Last Wish

I never loved Fate.

I make no lies about it. The truth is, the daughter that I described all the time, the one who was kind to me, who loved me above all things, wasn't Alicia. Alicia was kind and sweet, but even at such a young age I knew she would one day rebel, one day choose a path away from me and live it happily with no regrets. Such a strong girl, Alicia.

Fate wouldn't have.

Sometimes it angered me, how different Fate became from my precious Alicia. But during the moments when I expressed my rage, my disappointment, secretly in my heart I was glad of it. How cruel of me, to be glad that Alicia did not return!

Once I revived Alicia, Fate would die. By "would die", I meant that I would dispose of her, of course. And how could I have borne the agony of killing a doll who looked at me with Alicia's face and soul?

Fate loved me. She loved me so much that with one word from me, she would have willingly broken herself so that I would be happy. Did you think that I didn't know? I knew how she felt. I knew that all she ever wanted was for me to smile at her. And yet I never did. Poorly handled, the whole mess—if only my heart hadn't ached with every day I did not have Alicia, I could have bound Fate more tightly to me. I could have achieved enough Jewel Seeds to reach Al Hazard at last.

How hollow regrets sound, at the end of things.

"If you wish, I will protect you from anyone or anything in this entire world. Not because I'm your daughter. But because…you're my mother!"

Even after everything, the little fool said that. Her expression entirely sincere, she offered herself to me. Going to our deaths, after the useless battles with the Bureau and the attempts of that silly civilian mage-girl to redeem her, she would throw away everything for someone who didn't love her, who had never loved her. As I said—what a little fool.

I'll be with Alicia soon.

"I'm not interested."

The Admiral knew—I could see her eyes: reproachful, then sad, then relieved. I knew she understood. For a moment, we stared at each other, not villain to officer but mother to mother.

"Let's go together, Alicia. We won't be separated this time."

Even though she was one of them, I knew that she would honour her unspoken promise to my unspoken request.

Take care of my daughter.

Author's Note:

I didn't want to portray Precia as a sympathetic character in any way, or attempt to excuse what she did to Fate. However, even villains sometimes do small, selfless things that no one would have expected from them, and I wanted to explore that. This was based off a page on TV Tropes somewhere that gave the alternate interpretation of Precia's last act of rejecting Fate's offer of help as ensuring that Fate wouldn't get dragged down with her at the end.