Chapter 8: The Gates of Paradise.
"Bloody fantastic." Bayonetta's airy voice echoed off the walls.
After the fight with dear Jeanne, she found her way to the Proving Ground Ruins. Not long after arriving the witch saw two small little figures waddling around. They appeared a blurry blue, meaning they were in the mortal plane.
Now the witch would have continued after them, but a series of deadly traps blocked her from moving on. Looking at them made Bayonetta wonder how those kids got passed.
Mabye she was just extremely unlucky. Some sadist up above enjoyed throwing challenges her way. The witch's life was really starting to resemble one of those wretched video games she always saw kids playing. Bayonetta, herself didn't really like video games, with the exception of her favorite arcade game that Rodin had in his bar. The game let her shoot even more angels.
Now that was a fine game.
Making it past all the spikes was a trial. More than once her suit got ripped in a few unsavory places. Luckily, the witch could fix the suit up just by using a little magic.
At the end of the traps was a sealed door. Bayonetta wouldn't be able to force this one open. However, there was a glowing light of red coming from a pile of rocks to the left of the door.
There must have been something important underneath the pile.
Her guns made quick work of the rocks.
A lever was under all that baggage. The lever was as tall as the witch though, so she wrapped her leg around the handle and leaned back, pulling until her head was inches from the ground. From the position, Bayonetta watched as the glowing red panels rose out of the ground.
Her next challenge included three glowing panels. Panels that matched the ones on the door.
The witch assumed that she would have to somehow hit them all at the same time to open the door. At least that wouldn't be too much of a problem since the deadly traps had stopped jutting spears out of the ground.
This challenge called for speed and Bayonetta had just acquired a new animalistic power.
Jogging forward, she felt her body twitching and reshaping itself into the form of a panther. The witch landed on all the panels in mad rush and through her feline eyes she saw the sealed door rise up. Not missing a beat, the panther raced inside the door before it closed again.
Bayonetta roared in triumph.
"Achoo!" Cereza sneezed cutely. The force of the sneeze caused her glasses to fall.
His sister was so clumsy.
And she was forgetful. Somehow Cereza always managed to lose her glasses, socks, Cheshire, and anything else she could get her hands on. More than once since they had started their adventure they had to stop and look for Cheshire because Cereza dropped him and lost sight of the stupid thing.
Well, Cerezo supposed Cheshire wasn't stupid. Him getting lost all the time was stupid. Why couldn't he just behave?
Rabbi, his white rabbit that Mummy made him never got lost. Thinking about him made him sad.
The boy was so busy chasing after his sister that he left Rabbi in their room.
"My glasses! Where are my glasses?" Cereza was on her knees looking for the glasses.
The silly girl.
They were right next to her.
"Here, Sissy. Your glasses are right here." Cerezo picked the glasses up and put them back on her nose.
He was glad he never lost his glasses. If he lost them, Cereza would never find them.
"Now, come on. Daddy said we had to come here to help, Mummy! And we can't help her if we have to keep stopping." The boy held out his hand and helped Cereza stand back up.
They held hands so Cereza wouldn't wander off and get lost.
The boy led his sister to a large doors, but paused. He could feel magic in the air. The magic was really familiar.
It reminded him of Daddy. Warm and radiant.
"Ahhh! Why are there angels coming after us?! We're not dead yet! Or did we do something wrong, Daddy?! Daddy!" Cerezo yelled fearfully.
The Angels were coming for them with lances. The boy wanted to protect Cereza like Daddy did whenever demons came after them, but he didn't know how. Cereza started crying.
She was such a crybaby.
Cerezo could feel the tears building up in his eyes too. All the boy could do was hold Cereza and hope that Daddy would come for them. He would never let anything hurt them!
"What are you boys doing in here? Are you hiding something from me? Come on…" Bayonetta teased.
A group of angels were crowding around something, but her dramatic entrance drew their attention.
The witch slapped them down from the ceiling and made her own runway with their bodies. Walking over each them, she smashed their heads in. One of the angels though got back up and tried to take a pass at her from behind.
The tactic did not end well for him.
Bayonetta grabbed the thing before it could touch anything it shouldn't.
"You've been cheating on me, haven't you? Someone else caught your eye?" The witch curled her lip dangerously.
A couple hard smacks severed the Affinity's head and its body went flying into the ceiling.
The witch didn't know the extent of her own strength.
With all the Affinities gone she could see what caught their attention.
The two children she had been chasing after.
Bayonetta could see that one of them was bawling their eyes out.
"Oh dear…Something tells me I'm going to regret this…" The witch whined.
As if to disagree with the statement, Bayonetta heard that familiar wave of melodies enter her mind.
"My sweet, lovely child…They are the key to your future." The man's voice exited her mind as soon as it entered.
With the departure of the voice came the arrival of more Affinities.
"I'm not normally one to play savior, but I suppose I can make an exception and kill all of you. Just this once, of course."
The witch jumped from Purgatorio to Chaos and grabbed the kids, flipping away from the Affinities' attack. She placed the children on the ground.
They would be safe now since she a barrier over them.
Now it was time to take care of the pesky boys. This dance would be a bit more difficult since she couldn't see them completely from not being in Purgatorio.
"Fly me to the moon and let me play among the stars. Let me see what spring is like on Jupiter…"
"Mummy!" Cereza cried.
She couldn't believe it. Mummy had defeated all those bad monsters!
Oh, wait. She couldn't call them bad creatures. Brother told her that they're good guys, but if they were good why did they attack them? Cereza was so confused.
Mummy was amazing though!
She was jumping and running around, but it all looked so fun, just like dancing. But why was she on the ground and why wasn't she moving?
Cerezo ran to her other side and helped his sister try to wake her up.
"Was I just singing?" Mummy whisper. She was awake.
Cereza was so happy to see her.
"Mummy!" She shouted and hugged her as tight as she could.
Cerezo and Cereza hadn't been allowed to visit her for the night for some reason. The Elder just told them to stay in the room, but then Daddy came and got them.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Slow down, little one. I am not your mother." Mummy pushed her off and sprung up, knocking the two children over.
Why was she acting like this?
Usually, Mummy would always be happy to see them. Why wasn't she hugging them? Had they done something naughty and she no longer wanted to be their Mummy?
Cereza stood back up. "But..Mummy!" She started to whine now.
Daddy and Mummy both told her she shouldn't whine, but the girl couldn't help it. Mummy was being so mean.
"Will you quit calling me Mummy?!" She shouted and stomped her feet.
Mummy didn't want Cereza anymore.
She really was an "impure child". No one in the clan liked being around the little girl. They all ignored the girl and all the other little girls her age pulled Cereza's hair and hide her things.
The only person that was nice to the "impure one" was Jeanne. And that friendship only flourished because Cereza showed her how to walk on walls. For some reason when she saw Cereza do it she got really mad and wanted the girl to show her how to do it. Jeanne called it Witch Walk and was very insistent on learning it.
But even though they were friends Jeanne was always angry with her and shouting.
Suddenly feeling sad, the little girl started crying again. She knew Brother was going to be cross with her for crying, she couldn't help it.
Cerezo was always telling her that big girls didn't cry. But he always started crying whenever Cereza cried.
"Mummy, look at what you did! You made Sissy cry. And I just got her to quit crying earlier. You're being a bad Mummy!" Brother stomped his foot and glared at Mummy.
That only made her cry harder.
Why was everyone so mad?
Her brother tried to make Cereza feel better by handing her Cheshire and rubbing her back.
When did she drop him?
Abruptly, the little girl was lifted off the ground. Mummy picked her up by the collar of her dress. Cereza frowned as the brunched-up dress slightly choked the her.
"If there's two things I hate in this world, it's cockroaches and crying babies. Well, a crying baby cockroach would be truly terrible…So don't you dare cry, try to be more like your brother there and quiet down." Mummy looked at her with a serious face while pointing the end of a gun at the girl's nose.
Her face was really scary. Cereza didn't want to anger her anymore. Maybe if the girl was good, Mummy would want to be her Mummy again.
"Yes, Mummy." She obediently stopped crying and tried to put on a brave face.
Satisfied, Mummy dropped her. Cereza ran back to Cerezo. The boy continued to glare at the woman while holding his sister's hand.
At least Cerezo wasn't mad at her.
"You've got to be a strong little one to survive in a place like this. What's your names, anyway?" Mummy seemed less mad now, but she was still pacing around them like she was going to eat them at any moment.
"I'm Cerezo and this is my sissy, Cereza. Why are you asking Mummy? You should already know our names. You're the one who named us, don't you remember?" Cerezo smartly answered. He was giving attitude to Mummy.
He was probably still mad about how she was acting. Cereza hoped Mummy wouldn't get mad and spank him.
Her brother was only looking after her. She didn't want him to get in trouble for that.
"Cerezo and Cereza, matching names huh? You're not from Vigrid, are you little ones? Where are you from? You're a long ways from a garden, Miss Cherry and Mister Cherry Tree." Mummy ignored Cerezo's tone and stopped pacing to stand with her hands on hips.
Maybe she forgot where we lived?
"We're from my house. Only, brother is just visiting. So I don't know where he's from, but we were both born in my house though. I was born first, then brother." Cereza rambled.
She was confused.
Why didn't Mummy know all this? Did she hit her head and forget? Though, if Cereza lived in a dark cell everyday then she might forget a few things too.
Cerezo huffed loudly before sticking his tongue out at her.
She probably shouldn't have said he was the younger twin. Brother hated it when she told people that.
"Well now, I'll hazard a guess that this isn't your home, so what on earth are you doing here?"
"Our Daddy told us to come here." Both Cerezo and her answered Mummy at the same time.
Cereza thought it was pretty neat that Brother and her could often say the same things at the same time or finish each other's sentences. To her, it meant they were really close. Everyone else didn't it was neat though.
The little girl remembered Aunty was often thrown off whenever Cerezo and she did it. Daddy found it funny when they did it and Mummy usually thought it was cute.
"And whereabouts is this Daddy of yours?" Mummy asked.
"He was at work, but I don't know where he's gone. I want to go home!" Cereza hugged Mummy's leg again and started pushing against her so she'd move.
She didn't like this place, it was cold and dark. And there was the rain. Worst of all, she didn't want anymore bad angels coming after them.
"No no, silly! We just saw Daddy when we came in. He just said we had to find Mummy and help her before we could go home." Cerezo helped push Mummy too.
They almost knocked her over with their efforts.
"Rezo, I don't think that was Daddy. He just looked like him." Cereza argued.
There was a man who had come along and helped them find their way. The man did look a lot like Daddy, but something was off to Cereza.
The man had silver hair that was pushed back with a single strand hanging in the front. He also had bright blue eyes. The clothes he wore were just as white and gold and shiny as Daddy's too. They were similar, but he just didn't seem like Daddy to her.
"No! I'm sure that was Daddy, Reza. No one else has that aura of light about them, but Daddy." The two stopped pushing Mummy to focus on their argument. They argued back and forth about whether or not the silver man was their Daddy.
Eventually the bickering was stopped by Mummy stomping her foot.
"You two better stop arguing and you better not be getting attached to me." Mummy kept tapping her heel.
Was she mad again?
"Yes, Mummy." Cerezo and Cereza answered her in tune.
"Ugh. Come now, little ones. I'll help you out of here, but that's all." Mummy started walking and the twins started following her.
Mummy's ribbon caught Cereza's attention so she grabbed onto it. Her head came flying back. Mummy whipped around.
"And you little girl have to promise there will be no crying." Mummy returned to walking, only to turn back around. "A single tear and you'll be crying alone." She turned and started walking, stopping to whip around. "As for you boy, you'd better watch your attitude when speaking to a lady. You two got it?"
"Okay Mummy." Their repeated answers annoyed her.
Mummy just walked off, sighing about babysitting. Cereza and her brother held hands and toddled after her.
"Hey! This is probably how you got lost to begin with." Mummy tutted, picking Sissy up to keep her from running off.
Good. Cerezo didn't want to have to chase after again, only to get lost.
But he could see why Cereza wanted to run off. They had arrived inside of Paradiso after stepping through the portal.
This place was a breathe of fresh after the twins had been running around in the cold rain in nothing but their nightgowns. Especially after that crawling angel kept trying to grab Cereza in the tunnel.
Cerezo didn't understand why all the angels were attacking them. They were usually never this aggressive. Usually when Daddy called on them to watch the twins they would just play with him and Cereza, never attack them.
"See, Sissy! Paradiso is much prettier than Inferno or Chaos or Purgatorio!" The little boy insisted with a bright grin.
Cerezo was always amazed at how beautiful everything looked in Paradiso. Even though it only reflected images of the other realms, it always made everything looked shiny. He could hear everything vibrating with lovely sounds. The feathers were nice too, they made his nose twitch though.
Mummy dropped Cereza. It was pure luck that Cereza had managed to land on her feet. Cerezo felt a small spark of irritation.
What if Sissy had gotten hurt?! Then she'd start crying again. But the anger melted away.
His insides were tingling. Something was coming.
"M-Mummy.." Cereza's scared voice made him grab her hand and look at where she was pointing.
Angels. More angels were coming after them from the sky.
What was going on? Why were all his friends attacking them?!
"Don't worry, it's always scary the first time you see them." Mummy reassured them.
Was she going to fight them?
That wasn't right. Angels were good, they were defenders of justice.
Why was Mummy fighting against them?
"So where was I? Oh yes. Your kind invitation. I do hope you've prepared dessert as well. Oh what a lovely tea party! And dancing too! Cereza, Cerezo, my dears, watch and learn!" Mummy was confidently walking around, dodging the angels and shooting them.
He couldn't really focus on her. Cerezo had to keep moving with Cereza to avoid getting stepped on.
This was a crazy tea party!
Mummy managed to get rid of the angels, but then that big Angel that had chased us through the tunnel appeared and snatched Cereza, who was screaming for help, from me.
"Hey! Let my Sissy go! You can't have her!" The little boy ran and jumped for the angel, grabbing onto his sister's leg and holding on as the stupid angel picked them up.
Looking up he could see his sister's underwear. Cerezo looked back down, trying to erase the image he'd seen. The boy hoped no one could see his underwear underneath the nightgown.
Cerezo heard a voice resonate in his mind. The voice belonged to the angel that had kidnapped them.
"Oh my! This creature is just marvelous. I have to have her to myself! Don't worry, my pretty! I'll take good care of you."
Oh no. This guy was one of those creeps Mummy told him to look out for. He had to protect Cereza!
"Don't worry Reza! I will not let this ugly guy do naughty things to you!" He promised.
The boy tried to climb up Cereza, but the stupid angel put her in his mouth.
How disgusting!
While he tried kicking the angel in the face, he could hear Mummy shouting for them. ICerezosaw her jumping towards them, but she got batted out of the way by a long axe.
"Don't you touch Mummy either, you creep!" Cerezo kicked him again, hoping he'd make a dent, but the attacks did no damage.
Suddenly, the boy saw a scary black dragon coming towards them.
That thing was a demon!
Cerezo slammed his eyes shut, hoping it didn't eat them. Instead, he felt Cereza and him being tossed into the air. They landed in Mummy's arms. He was so glad to see her pretty face and smile instead of the inside of a dragon's mouth.
Looking back, the boy saw the dragon chewing the angel up. Normally, Cerezo would've been sad to see an angel get eaten, but this guy tried to run off with his sister and do naughty things to her.
He could still hear the angel in his head.
"No! My pretty! Don't leave me!"
Sissy just stuck her tongue out at him. Cereza's rejection must have mad him sad cause he dropped his hand and let the dragon eat him.
Cerezo kinda felt bad for him.
Then he felt that tingling sensation again. Only this time he could feel it come from Mummy. Strange. Only angels gave him this feeling.
Mummy started floating away. Until something hit her in the head. Cereza screamed as Mummy almost dropped her.
The bullet hole in her head healed itself.
Turning around, Cerezo saw that there were two Mummies. A halo floated above the Mummy holding them. Only Angels had halos.
She was a fake.
The boy bit the fake's arm. When she dropped them, he took Sissy's hand and pulled her away from the fake, hiding by the portal. The twins watched their Mummy and the fake. They began some kind of dance off. Mummy won, causing the fake to attack her and reveal itself as the First Sphere Joy. Or at least that's what he heard her call herself in his head.
Cerezo wasn't able to watch the rest of the fight as something pulled him through the portal.
"Come with me, little Cerezo."
The boy didn't know who this person was since he could only see arms reaching through the portal and the voice was in his head. He tried to let go of Cereza's hand so she wouldn't get pulled too, but the silly girl kept a hold on his hand, trying to pull him back. Unfortunately, she wasn't strong enough and they both got pulled through.
It was a good effort from her though.
"Stop struggling Cerezo, I will not harm either of you." The sage spoke calmly to the younger version of himself despite his annoyance with the kicking and screaming of the child.
Was he always this troublesome when he was younger? Heaven knew how Father had put up with him. Cerezo could now understand why a majority of his childhood consisted of him being reprimanded by his father and aunt.
This foul-mouthed urchin was the exact opposite of Cereza, who was hugging him by the leg and crying, begging him to let her brother go.
While holding little Cerezo, the sage got an idea of how to calm the child down. He started tickling the little boy's sides. Cerezo knew this would be a weak spot for the little boy because it was still a weak spot for him. The plan worked and the child his screams for laughter.
The shift calmed both kids down.
"Wait, you're that funny man that looks like Daddy. What are you doing here? Did you come to take us back home?!" Little Cereza stopped crying and pulled on his pants.
She may not have been the braver twin but she always was the more clever twin, wasn't she?
The sage placed little Cerezo down and took both their hands.
"Yes little Cereza, I will see you home just after you help your mother with her mission. Until then, I'm going to help her look after you." Cerezo said.
It was strange being with the younger selves of himself and his sister. It reminded him of of all the good and precious memories they had shared as children. Only Bayonetta didn't remember him or anything about herself.
It saddened Cerezo greatly that he had lost his sister and friend to the machinations of the world.
"Mummy!" Cereza yelled giddily.
Bayonetta finally managed to find Cereza and Cerezo. They were standing in the middle of the bridge, holding hands with some silver-haired man. The little girl waved exuberantly before running towards her. The witch thought the little girl's glasses might fall off from all the action. And she could spy with her little eye, Luka harassing the man.
Bayonetta stepped back into the mortal realm of Chaos.
"Mummy!? You're a mom? You!?" Luka shouted, stopping his conversation with the silver-haired man. He was quite worked up and stopped Cereza from reaching her. His finger pointed accusingly at the witch.
Didn't he learn that it's rude to point?
"Come now, Cheshire. Look at me. Do I look like I have any interest in children? Now making them…Well, that's another story."
She could see Luka blatantly staring at all her assets. Like any typical man caught drooling, he went on the defensive.
"Whoa! Whoa! You're getting the wrong idea. I mean, it might be the right idea. But not right now. Right, right? Yeah... Uh... Speaking of right, I'm glad I've been standing around waiting for you, because I knew we'd cross paths. See, the only way to reach the upper crust and their gated island of champagne wishes and caviar dreams is over Prominence Bridge." Luka was clearly flustered and doing a terrible job of covering it up.
"Oh…Yes…The island…Lovely place, isn't it?" Bayonetta played along until Luka seized Cereza, shielding the girl from her. Oh, now what?!"
"Don't play games with me! You've worked your magic on this poor defenseless child and her brother too, haven't you!? You're a sad, sick woman, you know that? I was their age when you killed my father. Wait… No... You couldn't... Oh my god, you did, didn't you? You killed their parents!" Luka's voice kept going up octaves in his hysteria.
Goodness. Jeanne said she had quite the imagination, but Luka clearly had quite the imagination, which was to be expected with his profession as a journalist.
"Hmm…Come to think of it, they'll be better off with you. You three are more hassle than you're worth." Bayonetta decided. Her decision seemed to shock Luka into silence.
The silver man took this lull to insert himself into the conversation.
"That won't be necessary. Mr. Luka has absolutely no capability to look after either one of these children. Besides, they were originally with me. They just happened to run off in their excitement." The man's firm tone left no room for discussion.
Now that he was closer Bayonetta got a good look at him.
He had a very feminine face, striking blue eyes and luminescent pale skin. She also spotted a beauty mark by his lip. His slicked-back silver hair also seemed to glow in the moonlight. The man's clothes stood out too. They were in direct opposite to the witch.
A white form-fitting jacket split off at the waist. His pants matched the jacket, with gold and purple accents all over. The most noticeable thing on him though was the gold pocket watch he had hanging from a chain around his neck.
The watch was eerily similar to Bayonetta's except it had a blue stone and a picture of the sun on it. In fact everything about this man while opposite seemed familiar.
The witch could feel another memory forcing its way to the forefront of her mind.
"You know, technically speaking, you and I are supposed to enemies. You're darkness and I'm light. You are a Witch and I am a Sage." The boy sounded so sad as he spoke.
This was a lesson she had come to learn over time.
The woman always wondered why a part of her always felt uncomfortable around him despite how much she loved her brother. It was because of the conflicting elements inside of them.
The twins were sitting up on the tower watching the moon. This was one of those rare visits he was allowed by the Elder.
"I know, but that never stopped us from being each other's best friends. After all we're one of kind. No one will ever be able to truly understand us 'Impure children'." The girl's voice was just as sad and dejected as the boy's.
They looked like quite the pair right now. Two sulking teenagers. One boy with bright shinning silver hair and blue eyes and one girl with pure black hair and gray eyes.
The girl leaned her head on the boy's shoulder and he wrapped his arm around her shoulders in return.
"Yes, we shall always have each other."
"I don't know why, but for some reason I don't trust you! Something is definitely off about you."
Coming back to reality, Bayonetta saw Luka arguing with the silver man. It seemed he didn't want to return Cereza and wanted to take Cerezo as well.
"And pray tell boy, what makes you more qualified to take them when you don't even know them?! I happen to be related to them!" The silver man retorted.
Maybe this man was their father? But the kids weren't acting as giddy around him as they were Bayonetta.
Whatever. she'd let those two figure things out. The children were better off with one of them.
"Just keep a good eye on them, or you're going to catch hell for it. No good deed goes unpunished, and you never know when a monster may sneak up on you. " The witch threatened, pushing her glasses back up while smirking at the two boys fighting over kids like divorced parents.
"Mummy! Look out!" Cereza shouted, with her brother joining in her shouts.
Bayonetta jumped back through the portal and took care of the angels behind her.
"How in the—" Luka was unable to finish his sentence due to the bridge collapsing.
Luckily, his wire helped him escape. As for Cerezo, the witch assumed the silver man got away safely since he was nowhere to be found.
"Mummy! No!" The little girl continued to cry out for Bayonetta as Luka took her away. Cereza was looking right at the witch as well.
"How can she see me!?" Bayonetta was shocked and confused.
She was in Purgatorio, a completely different realm. Cereza shouldn't have been able to see her.
The witch let it go. She had other things to deal with.
Elsewhere, a girl moved the Bayonetta toy from the Enlightenment Commercial District to the Vigrid Army Air Force base. A boy placed a Cerezo toy next to the Bayonetta toy.
The tornado raged on by the toys.