Author's note: I do not own any part of the Bayonetta IP.

Apologies for the lack of uploads recently. But I have a tonne of chapters back-logged, so be prepared for a mass of uploads around chapter 11.

Thank you for the reviews and follows!

Chapter 7: A Remembrance of Time

"Are you sure this is the hotel, little one?" Bayonetta glanced at the boy in front of them, studying the walls of the relatively run down building with apprehension. Loki looked up at the building, a smile of familiarity filling his face.

"He thinks it is." Damien answered and cut him off, much to his indignation. "Although I am inclined to believe him."

"This is the place I've be staying at whenever I'm here." Loki turned to the pair, crossing his arms. "If you two are done being assholes, then I suggest we go inside and 'rest up', or whatever you think we should be doing."

"Don't get snarky with me, little one." Bayonetta tilted her head as she regarded him. "I'm a little used to more… finer hotels. Unlike someone here."

Damien frowned at her statement. "You know that they were the only places willing to take me in for who I was."

"You could have stayed with me!" She shouted back, and he wilted at her intensity. Loki's eyes flickered between the two, then he shrugged.

"Well?" The boy turned and gestured to the door. "Are you coming?"

…

The bored teenager at the counter looked over at her with apathy as she walked through the door, stepping out of Purgatorio.

"Hello." Bayonetta waved. "I am here to book a room for three- wait, make that four."

"Four people?" The girl looked around pointedly. "The Star of Noatun has a policy that we have to have proof that you need a room for… four people."

"Don't you recognise who I am?" The witch frowned.

"Nope." The girl blew out a bubble with her gum, the pop from it breaking being the only sound in the gap of silence.

"You have got to be kidding me." Opening a portal to Purgatorio, she reached in and grabbed a handful of hair. Yanking hard, she felt the person it was attached to pull away, then yelp in pain and finally crashed into her shoulder as he fell out of the realm between ungracefully. "What about this one?"

"Sephiroth?" The girl's eyes widened in shock, and she stepped back. "He's back?"

"Uhh, hey!" The silver haired man waved at her awkwardly. "I'm back, yes."

"How many people again?" The girl was now leaning over, looking at a registry. "Three?"

"Four." Bayonetta answered, finally letting go of his hair. "We mustn't forget about Cheshire."

"Alright. Room thirty five, here." The girl handed them the keys, bowing her head with respect at the winged man. "Nice clothes. They suit you."

"Thanks?" Damien shrugged and followed Bayonetta to the stairs. The witch in black then pointedly turned around and stared at where they just were.

"Coming, little one?" She asked, and Damien shook his head.

…

"That went well!" Loki jumped onto a bed, claiming it. "Never officially had a hotel room before."

"What do you mean by that?" Bayonetta had claimed the double bed and was sitting cross legged on the end with her shoes placed neatly side by side at the foot. Damien glanced questioningly as he stayed standing, not bothering to claim one.

"Well, I'm in Purgatorio, right?" Loki kicked off his shoes, one flying into Damien's face and the other over Bayonetta's shoulder. "Well, I just claim a bed and sleep on it. They can't stop me otherwise."

"Huh." The witch looked impressed. "Smart."

"Anyway, I'm going to 'rest' now, and so should you all. We need to get to the mountain as soon as possible, and that needs to happen really soon." Loki threw himself back, and fell asleep almost instantly. The Lumen lookalike looked at the boy in annoyance, but then his face softened.

"His memory is fractured. Like someone stole it, tore it apart and then put it back." He looked over to his sister, answering her unspoken question.

"Can you fix it?" She asked, keeping her look on the boy.

"Possibly? I'll try tomorrow while we are heading to the church place, right?" He nodded, then looked at her in confusion.

"The Cathedral of Cascades. Yes, we have to go there." She finally turned her gaze to him. "Now, you need to explain yourself."

"From the beginning?" His voice sounded subdued.

"Yes." She gestured to the lone bed at the end of their small room. "From the top; why did Jeanne throw you out?"

"I was doing some research with Luka on Infernic pacts, when I discovered something that I hid from him." He began. "A way to channel a pact that has been made and change it. My initial thought was to free you both, but I figured stripping you of your powers would be the worst possible thing I could have done with this new knowledge. So I visited Rodin, managed to bribe my way into letting him take me to Inferno, and then I bargained with both Madama Styx and Butterfly about your specific contracts."

"You got to Inferno?" Her eyes narrowed. "How? Rodin would not let me go with him to rescue Jeanne, how did you-"

"I purchased one of these." A silver glint took her attention, and her surprise was evident. "And then challenged him in order to 'prove my worthiness'."

"A platinum ticket?" Bayonetta stared at him in shock. "Those things cost thousands, millions of halos!"

"I had to buy seven of them." Damien stared off into the distance. "I got my ass kicked the first four times, then had to knuckle down to beat him the next three."

"What deals did you make with our patrons?" Her eyes returned to him. He looked away, refusing to meet her eyes.

"I offered them both a powerful soul instead of your own." He answered. She recoiled at the words, her eyes wide.

"Damien…" She whispered. "Why?"

"I wanted to help!" He answered. "I wanted to make everything a little better for you two! And then Jeanne found out, and in shock she cast me out, because of the actions I did!"

"Wait- Jeanne threw you out because of this?" Her eyes stared in confusion. "What?!"

"Yes!" He looked down and buried his face in his hands, his wing covering his face. "She did."

"That doesn't make any sense." She said. "That's something so incredibly minor in the grand scheme of things, and something incredibly out of character. What you've done is incredibly idiotic, yes, but I don't think that you are planning on dying anytime soon."

"Then what did you think happened?" His wing retracted, and his face looked up with a puzzled glance.

"I thought that you had cheated on her or something." She looked at him with narrowed eyes. His eyes widened, and his cheeks went red.

"I-we-I. We aren't even dating!" He flustered out, and she smiled wryly.

"I'll believe that when I see it." Her gaze hardened and she gestured to him. "Now, explain this."

"I'm a Lumen Sage now. Sort of." He scratched his head, then looked at her seriously. "You do know what is happening in Paradiso?"

"No." Bayonetta leaned forward. "I do know something is up; what it is, I don't. Has it got to do with all the new angels?"

"Precisely." Damien's wing relaxed as he finally sat onto the bed, and it splayed out on the sheets, contrasting the white on him. "Most of the angels we know are dead."

"What!?" Damien looked at her sharply as she started to control her voice. "How?"

"A person, spirit, entity, whatever awakened some force in Paradiso, and used them to slaughter the Laguna." He explained. "At best about a hundred Laguna still live, most of them Joys."

"What about Hope?" Bayonetta swallowed in fear for their angelic companion. "Are there even Auditio left?"

"I think these things are better explained, not told." Damien leaned back, his arms resting behind his head. "I'll summon who I am bonded to in the morning, after I figure out what is going up with the kid's memory."

Bayonetta nodded, then gasped in pain as her forearm burned with a white hot shot. Damien shot up, his eyes narrowed.

"It hasn't healed?" He asked rhetorically, then walked over to the double bed.

"It might be something that requires a kick start to my natural healing systems." She frowned, and then gasped as her glove came off.

An ugly wound faced them both, bleeding heavily. Damien cursed and let green energy fill his hands as he let the healing spell spill onto the cut. Bayonetta stared in horror as nothing happened.

"What the hell?" He cursed, then disappeared for a couple of seconds, then reappeared, reeling from the distance of the teleport, holding several rolls of bandages. "Put some pressure on it."

"Didn't you…" She glanced at his leg, only to find a fully healed thigh with ripped clothing around it. "Didn't you?"

"I healed." He was mulling over the problem. "You didn't."

"You didn't need to state the obvious." She rolled her eyes, but even she knew that the words were a front.

She was downright terrified of it. Whoever that Sage was, he was pissed enough to do something to his glaive. Whether it was poison or plain old magic, she didn't know the answer.

"Keep pressure on it." Damien helped her tighten the bandage, then used another to tie it together. "We'll figure out something in the morning."

"Right." She felt the fatigue from the day begin to catch up to her. "I am… glad that you are back. Thank you."

"I should've been back earlier." He answered as he walked over to his bed. "You know it."

…

Bayonetta awoke, her head raising off of the asphalt in pain. Her shoulder was screaming at her, her stomach was painfully throbbing and her forearm was letting her hand dangle uselessly by her side. Her eyes began to search for a clue as to where she was.

The Ithavoll building? A populated Isla Del Sol? The island had been abandoned for almost a year, ever since it was revealed its ruler was a genocidal maniac.

When was she?

It was raining. Her glasses lay smashed to the side, and she squinted, trying to see anything.

A burst of lightning lit up the sky, and a familiar silhouette slammed reality back into her. Scrambling to her feet the fastest her limbs would let her, she stared in horror as a man clad in grey landed, his three wings cushioning his fall.

"You threw your lot in with him." Damien snarled, his eyes staring at her with murder. "You know what he has done, to whom he has done it to, and yet you still join him?!"

She didn't have a clue what was going on. "Damien, it's me!"

"I know it's you!" He roared, the Shuraba bursting into flame. "It's always you, you and you. Never anyone else."

"Why?" She felt his words sting her, and tears began to form. She had no glasses to hid behind this time; just her and her brother, as it always had been.

"Tell me; what did he promise you?" He was beginning to stalk forward, his mouth twisting with every word. "Tell me!"

A flash of silver and white burst passed her, and the Lumen Sage was now crossing blades again with him. Except he was maskless, and if she discounted the wing and weaponry, they would've looked the same.

"Bayonetta!" The voice of the Sage carried well to her, now unmarred by the mask. "You need to run!"

She stared in shock. They were on the same side now?

"You need to run! I can-" With a scream, Damien simply summoned a meteor and threw it at the Sage from his left, knocking him deeper into Isla Del Sol and well out of the path that led to her. He turned to her, then disappeared. Feeling his legs sweep hers out, fell to the ground and painfully landed on her left shoulder, and she screamed in agony.

"You are irredeemable." Damien's voice was but a whisper. "You will die!"

He lunged with the katana, and she closed her eyes tightly and braced for impact.

Nothing.

She opened her eyes to find him nowhere. Hell, there was no sound except for the pitter-patter of the rain.

Something was making her head ache. Placing her right hand onto her temple, she felt reality shake, then the world inverted.

…

"…Bayonetta?" She awoke to Loki's concerned face staring into hers. "Bayonetta!?"

"Relax." Damien let go of her hand, his eyes returning back to their normal brightness. "She's fine."

Loki moved backwards into a sitting position, his legs crossed. "What was that?"

"A nightmare…" Bayonetta answered, pulling herself into an upright position. "Did you- That's a bad question. Were you in there?"

"I was in there." He glowered. "I was about to kill you."

"You broke out." She realised what had happened. "How?"

"I realised that I was in a dream world." He answered non-committedly. "Then I forced my out to find you thrashing around and Loki here trying to help you calm down."

"You were going to throw yourself out of the building at that rate, love." Loki smiled. Damien glared at him for a second, then returned his attention to her.

"Whatever was causing it was coming from you." He gestured to her head. "I think our mutual friend is trying to affect us."

"Affect us?" She stared at her arms. "Try to tear us apart? Again?"

"It's obviously trying to make us uncomfortable while we are here." Damien folded his arms. "Or to get us to leave. Either way, it's not happening."

"This spirit you were talking about…" Bayonetta frowned. "Who or what is it?"

"A force from beyond time." He shook his head. "Khepri doesn't know anything about it, and neither does Temperentia. All we have is a title; the Prophet."

Loki grabbed his head and grunted in pain. "The… Prophet?"

"Little One?" Bayonetta reached out, and he slapped her hand away.

"The Prophetic One…" He was muttering. "I know who that is…"

"Who?" Damien leaned forward. "Who is it?"

"He's my…" Loki slammed his hand against the wall in frustration. "Why the fuck can't I remember!?"

"Loki." The winged man sat back. "I am telepathic-"

"Like I don't know!" The boy pointed at him. "You've been rooting around in there ever since we met, mate!"

"I can try to fix your memories." He replied, not letting his temper show. Loki paused, hesitated, and then let his hand drop.

"You can?" He asked, his head tilting.

"I can try." Damien answered. "It's not a guarantee that it will work, but I am willing to see if I can help."

Loki nodded, then grabbed his hand. "Ok! Do your magic!" He placed the glove against his forehead, and Damien laughed.

"That's not how it works." He removed the hand from the boy's grasp, then let it hover above his face. His eyes began to glow, and Loki's eyes glazed over.

"This is…" Loki was talking, but his voice suggested he wasn't really there. "Weird."

"What?" Damien frowned as he eyes began to glow. "Why is it recognising me, of all people?"

"Huh?" Bayonetta looked over to him in confusion.

"It's thinking I'm someone it knows. Whatever did this to him, I'm apparently that." He answered as he began to concentrate. "And I can assure you I did not spend the last six months chasing after little boys to tear their memory apart."

Silenced reigned as Damien began to reweave Loki's memories back together. Bayonetta watched him, finally getting a good look at him. His new suit was completely identical to the Lumen Sage from before. His face was more gaunt and thinner, and his eyes did not hold the same naivety as before. He had grown in his exile, she realised. Whether it was ultimately for good or for bad, she did not know.

"Fuck!" Damien lowered his hand as his eyes stopped glowing. "I can't go further. Whoever did this, did it well enough."

"How much did you fix?" Loki asked, one had absentmindedly rubbing his temple.

"About half a percent." He answered, and Loki visibly wilted. "But sometimes, all you need is something to reform, and then it becomes a chain reaction."

"Well." Bayonetta looked to him. "Why don't I try?"

"Bayonetta, you don't know how to read minds, let alone get inside of them." Damien shook his head. "Even if you could get inside, what-"

"I have the Left Eye." She pointed out, and Loki turned sharply to her. "If anything, from what you and Luka found out, I could be a lot better at this."

"That's…" He glanced over to the window. "Speak of the devil and he shall appear."

He disappeared, then reappeared three seconds later with a screaming Luka.

"Jesus Christ!" The man cursed. "You did not, and I will repeat, did not have to do that!"

"Luka?" Bayonetta laughed. "What on Earth were you doing?"

"I was minding my own business, then I was knocked off of the building by some winged asshole, then I fell about fifteen feet nearly to my death-"

"Don't be so dramatic." The winged man rolled his eyes.

"-only to be snatched out of the air and teleported here!" Luka finished his rant, staring at the two adults with fury. "What do you have to say for yourself!?"

"Bayonetta." Loki interrupted his look, his voice timid. "You said you had the Left Eye?"

"Oh great, the kid is here too." Luka rolled his eyes, and Bayonetta sent an angry glance at him, quietening the man. Turning back to the boy, her eyes looked at him with curiosity.

"I… I want to try something." The boy reached out and placed a palm on her left cheek. They both gasped as an invisible forced grabbed them both, and then Loki recoiled, drawing his hand back in pain.

"I…" He gasped out. "I know… I could have grabbed it…"

"The Eye reacted to him?" Damien asked the witch, and she nodded, her eyes not leaving the boy in front of her.

"Sovereign One… huh?" She whispered. "This Eye has been under your control before, hasn't it?"

"I recognised it, and it recognised-" Loki's face paled. "Oh no… I'm-"

He backed up until he was against the wall, his face rapidly turning white. "I'm supposed to be dead!"

The three adults shared a glance with each other, the same question on their mind.

"Actually, I think I might know this." Luka reached into his satchel and pulled out an ancient book. Both Bayonetta and Damien glanced at him with accusing looks, and he shrugged back. "What? I used my unlimited charm and good looks to liberate a book. And besides, it was doing nothing collecting dust anyway; at least I'll be using it for its intended purpose. Now, where's that passage… Sovereign One…"

He flipped open the book and began to flick through the pages with haste, yet great care. "Aha! Here we are."

Damien teleported behind him and read, his features turning pale and his eyebrows raising.

"At the beginning of time, the realities were one." Luka began. "Then a cataclysmic event shattered them into three, and from them was birthed three rulers; Queen Jubelius of Paradiso, Lord Malefagor of Inferno and Lord Aesir of Chaos, Chaos being better known to us as the mortal realm."

Loki stirred at the name, and his eyes widened.

"Each ruler created their own race, a race befitting of their realm. Yet Aesir pitied humanity, the race he had created, due to their lack of free will. In an event that saw the powers that be to shift outside of the realms, Aesir split himself into two beings, and in doing so created the Eyes of the World. The Prophetic One gifted the Right Eye of Light to a group of Paradiso worshippers called the Lumen Sages, and the Sovereign One gifted his Left Eye of Darkness to a group of Infernal worshippers called the Umbra Witches. Both groups were tasked with keeping the Eyes safe, should they ever be necessary to free the Destroyer or to unleash the Creator, and in doing so Aesir had granted us his final wish; free will, and the power to choose." Luka finished, closing the book. "It seems we now know who you are, kiddo."

"The God…" Damien looked up at Loki. "You're a God?"

"One half…" Loki whispered, shaking. "And I don't know my abilities, and I don't have any spectrum of my power…"

The boy began to breathe heavily. "I don't know, and I don't think I want to know… Who am I, really?"

"You know what I see?" Bayonetta broke in, her voice conveying authority. "I see a scared boy who still hasn't found his place in this world. Now rest up, we do have a long day tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?" Luka looked up. "I was planning on studying these texts! Not gallivanting across Noatun!"

"You can do that." Damien answered him. "I'm fairly certain that we are going to meet some resistance on the way to the…" He looked towards the God, his hands gesturing for him to finish.

"Bridge to the Heavens." Loki answered, his eyes hardening. "It's coming back to me. It's all coming back to me. Slowly, but I'm starting to remember."

"Don't focus on that, little one." Bayonetta smiled. "Just be a kid for one more night, then you can be as serious as you want."

"Don't call me little one!" He burst out, his eyes glowing blue. "I have a name, and it's Aesi-" The light died down as he relaxed, and then smiled in appreciation. "Thanks, love. I think I shou… You know what? I'll see you all in the morning. A kid for one more night, huh?"

Bayonetta smiled as he fell asleep, collapsing onto the bed. Luka looked down and let out a held breath. "Well, I say good luck to you two on babysitting a god."

"It will be easy." Damien picked up the sleeping boy, and returned him to the other bed. "Now, get some rest."

"As you say." Bayonetta gestured to Luka, then to the space beside her, and the mortal rolled his eyes.

"At least you two are getting along. Again."