Work Text:
A plane of pure white, toppled pillars of scripture, a magnificent golden door adorned with her sigil.
Within the confines of her dreams, Olivia knew this place well. But the gate was closed and she knew it would never again open.
So why was she here?
"It all looks right, aside from falling apart. And that eyesore on the door." Behind her was a voice Olivia never thought to hear again.
"Mater." Her words betrayed her shock and her fear.
"Child." Sheila Godot's words were as cold and impersonal as ever. Were it not for loose mail kept around the house Olivia would never have known her name at all. Although she knew her as Sheila Smith.
"Why are you here?" Olivia's fear began to subside as she remembered that she no longer had to be afraid of this woman. She was dead and whatever this apparition was could not hurt her.
"Questioning me? When did you become so bold?" Sheila's voice reeked of disdain. It always reeked of disdain.
"After I killed you." Olivia turned to face her mater. She was not the same mater remembered. She was young, Olivia's age. She wore an elaborate dress of black and white. Her hair had a white streak in it. The expression on her face was the same expression Olivia remembered. As disdainful as her voice.
"Not a revelation. I always knew it was you. Rebellion and defiance tainted you. It's why the Founder couldn't entrust her full power in you." Something was different in Sheila's voice. Resignation? Doubt? She looked at the sigil on the door, Olivia looked at her and for the third time in her life felt a surge of power over the woman who tormented her childhood.
"Do you seriously believe that? It's ridiculous. Everything you did was ridiculous. It had no basis in reality. Only a lunatic could have believed it would have worked. Even if it did work why did you think the second coming of the Founder would have been any different than the first? You wasted my childhood. You wasted your life. You were a fool." There was no anger in Olivia's voice. Only a sense of triumph. She knew she was twisting the knife and it felt good.
"I've had long enough to think of that now and I am forced to admit you might be right." Even in deference Sheila's tone didn't change. "The Founder is weak. Always was. Couldn't even keep the monsters out of her glorious city. Makes preening dolls instead of genuine warriors. A pathetic god we were cursed with. There was never any hope. My life was wasted."
Olivia could feel something grow within her. A curiosity. For the first time ever her mater appeared in front of her as a person, rather than a terrifying soulless source of pain. She had to ask. She had to ask.
"Why?"
"Did I not tell you multiple times over the course of your life why? To create the second coming of the Founder. To purge the monsters from the city once and for all."
"Why did you care about that so much that you'd be willing to do everything you did? Why was it that important?"
"I'd tell you that it was out of vengeance for the death of my father but that would be a lie. Mostly. Truthfully after that I could only ever see the monsters as a suppurating wound endlessly bleeding all over the city and magical girls as nothing more than an ineffectual stopgap, creating a disgusting and hopeless status quo. How everybody else could simply accept it nauseated me. I devoted my life to doing something about it because it's the only thing in life that truly mattered and nobody else cared. So what else could I do?"
Olivia could feel an overwhelming frustration bloom within her. "You could have lived your life like every other person. You could have accepted that there are some things you can't change. You could have at least tried to see that the world has so many things to offer aside from an all-consuming goal you never could have achieved." Olivia paused, the next one was the most important thing whether she wanted to admit it or not. "You could have loved people instead of hating them because they didn't partake in your lunacy!"
"There was never any chance of that. The love in me died a long time ago. And were it not for my goal I never would have bothered siring you. So as terrible as your life was know that there was never any hope of a different outcome and, as you said, accept that there are some things you can not change."
Olivia should have been used to such disdain from Sheila but a primal rage overwhelmed her nonetheless. So she responded in the only way that made sense to her.
She punched her in the face.
It was like punching air. Her form momentarily dispersed then quickly reformed.
"You can not hurt me. Nor can I hurt you." Olivia was dismayed. Sheila wasn't even angry at being attacked. "Did killing me not sufficiently quell your rebellious streak?"
Olivia came to a startling realization.
"You don't even care that I killed you do you?"
"For all my attempts to continue my plan truth be told I had outlived my usefulness. You turned out to be worthless and I was unable to sire another child nor could I find another child from a magical girl bloodline to prepare. So what did it matter?" Sheila's expression and tone when talking about her own death was unwavering and unnerving.
"So what would you differently?" Olivia had to know if Sheila had any genuine regrets about throwing not only her life, but the lives of several other people away in her pursuit of the impossible.
"I have had time...wherever and whatever here is to contemplate and I realized I would have prepared you differently."
"But you already said that you think the Founder is pathetic and it was all hopeless. Why would you try to do it again, throw your life away again, to try to repeat something you know to be hopeless."
"Because life is pointless and hopeless and I don't know anything else. We live but don't know why and don't know how. One way to waste your life is as valid as another, that is what I've learned. So wake up. Live your life, love those around you and try to convince yourself that that's good enough. We're done here. I see no reason for us to ever meet again."
It was Olivia's turn to express disdain. "Agreed."
And just like that, Olivia woke up.
"That couldn't have been her right? That doesn't happen. That's impossible. But I mean we get magical powers through dreams so maybe I'm the one who doesn't know what's possible."
One thing Olivia knew is that she wouldn't get closure on that question until she at least tried to find out for herself.