WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?!

Does Anyone Else Feel a Little Loopy?

Toby was actually getting better at this. When the zooming stopped, they had reached the night of their visit to the Ministry of Loops. Aurelia said she would try her best to wear the two of them out so they would pass before they could see the moon. They got out of the shady building in the street, took a few turns here and there and hurried towards a public garden. They had agreed it would be a safe place to hide among the bushes and the forestation and would not be suspected of being there as they had never visited that place before; it would throw off the ministry should they be trying to trace them. Plus, they would have a clear enough sight of the moon.
It wasn't too late in the night, but there was almost nobody in the garden. It must have approached the closing time because a few guards had started patrolling the places to kick out some loiterers. Charlotte and Toby hid well under the bush of a walled end of the garden.
They waited for long hours on this cloudless, fool-moon night. Their eyes were glued to the sky for even the tiniest hint of an oddity. They weren't even sure what they were looking at.
Even the guards had left by now; it was about midnight. The owls were hooting, and the night was alive with nocturnal sounds, which was the only thing that covered the silence between the two.
"You have been really brave today. You took down a huge man all by yourself. You're starting to get control of your powers." Toby whispered under his breath.
"Am I though," Charlotte asked in reply, "I don't understand whatever the hell is going on with me or with the ministry. Everything is so absurd."
"I think that's what the problem is. I think you're trying to understand too much, and you don't give yourself enough credit. We both are gifted. I think you need to love yourself more and accept the things that come your way."
Charlotte's eyes opened wide. She couldn't help herself and leaned in to kiss Toby; it lingered. Toby broke apart to say, "We're in this together. As long as we're a team, we're unstoppable." He smiled, and Charlotte leaned in again. They kissed a long and passionate one, and Charlotte let all of it out. With every minute her tongue met his, she diffused her confusion and embraced it all. The pit in her stomach that was eating her away was now covered.
"Lotty! Look!!" Toby said incredulously.
At the centre of the moon, a small black dot had appeared that grew larger and larger in size. Within seconds, almost the entire moon was gone, and there remained a gaping hole just like the one Toby had seen numerous times before (or after? It's way too confusing to keep track of, let's chuck the details). The only difference was this time, something came out of that hole. It was a spaceship and was determinedly heading towards Toby's place.
The two saw the spaceship stop above Toby's place, and a tractor beam appeared. Something descended from the tractor beam, and then it started returning towards the hole that was created.
Toby and Charlotte looked at each other feverishly. Suddenly the cyan folder at their side started shaking vigorously, and they were instantly drawn into it.
They came out at the present day at Aurelia's place.
"Well, well, well, if this intern of ours hadn't been smart enough, you two would have slipped out of my hands." Said Aurelia looking at them and smiling in the same kind way she always did.
They looked around themselves; everyone was eyeing them. Then, they caught a glimpse of the screen. The hole had grown significantly, but that was not the first thing they noticed. It was the fleet of spaceships that was descending from it, just like the one they saw a few moments ago, only ten times bigger.
"If you two would have stuck to the script, I would not have had to feed you to those aliens. Welcome to the invasion. The government has always been so very corrupt. You don't know half the things they do to maintain their image of peace, equality, tranquillity and democracy. But this shall go on no more, for we will overthrow this government. We will bring such peace to the world it has never known. We are the rebellion."
Charlotte and Toby weren't afraid of her. They joined their hands because they knew the fate of the world now rested on their shoulders, and they were ready to take it head-on.
For the first time in days, Charlotte felt powerful and in control. She smiled a smile that she knew would irritate Aurelia and spoke like a boss lady, "You've done enough already, Aurelia. You manipulated us like your puppets, made us believe we were weak, you made us feel vulnerable and helpless. But don't you for a second believe that we will stand by and let you go through with whatever sick little plan you have in that brain of yours. This vendetta you have with the government may not be unfair, but your plans threaten to destroy the place we call home, the place you wish to rule. Well, guess what? Not happening. Not today."
With that, Charlotte and Toby tightened the grips of their intertwined hands, sending a surge of energy throughout the room.
Aurelia was now smashed into the concrete wall; she was a part of it. Zoran was shoved inside a cabinet too small for him, and Ricardo and the intern were tied up with electrical wires.
"You don't have any idea what this is about, do you?" Aurelia managed to speak up, her voice a mix of pain and cocky confidence. "You think those things out there are here to destroy the Earth? Wipe out the species?" She paused and gave a mocking laugh, "Oh dearies, you could not be more wrong if you tried."
"What do you mean? WHAT DO YOU MEAN? SPEAK UP!" Toby screamed, the waves hitting Aurelia like dragon breath.
She winced, but the sass was still there, "Kill me if you please, but that would do you no good. The things you believe to be aliens, they're all me, so many versions of me from different timelines and parallel universes. Their— Our combined knowledge from our respective times and dimensions is what would make us whole — the smartest, most powerful being in the Universe, for we know all that there is to know, the awareness of all that was and will be. The full potential of each one of our brains and bodies will be accessed by each one of us. Can you imagine what that kind of knowledge is like? I will be more powerful than any hero or villain in history. Oh, and then honey, once we've all morphed into a single unit, we won't have to kill anybody. I am the last part."
She laughed an evil laugh and continued.
"The world is not ready for this kind of knowledge. We are talking about people who argue about the Earth being flat and climate change being a conspiracy to date. These are the people who are amused by things like black holes and supernovas and call themselves master scientists if they send a camera to Mars. Idiots. Exposure to a truth like this would drive them into madness and chaos. These morons will kill themselves. And from their corpses will arise a new world. A species more fierce, advanced and dangerous than before. This is not about you; this was never about the Earth. It's about the rest of the Universe. The Earthlings are by far the most advanced species in the cosmos, with the capacity to be the ruler of all worlds. But they are also too — nice and incredibly dumb. These people are completely unaware of their own potential, and I am going to change that. And then, I will be the master of masters." Aurelia roared just as the entire building shivered as if in fear.
Charlotte kneeled down and stabilised the tremors, placing her palm on the floor just as they could hear heavy footsteps marching towards the house.
"We need to leave, now," said Charlotte's voice. Toby quickly did something that would easily buy them a couple of hours. He created a fake smaller room inside the room they were in by creating newer walls right in front of the original ones, thus hiding Aurelia and the team in between them. To anybody looking, it just looked like an empty room.
Toby and Charlotte went to the bathroom and jumped on the bathroom puddle and seemingly swam through to... Aurelia's living room? What?
They walked outside, being careful not to attract any attention from the apparently omnipresent Aurelias before Toby spoke again, "What...just happened? That should have worked, right?"
"I don't know, but we do not have time to figure that out now. They probably shut the portal down and redirected the routes to Aurelia's so we couldn't escape. We need to stop the morph from happening." Charlotte urgently replied, pulling at Toby's arm to keep walking. But he didn't.
"Is that so bad? I mean, yes, she created the hole herself and lied to us, which was super mean and bitchy of her, but the rest of it. I don't see why we need to stop this. All she's doing is unleashing a better version of us. It's not like this is a massacre or anything. They'll come back. And be better." Charlotte was surprised, really at Toby's attitude.
"Oh yeah, and then what? Then what, Toby? She plans to use us as her personal soldiers, killing machines in her endeavours to fight, defeat, occupy and enslave all living species. Think about it, Toby, from the other side of this. What if you were in your room, sleeping peacefully or eating dinner with your family and somebody just invades your home and murders your entire family. They execute you and declare themselves as your king, and you are clueless. What would that feel like, huh?" Charlotte said in an intense yet emotional tone.
Toby was quiet.
"Exactly," she said and started walking again.
Toby followed and quickly caught up with her. He said, " Do you notice something? The glasses. They're all shattered. All the mirrors are broken too."

"That's strange," she replied. "Do you think they did this? The super Aurelia?"

"Maybe. But why would they?" Toby answered, equally confused.

"At least this will help us find their location. We follow the broken glass." Charlotte spoke with conviction.

They walked silently for a while.

"Hey, do you think they're scared of it? The glasses and the mirrors, I mean."

"You're kidding, right?" Charlotte laughed it off.

"No, no, think about it. These people are not magicians or people with crazy powers...well, yet. They're only humans who are out of place. What if their reflections remind them of it? When they see their reflection, they're reminded of the place they are from, and it makes them vulnerable, and they hate it. So as long as they don't see themselves, they feel badass and undefeatable, but mirrors make them lose themselves because they find themself in it. They are afraid of nobody but their own reflection, so they smash it." Toby felt as if he was onto something.

"I mean, you could be right," Charlotte said, still unsure of his theory, "we're all in uncharted territory here. Because, how do you defeat somebody who knows everything? What could they be afraid of? Only themselves. It kind of makes sense. But I dunno."

"Charlotte, right now, we have the upper hand. They have the numbers, but we have power. We can easily take them on and throw them out. After the morph, if we are not able to stop it, there is not much we will be able to do."

But Charlotte was not listening anymore. She had stopped dead in her tracks.

When Toby took notice of his surroundings, he was just as surprised. They were right back where they had started, in front of Aurelia's house. It's as if they've been walking in circles. In a loop. What was all the more concerning was that they were not alone. They were surrounded.

"Here you are. You did not really think that would work, did you? You cannot stop me. You cannot escape from me. YOU CANNOT DEFEAT ME. Now watch as we reform ourselves and the world. Oh no! But you won't be able to. Because you won't be around to see it." Aurelia screamed just as our heroes heard two gunshots.