Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

”When I was a kid, my mum used to tell me something.

‘There are no forks in the path of life. You just walk along, feeling your way through the grass, leaving a faint trail behind.

But if you turn around to look, you may get the strange feeling you’ve walked that path before—or that someone was walking along with you, lending you the strength to press on.’”

In the universes of light, dark, and chaos, intertwining in untold layers…

The full moon shines brightly in the night sky, fighting can be heard beneath it.

“I’d always believed in the idea of fate, but… What if some other version of me in a distant reality is creating her own destiny?”

Lights flash and pops of bullets leaving a gun sound out in the night, the city of Manhattan lay in ruins around the two parties fighting. Bayonetta is getting beaten down, slowly, unforgivingly, by the foe opposing her; yet the humorous attitude and witty remarks still remain. She gets knocked back, her fighting partner following behind, shining as pink and green shooting stars against the navy sky.

“And what if, when all the possibilities were overlaid, the path that stood out the clearest was the right one to follow?”

The green streak crashes into the already broken statue of liberty, Bayonetta rolling out of the impact on the ground before pushing herself up. She faces the shadowy figure that stands behind her and yells her summon with a booming, determined voice, “AVAVAGO!” Gomorrah appears and roars as the shadow summons its own monster and the two begin grappling, leaving Bayonetta to deal with the humanoid figure itself. It holds out its hand and the world around them shifts surrealistically, the floor disappearing and buildings creating shifting kaleidoscope designs in the sky. When Bayonetta gathers her bearings, she rushes the shadow.

“I barely understood what she was saying, but for some reason it really resonated with me.

And every time I thought about it, I looked up at the sky and daydreamed.

What if somewhere, some version of me was walking along through the grass just like me?

Could we be following the same path, forging the same destiny?”

Bayonetta and the figure fight, Gomorrah and the other beast do the same on the opposite side of the same platform.

“And even after growing up, I still believed it could be true.

I hoped that one day, a version of my mum would appear from some other world to change the course of my destiny, and pull out a strawberry candy just for me, like she always used to.

But the visitor from another world that appeared to me…

Was a nightmare that had come to crush all hope like blades of grass beneath his heel.”

The shadow figure holds out his hand once more, a blast of energy rippling across the space, once, twice. Bayonetta activates witch time but the figure suddenly moves as if unaffected by the magic, sending out another blast that makes contact this time, rose petals fly in the air as Bayonetta is knocked backwards. The watch perched on her chest cracks as she makes impact with floating pieces of road, rolling down the platforms. Just as she’s about to fall into the deep blue void below, the figure catches her by the throat and lifts her high in the air, her red ribbon falling from her hair.

The shadow speaks. “Let’s end this now.”

Bayonetta hesitates for only a moment, blood dripping down her chin, wincing between words, “I’m not done… yet…” She swings up her arm and fires her gun at the figure, making him drop her, kicking her on the way down. The witch lands hard against the ground and struggles to get back up again, she weakly manages to before going to attack the shadow again; stumbling and unable to properly hold herself up.

“What’s wrong? Having… Trouble… Running the numbers?” Bayonetta tries to keep her confident, cocky persona up while taking half-conscious swings at her opponent. Even the attacks that connect simply bounce off. “Well… don’t… count me out… just yet.” She continues to attack, stumbling a few times and straining to get her words out, “I’ll… be the one… who decides… how this will end.”

Another blast throws Bayonetta back, she rolls on the ground and once again struggles to get back up, the figure laughs at her feeble attempts. She groans in pain and looks up at the shadow as she raises herself weakly from the ground, keeping her gun hidden behind her back. He rushes at her and she pulls out her gun, taking a shot at him, but another blast destroys her bullet and explodes, sending Bayonetta flying and she hits a wall behind her with a thud. Before she could drop to the ground, chunks of broken buildings and road encapsulate her, trapping her in place high above the street below and restricting her movement.

Red cracks begin forming all over Bayonetta’s body, in the distance two people watch as the shadow figure witnesses the witch struggling for her life.

Viola scrambles to get to Bayonetta, the man with her holding her back. “No!” She screams, getting met with resilience. “Stay back!” The man shouts at her, holding her back still, “You have a job to do, soldier!” She stops and looks at him with a look of hopeless worry and he pulls out a gear-like floating mechanism and a glowing cube, he activates the latter and it encircles Viola’s head.

“This is our last world bridge.” The man says, softer this time.

Bayonetta lets out a scream of pain, more building chunks flying to crush her. Her watch slowly cracks further and further until…

“No!!” Viola runs forward as Bayonetta’s watch shatters completely, she reaches out to Viola and some of her magic flows to the younger woman, revealing a constellation glowing on her right outer thigh. “Go… Now…” Bayonetta strains to say, her body slowly turning into red crystal formations before shattering as well.

Viola falls to her knees, “Noooo!” She sobs and screams, the man behind her aiming his gun at the shadow figure and firing off several rounds, all of them being destroyed before they ever touch the shadow. He stops firing and building pieces begin rising, they were going to encounter the same fate as the now late witch. Just as the rubble begins flying at the pair, Viola is shoved out of the way, the man getting lifted into the air by the chunks right after.

“Viola! Go!” He yells at the panic-stricken girl, “You know… what to do…!” The man explodes under the intense pressure of the rocks, Viola yells again, “Sigurd!”

She then turns to the figure with a hate-filled expression, tears still running down her cheeks, “Bastard!” She lowers her head and her tears fall to the ground below, “Damn it!”

Viola takes a deep breath and snatches the cube floating in front of her and watches as it rises into the air when released, the shadow rushing at her. She draws her katana to meet him and he grabs the blade with his fist, Viola can’t compete with his strength as he grabs her throat with his other hand, raising her up above his head. She goes limp in his grasp.

Viola’s sword lights up with fire and she swings it upwards quickly, making the figure drop her back onto the ground and as soon as she lands she tosses a dart his way. It shatters right in front of his face. The blonde stands back up and raises her sword, pointing it at her enemy, “I’ll be back for you, asshole!”

The figure readies some weapons in the air to fire at the girl, the world bridge dissipating her before they could strike her. As she floats through the portal’s void, the shadow shatters the bridge she went through, sealing her in.

Chapter Text

The streets of Manhattan are bustling, people walking along sidewalks in a hurry to get their errands done as cars pass by quickly on the streets. A faint whispering somewhere in the wind can be heard, almost like a small plea for help.

Out of a small bakery walks Cereza, dressed in a soft, pink knitted sweater and blue jeans, a paper bag filled with baguettes and bread rolls is held in one arm. She licks a bit of food off of her finger as Enzo yells out, having been shocked by his car’s motor while attempting to fix it. “Ah shit!”

Cereza looks up at the sky and smiles, stretching her arms and yawning before speaking, “Enzo, what was the weather forecast for today?” She asks, the short Italian looking up at her with a half-annoyed expression, “Whassa matter, your glasses dirty? Not a cloud in the sky, perfect day for a ballgame. There’s a small thud as he closes his car’s hood. “And y’know what that means, right?”

Enzo holds up a baseball game ticket, spinning around with it clenched in his fist held up in the air, “It means you found a way to drag me all over the city, and turn my opening day ticket into toilet paper!”

He then walks up to Cereza, she absentmindedly looks around as he begins circling her, waving the ticket in her face dramatically.

“Don’t act like you don’t hear me talkin’!” He crosses his arms at the witch, “You know how much shit I had to go through for this thing?”

Cereza turns to Enzo suddenly and gasps, scaring Enzo enough for him to rip his ticket in half. He yells as Cereza throws her bag of bread into the air, it comes back down and Enzo rushes to catch it in a panic. “Whoooooa shit! Jesus! How about a heads up for—“

Enzo looks up and sees a baseball coming right for him, he freezes in place and screams, but Cereza catches it a split second before it makes contact with his face. “You have my deepest sympathies.” She then tosses the ball aside and Enzo dives to grab it.

“But don’t forget,” Cereza climbs into the passenger seat of the car, “it was you who agreed to do anything I asked in exchange for that job.” She rests her feet up on the dashboard.

“Just ‘cause I said anything doesn’t mean—“

“Now, let’s be off.”

Enzo walks around the car to put the bag of bread and the baseball safely in the backseat as Cereza pulls out a rose shaped lollipop. “Now, where do you want to go? I’ve been drivin’ around this city since the crack of dawn!” The short man gets into the driver’s seat and struggles to turn on the car’s engine, having a small fit when it doesn’t work after the first few tries.

“And now this damn thing’s throwin’ a temper tantrum!”

Cereza lifts one of her legs and kicks down on the dashboard, Enzo looking at her, clearly upset and shocked. “The hell are you doin’! I just got this baby yesterday and…” The car stutters to life.

Cereza’s face reveals a small, smug smile, “Less hot air, more gas.” She even sounds smug. Enzo groans. They begin driving off.

Somewhere nearby, Rodin stands in his pizza truck, he looks up to the sky. “Storm’s comin’…”

As Enzo and Cereza ride along the street, the baseball game plays from the radio, though the team Enzo was holding out his hopes for had just lost the game. “Lousy bums!” He switches the radio off, “Everybody’s gettin’ screwed today.”

As they pass by a large, white cruise ship, Cereza’s eyes never leave the sea vessel.

“And me playin’ chauffeur cause you gotta meet someone.” Cereza barely turns her attention as the man speaks. “So who are they? First the park, then the grocery store, and now you’re saying you wanna try the pier.” He pauses for a moment before getting louder, “Hey, you even know where this mystery guest of yours is?

Suddenly, Cereza reaches down and pulls up on the parking brake, causing the car to spin out of its lane—narrowly avoiding getting hit by a big truck—as Enzo curses and yells. When the car stops, Cereza immediately begins to exit the vehicle, Enzo still yelling.

“The hell you do that for!?” Cereza keeps walking, Enzo leaving the car to chase after her, but she seems to not even hear him. “Hey!” He walks beside her and waves his arms, “Hello?”

Cereza feels an odd sensation and stops walking, looking up at the sky as she hears the whispers on the breeze yet again. She puts her hand to her head, trying to hear the cry more clearly.

“Please… Someone help me… Before it’s too late!”

Cereza puts her arm back down and Enzo looks at her with a weirded-out expression. “Hey, what is it? Don’t tell me you got the date wrong or somethin’.” A small red crystal reveals itself on the witch’s forehead before disappearing almost as fast as it had appeared and she looks up at the ship again.

“No, it’s today.” She pauses, “And it’s here.”

The black haired woman begins walking off again, Enzo following after her in confusion.

“Whaat?!” Enzo asks loudly, Cereza then answers, “Enzo, you wait right here.”

She stops walking and spins around in a flash, putting one hand on her hip and the other pointing at Enzo, who curses as he almost runs into her. She begins walking towards him as he walks backwards until he’s almost climbing on top of the trunk of his car.

“Got it? Right here. Don’t move one inch.”

Cereza turns to leave again, walking away and leaving Enzo to process before he responds. “Geez… Alright!”

Enzo climbs off the back of his car as Cereza walks away, she waves back at him as he speaks. “H-hey! How long d’you expect me to sit here for, huh? What am I supposed to do?”

Cereza makes it onto the ship, discovering a formal party being held on the main deck. She looks around before looking down at herself, realizing she’s probably underdressed for the occasion and scans around her surroundings. Spotting some cream-coloured cloth decorations hanging on the walls, she snaps her fingers and walks over, grabbing a section as she passes, fashioning herself a long, draping dress out of it. In her hair she places matching white flowers.

The witch dazzles the other party goers, she snatches up a wide-brimmed hat that matches her new dress, fitting it onto her head while passing by a girl throwing a bouquet behind her. Cereza catches it without looking and smells the white and pink roses before casting a smile at the other women and turning away again to toss the bouquet, allowing another girl to catch it.

Outside the ship, Enzo sits in his car waiting, “Damn it!” He sighs, “I know it’s the same shit with her every time, but she still gets me by the short and curlies!”

A few raindrops fall onto his hand, he looks at them in surprise before looking up at the sky. “Rain? Where’d all these clouds come from?”

A blue light shines above Enzo, he watches in shock.

“…The hell is that?” He says incredulously, “Not again… Light from on high just means more holy bullshit!”

Though no angels escaped the light above, Viola did instead, falling out of the sky as Enzo spots her and curses, holding out his arms to attempt to catch her now that he knows it’s not an angel. He yells as she lands in his arms, unconscious—her sword falling into the passenger seat.

“A… a girl?” Enzo looks around at the sky, “Who the… Where the hell did she come from?” He looks back down at Viola, “Y’know, this kid looks kinda familiar…”

Viola stirs from her sleep, her eyes flying open and she sits up, making Enzo scream yet again. Viola grabs the collar of his jacket roughly, “Please… take me to… her…” Enzo begins to sweat. “Do I look like a damn taxi driver?!” Viola pulls him up closer, he gulps, “H-her who?” “Bayo…” She begins passing out again, falling forward onto the short man, “netta…”

Enzo freezes in his seat and sighs, “Oh yeah, this? This… this is just what I needed.”

Back on the ship, Cereza is walking along the deck and looking up. People begin looking where she is, there’s a giant wave coming right for the ship. Realizing the danger of the situation, everyone begins screaming and running, some wind blowing off the witch’s stolen hat as she pushes her glasses up with her left hand.

The people back where Enzo sits in his car begin noticing the wave as well, “The hell is that?” One man exclaims, facing in the direction of Enzo, which the Italian wrongfully assumes they’re looking at him with Viola still in his lap. “H-hey, you got the wrong idea!” He begins defending himself, “She just fell outta the damn sky! I got nothin’ to do with this kid, I swear, I just—“ People starting to run away from the impending doom of the humongous wave causes Enzo to rethink the situation as he pushes Viola into the passenger seat.

“Great, don’t tell me one of her pets got loose again!” Enzo chides as someone runs by, knocking the driver side’s rear view mirror off of the car as they go. “Come on! See this is why I can’t have nice thi—“ Another person running, this time climbing up his car and stepping right on his head to jump over his windshield cuts off his yelling.

“Animals! The hell’s wrong with you? I can’t even turn the wipers on for God’s sakes!”

Enzo then turns around, finally witnessing the wave heading right for the city, his jaw slacks as he looks at it in terror, “Un-be-fuckin’-lievable!” He then shakes off his panic to fearfully try and turn his car on to drive away. “Come on, baby! I just wanna get back over the bridge!” The engine turns over a few times.

Above the line of cars in front of Enzo’s, a pizza truck flies and smacks right into the short man’s vehicle, sending it spinning out of control, eventually landing vertically on its front bumper before falling back down onto all four tires. Enzo fixes his baseball cap, trying to calm down, “R-Rodin?”

Rodin looks over at him from his truck window, “Get lost, Enzo. Can’t have you dyin’ before I get my dough.

This time when turning the key, the engine roars to life on the first try. Enzo speeds off as Rodin gets out of his truck, looking up at the wave and planting his foot in the asphalt road before launching himself up in the air, flying above the wave. “New in town, huh? Then here’s a friendly hello.” Beneath the water swims a ginormous monster, the cause of the wave itself. The creature turns upwards, opening its mouth in hopes of biting down on Rodin, and it leaps from the water as Rodin rears back and comes down on it with a fistfull of red lightning. The reaction causes an explosion—knocking both parties back—Rodin lands back down on the ground, his fist now glowing a light teal.

“Definitely not a regular…” He says to himself lowly as the glow fades away.

Behind the tall man the cruise ship rides along the wave, tilted almost completely to the side, with Cereza standing confidently on the deck, she begins to speak to Rodin as the ship passes his spot on the ground. “I do hope you haven’t forgotten my order.” “It’s in the truck, ready to go.” He responds, pointing over his shoulder with his thumb.

As they talk, the wave hits the city, the ship Cereza stands on going with it. The green and white creatures begin forming around her, a thoughtful sound escaping her before they all attack at once. The witch leaps out of the way and they strike the spot she had been standing before, more forming around her as she lands on top of a table. They attack one by one this time, and she dances along the table to dodge them, avoiding the plates of food below her feet. Kicking a vase at one of the monsters that tried to join her on top of the furniture, she laughs and her opponent falls off the table.

Cereza takes the opportunity to jump down between two of the tables, the creatures leaping to where she was before she pulls the tablecloths out from under them. She looks impressed at her own work, the monsters and tablecloths laying on the floor while the dishes and centerpieces stay untouched and pristine. While she’s still looking at her handiwork, suddenly another enemy smashes one of the tables and she kicks it away from her. As the two parties continue to fight, eventually they cut the witch’s dress, and her hair begins to encircle her mid-air to become her new outfit.

Landing and twirling around, she puts her hands on her hips and furrows her eyebrows at the green aliens, “You know, I really love New York, but ill-behaved tourists can be such a pain!” Cereza continues firing at her seemingly endless foes. Buildings behind her break apart and fly in the high speed winds and rushing water, which washes down as a wave onto the ship and takes away the bodies on the deck.

Click. Cereza sighs and tosses her plain pistols aside. Out of bullets. “More cheap toys.” She huffs as more enemies form in front of her right before Rodin rides in on another wave in his truck, killing the newly formed ones. Cereza jumps out of the way of being taken out by the pizza truck herself.

“Gettin’ a little too hot in the kitchen?” Rodin jokes with the witch, which earns a shrug and a shake of her head in response. She places her hands back on her hips, “Just give me my order before I lose my cool.” At that, Rodin pulls out several pizza boxes, “Here…” He throws the top one into the air. “Order up!”

Out of the box, four purple guns fly into the air and Cereza jumps to catch them, fighting off more enemies as she moves through the air. A purple glow begins to shine around the witch, Madama Butterfly being summoned behind her before they fuse together, transforming Cereza into a demon-like entity. Butterflies glide around her as she continues fighting, Rodin watching from his truck window, letting out a chuckle, “Heh. Beautiful.”

The ship then hits a bump, knocking the three other boxes out of Rodin’s hand and he drives to catch them, jumping off a ramp and landing on a building nearby.

Rodin turns back to watch Cereza again, “Just hope you can keep up. Seems like these guys are built different than usual.” As he says this, a large monster forms in front of the witch.

She smirks. “More new faces, I see. Then perhaps a bit of-“ She flashes her butterfly-demon form for a moment before switching back,”-fancy dress is in order.” She moves to take out the oversized green jello, as soon as she does so another forms, this time with a weapon in hand. As she fights it, the giant monster Rodin had punched before comes up to the ship, opening its jaws and clamping down on the side of it before releasing and swimming away again. Cereza defeats her opponent when the mega monster comes up on the other side of the ship, pushing on it and sending it into the air.

All around in the sky, fish-like creatures appear, one of them attacking Cereza and she blocks it with her guns before kicking it, landing on its back when it finishes spinning. She begins to fly after the giant beast until she sees a giant pillar or mint green light coming down from the sky. “What’s that…?” She asks as another huge creature appears from it and starts firing lasers at her, killing its own comrades in its attempts to take her out. Eventually, it hits the one she was riding on and she leaps off, landing superhero-style on the same building the enemy firing lasers is on. She smiles up at it cheekily, “Size isn’t everything, you know.”

Cereza leaps up, landing her first blow on the monster’s head with a solid kick, sending out hails of bullets after it. It swipes at her and she dodges, going through those steps as a cycle until the creature seems to be tiring out. The witch takes the opportunity to jump down, “AVAVAGO!”

From the Umbran circle on the ground comes Gomorrah, he roars and goes straight for the tuckered out giant, opening his jaws before stopping inches from it. Cereza turns around when she realizes no carnage is happening behind her, giving her demon a curious look.

In the distance, Rodin stands watching, a “Closed” sign set up outside his food truck. He puffs on his lit cigar.

“That thing ain’t from Paradiso. No sanctified seasoning means no deal.” He watches the two below continue to have a thoughtful stare off. “Better think fast, Bayonetta. Storm’s a lot worse than I thought.”

Cereza then sighs and pushes up her glasses with one hand, taking a few steps forward and taking a deep breath in. A symbol appears on her back in red and she begins to dance, gaining more attention from the giant demon in front of her. Gomorrah turns fully to rush Cereza, stopping just short of having her in his jaws as she slides onto her knees.

Rodin raises his eyebrows in surprise, “Well, I’ll be damned if it ain’t the Demon Slave. That’s one ancient art I thought was lost for good.”

Now fully in control of Gomorrah, Cereza turns him back around–and this time there was no hesitation in ripping into the monster in front of them. When they finish, Gomorrah lets out a loud roar and disappears.

From the sky, huge alien-jellyfish like ships fly down, hundreds and hundreds of creatures coming out of them, killing off whatever humans that were still alive after all that had happened. Laser shots rained from above, one nearly hitting Cereza and she jumps out of the way, an explosion erupting where she had been standing.

She giggles and blows a kiss to the ship as she jumps back onto the deck, casting a magic circle of protection around it, also allowing it to move again. One of the ships above begins spinning a crystal like object in one lower hanging portion of it, distracting the witch as a building cracks and falls behind her, Jeanne riding her motorcycle up the side of it.

A long line of humanoid monsters hold onto the bike like a conga line, and they get thrown off as Jeanne ramps off the end of the building—right when the spinning crystal fires off a laser heading straight for Cereza. The white haired witch holds out her hand for the other to grab onto as she rides by on her motorcycle, getting out of the way just in time; the laser leaves a giant ravine in its wake.

Jeanne and Cereza land back on the now halved ship deck, hanging precariously over the newly formed ravine. Jeanne brushes off her jumpsuit and straightens her jacket collar.

“Jeanne!” Cereza exclaims, face brightening with a smile at the white haired witch. “Miss me?” Jeanne teases, earning gray eyes rolling at her. “I just saw you this morning, dear. I just hope you remembered to lock the door on your way out today.” “I forgot one time—“ Jeanne cuts herself off and shakes her head with a joking sigh.

Suddenly, giant tentacles entrap the half of the ship the two witches are standing on. They both adopt a much more serious expression. “Let’s go.” The shorter witch dives into the fight first, Cereza following right after her.

Noticing the nature of the creature, Cereza questions out loud to anyone who’d be interested in it, “A demon, here?” “And it has to have been summoned, surely? How else could it possibly have…” Jeanne trails off in her response, both of them firing off shots as they speak. “Perhaps our new friends can tell us a thing or two.” Cereza says almost in a growl.

As the fight goes on, the demon grows weaker, leaving it vulnerable to a larger team attack. Cereza calls out Jeanne’s name and the latter nods. They both run forward and rear back at the same time, releasing two wicked weaves at the demon in unison, the tentacles that receive the impacts are immediately shattered.

The other tentacles swing at the pair, destroying the ship and chasing them down as the witches leap away, hopping from chunk to chunk of building debris. A tentacle swings at Cereza, about to hit her, when Jeanne jumps to push her out of the way. Her bomber jacket flies off of her shoulders as she’s caught by the limb. Cereza falls back down towards the other half of the ship, which now is careening off the edge of the ravine.

“Jeanne!”

The demon fully reveals itself, it’s the Kraken. its head opens into a giant mouth, lifting up its tentacle and dropping the white haired witch into it before shutting its jaws. Cereza watches in anxious expectation as the Kraken dives down into the ravine after the falling ship half. It jumps between the walls of water before latching onto the ship, slowly climbing onto the deck in front of Cereza, who manages to gain back her wit in the sight of a good fight.

“Finally decided to come up for air, did you?” She quips, taking her guns out and cocking them, “Now… Who invited you to our little cruise?”

Using demon slave, Cereza takes to fighting the giant demon, gracefully dodging its swipes at her and counter attacking until it seems to get tired. Once it seems like a good opening, the witch summons a magic rocket, hitting the Kraken with it and sending it flying off the side of the ship. She watches after it and suddenly it reappears, breaking through the ship and leaving Cereza to fall down into the ravine before finally landing in the water.

“CIAOFI BALZARG!”

The witch’s chant summons Madama Butterfly, who swims over to the Kraken and grabs its head, prying open its jaws to release Jeanne. The white haired witch floats down in the water into Cereza’s waiting arms. “Jeanne…” she worriedly speaks as the Kraken speeds off and the giant monster from before swims up to the pair.

Spotting it, Cereza swims away, kicking hard and weaving around building pieces to slow down the creature behind her. One piece hits it, knocking it back before Rodin appears in the water above the witches, helping them back up to safety.

When they break the surface, Rodin helps Cereza up onto the rooftop of a building above the water. She refuses to let go of Jeanne. Once safely on dry land, She carefully sets the unconscious woman down, squatting beside her as Rodin puffs on his cigar and looks around them.

“Playing the good Samaritan, Rodin? How dreadfully noble.” She huffs, only half joking as she watches Jeanne in slight worry, not letting Rodin see her emotion.

“We gotta talk.” Rodin says after a while, “Preferably some place a little quieter.”