I sat across from Sophie as we both held cups of coffee in our hands and waited for the room to heat up. I had already taken off my coat, but she was a base human and had been chilled to the bone, so she kept her layers on. It was hard not just to hug her in my arms, to show her how much I loved and missed her, but I knew I needed to take things slow. She still had the shotgun pointed at me as we made small talk. “So… Thanks for not shooting me.” She squinted slightly before taking a sip of her coffee. “Thanks for the coffee.” I couldn’t help but smile as I held back happy tears.

“Can I play some music?” I pulled out a music player and began playing Tchaikovsky’s Allegro non troppo e molto maestoso. I could hear her breath hitch as it started playing. I personally wasn’t a big fan of classical music, I enjoyed some, but most I’ve heard ever since I was a kid in Looney Tunes cartoons, and didn’t realize where they were from. I watched so many cartoons that I got sick of the music for a while; only classical music I hadn’t heard had any interest to me.

This… It was surprisingly something I hadn’t heard before. I only remembered it was her favorite song. The record was loaded with songs she’s talked about before, it made me feel like I had cheat codes, I already knew what she liked, so it made things like this easier. I just didn’t want to come across as creepy. The one thing I couldn’t handle was Sophie not liking me in this timeline.

She knew who I was from the context and remembered that I told her I was from the future. After several pointed questions, she started to believe me. It was the questions she asked that I didn’t have the answers to that made my story more believable. We had only been a couple for a few months when she died, so I didn’t know absolutely everything about her life.

“That was when you died in the first timeline… I didn’t take it very well and fell into depression for longer than we were together. Only after the leader of our survivor camp died and a stronger group raided us did I snap out of my downward spiral.” Out of morbid curiosity, she asked. “What killed me in the first timeline?” I didn’t want to tell her, but I knew how curious she always was.

If there was something she didn’t understand, she’d study and ask questions until she did. If I didn’t tell her right now, she’d ask me over and over again until I eventually was worn down and told her anyway. “You… You were shot in the back by a normal human who was jealous of your power. You could command animals, mostly dogs, but I've seen you send loud birds away from the window before.”

I rolled a core across the table toward her, and she made no motion to grab it as it rolled off the table. At the last moment, she went to catch it, but missed. “Were you expecting me to grab that?” I hadn’t met her until after she gained her power, so I had never seen this uncoordinated side of her before. I could see it now, though, how my attractiveness made women flustered around me.

She was acting in a way she had never acted around me before. I kept catching her staring at a body part of mine, my thick arms, my butt as we walked down the steps, my chiseled face, before she seen I noticed her and looked away embarrassed. I let her know through my actions that I found her just as attractive as the day I met her; this time, I was more self-assured. As I stared at her, I made no indication of embarrassment and only smiled back when she caught me.

I kept telling her about what happened after she died, how that was only the first year of the apocalypse, she didn’t make it to Pennsylvania until months from now, by then, the sister she was looking for was already missing. How things spiralled out of control, people with the most powerful powers started to rule like tyrants, as life became a struggle for survival.

She moved to pick up the core, her body locking up for that brief moment I had seen before as I waited for her to have a reaction. Unfortunately, she did. She played it off like it was totally natural as a cat approached from the other room and sat on her lap. She smiled in success as she explained. “I’ve had this bitch for three years, but she’s always been temperamental and hated being pet.”

The power quickly faded as the cat jumped off her lap. “So… What you’re saying is the truth. You’ve lived through a second world, or have gone through a computer simulation that was indistinguishable from real life, and you know what’s going to happen beforehand… Why didn’t you warn the government?” I laughed before letting her know.

“Oh, the government knew already. Most of the powerful leaders fled south, and ninety-nine percent of them will never come back. There will be a very brief attempt at recreating the government we had before in a year or so, but it’ll be quickly ended when a powered kills the ‘new president’ and tries to take over before he’s killed himself.”

I finished my coffee as I got up to make another for myself. “The world will never be the same again. The reason we can have this peace and civility is that it benefits everyone to work together. Once powered individuals realize they can get stronger by absorbing cores, success becomes a competition. The statement power corrupts is apt for what happens. The worst flourish while the kind fail in this world now.”

How many times did I see it happen? At least dozens, anyone who wanted to make their place in this world would have it stripped out from underneath them by someone meaner and stronger. A man could start to farm, only to have it stripped from him the next week, or be killed the moment the crops were ready. Some had farmers serve them, but then their enemies would kill the farmers to hurt the leader.

Any time someone got power working, the strongest in the area would flock to it and take it from them, not realizing that they were slowly killing those who knew how to restart humanity every time they did so. I pulled out a few more cores before I mentioned. “Oh, by the way… I feel six others in the area that can become powered… Which is an insane amount, especially considering that the only living creatures around here are your animals.”

They… Devastated her animals. All of the pigs and prairie dogs were slain outright as someone took sadistic glee in killing them, and about half of the dogs and cats. The powered animals were the foal named Speedy with… farting powers(first negative power), the kangaroo named Jack who could store items in his newly formed pouch(which male kangaroos didn’t have), one of the cats named Stumpy… I couldn’t tell what he gained. The miniature pony named Princess grew to the size of a regular pony, a female labrador named Shadow gained increased stats, and the donkey named Pinto gained wings… 

Of fucking course it was the donkey that got the coolest power so far. Sophie’s eyes went wide at all the changes, but I was pretty sure she was close to passing out when she saw her donkey grow wings. The heat from the room and her improved abilities from her power let her quickly acclimate to the warmer room as she took off her coat. She was covered in sweat, which was odd; she fanned herself as she asked. “Are there any side effects to these cores… I feel… A little hot.”