"Quickly, I want everyone to gather and sit in the vehicles prepared in the yard or your own vehicles that you drove here,” Minnie commanded, springing into action. “The cards are coming soon; they will all look like glowing rectangular lights. This place is far from the center of the city, and with traffic clogging up some areas it might take a while to cover all the important spots.”

Holding up an illustration, she explained. “The reddish steel color is of the highest value, followed by the greenish copper, and metallic black! If you see any of these within your sight, drop everything and head towards them. Other colors are also important, so don't neglect them!"

"Finally and most importantly,” she concluded, a stern look replacing her usually jovial expression, “everyone should please remember this location. It would be best if we all return in two hours; not a minute longer! That's the exact moment a giant earthquake worse than we've seen will occur."

While Minnie was barking instructions, Celes was stuck with a much more difficult task.

"What exactly is going on, Celes?" Rebecca Greymore in an office suit asked.

A petite young woman with dyed pink hair looked at Celes for the first time. She wore overalls splashed with paint, making her stand out. Her face shared similarities with Celes and Rebecca. She was the second Greymore daughter, Jasmine Greymore.

"At first, like the others, I thought you were crazy,” she commented, “but the sky does look... Wacky, so I guess we'll believe you for now. But…how the hell did you know?"

"Celes,” their father, a black-clad man intervened, towering over the ladies, “I don't know what's going on, but things seem urgent so I'll save the questions for later.” He directed that last part to the curious interviewers before looking back at her. “I hope you'll have time to explain things clearly then."

Celes sighed in relief.

Celes looked back to the burning gazes of two of her girl friends, trying to light her on fire with their eyes.

Xia and Giselle.

What a headache. Her mouth was going to fall off in the following days from explaining.

“Let's just go,” she told the two, heading into a pink Jeep where Minnie was already getting set to take off. After they made sure everyone else was ready, Minnie stepped on it, zooming off and taking the lead.

*

"Miss Greymore… So wonderful of you to join a car with us lowly plebs. Your great plans are truly astounding. I'm blown away."

Giselle was the first to attack, carrying herself in a tomboyish manner, her freckles sprinkled lightly over her face like a work of art.

"Its...not like that,” Celes groaned. “I mean it. Think about it. It's such an absurd thing that no one would believe me if they didn't see it with their own eyes.”

Giselle rolled her eyes at this, folding her arms across her chest and leaning back loosely.

“I wanted to tell you,” continued Celes, earning another eye roll. “Really, I did. But I wasted four days in a daze, and time was of the essence, so I had to nip it in the bud. I'm telling you now, aren't I?"

Unfortunately, Giselle had a thing with grudges, so she was a bit of a lost cause for the moment. Turning to someone who'd be a bit more sensible, Celes asked, "Xia, would you believe me if I said this over a week ago?"

Xia's half-Asian origins colored her face, her bleached hair strands touching her eyebrows. She was completely expressionless as she glanced back from the passenger seat, but didn't grace the query with a response and returned to looking out of the window and up at the sky.

Celes knew her friend enough to recognize her almost invisible angry pout.

"But Minnie would believe you? Is that it?" Giselle glared at the driver's seat where Minnie was easily maneuvering traffic.

Minnie didn't reply, but had her nose upturned in triumph.

The number one BFF is clear for all to see!

"The color of the cards indicates their value…but it's far more than that, I assume." Xia's cold voice broke the thick tension in the air, soothing the slowly sweating Celes.

"Ah- Yes!” Celes jumped at the opportunity to change the subject. “If you have to say the color is the most important, then yes, it is. But color isn't everything. If you want to go farther in the future, color is priceless. You can upgrade cards to different colors, but it's a difficult process with low probability and high risk. The steps and materials needed for upgrades are unknown, and you often blindly guess, risking destroying your card.”

Giselle faked a yawn and looked away, but it was evident she was paying attention.

Celes continued to explain. “There are certain cards that can guess for you, but they are unimaginably rare. Even then, the upgrade materials are not easy to get. For Grey Ash and Bluestone Cards, it's relatively simple to upgrade with materials not so scarce, but everything upwards is a tough nut to crack. Some upgrades require some absurd rituals and special environments. The higher the rank, the more difficult it is to upgrade. The safest and best bet is to get a compatible card of good quality."

Feeling the pressure in the air lessen, Celes heaved a sigh of relief.

"Which ones are the strongest?" Xia asked, now focusing her eyes on this familiar yet unfamiliar friend through the rearview mirror.

Celes thought for a moment before answering.

"It's hard to say… It depends on the situation and the user. There are no useless cards, only incompetent card masters. Several famous figures started out with average cards and rose to the top. So, no card is necessarily stronger than the other."

This was a question many had different answers to, but as the former peak of humanity, Celes was naturally an expert on the area. Someone had actually fought her toe-to-toe with four well-matched and utilized Black Iron-graded cards while she was only using a Red Steel-grade card. Eventually, she even had to rely on Sapphire to win!

It shocked everyone at the time.

"Are there sword and bow types?" Xia asked once more.

"Yes, of course."

"Miss…Celes!" Giselle dragged.

Hearing this other voice, Celes felt her brain ache in pain.

"Lady Giselle, please forgive your humble one,” she droned, turning and attempting to placate her friend. Her deep blue eyes drank in her every feature, smiling at her half-hearted tantrum.

"Say, why do you know so much,” Giselle prodded, feeling her best friend's gaze to be a bit too heavy. “You couldn't have...come back, could you?"

Time travel was far from a foreign concept to the modern man so, naturally after a while of settling in, she thought of it.

"Yes, I did come back."

"So, based on your weird behavior of not violently attacking me and forcing me to obey... Things must not have turned out well for me, have they?" Giselle was getting calm as she pondered, putting mental puzzle pieces together.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Their relationship was a straightforward physical one since childhood; fights, pokes, pulling hair, throwing things... It was how they showed love. Even up until college. Her friend not acting the same could only mean something was on her mind concerning Giselle. The likely situation was that she met a tragic fate in the future.

BOOM!

Their conversation was cut short by an explosion that shook everyone to the core. Minnie slammed on the breaks.

Celes almost jumped out of the window at the sound.

‘Damn, how I could forget? Of course, I was in the East at the time, not the North! I only heard about it later!’

Celes was too caught up in planning to remember every detail. She was, at the time, just getting used to the strange bird that came to her.

But she had heard of this.

A card had landed near some gas tanks and the energy surrounding it caused an explosion.

The heat and energy also damaged the card, forcing it to activate under special conditions!

Although they later discovered this special rule for activation, at the time they just had to deal with what manifested early without thinking of the reason it happened.

Unfortunately… it was a Stone Cyclops. Celes wasn't afraid of many things, but these creatures caused her to pause.

Screee~

Celes gasped, hearing the crooning she had missed dearly. “How could I forget? Sapphire!"

A sharp cry resounded as a silver and blue light rushed towards Celes from the sky. Her natal card was seeking her out.

She hurried out of the vehicle, almost immediately getting slammed by the light, knocking her unconscious.

*

Somewhere in the sky, a small metal bird cut through the clouds with a grunting whistle.

This was a private aircraft that seated three, built for the wealthy.

In the passenger area sat a young man with a quiet handsomeness. O'Brien had deep pupils that reflected the pits he had crawled out of in life.

3..2...1.

Looking at his watch, he hit the speed dial and extended the antenna on his phone.

"It's time, Shadow,” he said. “I already gave you a taste of my knowledge and you know the plan.”

After a slight pause, he continued. “Now for a little auspicious recital... Follow your script closely. If you fuck up, we do it over until you get it, but I won't be pleased. The pronunciations must be as we practiced. Let's start."

O'Brien suddenly started speaking a weird tongue-twisting language. It sounded like a growl and scream combined. Familiarity would cling to the fact that sometimes it sounded slightly like Russian and Mandarin, but it was inexplicably mysterious and skin-crawling at the same time.

Sounds that humans were not supposed to make.

A similar evil grunting echoed from the other side of the phone. This went on for a few minutes until...

"Zslect O'brien Lesser Hall."

"Good,” O'Brien gruffly said. “This is all we'll hear of each other for quite a while. I wish you well, Shadow. Don't disappoint me."

By now, the plane had already landed on a roof. He got up and calmly walked to the rear area with a small grin.

‘I couldn't let it go after all, Blue Phoenix. I hope my gift satisfies you enough to reciprocate in the spirit of gift-giving. In hindsight, even if I was there, the knowledge I possess is far inferior to yours…’

His smile faltered a little bit at his thoughts. ‘Which is why I can't help but be a little restless…’

“All this plotting has made me hungry.” Opening a snack he, he spoke to himself as he walked, a surprisingly healthy habit.

"Fortunately, it's just about done now. I shouldn't do anymore. With the colossal storm that is the apocalypse and New World incoming, seeking to control everything or even most things is no more than a fool's errand.” He took a bite, chewing thoughtfully. “The variables are even more crazy than the wacky weather in some areas that change from sunny to raining lava and hail."

While munching, O'brien couldn't help but think about his fellow regressor once more. Their fates were semi-intertwined and special, so of course he couldn't completely forget about her. But they were now taking different paths, even without his own intervention. He had a feeling they would meet again. What would their next meeting be like?

He paused and ordered on his comms as they began to move again. "Airdrop the next one here."

Hanging outside the plane were three lightweight containers as large as a human. Fortunately, this plane had enough power to handle heavy loads, which was one of the strong points as a result of reducing carrying capacity.

At his order, another one of the containers was detached.

O'Brien continued munching, not dwelling much on the air drop.

The space was already tearing and the supernatural energy has begun to seep into Earth. Luckily, it was enough to allow for a contract to be done.

Otherwise, he would have to blow up an entire building just to erase some important papers from existence.

Well, he had bigger things to worry about now. If things didn't pass the next critical stage, it wouldn't matter anyway. Blue Phoenix, aliens, the apocalypse; none of it would matter.

It might have been cowardly, but he was really tired and bet everything on this next step. If it failed, he could die.

‘I'm tired of fighting tooth and nail to survive and having to lower my pride to join or deal with teams as an 'individual', running away from 4 out of 5 alien races at any point in time. Brainwashing or training a new trustworthy team is also…something I don't want to do. I was prepared to die anyway, so if this is really a gift from high above, I can only say they are blind for choosing me. Thoughts and prayers for the unchosen and better qualified…’

He thought it was more likely that his regression was an accident. Blue Phoenix was likely the main fated one to begin with.

“My presence was just an accident, so I can give up anytime I want. Ha!” He chuckled darkly. “Who would have thought that instead of becoming a Conqueror after regressing, I would become a Sheep instead?”

Celes and Minnie had no way of knowing their currently unknown formidable competitor was actually so weak-willed that he would kill himself if things didn't go his way. They had forgotten he existed, and if things went well for them, they wouldn't even have to remember he existed.

O'Brien felt no shame in feeling this way. Who wanted a life filled with difficulties at every turn without basic human rights? Even if he could avoid a lot of that humiliation, he wasn't satisfied with only that. A little effort and sucking up was still too much for him, especially when he had already made his peace with death. He had resolved himself to die. He didn't ask for this second chance!

To grovel or even slightly beg was out of the question for O'Brien. Even needing to ask a small favor to someone disgusted him at the mere thought.

Given this second chance, O'Brien could easily and safely rise to the top ranks of humanity with his knowledge of the future, but the 'top' was very different from the 'peak'.

He asked himself a question like many others in the past.

Why did they keep pushing forward? What was the purpose?

The people of this time didn't know the horrors that lay in wait for them in the New World. Even with knowledge of the future, humanity would never regain their former positions. Even the strongest of humanity fifteen years later had to run away in the face of many alien races. Despite the expansion of the earth, the area belonging to humanity was shrunken to less than a fifth of what it once was.

O'Brien simply felt that it was too tragic to return to the past and still have to work like a disabled stray dog to survive anywhere in the world.

If he wasn't prostituting most things for nothing, like a tyrannical dictator with everything at his fingertips, then what was the point?

Like redoing all tests and class projects after going back in time, even if it came easier, it was still a nuisance. Anyone with sense after decades of schooling would choose to find a way to forego those tedious tests that in the end meant very little.

Such was the case for him, given the choice to redo it well with average effort and redoing it perfectly with minimal effort.

The latter obviously took priority.

Eternal peace and slumber were far more attractive to him.

Hard work? He was sick of it. If he didn't have everything on a platter this time then he would jump into Death's embrace!

Besides, he already gave up 75% of his advantage by not being in New Roselee City, so it was too late to turn back now.

It was all or nothing.

Sweee~

The plane descended, all airdrops having been made. It was finally time.

The card fall had just begun.

O'Brien equipped his special parachute and jetpack, then signaled the horrified pilot who was having doubts about life, seeing the sky and meteors showers.

Was five million for a short flight worth flying with all the crazy things happening?

His initial thought was yes. He had burned a hole in his pocket this past week in disaster funds, helping friends and family. He could always stock up on more non-perishables, but...

What the fuck was with those glowing lights suddenly dropping from the sky?!

This client seemed to be eccentric enough, though he had met far stranger clients among the rich. But the weather conditions were the wackiest he had ever seen, even in his dreams!

The pilot opened the hatch and saw the tower below a second later. His eyes almost jumped out of his skull, seeing what was below.

At the same time, as soon as the hatch opened, O'Brien jumped out.

A grey aura was on the 41st floor, and the top half of the tower was vanishing like dust bit by bit.

Strange visions of ghosts and demons roamed the sky around the tower like apparitions. Their numbers grew by the minute from several to dozens and to what would eventually be thousands.