It had been 15 months since Cobb had returned back to America after finishing the inception job for a Japanese billionaire Saito. Watching his kids Philippa and James grow and experience their lives was everything Cobb had wanted. And he had it now.
Being an extractor was a very thrilling job and Cobb was really good at it. But it had to stop someday. One failed mission meant he would again have to pack bags and disappear to another country and lay low for a while before making any attempts to get in touch with his children. This job came with a lot of sacrifices. And the amount of enemies one could make just by hijacking their dreams were insurmountable. So one fine day, after his father-in-law Professor Miles' insistence, he quit.
Now Cobb was living a normal 9 to 5 life. Waking up at 7 am, fixing breakfast, dropping kids at school, going to work, coming back home, playing with children, making dinner, and finally sleeping at 12 am. Interesting, right? Not really. But this was enough for Cobb.
His days of adventure were behind him. Maybe he would pick it up again but only after his kids turn 18 and are off to college somewhere. Until then, he had to learn to embrace his new, albeit boring, life.
He was still in touch with his old gang. Recently he had flown to Honolulu to attend Arthur and Ariadne's wedding. He was so involved in his personal hell that he didn't even notice something was brewing between those two. But he was very happy that they could find love after a shared deeply emotional experience 18 months ago. He still would get chills even thinking about how they pulled off that inception job. And because of that he was thankful everyday to be close to his children.
This was the new Cobb. He no longer had dreams about the night Mal killed herself by jumping off that hotel balcony years ago. He now stayed away from anything bordering dangerous. He worked as a System Analyst and it was as boring as it sounded but that's fine. He got to see Philippa and James everyday. He was living the life.
One day as he was returning home from work, he came across a Nintendo shop selling their new gaming console. Knowing how badly both Philippa and James wanted it, he stepped inside and bought one to surprise them. He had a good year at work and had received a good bonus so might as well spend it on frivolous things and make his kids happy while he could.
With Nintendo Switch in his one hand and a laptop bag in another, he rushed to his house. Just imagining the smiles on their faces made Cobb all the more excited. He turned in his key and unlocked the door.
"James! Philippa! Daddy's home and he has a surprise for you. Come out you guys!"
But out came no reply. The house was eerily silent. Maybe they must have gone to the beach with their grandpa outside the house to play. So he stepped into the balcony to check but there was no one on the beach.
He went into the kid's room but there was no sight of his children. That was odd Cobb thought to himself. He then knocked on Professor Miles' room and went inside only to see his body lying down on the floor. His face was sitting in a pool of blood from what appeared to be a head injury. Cobb screamed.
