Title: Akallabêth
Fandom: Inception
Pairing: Arthur/Eames
Categories: AU, Angst, Drama, Sad Stories
Length: Medium (11,209 words)
Warnings: Unhappy Ending, Major Character Death Also, the story is an AU of the film, so requires some knowledge of/has spoilers for Inception.

Author on DW: mirabella
Author Website: House of Hobbits / mirabellafic

Summary:
Ariadne knows their point man has his eccentricities. She just doesn't know where they come from. Neither does Eames, until it's too late.

Review:
I was wracking my brain for an appropriately angsty fic for our theme week (nothing was angsty enough), and then remembered Akallabêth. This story is like a punch to the gut. It's a fabulous exploration of some of the dynamics of the universe of Inception in the saddest way possible. Re-telling the the film with an excellent Ariadne point-of-view, however with one major change that affects everything and everyone, including the job, all the character relationships, and especially the relationship we see developing between Arthur and Eames.

It's one of those stories that you like reading twice, the second time after you know the plot twist (which I put under a cut above and below if you want to avoid knowing ahead of time) and things take on a new meaning with the knowledge of how it all ends. Man, even re-reading it for the n-th time, I tear up a little with the melancholy and wistfulness and utter hopelessness of the scenario.

Read this if you want an intense heart-breaker of a story that deals cleverly with the concepts of shared dreaming, but maybe take a pass if you're feeling a bit fragile.

"You know, I don't think I'm in love with Eames on any level of my brain," he says, trying for teasing and only managing strained and unhappy.

Arthur gives him a smile to match. "You're not," he says. "But you know that I would have been, in time."

Akallabêth (DW), (Author's website)