Disclaimer: This is fanwork based on the anime Re:Creators by Troyca. Its setting, characters and plot belong to their rightful creators. I write this only for fun and as a little writing experiment.

EPISODE 0: THE PLAN BEGINS

Freedom! Freedom at last!

For too long I have been trapped in a library in the middle of nowhere. Trapped in a collapsing world where people did nothing but wait so a hero would solve their problems. Seriously, I heard that peasants just stood in the middle of the town and asked people to look for their lost cow or kill a group of rats instead of doing it themselves. Lazy and pathetic, all of them. Not that the nobles or the scholars were any better. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

My name is Meteora Österreich. This is my story.

Once, I was a librarian at the Library of a Thousand Miles Kust Wunderkammer, at the end of the Last Tableland. I still don't know why we had a library there. I mean, it was right before the domains of a dark menace that threatened our world. We had few visitors, mostly overrated mass murderers dressed in the belongings they had stolen from too many victims to count.

"Adventurers", they called them.

My duty in the library was to greet said thugs and bore them with lore until they left. Theoretically, one day a hero would come to defeat Evil (with capital 'e'!) and I would have to pass on the secret of Zalkazan. To be honest, I'm not sure if I did it already. My memories of past, present and future were foggy. Sometimes, I felt as if I only existed to be in that place at that moment, and the rest was just a bunch of nothingness.

The she came. And I found out I was right.

00000

Who was she? No one important. Just a twin-tailed large ham dressed in a military uniform, putting on airs as if she was some sort of royalty. I think I will call her "Military Uniform Princess". So original.

The thing is, I was dealing with the latest brute that had come to our library when she appeared. She started talking about some nonsense, said that her master "liked me" (of course she liked me; I'm the greatest sage in the world, after all) and then attacked me. Like that. It was very rude of her. Thankfully, I always carry with me my trusted Magic Book. Yes, I call it "Magic Book". Yes, I know that naming things is not my forte. But crushing people like bugs with my magic is. So stop smiling.

Unfortunately, the Military Uniform Bi… I mean, the Military Uniform Princess had her own magic too. Annoying flying swords and an even more annoying 'Holopsicon', whatever that means, which threw me across the barriers of the world until I landed in some sort of dystopia where you couldn't see the stars at night, the seas were poisoned with toxic chemicals and the rulers of the land were chosen by plebeians. The horror.

The Military Uniform Princess soon followed. She looked sooooo smug. And she started talking again.

"Blah, blah, blah, I summoned you, blah, blah, blah, land of the gods, blah, blah, blah, you are a fictional character from a video game, blah, blah blah, muh revolution, blah, blah, blah, muh punishment, blah, blah, blah..."

After a while, I stopped listening to her. I hate monologuing if I don't do it myself.

One thing was clear to me: I had been transported to another world where I was but a fictional character made to entertain others. After the initial shock, I was thrilled. Everything made sense now! My confusing memories from the library, the moronic attitudes of my people, the suicidal rulership of the lands, the senseless economy system… It was just a game!

But there was more: now I was free to change my own story. Better yet, if what the Military Uniform Princess said was true, I could find my own author and make him do the changes. I could become omnipotent and omniscient! The Goddess-Empress of the Universe! No, scratch that, the Goddess-Empress of the Multiverse sounds much better.

By that time, the mysterious twin-tailed brat had finished her speech and waited for my response.

She had offered an alliance to go against the gods. Tempting, but I had to refuse. For if I want to become the rightful Goddess-Empress of the Multiverse, a person with the power and knowledge to bring fictional characters to life isn't an ally. She is a rival. A very dangerous rival.

The Military Uniform Princess was disappointed by my answer, but she let me go… after some 'heated' dialogue. I'm going to kill her one of these days.

00000

Now I'm on my own. But I prefer it this way. However, if I'm to face that brat again, I will need more power. Weapons. Lots of them.

I check my Magic Book for clues. This land of the gods is horrible. Have you seen their history? So dreadful. I know I have complained about my people, but frankly, I have seen demons with more humane qualities than the inhabitants of this sorry excuse for a world. They need a strong hand to guide them. Or perhaps they should be purged from the face of the planet so nature can start again from scratch. According to my book, nuking them from orbit is "the only way to be sure".

Sadly, there are no nukes in this country. It seems it's called Japan, and my video game comes from the sick mind of one of their nationals. Which explains why their language is exactly the same as in my world. Convenient. It doesn't explain why everyone there had German-sounding names, though.

Still, Japan does have an army. Very small compared to others, but I'm not looking for their soldiers. I'm looking for their weapons.

There is a military camp not far from here. I've been making a list of what I want: anti-tank missiles, machine guns, hand grenades… I will go there, I will take what I need and I will face the Military Uniform Princess once again. Then, I will kill her, I will throw her body into a garbage dump and I will erase any evidence of her. Only then I will be free to pursue my goals of universal rewriting and ascension to godhood.

My plan has just begun. Soon, the land of the gods will kneel before the great Meteora Österreich! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

…

Maybe I should practice my evil laugh a bit more.

Author's notes: Once, in some comments about the series, I joked that Meteora could be a villain manipulating our heroes, which would explain some inconsistencies, plot holes and overlooked data. Not that I seriously believe it, but my friend Lord Nayrael suggested: why not make it a fanfiction story from that idea? So here I am.

Besides this prologue, which covers the events of Meteora's backstory prior to her first meeting with Souta and Selesia, expect a chapter per episode. I'll try to update as frequently as I can (and the readers of Kitsune no Mago now I can do a lot in that regard), but I'm not making any hard promises.

What I promise is that I'll stick to canon as much as I can. This is a writing exercise, after all, a reinterpretation of the events of the series from the point of view of a megalomaniac villain disguised as a soft-spoken and deadpan librarian rather than a whole new plot. So, beware SPOILERS! All the names from Meteora's background I took from the anime, and her list of weapons is not coincidental: as episode 5 revealed, she did steal those weapons from the JSDF. Such a heinous criminal!

Will this little experiment of mine work? Who knows. But I hope the ride will be a bit enjoyable at the very least ;)