A/N: I do not own RWBY or Bayonetta! Please support the official releases!

Prologue: Blackened Angel

Summer looked out the window to where Grimm rose from the pits every couple of seconds. She wondered if there was a chance that she could ever be forgiven. Ruby, Yang, Taiyang, Qrow, and Oz had all needed her, and she had left every single one of them for something that she would likely be able to make them understand.

The day Summer Rose unlocked her Semblance, Ozpin had revealed to them the true nature of the world. His eternal drawn out war with the Goddess of all Grimm was laid bare. In the exact moment Salem's name was mentioned, something entered her vision. It was a thread. It was thick and red as it pulsated with life. Her sight followed it out the window of Ozpin's office into the horizon.

That was the beginning, but not the end. From then on, when Summer purposely focused her Aura into her eyes, she could see the many strands between people, places, and things. Her Semblance was the ability to see the unity in everything and feel the energy flow between it all. More than anything else, the red thread always stood out. When she tried her hardest to feel where it leads, visions of a dark, lovely creature attacked her. A blackened angel whose eyes told of a million lives lived in dissatisfaction and misery. It pained her the same amount every time she saw it. The Huntress knew right away that it was Salem and bade herself to ignore such a connection.

It was doomed to failure from the start.

Raven's thread with her had been cut the moment she ran out on Yang. It was just this sad, pathetic tassel that fluttered on her person. It was a string that was waiting for something to reconnect it. Summer still wasn't sure if the fault lie with Raven's sudden disinterest in her whole life up to that point or her disdain for someone who didn't appreciate the gift of motherhood.

Though she did grow to love Qrow, the thread between them just wasn't the same as the one that lead seemingly to the ends of Remnant. It was strong and coarse, forever glowing a lovely shade of pink. But it did not have the same need, the same hunger, the same hurt to it as the red binding. Then, he'd given up on them anyway, cowed by his fated misfortune. He convinced himself Ruby would be hurt over and over if he claimed her as his. And so, she went and played house with Tai. The thread between them was barely there, but she held it dearly all the same just as he did.

Ruby and Yang. Oh, her babies…!

The threads between them and her were an immaculate white. They beat in rhythm with Summer's own heart. Each breath her children took left the older Rose feeling increasingly rejuvenated than the last. She was so happy to see the same type of bond running between them. It should have been enough to make her stay by them for the rest of her days.

It wasn't. Not with the red thread tugging on her mind, heart, and soul. That draw was eventually too much to resist. She had found herself in the place that Salem resided.

"If you truly wish to assist me, Silver Eyes, then I will allow you to be at my side."

"Thank you."

"My goals will not change because of your presence."

"I know."

"Do you? I will ask the worst of you at a moment's notice."

"Do your worst, because I've already done mine."

As soon as the words had left her mouth, Summer understood what she was feeling between them. She had tracked down her soulmate; it was someone who claimed they had no soul. But the red thread had been there, pulsing stronger than ever. All she needed to do was remain patient. Salem eventually yielded to its influence as well. With the Rose next to her she could not help but feel it in spades.

Months of cold indifference were all at once melted with a violent kiss that came out of nowhere. It was beastly, but its sincere passion couldn't be denied.

"This-," Salem had hissed, "-your decision to turn away from Ozpin wasn't a mere whim or result of disillusion, was it?"

"It wasn't. I came to you because I saw no other means of continuing on."

"Then I suppose you belong here more than I expected~."

The next kiss brought everything into perspective.

A time long before them, yet of them, played out. Dark and Light pitted against each other in the great bed of chaos. Two proud Clans dedicated to one or the other. They were responsible for the safeguarding mankind's ability to choose. Never were they to mix blood for the resulting child would be hailed as an abomination.

Only one person from each Clan had dared to break these rules. For love and nothing else. Their child was hailed as an abomination. But it was she alone who was destined to live beyond both clans of light and dark, to survive the Witch Hunts. She would take fate into her own hands time and time again.

Salem and Summer separated.

Salem's eyes turned blue for a split-second, enraptured, "…Balder…"

Summer's eyes went glassy, her breath still gone, "…Rosa…How can this be?"

Red eyes stared at the shorter woman almost mournfully, "It seems Reality has been remade, one way or another. And us along with it."

Summer closed her eyes taking in every moment from her time as Balder that she could recall. It was a bittersweet symphony. The loss of Rosa. Both of them always close to Cereza but never really with her. And it had all been thanks to Aesir. First, the Lumen Sage had been burdened by watching over his accursed eye and then had been infested with the God of Chaos' evil soul itself. His own daughter had suffered immeasurably to put them both down. Silver eyes opened again. "This couldn't be a thing of greater beauty. The possibilities are limitless this time!"

"…"

Summer gently gripped the Grimm Queen's hands, "This time, neither light, dark, or gods can take our lives from us. Or from each other."

"But you're willing to take your life away from yourself?" Salem scowled. She turned her gaze outside, to the sight of all that she had made. "Summer, I am not sure you understand. I am not Rosa…" She looked the Huntress up and down over her shoulder briefly. "And you are certainly not Balder. We may have their souls, but not their lives. Like I said: My goals will not change because of your presence. Time goes onward. Rosa lived and died with their world." The Witch stretched her arms out as she locked eyes with the other woman, as if asking her to behold her in all her glory. Red eyes lit up, turning into bottomless voids. "I am Salem."

"...And I'm Summer. I have two precious, cute little girls called Ruby and Yang," The Ex-Huntress' head tilted with a scowl of her own. "What's your point?"

"…"

"I'm not asking you to surrender everything you are for something that's gone. I'm asking you to try again with me here and now, for the sake of something more worthwhile than what came before."

"Summer…" Salem breathed out her exasperation.

"I'm human," Summer said quietly, holding her own hand, unshed tears threatening to come. "Really human this time. Cut me, I'll bleed."

Salem solemnly shook her head,"I will never be the person you want me to be. It is no longer possible."

"You're not listening to me!" The redhead struck the window hard enough to crack it. Her knuckles bleeding, she looked up at the only woman she would ever truly love with an almost vengeful gaze. "Through right or wrong, Paradiso or Inferno, everything, I'm with you. Forever this time around!"

"And what of the family you already have? The ones whose hearts you have surely broken with your disappearance?"

"You act like I never intend to have them at my side again. I will...in time. Along with you." Her irises flared to life briefly. "The threads I hold say so."

"You have already betrayed them," the Grimm Goddess stated plainly, her facial expression unsympathetic as possible.

"You're damn right!" Summer nearly screamed as she pointed at her soulmate, the blood still dripping down her hand. "I'm a sinner, a fallen priestess of the light! And you are my Black Angel!" She ruthlessly gripped the Grimm's arm.

"Let. Go."

"Never again, woman! I again have been condemned to exile! I am corrupted, and a disgrace…!" Her tears were flowing freely now. "But this time...But this time, I am compelled to fulfill my will, possessed by my own twisted soul. And that will make all the difference!"

Summer pulled Salem into an angered kiss, shamelessly showing the full range of her nyctophilia.

Looking at the field of Grimm with threads waiting to be attached, she felt her conviction was not misplaced.

All things had the potential to be connected-were connected because of that very fact. Even if she had to make it happen herself, she welcomed the day that everyone else realized it too. With her daughters still out there pursuing their fates the best way they knew how, it was only a matter of time. She also couldn't help but feel that Cereza would eventually find her way back to them, even in this new world. Summer would gladly await that day as well.

Summer smiled as she prepared herself to keep the promise that had been made countless lifetimes ago.

Fear not my dear, sweet children, for I will always being watching over you~.

A/N: This uses the core premise from my short Blackened Angel RWBY AU,but with a wicked twist! And it honestly leaves me with more places to go with the whole Traitorous Summer angle. Let's hope this is as fun as I think it will be.

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