "He told me to stay out of it if I knew what was good for me."
Of course they were in on it. Suddenly the fact that their kids could do basically whatever they wanted made sense. If Fischer were to have one of the boys punished or expelled, then he could be ratted out. It was all so obvious, and Arthur hated that he'd been so stupid that it had taken this long to figure out. He sighed. "What would you say if I told you that your fathers were doing some very bad things, and I needed you to help me stop them?"
"I would say…" Kevin paused and then managed a small smile. "I would say that you wouldn't have to tell me they were doing bad things for me to be willing to stop my dad. All he ever does is yell at me."
Arthur could tell that Kevin's dad did more than just yell from the way his voice trembled on the word, but he didn't push the issue. "All I need you to do is break down the door. After that I want you to go back to your rooms and stay there."
They all seemed to accept this, nodding enthusiastically and muttering in agreement. Arthur still couldn't help but be a little surprised that they listened to him.
The biggest of the group of them stepped forward, and on the count of three rammed the door with his shoulder. It didn't give, so another joined in to ram it with him. It cracked the paint the second time, and on the third slam it broke open, sending them toppling to the floor on the other side.
"Dude," Kevin said, peeking inside with Arthur. "It's a hallway."
"It used to be part of the school before it was renovated and turned into Fischer-Morrow," Arthur said, reaching out to help up one of the boys while Kevin helped up the other one, "and it's exactly where I need to go. Thanks."
"Arthur," Kevin said hesitantly. Arthur looked back at him, raising an eyebrow. "I'm… I'm sorry about all that happened."
"It's okay," Arthur said, offering a tight smile. It wasn't, but he really didn't have the time to argue.
"Is there anything else we can do?"
"Just go back to your rooms. Oh, and don't treat people like crap anymore." He saluted them and took off down the hall.
Arthur hadn't been wandering the hall for more than five minutes when he received a call from Eames. "I haven't seen a bloody thing," Eames's voice said over the line. "Find anything?"
"Getting there," Arthur said. "I'll try and keep you posted."
"Sounds good," Eames said, and Arthur could practically picture him leaning back against the wall and smirking. "So, what are you wearing?"
"Eames," Arthur scolded, but he couldn't stop the grin that spread across his face.
"Oh, what, just because it's a serious life-and-death situation doesn't mean we can't have a little fun," Eames chuckled. Arthur thought that the sentence sort of described Eames and him perfectly.
"You're an animal," Arthur said flatly. "As much as I like the purr of your voice, can the shenanigans wait until later?"
"Oh, you like the purr of my voice, do you?"
"Eames."
"Right, I understand," Eames laughed. "This communication device is bloody cool. You'll have to get me one of these."
"Eames-"
"Yes, yes, I'm signing off."
The line fell silent and Arthur just shook his head, grinning for a moment before returning to the task at hand. He pulled out his gun and kept to the side of the wall, inching slowly forward as he began to pick up on the sound of voices. He cocked his gun slowly, grateful that the sound didn't bounce off of the bare walls too much, and then he rounded the corner, aiming and ready to fire.
Arthur didn't recognize the men, but he knew immediately that they were Fischer's because they seemed to be expecting him. Arthur squeezed the trigger twice and fired off a bullet for each of them, sending them crashing to the floor.
He didn't mortally wound them, which was odd for him, but he supposed it'd be nice to watch them live through the justice they were going to be served. He whacked each of them with his gun a few times until they were unconscious and kept moving.
He only made it a couple of feet before a door swung open, and Arthur turned to find himself facing the barrel of Nash's gun, a gun that had already injured him once. "Nash," Arthur greeted impassively.
Nash wasn't in the best of shape. His entire leg was bandaged from the bullets Arthur had supplied it with, and odds are he hadn't received top-notch medical treatment for it. He looked tired and weak, probably from dealing with the pain without proper medication to deal with the pain. It was really so pathetic that Arthur nearly felt sorry for him, but he couldn't quite manage it considering the circumstances.
"You should have just kept your head down," Nash sneered. "You would've been better off in the hospital."
"Why? So it'd make an easier shot for one of Fischer's men to blow my brains out?"
"It's going to happen either way, so you might as well be comfortable."
Arthur let his finger press against the trigger but didn't pull it just yet. "You sold me out. You sold out all of us, Nash. Why?"
"Why?" Nash spat. "Why do you think?"
Arthur's silence in response only seemed to provoke him more.
"No matter what I did was never good enough!" Nash shouted. "I worked my ass off to make it into the program, and you can bet that no one worked harder than me once I was there. I put everything into my work, but did it get me anywhere? No. I made a mistake once or twice like any normal human being would, and then suddenly I was the poster boy for incompetence. I couldn't do anything to please anyone no matter how hard I tried… and then you…
"You came along, fresh-faced and powerful, skipping through the training program as if it was effortless. You were everyone's dream of a perfect agent-deadly, cunning, intelligent, calculating. No matter what mission you went on, you always came back entirely unscathed. Nobody could touch you. You were the youngest agent in the field and no one could even compare to you. The only thing they could even tease you about was that you looked so young. Everyone admired you. Everyone respected you. Do you know how infuriating that is?
"All of my hard work looked like fucking child's play to you… and then you had the nerve to look down your nose at me and say that I was inadequate. 'I can't believe they haven't fired him yet', you said. 'Nash is an idiot.' 'Nash is a terrible shot.' 'Nash can't do anything right except run away from danger.' You think I never heard you when you said those things? Oh, I know you did. You wanted me to hear your disdain, you fucking cunt. You didn't care that my job meant everything to me. You never cared about anyone or anything at all. It was all about being better, and better, and better, and better, and you didn't care whose toes you had to step on to get there.
"Cobb put me on a mission with you, but don't think I didn't know it was a last resort. Everyone told me I was so lucky to be able to work with someone as talented as you, while I know they told you to tread carefully in case Nash fucks up again… but no, no I wasn't going to stand for it anymore. You can only be shit on so many times before you get the hell out of the way. I had already set things into motion."
"You told Fischer about our infiltration," Arthur said.
"He offered me immunity. He offered me respect. Cobol had a place for me. All of my knowledge of architecture, of floor plans, and all of my history with the agency… I was of use to them. I wasn't just stupid, incompetent Nash. With my help, not only could they put an end to Saito, but they could put an end to anyone who tried to stop them… but you just couldn't die, could you? You had to escape like you always did."
"Yeah, well, it still worked in your favor, didn't it? Sending me here?" Arthur asked, "Or was that part of the plan too?"
"A stroke of luck on my end for once," Nash replied. "Perhaps the universe was tired of seeing your unappreciative ass succeed in life too."
"So why not just kill me immediately? Why wait?"
"Cobb was focused on you since you were his perfect little boy-toy, so we had more freedom to move as we pleased. Besides, Fischer didn't want to rule out the idea that it might not be you. Honestly it just played too perfectly to be possible. It became apparent pretty quickly though. You were convincing enough physically, but nothing could erase that smug entitlement you had."
"Fischer wanted Robert to cozy up to me and then have him off me," Arthur said, "but he wouldn't do it."
"Yeah, the boy failed his initiation, so what? All Fischer needed was a gunman in the dark. A single bullet to the skull, and then I could take you away and no one would know what happened to you. By then we'd already closed in on Cobb, so really there wasn't much left to do but dispose of you. Of course, yet again, you manage to walk away alive… but not this time."
Arthur rolled his eyes and fired a bullet into Nash's arm, causing him to yelp in pain and fumble with his pistol. "Is that supposed to intimidate me?" Arthur asked him. "I'm not afraid of someone who would sell out for a little bit of glory. I let you have your spiel, but I'm not just going to bow my head and let you do this anymore. If you were better at your job then you wouldn't have been talked about that way, and if you hadn't been so focused on being better than me, then maybe you would have succeeded."
Nash yelped and fired at Arthur, the bullet burying itself in the wall.
"And you are a crappy shot," Arthur said, but before he could ask Nash where Fischer and Cobb were there was a deafening pow and then Nash fell forward, hitting the floor with a dull thud, a bullet buried in his back.
"He talks too much, don't you think?" Maurice Fischer said.
Arthur stared, stunned, at Nash's body and then at Maurice Fischer who was sitting in an armchair placed at the end of a long table occupied by other chairs. A few different men were in the room, looking a bit startled from the commotion but otherwise unaffected by the body bleeding out in the doorway. Arthur wasn't too terribly concerned about them-they didn't look like the type that bothered to get their hands dirty. Fischer had his security guys behind him, and they were the ones to be worried about.
"I wondered how long it would take for you to get here," Maurice said, eyeing Arthur with that same sneer he always did. "Nash was right about it being better for you to stay in the hospital. That arm probably feels pretty bad, doesn't it?"
Arthur shrugged his good shoulder, still glancing back and forth between Fischer and Nash. "You… you killed him."
"Yes, well, he'd out-served his usefulness. He couldn't get a bullet in your heart or in your head and decided to monologue when he had the opportunity to fix his mistake. You're right. He did dwell a bit too much on the details." He was so casual and calm about it that it left Arthur unsettled, though he was sure the man was confident that there wasn't much Arthur could do.
Arthur gaped for a moment, and then Maurice was sitting up, rolling his eyes. "Don't act like you care now, Arthur. What's done is done. You'll see him again in a few minutes."
"The hell I will," Arthur growled, aiming his pistol at Maurice. "Tell me where Cobb is."
"Why would I do that? It's the only thing keeping you from shooting me. You know I wouldn't give that information to anyone else here in the room, and he could be absolutely anywhere in the world."
Arthur's frown deepened. "So what… you're just going to kill me too? Like you killed Nash?"
"That depends," Fischer said lightly. "See, Cobb hasn't told us everything, and if you give us the information we need to take down the rest of your organization and to get access to your computers, then I might let you live."
"No, you won't," Arthur replied. "Don't take me for a fool, Fischer. I haven't made it this long being an idiot."
"You've made it this long because you've got the strongest case of dumb luck I've ever seen. Your luck has run out, Arthur."
Suddenly all eyes were on Arthur, and he realized that he needed to move fast or he was going to be dead within the next few seconds. He could tell from a quick scan of the room that none of the suits gathered around Fischer's tables had guns, but that didn't mean they didn't have other weapons. The security goons definitely had guns, and Fischer-well, that was obvious. He could dodge a knife, but bullets weren't so easy. He'd need cover, and there wasn't much to choose from in the room. He couldn't head back to the main area of the school because, even if he were to make it down the hall without being blown away, he wasn't about to put innocent kids in danger.
When the guns went off, Arthur had no choice but to dive. It was unbearably painful to land on his bad arm, but he was pretty sure the bullets would hurt a hell of a lot worse. He rolled as another round was fired in his direction, throwing down one of the unoccupied chairs to shield him. Fischer did at least seem more concerned about protecting his investments (or rather, his investors) than making sure Arthur was dead since the security goons were being careful with their shots, so it gave Arthur a smidgen of relief. Still, he wasn't counting on that to ultimately save him.
A bullet grazed his calf, causing his mouth to open in a silent scream of pain. He turned, aimed, and fired, disarming the man who had shot him, but then another one was on top of him, pulling him into a chokehold and back to his feet. The third man approached and pressed the muzzle of his gat to Arthur's forehead.
Suddenly, over the line of Arthur's listening device, a voice said, "Arthur? Arthur, come in!"
Eames.
The gun was pressed more firmly into Arthur's forehead, causing him to wince. "Who is that?" the man demanded.
Out of Arthur's peripheral vision, he could see Fischer watching with mild interest. "Communicating with someone, Arthur?" Fischer asked. "Well, we know it can't be any of your agent friends because you don't have any friends and we've got all of them captured or killed except for you. Someone from here is helping you."
Arthur stayed silent, and Eames's voice kept buzzing in his ear, asking for him to answer and growing more concerned with every second the line was quiet. He hoped Eames would get the hint that now was a very, very, very bad time, no matter what he wanted to tell him.
"So, who is it, Arthur?" Fischer asked.
He said nothing.
The security man whipped him across the face with the butt of the gun and then pressed it back to his forehead. Arthur could feel a trickle of blood seeping out of the corner of his mouth
"Arthur," Fischer said, growing agitated. "You'd best comply with us. We'll kill you and find him ourselves. You might as well save us the trouble."
Arthur snorted. "Go fuck yourself."
"Do you really think you're at enough of an advantage to sass?" Maurice asked, finally getting up from his chair and approaching, grabbing Arthur harshly by the hair and yanking it so he turned to look at him. "I know the people you associated with while you were here, and it's a fairly short list. I can have them killed one by one until none of them are left. Do not test my power, Arthur."
"Do it," Arthur challenged. "Go ahead. You don't think it'll look suspicious that students, teachers, and your wife have all died under your guidance? You don't think the police will start digging at that point? Let me tell you something right now, Fischer. You may have found a way to clean up your records so there's no proof of all of this, but Robert knows. Other people know. Before you could get rid of everyone, you'd be found out. You're living on borrowed time as it is."
"You don't know that."
Arthur grinned, teeth pink from blood. "Oh, but I do. Believe me, I do. I may not have had the ability to put the suspicion on you while I was here, but I told Cobb that there was something unsettling about you. He looked through your record and didn't find anything, but if I know Cobb and how much he trusts me, he's had people keeping their eyes on you since I got a feeling you were bad news. My gut has never led me wrong before. You're not coming out of this clean, Fischer. You can have me killed right now, but that will just be more blood on your hands. All the money in the world can't save you."
"We have Cobb," Fischer growled, eyes widening.
"Only because he let you catch him. Maybe the reason you can't tell me where you're hiding him is because he's already escaped."
Panicked, Fischer shouted, pressing his gun to Arthur's temple.
"You've already got a gun to my head," Arthur replied smugly. "The second bullet would really just be overkill, I'd imagine. So he escaped, did he? Cobb is pretty much insane, so it doesn't surprise me that he could find a way."
"He didn't escape," Fischer spat. "He's still sitting pretty with the other agents in the tunnel underneath the gymnasium."
Arthur's eyebrows lifted. "The tunnel?" he chuckled. "How do you think I got in here?"
At that point Fischer went still, mouth hanging open. Arthur had backed him into a corner. Arthur knew he had done so. Everyone in the room did. All of Fischer's allies were squirming in their chairs.
"All of those people saying I was the best," Arthur informed him, "weren't just blowing smoke out their asses. There's a reason…
"No one gets me."
"I'll kill you!" Fischer commanded.
Arthur saw Fischer's finger fall over the trigger as if in slow motion. He exhaled slowly as he realized that this was it. This was the end. Unless some act of God took place in the next half a second, his brains were about to be splattered on the wall.
He realized that he didn't want to do this anymore.
The rush of adrenaline, the battle, the constant running… The thrill had never had any staying power, and now Arthur realized that it wasn't worth his life. He'd been rushing and rushing for so long, trying to reach that euphoria of things being perfect, but now he realized that this job wasn't it. Ultimately, his happiness would not last. He would keep striving and striving to be better in the hopes that it would satisfy him, but it was empty.
What if that job isn't your future or isn't your whole future? What if you need something to live for that makes that job worth doing or worth leaving?
Arthur had told that to Eames himself, and now he knew why he'd said it.
Arthur wanted more out of his life. He wanted to have something to make all of this worthwhile. He wanted Eames.
…but it was too late for that, wasn't it?
BANG.
Next
special thanks to redxluna for betaing!
Author: osaki_nana_707
Artist: heavenly_rain
Type: slash, boarding school/secret agent AU
Word Count: ~57,500
Rating: R
Characters/Pairings: ArthurxEames, appearances by pretty much all of the Inception characters except Saito (though he is mentioned)
Warnings violence, language, mild dub-con, simulated!underage, character death
Summary: Arthur, covert agent, has his cover blown during a job hunting down an underground criminal ring. With a price on his head, Arthur's boss has no choice but to hide Arthur away under a new identity... which just happens to be that of a teenage boy at a boarding school. Now he's forced to play the part of a sixteen year old and deal with classes, a roommate, and bullies-- not to mention the fact that he still doesn't know how his picture ended up in the hands of his enemies. It isn't all bad though. At least he has an extremely attractive teacher named Eames.
Link to fic master post: Here
Link to art master post: Here
Chapter 13
Arthur lifted the door on the tunnel to find himself underneath a desk in Eames's office. "Well, I guess this explains how you know about the tunnel," Arthur said as he had Eames pull him out, keeping his head low so as not to bang it on the desk.
"I'd be lying if I didn't say I hid in there on occasion to avoid talking to some of my superiors," Eames admitted as he shut the lid. "Mal was the one to inform me about it, however. This used to be her office."
Arthur brushed dust and dirt off of his clothes and inhaled the fresh air. "You know, you might actually be a little bit insane."
Eames shrugged. "So, what do we do now?"
Arthur was already fishing one of his listening devices out of his bag, handing one to Eames. "You can communicate with me with this. It's subtler than a cell phone and isn't quite so traceable either. What I need you to do is keep watch for suspicious activity. I need you to tell me if you see someone you've never seen before."
"What are you going to do in the meantime?"
"I'm going to see if Cobb's on the premises. Maybe Nash is too. If the cops and security aren't even letting Fischer on and off campus, he's going to have to be playing this pretty damned close to the chest. This building was renovated and added on to- I noticed that the first day I was here. Maybe there's some secret rooms that only Fischer knows about where he's conducting his illicit activities."
"That might be a bit of a long shot."
"In my line of work, you find that long shots are usually the ones that hit their mark," Arthur said, "metaphorically, of course."
"You'll be all right with one arm out of commission?"
"I'll manage."
Eames didn't look too pleased with that answer.
Arthur sighed, scrubbing his hand over his face. "I'm not immobile. I'll be fine. I do this for a living. Stop seeing me as your weak, harmless student and you won't be so worried."
"I stopped seeing you as a student the moment you told me the truth, and I never saw you as weak or harmless," Eames replied. "I'm not stopping you, but you can't keep me from being concerned." He reached out and tugged Arthur closer, hand settling on the back of his neck. "You call me if you find them and tell me your whereabouts. I'll come to assist you. I know I'm not an agent like you, but I'm the best you've got right now, and I damn sure am not letting you go it alone. You're not alone anymore, Arthur."
Arthur just took a moment to look back into Eames's gaze, feeling the honesty of that statement radiating off of him and letting it warm him. "I know," Arthur said.
It seemed like an opportunity for a kiss, but Arthur avoided it for now, knowing he had to get some business taken care of. They parted and Arthur slipped off down one hall while Eames headed towards the back of the school. He seemed to be of the belief that, if suspicious people were getting inside, they weren't going to be using the front door. Arthur headed towards the dining hall, figuring it would be best to start his search at the front and work his way back. He turned on his listening device and slipped it into his ear and started searching.
The halls were basically empty since it was Saturday, which was a relief. Arthur could move freely without having to be discreet (a hell of a feat considering the sheer amount of supplies he had on him). He knew there were surely security cameras watching him, that Maurice Fischer was probably already well aware of his presence in the school, but at this point Arthur was ready for a fight. If Fischer came looking for him, that would just make Arthur's job a lot easier.
Still, he didn't like the idea that they had Cobb. If they hadn't already killed him (and Arthur would bet they hadn't), then they were holding him for some sort of leverage in case they needed it. Odds were that they were still trying to get certain codes and locations out him that Nash didn't know, and while Arthur was sure that Cobb could be cracked, he knew that Cobb was also already a little bit insane. There was no chance he was going to give into their demands.
Arthur soon found himself in the lobby of the school. As it was probably one of the oldest parts of the building, Arthur could guess that if there were any secret rooms, they would be here. He was displeased to discover a couple of students leaving the dining hall as he arrived at the entrance off the corridor, so he paused and pressed himself as flatly against the wall around the corner as he could muster until they passed. As he stood there his fingertips brushed against an indention in the wall that shouldn't have been there. He let his fingertips follow the line upwards for a few inches before his eyes lit up. He'd stumbled upon a secret door completely by accident. It had been painted over, and no one had used it in quite some time, but he could just about guarantee that it was an entrance he was looking for.
He immediately started feeling along the wall with his good hand, trying to figure out where best to attempt and bust it down, and that was when a voice piped up from behind him.
"What are you doing here?"
Arthur looked over his shoulder to see Kevin, of all people, and his asshole friends.
"They told us you were in the hospital," Kevin said. He looked a bit confused and nervous, but then again Arthur was wearing an alarming amount of weaponry in a place that didn't even allow students to carry x-acto knives. Kevin might not have been the best and brightest, but he would have had to have been blind to not see at least the gun on his hip.
Arthur watched them for a moment, and he realized with a bit of a thrill that they were intimidated. It felt entirely too good after what they'd put Arthur through, but that bliss faded away quite quickly and was done with. Now that Arthur was standing on the more powerful side, he could once again see the group of boys for what they really were: insecure, improperly raised children.
Arthur looked down at his wounded arm and then back up at the boys. "There's a door hidden in this wall," he said, stepping aside. "Feel the crease of it if you don't believe me. I need to get inside that door. Do you think you can help me?"
"You want us to help you?" Kevin asked, looking even more bug-eyed than before.
"Well," Arthur said lightly, looking the hidden door up and down, "I could do it myself, but I'd rather not risk throwing out my only good shoulder. I've kind of got a fight waiting for me and I already can't use one of my hands."
"A fight? Is that why our dads were here last night?" one of Kevin's friends (Arthur was pretty sure his name was Ethan) asked sheepishly.
It was Arthur's turn to be surprised. "Your fathers are here? All of them?"
There were nods from all of them. Ethan elaborated, "They were here yesterday evening before the dance. My dad said he'd come to help chaperone, but the whole time the dance went on I didn't see him there."
"My dad said he had business to attend to," Kevin added. "He told me to stay out of it if I knew what was good for me."
Of course they were in on it. Suddenly the fact that their kids could do basically whatever they wanted made sense. If Fischer were to have one of the boys punished or expelled, then he could be ratted out. It was all so obvious, and Arthur hated that he'd been so stupid that it had taken this long to figure out. He sighed. "What would you say if I told you that your fathers were doing some very bad things, and I needed you to help me stop them?"
"I would say…" Kevin paused and then managed a small smile. "I would say that you wouldn't have to tell me they were doing bad things for me to be willing to stop my dad. All he ever does is yell at me."
Arthur could tell that Kevin's dad did more than just yell from the way his voice trembled on the word, but he didn't push the issue. "All I need you to do is break down the door. After that I want you to go back to your rooms and stay there."
They all seemed to accept this, nodding enthusiastically and muttering in agreement. Arthur still couldn't help but be a little surprised that they listened to him.
The biggest of the group of them stepped forward, and on the count of three rammed the door with his shoulder. It didn't give, so another joined in to ram it with him. It cracked the paint the second time, and on the third slam it broke open, sending them toppling to the floor on the other side.
"Dude," Kevin said, peeking inside with Arthur. "It's a hallway."
"It used to be part of the school before it was renovated and turned into Fischer-Morrow," Arthur said, reaching out to help up one of the boys while Kevin helped up the other one, "and it's exactly where I need to go. Thanks."
"Arthur," Kevin said hesitantly. Arthur looked back at him, raising an eyebrow. "I'm… I'm sorry about all that happened."
"It's okay," Arthur said, offering a tight smile. It wasn't, but he really didn't have the time to argue.
"Is there anything else we can do?"
"Just go back to your rooms. Oh, and don't treat people like crap anymore." He saluted them and took off down the hall.
Arthur hadn't been wandering the hall for more than five minutes when he received a call from Eames. "I haven't seen a bloody thing," Eames's voice said over the line. "Find anything?"
"Getting there," Arthur said. "I'll try and keep you posted."
"Sounds good," Eames said, and Arthur could practically picture him leaning back against the wall and smirking. "So, what are you wearing?"
"Eames," Arthur scolded, but he couldn't stop the grin that spread across his face.
"Oh, what, just because it's a serious life-and-death situation doesn't mean we can't have a little fun," Eames chuckled. Arthur thought that the sentence sort of described Eames and him perfectly.
"You're an animal," Arthur said flatly. "As much as I like the purr of your voice, can the shenanigans wait until later?"
"Oh, you like the purr of my voice, do you?"
"Eames."
"Right, I understand," Eames laughed. "This communication device is bloody cool. You'll have to get me one of these."
"Eames-"
"Yes, yes, I'm signing off."
The line fell silent and Arthur just shook his head, grinning for a moment before returning to the task at hand. He pulled out his gun and kept to the side of the wall, inching slowly forward as he began to pick up on the sound of voices. He cocked his gun slowly, grateful that the sound didn't bounce off of the bare walls too much, and then he rounded the corner, aiming and ready to fire.
Arthur didn't recognize the men, but he knew immediately that they were Fischer's because they seemed to be expecting him. Arthur squeezed the trigger twice and fired off a bullet for each of them, sending them crashing to the floor.
He didn't mortally wound them, which was odd for him, but he supposed it'd be nice to watch them live through the justice they were going to be served. He whacked each of them with his gun a few times until they were unconscious and kept moving.
He only made it a couple of feet before a door swung open, and Arthur turned to find himself facing the barrel of Nash's gun, a gun that had already injured him once. "Nash," Arthur greeted impassively.
Nash wasn't in the best of shape. His entire leg was bandaged from the bullets Arthur had supplied it with, and odds are he hadn't received top-notch medical treatment for it. He looked tired and weak, probably from dealing with the pain without proper medication to deal with the pain. It was really so pathetic that Arthur nearly felt sorry for him, but he couldn't quite manage it considering the circumstances.
"You should have just kept your head down," Nash sneered. "You would've been better off in the hospital."
"Why? So it'd make an easier shot for one of Fischer's men to blow my brains out?"
"It's going to happen either way, so you might as well be comfortable."
Arthur let his finger press against the trigger but didn't pull it just yet. "You sold me out. You sold out all of us, Nash. Why?"
"Why?" Nash spat. "Why do you think?"
Arthur's silence in response only seemed to provoke him more.
"No matter what I did was never good enough!" Nash shouted. "I worked my ass off to make it into the program, and you can bet that no one worked harder than me once I was there. I put everything into my work, but did it get me anywhere? No. I made a mistake once or twice like any normal human being would, and then suddenly I was the poster boy for incompetence. I couldn't do anything to please anyone no matter how hard I tried… and then you…
"You came along, fresh-faced and powerful, skipping through the training program as if it was effortless. You were everyone's dream of a perfect agent-deadly, cunning, intelligent, calculating. No matter what mission you went on, you always came back entirely unscathed. Nobody could touch you. You were the youngest agent in the field and no one could even compare to you. The only thing they could even tease you about was that you looked so young. Everyone admired you. Everyone respected you. Do you know how infuriating that is?
"All of my hard work looked like fucking child's play to you… and then you had the nerve to look down your nose at me and say that I was inadequate. 'I can't believe they haven't fired him yet', you said. 'Nash is an idiot.' 'Nash is a terrible shot.' 'Nash can't do anything right except run away from danger.' You think I never heard you when you said those things? Oh, I know you did. You wanted me to hear your disdain, you fucking cunt. You didn't care that my job meant everything to me. You never cared about anyone or anything at all. It was all about being better, and better, and better, and better, and you didn't care whose toes you had to step on to get there.
"Cobb put me on a mission with you, but don't think I didn't know it was a last resort. Everyone told me I was so lucky to be able to work with someone as talented as you, while I know they told you to tread carefully in case Nash fucks up again… but no, no I wasn't going to stand for it anymore. You can only be shit on so many times before you get the hell out of the way. I had already set things into motion."
"You told Fischer about our infiltration," Arthur said.
"He offered me immunity. He offered me respect. Cobol had a place for me. All of my knowledge of architecture, of floor plans, and all of my history with the agency… I was of use to them. I wasn't just stupid, incompetent Nash. With my help, not only could they put an end to Saito, but they could put an end to anyone who tried to stop them… but you just couldn't die, could you? You had to escape like you always did."
"Yeah, well, it still worked in your favor, didn't it? Sending me here?" Arthur asked, "Or was that part of the plan too?"
"A stroke of luck on my end for once," Nash replied. "Perhaps the universe was tired of seeing your unappreciative ass succeed in life too."
"So why not just kill me immediately? Why wait?"
"Cobb was focused on you since you were his perfect little boy-toy, so we had more freedom to move as we pleased. Besides, Fischer didn't want to rule out the idea that it might not be you. Honestly it just played too perfectly to be possible. It became apparent pretty quickly though. You were convincing enough physically, but nothing could erase that smug entitlement you had."
"Fischer wanted Robert to cozy up to me and then have him off me," Arthur said, "but he wouldn't do it."
"Yeah, the boy failed his initiation, so what? All Fischer needed was a gunman in the dark. A single bullet to the skull, and then I could take you away and no one would know what happened to you. By then we'd already closed in on Cobb, so really there wasn't much left to do but dispose of you. Of course, yet again, you manage to walk away alive… but not this time."
Arthur rolled his eyes and fired a bullet into Nash's arm, causing him to yelp in pain and fumble with his pistol. "Is that supposed to intimidate me?" Arthur asked him. "I'm not afraid of someone who would sell out for a little bit of glory. I let you have your spiel, but I'm not just going to bow my head and let you do this anymore. If you were better at your job then you wouldn't have been talked about that way, and if you hadn't been so focused on being better than me, then maybe you would have succeeded."
Nash yelped and fired at Arthur, the bullet burying itself in the wall.
"And you are a crappy shot," Arthur said, but before he could ask Nash where Fischer and Cobb were there was a deafening pow and then Nash fell forward, hitting the floor with a dull thud, a bullet buried in his back.
"He talks too much, don't you think?" Maurice Fischer said.
Arthur stared, stunned, at Nash's body and then at Maurice Fischer who was sitting in an armchair placed at the end of a long table occupied by other chairs. A few different men were in the room, looking a bit startled from the commotion but otherwise unaffected by the body bleeding out in the doorway. Arthur wasn't too terribly concerned about them-they didn't look like the type that bothered to get their hands dirty. Fischer had his security guys behind him, and they were the ones to be worried about.
"I wondered how long it would take for you to get here," Maurice said, eyeing Arthur with that same sneer he always did. "Nash was right about it being better for you to stay in the hospital. That arm probably feels pretty bad, doesn't it?"
Arthur shrugged his good shoulder, still glancing back and forth between Fischer and Nash. "You… you killed him."
"Yes, well, he'd out-served his usefulness. He couldn't get a bullet in your heart or in your head and decided to monologue when he had the opportunity to fix his mistake. You're right. He did dwell a bit too much on the details." He was so casual and calm about it that it left Arthur unsettled, though he was sure the man was confident that there wasn't much Arthur could do.
Arthur gaped for a moment, and then Maurice was sitting up, rolling his eyes. "Don't act like you care now, Arthur. What's done is done. You'll see him again in a few minutes."
"The hell I will," Arthur growled, aiming his pistol at Maurice. "Tell me where Cobb is."
"Why would I do that? It's the only thing keeping you from shooting me. You know I wouldn't give that information to anyone else here in the room, and he could be absolutely anywhere in the world."
Arthur's frown deepened. "So what… you're just going to kill me too? Like you killed Nash?"
"That depends," Fischer said lightly. "See, Cobb hasn't told us everything, and if you give us the information we need to take down the rest of your organization and to get access to your computers, then I might let you live."
"No, you won't," Arthur replied. "Don't take me for a fool, Fischer. I haven't made it this long being an idiot."
"You've made it this long because you've got the strongest case of dumb luck I've ever seen. Your luck has run out, Arthur."
Suddenly all eyes were on Arthur, and he realized that he needed to move fast or he was going to be dead within the next few seconds. He could tell from a quick scan of the room that none of the suits gathered around Fischer's tables had guns, but that didn't mean they didn't have other weapons. The security goons definitely had guns, and Fischer-well, that was obvious. He could dodge a knife, but bullets weren't so easy. He'd need cover, and there wasn't much to choose from in the room. He couldn't head back to the main area of the school because, even if he were to make it down the hall without being blown away, he wasn't about to put innocent kids in danger.
When the guns went off, Arthur had no choice but to dive. It was unbearably painful to land on his bad arm, but he was pretty sure the bullets would hurt a hell of a lot worse. He rolled as another round was fired in his direction, throwing down one of the unoccupied chairs to shield him. Fischer did at least seem more concerned about protecting his investments (or rather, his investors) than making sure Arthur was dead since the security goons were being careful with their shots, so it gave Arthur a smidgen of relief. Still, he wasn't counting on that to ultimately save him.
A bullet grazed his calf, causing his mouth to open in a silent scream of pain. He turned, aimed, and fired, disarming the man who had shot him, but then another one was on top of him, pulling him into a chokehold and back to his feet. The third man approached and pressed the muzzle of his gat to Arthur's forehead.
Suddenly, over the line of Arthur's listening device, a voice said, "Arthur? Arthur, come in!"
Eames.
The gun was pressed more firmly into Arthur's forehead, causing him to wince. "Who is that?" the man demanded.
Out of Arthur's peripheral vision, he could see Fischer watching with mild interest. "Communicating with someone, Arthur?" Fischer asked. "Well, we know it can't be any of your agent friends because you don't have any friends and we've got all of them captured or killed except for you. Someone from here is helping you."
Arthur stayed silent, and Eames's voice kept buzzing in his ear, asking for him to answer and growing more concerned with every second the line was quiet. He hoped Eames would get the hint that now was a very, very, very bad time, no matter what he wanted to tell him.
"So, who is it, Arthur?" Fischer asked.
He said nothing.
The security man whipped him across the face with the butt of the gun and then pressed it back to his forehead. Arthur could feel a trickle of blood seeping out of the corner of his mouth
"Arthur," Fischer said, growing agitated. "You'd best comply with us. We'll kill you and find him ourselves. You might as well save us the trouble."
Arthur snorted. "Go fuck yourself."
"Do you really think you're at enough of an advantage to sass?" Maurice asked, finally getting up from his chair and approaching, grabbing Arthur harshly by the hair and yanking it so he turned to look at him. "I know the people you associated with while you were here, and it's a fairly short list. I can have them killed one by one until none of them are left. Do not test my power, Arthur."
"Do it," Arthur challenged. "Go ahead. You don't think it'll look suspicious that students, teachers, and your wife have all died under your guidance? You don't think the police will start digging at that point? Let me tell you something right now, Fischer. You may have found a way to clean up your records so there's no proof of all of this, but Robert knows. Other people know. Before you could get rid of everyone, you'd be found out. You're living on borrowed time as it is."
"You don't know that."
Arthur grinned, teeth pink from blood. "Oh, but I do. Believe me, I do. I may not have had the ability to put the suspicion on you while I was here, but I told Cobb that there was something unsettling about you. He looked through your record and didn't find anything, but if I know Cobb and how much he trusts me, he's had people keeping their eyes on you since I got a feeling you were bad news. My gut has never led me wrong before. You're not coming out of this clean, Fischer. You can have me killed right now, but that will just be more blood on your hands. All the money in the world can't save you."
"We have Cobb," Fischer growled, eyes widening.
"Only because he let you catch him. Maybe the reason you can't tell me where you're hiding him is because he's already escaped."
Panicked, Fischer shouted, pressing his gun to Arthur's temple.
"You've already got a gun to my head," Arthur replied smugly. "The second bullet would really just be overkill, I'd imagine. So he escaped, did he? Cobb is pretty much insane, so it doesn't surprise me that he could find a way."
"He didn't escape," Fischer spat. "He's still sitting pretty with the other agents in the tunnel underneath the gymnasium."
Arthur's eyebrows lifted. "The tunnel?" he chuckled. "How do you think I got in here?"
At that point Fischer went still, mouth hanging open. Arthur had backed him into a corner. Arthur knew he had done so. Everyone in the room did. All of Fischer's allies were squirming in their chairs.
"All of those people saying I was the best," Arthur informed him, "weren't just blowing smoke out their asses. There's a reason…
"No one gets me."
"I'll kill you!" Fischer commanded.
Arthur saw Fischer's finger fall over the trigger as if in slow motion. He exhaled slowly as he realized that this was it. This was the end. Unless some act of God took place in the next half a second, his brains were about to be splattered on the wall.
He realized that he didn't want to do this anymore.
The rush of adrenaline, the battle, the constant running… The thrill had never had any staying power, and now Arthur realized that it wasn't worth his life. He'd been rushing and rushing for so long, trying to reach that euphoria of things being perfect, but now he realized that this job wasn't it. Ultimately, his happiness would not last. He would keep striving and striving to be better in the hopes that it would satisfy him, but it was empty.
What if that job isn't your future or isn't your whole future? What if you need something to live for that makes that job worth doing or worth leaving?
Arthur had told that to Eames himself, and now he knew why he'd said it.
Arthur wanted more out of his life. He wanted to have something to make all of this worthwhile. He wanted Eames.
…but it was too late for that, wasn't it?
BANG.
Next
special thanks to redxluna for betaing!