WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?!

Epilogue

19 Years Later

The year is 2009. 19 years have passed since the horrendous events of the attempted wiping out of the Universe. Barack Obama was just declared the President of The United States. Barack Obama. I'm sure you're wondering how that happened. Even if you're not, somebody is, so I am going to tell you anyway. Obama was very sharp ever since he was a kid. Just a few days before The Merge, he was on a trip inside the time tube making last-minute scheduling checks when he discovered the impending doom of Aurelia's plan. He was the President of the Ministry, but he sure as hell was not going down with it. Aurelia was a shrewd woman, and he knew that. She would know if he tried to escape or play any tricks. He decided to play along until the very end. Right when Aurelia was caught in the middle of all her chaos, he quietly stepped out of his room and went to their Reartual Earth globe. The advantage of being at the highest position of an institution like the Ministry of Loops is that there are things you know that others simply do not have the clearance to know; they are entangled in the loops of diplomacy. One such loophole was that the globe on display at the entrance of the Ministry was also a medium of time travel, a fail-safe if all else goes to shit. He turned a small, almost undetectable unless you know about it dial at the very bottom of the globe. The world of 2008 displayed on it. Then, he put his finger on Washington D.C, United States of America for about three seconds, after which he was sucked into it in a whoosh of wind and appeared in the leftmost cubicle of a ladies public toilet outside of Washington monument. He stepped outside and saw the majestic Capitol building. It was at that moment he decided to run for President; it was only fair. But for that, he had to eliminate a candidate, not only eliminate, but completely replace and erase him from the memory of all who knew him. The man who could have been POTUS, the man who Obama replaced, was Baku Ohara, a Japanese senator. Obama shipped him off to the Ministry, on the day of the raid, in the guise of a janitor with no memory of his past life. He then took over Ohara's life, ran a successful Presidential campaign for almost a year and officially became the President on 20th January 2009.

Charlotte went on to grow her bakery into a Michelin star restaurant, the first and only of its kind in the city. She dated a lot of people, but none of her relationships lasted. It's as if she had a sudden issue with trusting people that sabotaged her and a gaping hole in her heart, shaped like.... she didn't know who. But we do — it was Daniel. While it was Toby who she spent most of her time with and felt a true connection with at the time, it was another manipulation at the hands of Aurelia. She just could not afford the two polar opposites crucial to her mission falling out, which, let's face it, given their personalities, was very likely. It was the tea; she laced it with the essence of cupodium leaves, a rare tea from one of the other Aurelias' world, which made them feel undeniable and irrefutable chemistry with one another. The moment they shut the pocket, not only did their memories wipe out but also any and all effects they had on each other. But as they say — true and raw human connection is that which lasts longer than anyone can predict or imagine. With Daniel, the moments were meagre, but the spark was inextinguishable. After years of subconsciously looking for 'the one', she decided to settle down alone. She could not put herself through another horrible match, but her desire for a family, a child of her own, was stronger than ever. She chose Donor insemination, and nine months later, she was blessed with a beautiful set of twins. A baby boy and a girl she named Charlie and Debbie, respectively. They grew up to be called the Charbie twins. The kids often asked their mother about their father, but all she had for them was a name — Tobias Lucas Collins. Our Toby.
Toby tried getting a job at multiple places but to no avail. He did, once, get a job at a small-time call centre, but every time a phone rang, he smashed it. He could not contain his temper at ringing telephones. So it's safe to say he could not keep his job for more than a day and could not get another one either. Purely by coincidence, he discovered his latent talent of juggling when he bought one too many candied apples at a fair once and had to juggle them to keep them and the two bags resting on his elbow pit from falling. Without even realizing it, he put on a marvellous show for the crowd. A circus master saw him there and approached him for recruitment. He was more than happy to join them. For years he travelled with the crew, ate A LOT of fair food and performed throughout the country. But his good days did not last long. Turns out the circus master was secretly the owner of a centuries-old cult that hypnotized and killed virgins. Toby, it seemed, was a magnet for absurdity. He was caught in an ambush one night, and the circus was shut, obviously. Although he was also arrested with the rest of the crew as an accessory to murder, his bail was posted by a mysterious man named Daniel. Toby was out of work again. He was in desperate need of money, and sperm donation seemed an easy enough job. His profile was not exactly the most impressive, so he decided to lie about it. 'International Performer', his profession read. A few months later, while on a walk across the Thames, he stumbled upon this amazing bakery with the most heavenly Banana bread he had ever tasted. There he met a waitress named Haley, and they fell in love. The owner of the bakery officiated their intimate wedding. It was beautiful.
President Obama came to be known as one of the greatest Presidents the world had seen. However, his tenure ended in 2017 after 8 years of service. What concerns us the most is that he disappeared after that. Slowly, gradually, eventually, without arousing too much suspicion, he started to fade from the public eye; nobody knows what he does now.
What's all the more concerning is that people swear they saw an African American man matching Obama's description buying booze from their local store in Idaho while others said they saw him sneaking around the block at Houston Space Station. Multiple such reports came in simultaneously, which the police dismissed as mere pranks or bogeys by bored teenagers and lunatic conspiracy theorists. Massive surges of energy keep erupting throughout the world, and the frequency (as well as the size) of shooting stars has increased significantly. Meteorologists say it is because of rapid climate change. Let's hope they are right.