Chapter 11: Paradiso- A Sea of Stars
"In other words, please be true. In other words, I love you." Balder's voice was a soft tenor, echoing off the walls of the garden.
He had come downstairs into the garden created in remembrance of her. This garden was for Rosa, the only woman he'd ever loved and would never forget. The old sage often came down here to twine the flowers together on the headstone whenever he needed tranquility.
"Fill my heart with song. Let me sing forever more. You are all I long for, all I worship and adore."
The song made him think of everything about Rosa. Her lovely smile that filled his heart with joy. Her long, flowing black hair that she always kept parted down the middle and pushed behind her ears. Her purple glasses that looked like butterfly wings and would always fall down her nose and he'd push them back up her nose. Her sleek black dress that covered all her skin, but did nothing to hide her wondrous figure. Her serene fighting style of gliding and flying around. Even her abrasive familiar, Cheshire.
How he had loved her.
Together they had found a meaning to life outside of duty. They both had wanted to escape their lives that were written out beforehand and out of their control.
Balder was to be the Right Eye of the Lumen Sages. Rosa was to be the Left Eye of the Umbra Witches.
Perhaps it was fate that they had met and fell in love.
"In other words, please be true. In other words, I love you. In other words, I love you." As he sang the final verse of the song he finished braiding the last flower on Rosa's grave.
The grave was covered in pink, yellow, and purple flowers. Rosa would have preferred the coloring of the Umbra, but Balder couldn't bring himself to cover her grave with reminders of the people that had betrayed her.
"Stop thinking of her! Focus on the future. The Creator will soon be here." A voice growled from within him.
This voice had been haunting him for too long. It had been corrupting him ever since that day. Soon he wouldn't be able to contain the evil much longer.
Balder took off his mask and looked at his reflection in the monocle's glass. His right eye was faintly glowing blue and throbbing.
"You have a greater destiny to achieve. Fulfill it!"
The pain in his right eye was becoming too much. He was so tired of this ongoing battle between himself and his tormentor.
"Brother! Are you alright? What's wrong with your eye!?"
Every thing around Balder was blurry and spinning. His breaths were coming in short puffs and his heart was racing. The old sage could feel Sigyn's magic trying to soothe the pain in his eye. The intensity of the voice slowly receded from his mind at Sigyn's presence.
After the pain stopped Balder opened his eyes, languidly letting his vision come back. Sigyn had lain his head in her lap and was rubbing relaxing circles on his temple. The old sage was much too weary to move so he remained in place, blankly gazing into his younger sister's eyes. Right now they looked more green than blue.
Funny, how their roles had shifted over the years. Balder used to always have to comfort Sigyn and look after her. Now it was the other way around.
"Why won't you tell me what ails you, brother? This is the fifth time this week I've found you having these seizures of pain. I can't help you if you don't let me, Balder." Her eyes began to fill with tears.
Oh, Sigyn.
How could he possibly tell her of what resided inside of him? Her fragile heart would break into millions of pieces at the truth.
Sigyn must have seen the refusal in his expression. "How have we come to this point I wonder? I remember I used to tell you every thing and you in turn shared all your secrets with me."
Balder didn't care to hear any of this. He was trying to protect her.
The old sage struggled to move his weary body from Sigyn's lap.
"I have always stood by your side through the good and bad. I loved you as my brother and father first, long before Rosa came. Remember that." Her miserable expression didn't match the strong words coming from her lips. Sigyn firmly held Balder's hand to prevent him from leaving. Her hands were warm compared to his cold one.
Eventually, she loosened her grip and replaced her hand with Balder's mask.
"I know that better than anyone, Sigyn. I could never have made it this far without my beloved sister."
"Rosa, what am I to do with him? I am so lost..." Sigyn laid back in front of Rosa's grave.
She had decided to stay after Balder left. Her long, sunlight-blonde hair fanned out around her like a halo with flowers and grass intwined in it. It was a little chilly since she was in her nightgown and robe, but she loved coming down here, it held two of her favorite things. Rosa and nature.
Despite Sigyn's initial dislike of Rosa, the witch became like sister to her over time. Sigyn's heart especially softened after the twins were born.
The chills continued to bother he and in Sigyn's depressed state of mind the room was only becoming colder by the minute.
Her brother's plan was pure madness.
How would bringing Jubileus, the Creator onto the mortal plane solve this world's chaos?
Chaos was one of many balances in this world. Order cannot exist without chaos.
Light with dark. There must always be a conflicting force.
Why couldn't Balder see this?
If Jubileus was allowed to rule then she would ruin this world along with every living creature. Even though her family was of the light, certainly the great creator would see them as imperfect and thus deam them unfit to live in her world.
"Maybe, I am just being too partial to chaos because of how I still feel about Loki...I haven't even seen him in years and yet I still think about him... Did you think about my brother like this Rosa?"
Sigyn held up her hand and fondly gazed at the silver ring. The ring had a single diamond in the middle. The stone was the same odd shade of blue that Loki's powers admitted. She was always curious where he had got the stone, but he never shared that information.
He never told her a lot of things.
"He just abandoned me at the altar. No warning, no signs, no letters. He just up and disappeared. Loki really is the God of Nothing. For he left me with nothing." Sigyn choked back tears.
She desperately wanted to pull the ring off and toss it. She'd wanted to do that for many years, but could never bring herself to do it.
The little girl in her that obsessively imagined her wedding day wouldn't let go.
Sigyn could feel herself becoming drowsy in the cold, empty room. All her reservations about Jubileus, her family, and the world lulled her to sleep.
She dreamt of the wedding she was promised by her lost love.
"Vigrid…I've been there before." Bayonetta stroked the faded engravings on the wall. Cerezo and she were inside the courtyard, or what used to be the courtyard for the witches.
This place was nothing but ruins and bad memories. The sage didn't want to be here at all. The place had too many horrid memories for him.
In this instance he was grateful his sister didn't remember any of it. Nonetheless, Cerezo would tolerate this abysmal place for the possibility of Bayonetta regaining her memories. It appeared the place was having a substantial effect on her, if her constant stopping and frequent pauses were anything to go on.
"Jeanne? Cereza? The little one?" Bayonetta muttered.
Cerezo looked over her shoulder and saw that she found an old wood block of Jeanne and Cereza that he had craved for her.
He remembered Cereza begged him to make it for her. She always wanted to remember her only friend. At the time Cerezo wasn't as frigid with Jeanne as he was now. Before, he didn't see any real harm in them being friends, even though he couldn't stand Jeanne and they argued like cats and dogs.
Now he wished that he'd discouraged the friendship. Maybe then Cereza wouldn't have been lost to them...perhaps he should give a warning to his younger self next time.
The sage's thought process was disturbed by the rumbling floor that was cracking open like a fissure.
From out of the cracks came a swarm of tentacles. One of them managed to snag Bayonetta's foot. Before it pulled her into the hole, Cerezo shot an arrow at the limb.
"Tentacles…Why did it have to be tentacles?" Instead of worrying about the enemy, Bayonetta was hoping around on one foot trying to remove the severed tentacle and complaining about the stain on her heels.
Once she was done, Cerezo dryly proposed they chase after them through the hole.
"Silver, explain to me why is it we take one step forward only to take two steps back?" Her complaining continued.
The hole had taken them back to the square from earlier, only there was a large mechanism in the middle with a staff sticking up in the middle. Multiple mysterious walls were around as well.
"Just think of like this, every set back is just another opportunity for redemption. Or, if that doesn't appeal to you, then just imagine that there is some sadist bastard waiting at the end of these challenges for you to...how do say...fuck Up." Cerezo's ironic comment hit the mark.
Bayonetta was loudly laughing like a madman as she went to demolish her end of mysterious walls.
His comment truly was ironic, after all it was their father and himself that were causing Bayonetta to go through all these trials in hopes that she would awaken. But they were absolutely not sadistic bastards, just optimistic pushers...
Since he turned the mechanism last time, the sage allowed Bayonetta to do it this time.
Worst decision ever.
She jumped on the staff and twirled on it like some harlot. Cerezo did not need that image of his sister ingrained into his mind.
"I've been meaning to ask you this Silver, but I keep getting distracted. Why on Earth did you call me sis before?" She looked confused behind her glasses.
"It is because you…" Cerezo wanted to tell her, but a half-truth would have to suffice. "Because you sincerely remind me of my sister. When you were in danger I couldn't help but think of her. My instincts kicked in. I apologize if I made you feel uncomfortable."
He just couldn't tell her. Lying to his beloved sister when she was so lost, truly felt awful.
The answer clearly disappointed Bayonetta. Was she expecting him to say something else?
The witch transformed into a panther and jumped to the other ledge. Cerezo followed in his lion transformation. They both changed back after being attacked by past enemies Bayonetta had faced.
It was odd for Cerezo to see the apparitions of Temperantia and Fortitudo that his father had conjured in Paradiso. They may been fakes, but they fought like the original angels. Their defeat was quick compared to the first time Bayonetta faced them.
Although, Temperantia knocked the island at the end of the ramp off, causing it to spin.
"It's going to take precise timing to land, Bayonetta. If we're not careful we could end up falling into a never ending sea of stars...although, that doesn't sound entirely bad." Cerezo warned.
"For you it might. Me, on the other hand, I'd like to die doing something a little dirtier." Bayonetta snorted at him.
Her remarks were really starting to bother Cerezo. How the hell did his sweet, innocent, Cereza become this promiscuous woman?
This century was a bad influence on her.
They both managed to jump in sync onto the spinning island, only to have to jump onto another. From the platform they jumped from symbol to symbol till reaching a long bridge.
All this gravitational changing was making Cerezo dizzy.
"Oh look, those nasty tentacles are back. Well, do go on Silver." Bayonetta pushed him towards the hanging tentacles.
"Oh, no, no, no. That would be so rude of me. Ladies first, I insist." Cerezo used his Light Speed to get behind his sister and watched gleefully as she fell forward from not having a body to push.
Bayonetta cursed at him as she was forced to go first.
This was payback for her cackling at his motion sickness.
As expected the dangling limbs tried to kill them by crushing the twins with its pointy stems.
What a day.
"What happened to Mummy?" Sissy skipped around in the grass, looking for Mummy.
Cerezo hoped she didn't trip and start crying. He'd already had to calm her down this morning after she woke up.
"And Daddy, too!" He added.
Their father had left the twins with this strange man. At least Luka's scarf was fun to chase after.
"Well you see, she just went to look for something, that's all. And he went to go help her, I think." Luka bent down and patted the little boy's head since he was closer and started mumbling to himself. "I can't believe that witch. Placing these poor, helpless children under her spell. And that guy, I don't think he's their dad. If she or him did anything to these kid's parents, I swear…" Luka stopped mumbling and patting his head when Cereza tripped.
Aww, there she goes again. Expecting her tears, Cerezo ran over to her and tried to stop the oncoming fit.
"Mummy." Cereza cried, trying to wipe the dirt off her face.
"Don't cry Sissy, it's just a little dirt. It comes right off." He used his sleeve to wipe the dirt off.
"No need to cry…we'll get you to your mom in no time." Luka picked Sissy up and placed her on a rock. "Here, I've got some candy if you want."
Like magic, Luka snapped his finger and a red-rose candy appeared in his hand. When Cereza saw the candy she stopped crying and happily took it.
Lucky.
"Mmm…What is this? It's yummy."
"I don't know…it's candy. Strawberry, I think? Oh and I've got one for you too, Cerezito." Another snap and a blue-rose candy appeared.
Cerezo joyfully took it and thanked Luka.
Daddy wouldn't really let him have sweets. He always complained that Cerezo ate them too much, but Aunty Sigyn would always sneak him a few when Daddy wasn't looking.
"Hey kitty, I've got some yummies. Would you like some?" Cereza tried to feed Cheshire the candy.
Watching her made Cerezo sad. He didn't have Mr. Rabbit so he couldn't share with anyone. Mr. Rabbit was probably lonely in Cereza's room.
He also wondered if anybody noticed they were gone. Those stuffy witches would probably be happy if they stayed lost.
"Is that cat your friend?" Luka asked, surprised by the toy.
Most people were surprised by the appearance of the toys. Cerezo remembered that Jeanne said people noticed their toys cause they were ragged. He didn't know what ragged meant, but since it came from Jeanne it was most likely something mean.
"Yes, he is. His name is Cheshire. He's cute, isn't he? Mummy made him for me after a cat she once had." Cereza shoved Cheshire's stitched body into Luka's frowning face.
"Cheshire…what a stupid name." Luckily Cereza didn't hear him, but her brother did and he threw grass at him.
"Hey don't call my Sissy's cat stupid! You're stupid, stupid!"
Luka just ignored Cerezo though and kept walking. "Well, so much for taking the highway…That just means we're just gonna have to find something else."
While the man walked back to the twins, Cerezo saw him pull another candy out of his jacket. This candy was green. Luka started eating it while mumbling to himself.
"Now all I have to figure out is what to do about you two." He made a funny face after glancing at the twins. "So, Cerezita, Cerezito...that woman's really your mom?" His funny face turned into an even funnier smile and his voice became really high.
"Uh-huh! My Mummy is strong and she protects us from scary monsters! Right brother!?" Cereza had called the angels scary again.
"I told you Cereza, the angels aren't scary! They're heaven's knights! The demons are the scary monsters." Cerezo insisted.
He would never believe the angels were anything but good guys. Cereza's happy smile turned into a frown. The little boy could tell they were about to start fighting again.
"No the angels are bad!" She started it.
"No demons are bad!" He argued.
Back and forth they went, not paying attention to Luka.
"Monster? I don't think you two know who the real monsters are." The adult muttered grimly.
Elsewhere, a boy and girl moved the Bayonetta and Cerezo toy's from the toy blocks in heaven to the Vigrid Holy Air Force Base.
