AUTHOR'S NOTE: Don't own anything from Bayonetta or Final Fantasy 7. Now, here is a giant lore dump, so be prepared for my interpretation of events!
...
Something in her gut was telling her to come downstairs. So, she picked up her favourite doll and carefully traversed the hallway and stairs, taking one at a time like Mummy had told her.
"C-" PAIN HEAD BREAK BREAK BREAK BREAK HER HER SKULL SPILLING BLOOD Daddy looked up at her as her doll fell to the ground with a soft thump. "What are you doing down here?"
"Daddy! I don't feel good…" She ran the rest of the way, clutching his leg.
"C-' SPILLING BLOOD HER FACE SHATTERED MIND EXPLODING PAIN PAIN PAIN "I… I have to go."
"Daddy?" She asked him, looking up. "What is going on?"
"Daddy... has to leave for work." The man smiled briefly at her, his pale lips turning upright for the briefest of seconds. His gaze returned to something behind her. She looked as well to see three other men standing across from the house, glaring at the two. "He won't be long. I swear it."
"You will hand the girl over to us." The middle one spoke, a nasal tone dripping down her ears. She flinched and covered them, trying to keep the sound out. "She must not exist."
"C-" PAIN BRAIN RIPPING APART EYES IMPLODING SKULL MAKE HER SUFFER SUFFER SUFFER He was now whispering to her. "I want you to turn away and run to where Mummy is. You know where she is, right?"
She nodded in reply. Mummy spent the afternoons in the woods, and she would always come home with a wonderful assortment of things. Sometimes, she would go with her, and those were some of the funnest days of her life.
"Balder." A cold voice said quietly. "Give the… thing to us."
"You must go." He pushed her out of the way as he shot forward. Light swirled around his right hand, hardening into a weapon. "Run!"
She heard metal against metal as she sprinted out of the house, not looking back.
…
"Mummy?" A young Bayonetta asked a cloaked figure beside her. "What's going on?"
The carriage they were riding in hit a bump in the road, and she was launched up. A hand shot out from the figure and pulled her back down into the seat.
"Mummy has to talk with the elder witches." Her mother said with a gentle voice. "You are needed for this meeting as well, my child."
The witches watching them sneered and looked in disgust at both Bayonetta and her mother. Mostly her. Definitely her.
Fearfully, she reached over and grabbed her mother's hand.
"It's going to be okay, my child." Her mother smiled with reassurance. Her thumb traced aimless patterns on the back of her palm, and she felt the doubts beginning to go away. "Have faith in the Elders. They'll take care of us."
The witch closest to them let out a bark of laughter. "You'll be lucky if they don't kill the abomination on the spot, Lumen whore."
A sigh escaped her mother's lips as she sat back in the carriage, seemingly trying to hide herself away.
"Mummy? What is 'abomination'?" She whispered. The figures head whipped around, and the hood fell off to show-
"Never say that word again, C-" HEAD SPLITTING BRAIN TEARING "You are not an abomination. You will never be."
The witches burst into laughter at her. Several of them mocked her. While others continued to move forward on their steeds, laughing harder at their allies' antics.
"Why are the witches so me-" A hand covered her mouth before she could finish her sentence.
"Don't say anything like that. We need to keep on our best behaviour, daughter." The scolding felt worse than the mockery of the witches around them. "And that includes saying potentially harmful things about others. Remember what I told you before we left?"
"'Don't talk about others if you wouldn't like them talking about you.'" She quoted from memory. A frown etched its way onto her face. "But Mummy, they are."
"We are at their discretion, daughter. They are allowed to do whatever they want."
She didn't quite understand, and it wasn't fair at all, but she nodded. "Okay, Mummy."
"We need to follow their directions." She whispered to her. "Do not act out of line, daughter. We cannot afford to."
…
Her mother was mad. Bayonetta knew that. She didn't like it when Mummy got mad, because then it didn't feel like Mummy loved her anymore.
The old witches had yelled at Mummy for longer than she had been around for, seemingly. And then she was dragged onto the small platform and yelled at as well. She was asked many questions she had no idea what the answers were or what they were even asking.
She was scared, her mother was mad. Her fear of the witches won out over her mother's potential madness at her, and she tugged at her mother's sleeve.
"Mummy?" She asked, trying not to sound needy.
"Not now dear." She replied, trying to sound calm.
"But Mummy…" Bayonetta tried again, yanking the sleeve this time. Her mother turned and faced her, mouth in a sharp line. Her body was almost shaking, and her eyes were full of anger and pain.
And now it was directed at her.
"Daughter, you will be quiet!" She yelled at her. "Your incessant begging and whining are not helping anyone, least of all me!"
Bayonetta instantly felt horrible, and tears began to pool before her eyes. Before she could stop them, they leaked out to fall down her cheeks. Holding back sobs, she saw a whirlwind of emotions flow through her mother. She had never yelled at her. Never.
Her mother then reached down and grabbed her. Embracing her, she held the child close to her.
Bayonetta then felt tears running down her mother's cheek and onto her.
"Oh..." Her mother whispered to her. "I am so sorry… So sorry for everything…"
"This is all my fault."
Bayonetta did not like those words. Nor did she know what they meant.
…
Bayonetta did not like her new home.
It was dark, damp, hard and cold. Her mother had tried to say how it was going to be an exciting adventure, but the new house was in every way shape or form worse than the old one.
All her toys were taken from her. All of mother's kitchen and garden were gone. Her father's work room was gone. Her playroom was gone. The windows were replaced with iron lattices, and the front wall was replaced with metal bars. The colourful walls were stripped away for grey stone, and the pictures were replaced with the glares of the witches.
It felt like one of those prisons mother always told her about.
Mother tried to be happy and excited about the new home, but even Bayonetta could see the sadness and despair in her eyes grow every day.
"When are we going back Mummy?" She asked one day, looking at the wall. "I don't like this new home. I miss my home."
"I miss it too, daughter." Her mother answered, faking a smile. "But we must stay here. The Elder's ordered us to."
"The Elders are meanies then." Bayonetta proclaimed turning around. A portal tore itself open, and an orange hand reached out and slapped her on the cheek. She went flying to the floor, slamming into it with a SMACK.
"Quiet! You will not speak of the Elders that way!" A witch from the outside growled at her. "Such filth doesn't deserve to live, let alone speak."
Her mother burst into tears when the witch left. Bayonetta got up and walked over to her, confused. A hand clutched at her cheek, lightly touching the bruise forming there.
"Mummy, what is filth?"
…
"Mummy, why don't I have any friends?"
Her mother's face fell when Bayonetta returned from the school that the elder witches had reluctantly decided to let her attend. She was excited at the prospect of meeting similar-aged people, along with Mummy's obvious excitement at her being able to get out of 'home' but had received nothing but bullying and hatred from everyone, including the teacher.
Now she had no desire to go any more and her small, sad face looked at her mothers with desperateness.
"I don't know, daughter. I don't know…" She gathered Bayonetta in her arms and cradled her, comforting the hurting child. "There's no reason for any of this."
"Am I different?" She asked as she held onto her mother. "Is that bad?"
"C-Bayonetta, you are different." Her mother looked at her and smiled. "You are the most special and wonderful daughter I could've ever asked for. That is what makes you different. Nothing else."
"Isn't being special the same as different?" Bayonetta frowned at her mother, the logic sound to her mind.
"No, it means you are unique." Her mother tilted her head. "Eventually, someone will see you for what you are, not what the Elder's tell them."
"Okay Mummy…" She did not fully understand what her mother was saying but accepted it anyway.
…
Bayonetta did not want to say hello to her mother. She just wanted to sleep. The bullying and teasing had only gotten worse over the last six months, and she didn't feel like wanting to go anywhere, or do anything. Her dreams were nothing like reality, and she often wished that she would never wake up so she could stay in her dream, where Elena and her friends accepted her instead of pushing her in the mud 'where she belonged'.
Climbing onto her small cot to try to sleep again, she noticed a strange cat-like thing staring back at her. Shrieking with surprise, she ran to find her mother.
"Mummy!" She cried as she found her. Her mother looked at her with a slight frown.
"What's wrong?" She asked, ignoring the dirt on her daughter's patchwork dress. It horrified her to know that the regular sight of her daughter caked in dirt and muck was becoming the standard, and the realisation that she too was getting used to it. She did not show it to Bayonetta, though.
"There's a monster on my bed!" She pointed in the direction of her cot. Instead of alerting the guards, the other witches or even investigating it herself, her mother smiled softly.
"It's not a monster, it's a friend." She explained gently. Bayonetta frowned.
"It's a friend? It's scary!" She asked, confused. Her mother smiled and nodded. Walking back over to her cot, she grabbed the doll and presented it to the curious Bayonetta.
"C-Bayonetta, meet Cheshire. Cheshire, meet C-Bayonetta." She said with a smile. Bayonetta grabbed the toy and held it close to her chest. It was soft, cold, and it poked into her chest weirdly. "I made him for you, since you need to have someone, you need to hold onto when I am not around. A friend that you can always keep close to your heart, in all times of need. I hope… I hope it's good enough."
She loved it.
Her first friend. The words felt so good in such a sad time. She looked up to her mother and gave her a warm smile.
"Thank you, Mummy."
…
"You can't do this to me!" Her mother was crying and screaming as the other witches began to chant, and rolls of cloth twisted themselves around her legs and body, pulling her back. Bayonetta watched in terror as they dragged her out of their home.
"Mummy!" Bayonetta cried. She charged forward, tossing Cheshire to the side and brandishing her fists. "Leave her alone!"
"Silence filth!" A witch backhanded her. "You will not speak."
"C-Bayonetta!" Her mother screamed her name as she was pulled around the corner. Bursting into tears, they all left the girl kneeling on the floor, Cheshire now held tightly to her chest.
…
"Where's Mummy?" Bayonetta asked the caretaker, who looked like they would have rather been anywhere else.
"She is sick." The caretaker answered. "Sicker than you could imagine. The other witches are... taking care of her."
Bayonetta fell silent. She didn't like liars, but her mother's words about holding her words resonated with her. "What about Daddy? Where is he?"
The caretaker stopped in her motions and tilted her head in thought. "Your father is being put to work as we speak, I would assume." She then glared at her. "Shut up, filth. Your questions tire me."
…
Bayonetta sat alone in the schoolyard, watching the other children play. She didn't feel jealous anymore, she just felt nothing. Turning away, she busied herself memorizing the numbers that they had been told to.
"You're the different one." A French-accented voice from behind her interrupted her. Squeaking in surprise, she turned to see a silver-haired girl dressed in red looking at her.
"Yes I am." Bayonetta looked at her with expectancy. The girl frowned.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" She asked.
"Aren't you going to beat me up?" Bayonetta tilted her head to the side. The girl looked at her in shock.
"No!" She instantly refuted her. "Why would I?"
"Everyone does it." Bayonetta shrugged. She turned back to the paper, squinting at it. Her glasses had been broken a few weeks ago, and her caretakers hadn't yet bothered to supply her new ones.
"I heard about you and wanted to see who you are." The girl grinned in a conspiratorial fashion. "Want to be friends?"
Her head whipped back over to the silver haired girl. "You… You want to be friends?" The words came with a lot of contained hope. "Friends with me? Won't that make everyone mad?"
"Yep. They won't get mad at me, I promise." The girl held her hand out. "I'm J-"
…
Bayonetta awoke with a start. Breathing heavily, she sat up and instantly was confused as to where they were. A strange beige platform surrounded by four stone pillars was her immediate surroundings; a stone path led off into the distance where she saw several massive statues, with the female ones desecrated and destroyed. A giant archway formed by what she recognised was a giant Lumen Sage and an Umbran Witch settled far off into the horizon, with a giant spear penetrating the Umbran statue.
Where was she? What did she see in her mind? Were those dreams real? Were they memories?
But first things first. Where the hell was, she and where the hell was Sephiroth?
She did not get an answer to the first, but she did find him. He was on the ground, about five metres to her left, curled up in a ball. His body was trembling, and his breathing was sharp and laboured.
"Sephiroth?" She crawled to him, placing a hand on his shoulder. He flinched at the contact, and she realised that he was unconscious. "Okay, wake up."
To his credit, and her annoyance, he did not.
Closing her eyes slightly and sighing, she summoned one of her guns and shot it into the sky.
…
A loud noise startled him out of his dreams, and he opened his eyes to see Bayonetta kneeling next to him, one her guns held above her head, smoke lightly floating out of the barrel.
"Bayonetta?" He weakly asked. She rolled her eyes fully and nodded.
"I thought you would have left by now, darling." She gestured around. "We most certainly aren't in Vigrid anymore, and that is where you said you were going to split."
He did not answer. Instead, he began to sit up, stiffly moving. Testing each limb one by one, he found that he was relatively unharmed. Reaching up and touching his forehead, he found a small lump and a jolt of pain shot through his head. Instantly pulling his hand away, he closed his eyes and tried to focus on the pain.
"What are you doing?" He heard her ask. Small sounds of movement invaded his ears for a second, then the clicking of her heels confirmed she was back to standing up.
"I'm trying to fix the immediate problem." He answered back, letting magical energies collect inside him, then moving to his palm.
"...You're going to create a map?"
"No." He opened his eyes to find green energy swirling and flowing around his hands. "Healing."
He touched his forehead again, and the energies transferred into the lump. Immediately, the headache stopped, and the lump pulled itself back into his head." There we go."
"That's a neat little trick." Bayonetta commented. Her hands were now resting on her hips, and her eyes were fixed upon his hands. Residual energies flowed off them and impacted into the ground, giving a small amount of color to the area.
Speaking of which, the area was a drab gray and brown, looking to be completely abandoned. There were no real landmarks, except for the mountains in the distance.
"Where are we?" He asked, looking up at her.
She briefly chuckled. "If anything comes to memory, you dragged me out of that coliseum before it fell back to the earth. I can only assume you flew somewhere." She frowned at him. "But that begs the question of why you were sleeping along with me."
"Why were you of all people unconscious for starters?" He fired back at her. When it became apparent that she was not going to answer that question, he sighed and continued.
"Not quite. I cannot fly with just the one wing. Don't ask, I've tried." He held a hand up as her mouth opened. "I grabbed you while you were falling, knocked myself out and then we landed here, I guess."
"You knocked yourself out?"
The memory and pain flashed through his mind, and he winced. "Uhh, a piece of the coliseum clipped me as I was trying to figure out how to get down."
"It clipped you?!"
"Okay, I ran straight into it." He huffed. A hand immediately went to her mouth. "Hey, it really hurt! Don't laugh at my pain!"
"It's still funny…" She whined, pulling her hand down. Her lips were obviously struggling with keeping straight, and his ire grew slightly.
"I suppose that was falling with style." Bayonetta leaned over and offered him a hand. "What was all that about with the Audito? It mentioned one thing and you went from a drunkard to sober, for lack of a better term."
"All the members of me apparently all agree that resurrecting this Jubelius is an extremely bad idea." He accepted her hand and stood up, making sure he was looking anywhere but at her very visible chest. "So, they stopped fighting and are probably in a truce regarding the whole killing Angel's thing. Especially regarding the Audito as well."
He met her eyes once he was fully upright and blushed furiously at the look, she was giving him. She shook her head, a small smirk forming. "Well, aren't you the chivalrous one…"
"I…" He really had no answer to that. Opting to ignore her, he continued. "They're still fighting over me though. Both sides want to go about this in their own way, and I'm not sure which way is right."
"Aren't you a popular guy?" She raised an eyebrow at him. "To be honest, in my line of work, there is no right way or wrong way. Just the way that gets the job done."
"I… see." He supposed she was right.
She hesitated, then turned away. Her hands began playing with one of her ribbons, and her eyes locked onto something in the distance. "I can count on you to help me tag team an Audito in the future, right?"
"I made it quite clear that I was leaving once we left Vigrid." Sephiroth's expression slowly began to melt into a frown. "And we have reached not-Vigrid, and Vigrid doesn't exist anymore."
"Is that all this partnership will end up as?" She looked back at him, hurt. "Look, you barely know how to fight, you have some amount of magic but not enough to truly defend yourself-"
"About the only reason I got caught in the first place was because of you." He gestured to her. "I was going quite fine by myself for a year."
"Yes, but going quite fine in this world is not good enough." She argued. "I know a few people-"
"I can go and sit in the Gates if I need to and save you the worry of whether I'm safe or not." Sephiroth rolled his eyes.
"-that can help you, protect you and train you, especially since you don't want me to do it." She finished, unperturbed by his interruption. Her eyes, however, did show a slight amount of hurt.
"It's not that I don't want you to-." He paused, collecting his thoughts. "I just want to be left alone."
She glared at him. "That's a lame excuse."
He knew it too. But he was not out of arguments yet, and he pulled out the trump card. "Why are you so insistent I go with you?"
She was silent. He could almost hear her thoughts racing, and a small peek into her mind confirmed it.
"See? You do not even know why you want me around. You're just like them." He hissed. "You just want to parade me around like a prized animal, to show off how generous you are and how kind you are. Some friend you make yourself to be."
And with that, he turned away and began to walk. To where? He did not care.
He had survived a year of the onslaught of the heavens. And now, with his condition basically back to its prime, he could survive many more.
'That's not true and you know it.'
He froze and turned back to Bayonetta. "You barely know anything about me, so don't assume you know the answers!"
"What the- Why are you going off on me?!" She tilted her head, anger flashing in her eyes. "I didn't say anything."
Everything stopped. Her face melted into a mirror of his own.
"If you didn't say anything…" He stated, and she nodded in confirmation. "Then who did?"
'I did, you moron!'
There's a voice inside my head?
'Yes, there's several voices inside of your head. What's wrong with just one more?'
Well, there were several things wrong with this voice. Normally, the whispers of the Infernals and Lagunan were just that, whispers. This was louder, clearer, and felt far more powerful than the others.
Also, this voice was decidedly female.
Who are you?
'Does it matter who I am? What matters right now is how much of an idiot you are being right now.'
I do not appreciate being insulted by the voice inside my head.
'Oh really?' The voice cooed mockingly. 'Then why are you throwing away this opportunity out of sheer stubbornness?'
It was just a voice inside of his head. There was nothing it could do about anything, right?
'I can do several things.' The voice seemed to change to something more friendly. 'I can solve your problems, grant you the power necessary to do anything you desire.'
Huh. That was different. Prove it.
'I can't exactly do that right now.' The voice replied hesitantly. 'It's something I can do much later, although.'
Then you are pointless. He turned away from the increasingly confused Bayonetta and began to walk away.
'Wait, wait. I can make you a deal.' The voice pleaded. 'The only reason I can't help you is because all of my power is stuck inside of a corpse.'
Something clicked, and he finally figured out what was going on. You are a demon.
'I was one of the more powerful members of Sheba's court, and now I am reduced to this shell, practically begging for a human to finish what was started.' The voice ranted. 'I am a joke in Inferno, and you, my dear Sephiroth, will restore me to my proper form.'
And if I refuse?
'...you won't. I'm known- well, was known as the Mistress of time, and you know that I can fix whatever problem you have. All you have to do is restore my power to me.'
It was a tempting offer, he could admit. But something was bugging at him. Isn't there a catch for this? You are a demon, and I'm the guy trying to form a contract with you.
'There is no catch. Just give me my power back and I will make your inner dreams a reality. I have the power to do so.'
He began to weigh his options against each other. He could simply walk away, never look back and be free of the witch, and potentially from any contact with humans. He would not need to go back to Ithavoll, and all of his fears would never be made manifest.
'You're too good of a person to do that.'
The voice was partially right. If he accepted this deal, he would not be this freak anymore. He would also be doing a good deed in stopping more humans from falling prey to the machinations of the Father. But mostly the benefit of being normal was far more important than the lives of some mortals. Although, that in turn would make him one, and-
Eh, fuck it. He would cross that bridge once he reached it.
A small thought popped up about how adjusting his past would affect his present and future, but he shrugged it off. If this Demon was as powerful as she claimed to be, then that would not be a problem.
'Err… yeah! I can take care of that, no problem. Yes. Does that mean you accept?'
He turned back to Bayonetta, who had now folded her arms and was regarding him with an indecipherable expression.
"Change of plans." He started. "I'm coming with you."
Her eyebrows raised up in surprise. "That's awfully convenient for me."
"It is. But something has come up, and it's now far more beneficial for me to go with you." Sephiroth watched as her eyes changed to amusement. "What?"
"Did you remember my promise or something? I didn't take you to be so… forward." She smirked.
"I-it's nothing of the sort. According to a voice inside my head, she can make me normal if I free her power from some corpse." He explained quickly, forcing the blush down this time. He closed his eyes and looked down. "That makes me sound absolutely crazy, doesn't it?"
"Darling, at this point I wouldn't be surprised if you had voices inside of your head. If anything, I'd be more surprised if you didn't." She dismissed his concern and walked over to him. "Your excuse is acceptable. I also would have accepted 'I'll miss you, Bayonetta', 'I'm lonely, Bayonetta' and 'Teach more about the ways of the force, Bayonetta.'"
"That's, uhh, a broad range." He stammered. His eyes narrowed as they opened and stared at hers. "Hold on, what is the force?"
"You don't know what the force is?" Her expression fell into shock. "Surely you must know. You're of the right age and everything."
"No...?"
She scoffed and grabbed his arm, pulling him along with her. "I've got a lot to teach you, then."
"Is it dangerous?" He asked, slightly fearful.
Her face turned to his slowly. "It's a fictional power." She said, incredulously. "You really have a lot to learn…"
A bullet whizzed past his body, and he shrieked as it impacted into the stone. Bayonetta laughed at his reaction, shaking her head slightly.
"Lesson number four; what goes up, must come down."