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!
...
Bayonetta couldn't remember a time when she was unhappy. But she was starting to think now could be.
"Daddy?" She asked the tall, pale man beside her. "What is going on?"
"Daddy has to leave for work." The man smiled briefly at her, then turned his attention to the three other pale men standing across from the house, glaring at the two. "He won't be long."
"We knew this day was coming, _." Her mother answered. "We couldn't hide her forever."
"I know." The man turned back to his wife. "Take her somewhere safe, if you can."
"I will." The former witch nodded. "I will miss you -"
…
"Mummy?" A young Bayonetta asked a cloaked figure beside her. "What's going on?"
"Mummy has to talk with the elder witches." The figure replied. "You are needed, my child."
The witches watching them sneered and looked in disgust at both Bayonetta and her mother. Fearfully, she reached up and grabbed her mother's hand.
"It's going to be OK, my child." Her mother smiled with reassurance. "Have faith in the Elder's. They'll take care of us."
"Mummy? Where is Daddy?" She whispered, looking around for the pale man.
"Daddy…" Her mother swallowed. "Daddy has some work to attend to."
"Okay." Bayonetta knew her mother was lying, but couldn't figure out where or why.
"We need to follow their directions." She whispered to her. "Do not act up, _. We can't 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.
"Mummy?" She asked, trying not to sound needy.
"Not now dear." She replied, trying to sound calm.
"But mummy…" Bayonetta tried again. Her mother turned and faced her. Her mouth was turned in a sharp line, and her eyes were full of anger and pain.
"_, you will be quiet!" She yelled at her. 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…"
…
Bayonetta didn't 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 was 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. "I don't like this new home. I miss my home."
"I miss it too, _." Her mother answered, faking a smile. "But we must stay here, the Elder's ordered us to."
"The Elders are meanies then." Bayonetta proclaimed, and then got slapped in the face by a small demonic hand.
"Quiet! You will not speak of the Elders that way!" A witch from the outside growled at Bayonetta. "Such filth doesn't deserve to speak."
Her mother burst into tears when the witch left. Bayonetta walked over to her, confused.
"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 Bayonetta attend. She was excited at the prospect of meeting similar-aged people but had received nothing but teasing and bullying from everyone, including the supposed teacher. Now she had no desire to go anymore and her small, sad face looked at her mothers with desperateness.
"I don't know _, I don't know…" She gathered Bayonetta in her arms and cradled her, comforting the hurting child.
"Am I different?" She asked as she held onto her mother.
"__, you are different." Her mother looked at her and smiled. "You are the most special and wonderful daughter I could've ever asked for."
"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 clearly did not fully understand but accepted it anyway.
…
Bayonetta didn't want to say hello to her mother. She just wanted to sleep. The bullying and teasing had only gotten worse over the last 6 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 that she too was getting used to it. She didn't show it to Bayonetta, though.
"There's a monster on my bed!" She pointed in the direction of her cot. Instead of summoning a demon to deal with it, or even looking over, her mother smiled.
"It's not a monster, it's a friend." She explained gently. Bayonetta frowned.
"It's a friend?" 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.
"__, meet Cheshire. Cheshire, meet _." She said with a smile. Bayonetta grabbed the toy and held it close to her chest. "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."
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 summon their infernal demons to make her move. Bayonetta watched in terror as they dragged her out of their home.
"Mummy!" Bayonetta cried. "Leave her alone!"
"Silence filth!" A witch backhanded her. "You will not speak."
" _!" 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 held tightly to her chest.
…
"Where's Mummy?" Bayonetta asked the caretaker, who looked like they would've 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. "What about Daddy?"
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, half-breed. 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.
"I heard about you and wanted to see who you are." The girl grinned in a conspiratorial fashion. "Want to be friends?"
"You want to be friends?" The words came with a lot of contained hope.
"Yep." The girl held her hand out. "I'm-"
…
Bayonetta woke 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 dominated the landscape, 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 didn't get an answer to the first, but she did find him. He was on the ground, about 5 metres to her left, curled up in a ball. His body was trembling, and his breathes were 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 sleeping, and having a nightmare. Closing her eyes slightly, she summoned one of her guns and shot it into the sky, startling and waking him. He briefly panicked, but slowly relaxed as he realised who was there.
"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 didn't answer. Instead, he began to sit up, stiffly moving and confirming Bayonetta's earlier assumption; he hadn't slept well. He regarded her warily, like he didn't exactly recognise her.
"Where are we?" He asked her, and she laughed at the irony of it all.
"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 and then collapsed from the exhaustion, and then we both slept until now." She frowned at him. "Were you sleep flying or something?"
"Not quite. I can't fly, for starters, with just the one wing." He pressed a hand to his forehead. "I grabbed you after you collapsed, then jumped in a random direction, and fell over here. I don't remember anything else."
"Well, this is certainly random. And I suppose that was falling with style." She rose to her feet and offered him a hand. "What was all that about with the Auditio? 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 Jubileus is a bad idea." He accepted her hand and stood up. "So, they stopped fighting, and are probably in a truce, for lack of a better term, regarding the Auditio, I'd wager. They're still fighting over me though."
"Aren't you a popular guy?" She raised an eyebrow. "There better be no more fucking off during a fight. I can count on you to help me tag team an Auditio in the future, right?"
"Provided I don't get thrown out of the fight at the beginning." He smiled wryly, but then grew serious. "I've been thinking actually, about me leaving."
"Are you thinking of staying with me?" She tilted her head, then smirked. "I know we haven't really gotten to do any of the things I promised."
"Not for those reasons." He shook his head as his cheeks grew red. "I think I need more than basic pointers, maybe full training. We can both agree that I am in no way in shape or form to survive this world. And…" He hesitated.
"And?" Bayonetta prompted.
"Ithavoll is a dangerous place." He looked at her with worry. "I don't think I could let you in good conscious walk in there without someone watching your back."
Bayonetta wanted to say that she could fight her way through this tower without a problem, but she understood the merits of having a second person, and the guy was earnest if nothing else.
What could possibly go wrong?
"As long as you don't affect my style, darling." She smiled, and so did he.