Chapter 16: A Tower of Truth

"Welcome back, little one."

Cereza saw Mummy standing in front of a gold door with Not-daddy.

She knew that her mother would win. Nobody could beat her!

"Mummy…where are we?" She was very sleepy right now.

Cereza had a dream about swimming in a lake with all of her family. All she wanted to do was go to bed with everyone together in one place.

Luka set her down next to Brother.

"It looks like someone's expecting us. Awfully nice of them to roll out the red carpet."

"Luka, you need to get one thing straight—"

"Yeah. I know. I won't look after you, so don't screw up. I got things under control."

"Let's go. Stay next to me, little ones." Mummy grabbed hers and Cerezo's hand, leading them through the doors.

Cereza then heard something in her head.

"Rise my child! Rise to realize your true potential! Unleash your power and awaken the Eyes of the world!"

She knew this voice.

"Daddy…!?" Cerezo and she both said at the same time.

"What?" Mummy was shocked and let go of their hands.

"Daddy! It's Daddy!" The twins happily jumped around.

He was here! Now their family would be complete.

"Daddy?"

"Of course, Mummy! Can't you hear him?" Cereza scrunched up her nose in confusion. "Okay, Daddy. I'm coming…and I'll bring Mummy with me."

She ran ahead, pulling Cerezo with her.

They'd finally be a family again.

"Little ones, wait!" Mummy chased after them.

"This way, Mummy!"

Now they were going to play a game of tag.

All the voices faded away as Cereza focused on her goal.

"Little ones! Little ones! Help me brother!"

"Yes. let's go, sister!"

"Cerezita! Cerezito! Bayonetta! Silver! Damn it."

His sister had finally remembered him!

All the pieces to the puzzle were finally coming together. His father's patient planing was paying off at last.

Bayonetta and Cerezo quickly climbed up the stairs after their younger selves. Silver hair fell into his face again from all the motion. Pushing the hair back seemed pointless when it kept falling out of place.

How could Father constantly stand grooming his hair with peacock feathers all the time?

"Cerezo…" His sister called out, hesitation loomed over her in waves.

She had no need to be afraid of him.

"What is it, Cereza? You never need to be afraid or hesitant to talk to me. I…I am your other half after all." The genuine statement made her stop walking.

She stood on a stair above him so when she turned around he had to look up at her to meet her gaze. The usual fierceness in her eyes was replaced with apprehensiveness.

Was it too soon for him to call her Cereza? Perhaps he should have waited.

Cerezo was starting to get nervous from her stare.

How unbelievable was it that his sister could make him this nervous, but his wife didn't install this kind of anxiety in him?

He desperately wanted his sister back...

"Cerezo…are those two…" Instead of finishing her question, she started playing with the hair hanging from his face. "Why do you always wear your hair pushed back like that, you look so much younger with it like this."

Cereza adjusted the hair so it looked more like his younger self's style.

Was she consciously doing this as confirmation that she'd figure out who the little ones were? Or was this just another moment of vanity?

"I wear my hair pushed back for many reasons. The most important is that I want emulate a man I greatly admire."

"I see."

Cereza's odd behavior ended and she continued climbing the stairs. They made their way up the stairs fighting angels along until they made it to a winding corridor.

It was extremely dark outside.

Tonight was going to be the darkest and longest night the world had ever known.

"Cerezo, where have you been all these years and what have you been doing?" Her question threw him off guard and for a moment he didn't have an answer.

Should he tell her the truth?

No. He wasn't the one she needed to hear this from. Cerezo couldn't bring up their long and bloody past without breaking down from every tragedy he'd experienced.

"If you're asking why I wasn't there when you woke up, then it's because I didn't know. I have lived the last five-hundred years with the belief that you were eternally lost from me. Only quite recently did I found out you were alive." Cerezo paused, remembering how relieved he had felt at the news. "Alive, but not awake. My father…no our father told me you remembered nothing of the past. That you were a blank slate…to be quite honest, I was afraid of meeting you. The thought of you looking at me and not knowing me, it broke what fragile pieces I have left in me."

He trembled, struggling to remain calm in front of her.

How could he explain the depth of loneliness and despair he'd felt from losing his other half, his best friend after everything they'd been through?

They walked side by side through the corridor. He could almost imagine this was five-hundred years ago with them strolling through some town together. He was trying very hard to keep his composure but the emotional turmoil came out in his very gait. All that bottled up emotion was coming out, affecting them both.

Loneliness was something they were both familiar with. The twins never had the option of a normal life. The years they had struggled through were full of fighting and isolation.

There was hardly any room for joy, but they had it found in the rare moments with their family.

"Cerezo…I'm.."

Poor Cereza. She was clearly overwhelmed by the returned memories.

Now she had to assimilate two parts of her life into her mind. She had to be internally struggling.

It would all come to rest soon though.

"Calm your mind, dear sister. Soon, we shall be at the top of the tower. And you will be reunited with your real family. all will be set right."

"Knock, knock! Daddy, we're here!"

Balder could hear his sweet children banging their little hands on his office door.

While their older selves were forced to climb the tower, the little ones were allowed to come here through the elevator and use his office door that was magically connected to the private study.

Balder looked at his sister sitting across from him.

Sigyn had changed out of her cloak and donned the official robes as a follower of the Laguna. Her attire was very similar his with the exception of hers being accented by violet instead of gold. She had even put her beautiful gold hair into a neat bun with a row of peacock feathers adorning it off to the side.

His sister looked so lovely. She looked ready for battle...

If only he could have given her better. As a brother he had failed her.

"Sigyn, would you be a dear and get the door for them?" Balder stopped the depressing train of thought and focused on the young, innocent faces he would now see.

"Of course brother, I'm fairly excited to see these two as kids again after all this time." She opened the door and was nearly knocked over by the force of the twins tackling her with a fierce hug.

"Oh my goodness! You two have gotten so strong." Sigyn kissed both of their heads.

"Aunty Sigyn!" They were both talking in sync again.

Balder found that trait of the twins to be rather endearing.

The ability to have such a close bond with another person to the point that they are able to be completely in sync, now that was a lovely bond to have.

"Now calm down you two. Why don't you go over there with Daddy and have something to eat with him? I know you two must be famished after that long trip." Sigyn led them over to his desk and immediately Cereza climbed into his lap, spraying kisses all over his face.

Balder lightly chuckled at the display of affection. Compared to his ice-cold skin, Cereza was warm like an ember.

"Daddy! I missed you so much, but I had fun with Mummy and I didn't cry at all! I was big girl, Daddy!"

"Did you now? That's a good girl. Soon you'll grow big and be as lovely and talented as your mother." He stroked her soft, black hair that reminded him so much of Rosa.

When Cereza was younger Balder used to always help her comb her hair with peacock feathers. She would sit on his lap in front of the vanity he placed in the twin's room and Balder would comb out her hair until slipped through his fingers. Cereza loved it when he braided her hair so that was usually how I did it for her. He added red ribbons to the braid after Rosa gave them to Cereza.

His little girl looked so much like her mother.

"Cerezo, don't you want to go sit on your father's lap like your sister?" Sigyn tried to push Cerezo towards forward, but the boy was being shy and wouldn't approach him.

While Cereza was always a wallflower scared of her own shadow, she had no qualms with lavishing people with affection. Cerezo on the other hand was more reserved on such matters and often needed encouraging. balder's strictness caused the boy to be hesitant of being affectionate.

His habit of taking Cerezo with him during missions did not help matters either. Looking back, Balder wished he could have shown his love for his little boy more clearly. Cerezo being a male should not have prevented him from showering the boy with love like he did with Cereza. He shouldn't have forced Cerezo to play the role of protector because he could not.

"My dear son, won't you come join me? I have two arms for the both of you." Balder reached out, hoping Cerezo would come to him.

He didn't look exactly like himself from five-hundred years ago, but the twins still at least recognized him as their father.

"Come on, Rezo! Daddy loves us both!" At his sister's urging, Cerezo finally came over and climbed onto Balder's lap, kissing his cheek.

"Daddy, I missed you too." His little boy whispered timidly.

Balder cradled the twins, softly gazing at them. There was nothing in this world he cherished more than his two, beloved children. They were everything he could have ever wanted. If only Rosa could have been here, in this perfect moment...

"Why don't you two tell Daddy all about the fun trip you had with Mummy while you eat." He gently kissed both Cereza and Cerezo on the head.

Sigyn came over and placed the tray of food in front of the twins, occasionally helping them eat.

It would be time for him to send them back soon...

This precious moment in time sustained Balder as he waited for the older versions of the twins to make it to the top of the tower. Right now, his soul felt lighter than it had in years.

More angels appeared the higher they went.

At this point Cerezo was infinitely tired of dealing with them. When giant angels showed up and demolished the side of the building to get to Cereza, he felt like he'd reached his boiling point.

He could tolerate all the damage done everywhere, but the Ithavoll building was a different story. Father, Sigyn and Cerezo had built this place from the ground up. The sage would not let this building burn to the ground! This was probably the first time Cerezo was more than happy to shoot the angels out of the shy with the battling guns from the side of the building.

Really, the guns were supposed to be used to fend off air raids from a military attack, a floating angel destroying his precious building counted as an air raid.

"Ah, this is going to be a problem." Cerezo adjusted his glasses to help see where the elevator was.

"For you maybe, but not me."

All the power had been cut for the elevators since they were going around causing chaos with their battles. While the security guards might not have been able to see them, they probably knew something was happening and attempted to cut the problem off. On one hand it was good to have such capable men at work, but on the other hand it made his job of getting Cereza to their father harder.

This was what happened when their workers were too competent.

"Well you go on ahead and moon-walk up the wall. I'll just fly up." Cerezo gestured towards the wall since the moon was shinning through the glass.

"With pleasure, baby brother. Try to keep up. And it's not moon-walking it's Witch-Walking." Cereza mocked him, strutting up the wall.

Cerezo glared at her back in response to slight on his age.

"Hmph! You're only seven minutes older than me." He scoffed, turning himself into a majestic, white hawk. While Cereza walked up the wall, the sage flapped his wings to go higher.

The open latch at the top of the elevator led them to a giant goddess statue and floating panels.

It was a marvelous statue to behold. One of the Lumens most prized creations.

Cerezo could only admire its beauty for so long before Cereza pulled him along to continue up the ramp of energy leading to a pole. He knew the pole had to turn, the sage was still traumatized from her last display. He insited on turning the wheel.

"Ugh, why does everything have to be a puzzle? I'm ready to just kill whoever is at the top of this tower just because of these never ending challenges!" Cereza pushed her glasses up with her gun.

Clearly, she was reaching her boiling point too.

All around them were glowing panels. If they waited too long the panels would disappear and they'd fall to their deaths.

Father really was an evil genius. It wasn't enough to have strength, intelligence was also a must.

"Ahh! My building! My building is going to burn to the ground at this rate." Cerezo moaned despondently at the massive destruction another angel caused.

Half the building was demolished after they ran from the explosion.

"I think you should give up on the idea that this building is going to remain standing. If you haven't noticed, all of our battles end with the area destroyed."

Maybe she was right. Perhaps he should give up on saving the Ithavoll Building.

At least they had finally made it to Father's private study. Their younger selves were surely waiting for them inside.

Nothing would be the same for the twins after this moment.

Elsewhere, the ball atop the Ithavoll Building glowed bright yellow