A/N: Hello!

So, this is my first attempt at an AC story. I've played most of the games and finished through them but I had just started to come around to making a story. Not that I haven't wanted to for a while, but I have a few other stories that I still want to tend to so updates may be a little slow. Usually when I start a new story I go crazy for the first eight chapters or so, so that should keep everyone entertained for at least a while.

This will start off as modern day, then move into AU.

Please don't hesitate to tell me how you like it, what I can do to hopefully improve and errors if there are any. This will be unbeta'd until I somehow find someone willing for that position.

With that said, please Enjoy!

(~0~)

Orphan.

The most annoying, degrading, and ridiculous insult shot at someone who was left without parents and sent to a place where others could relate. Of course, that place was called an orphanage.

And that was where Selene had been left at when she was an infant. Left without guardians, a home, and an identity.

Selene wasn't always Selene. To the caretakers at the orphanage, she was just a baby that had no information left behind with her. Not even a first and last name could be found. She was simply a newborn, and that was it.

Her new guardians took the liberty of feeding her, clothing her, and homing her despite the fact that they knew nothing about her. Their hope for her grew stronger as well as their attachment to her. When she was six months old and they could still not find out anything about her, they decided to start fresh. It was then that they decided to call her Selene.

Selene was a beautiful name for the nameless child, they thought. It had been almost strange; the night that she had been found on their doorstep, the moon had been a vibrant, stark red. A lunar eclipse.

Her name meant lunar; of the moon.

And it was perfect.

When she was just two years of age, Selene learned to speak. Her first words—comical to her caretakers—were their names. Leanne and Eva. She wasn't able to say them fully, just little coos that sounded like 'Lamb' and 'Va'. It had always made the two women laugh, full of love for the toddler.

They were both extremely excited when little Selene had finally sprouted hair. They had begun to think that she would be forever bald, until one day they woke up to tufts of chestnut-brown hair on the top of her head. It had coincided beautifully with her baby teal eyes.

They loved Selene so much.

On the day of her third birthday, Leanne had come to Eva with an idea. This idea was that until someone of their standards had adopted her, Selene would be given her last name. Eva was a bit skeptical at first, being that she had wanted the little tyke to take hers instead; but they had enough children to take care of as it was, so she couldn't be selfish and adopt the child. So she agreed.

Selene was now Selene Carmichael, for the time being.

Weeks turned into months, and months turned into years progressing her life. Her caretakers had schooled her with the other orphaned children when she turned five. She was quite into her academics; smart with her words and with her grades, which greatly pleased her guardians.

Sadly, the other children did not agree.

It was not so bad in her earlier years. Nothing had happened to her, just a few meaningless words from their mouths here and there. When she turned seven, things started to take a turn for the worst.

Selene was strong enough to take words. She had once read a more advanced book on how it was best to treat everyone with kindness, no matter the occasion and the old saying quoted in the book.

Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt.

She had always embraced the saying, making her persona all the tougher. She thanked the day that she walked into Eva's room to find that book on her bottom shelf.

Words she was able to take. But physical abuse was different.

She wasn't a frail girl by any means. When she received a cut or a bruise, she never cried to herself or to her caretakers. She never cried at all. Granted it did hurt sometimes, but it wasn't enough to make her shed tears.

No, she wasn't frail. But she wasn't immune to pain, either.

A couple of the older boys who lived with her had found her reading a book on the front steps of the orphanage. That day, she was scheduled for a potential adoption appointment that made her nervous to the tips of her toes. So instead of pacing around like a cornered cat, she took her own initiative and began to read.

Well, she tried to read it. Right before it was plucked out of her grip.

"What's this? Reading junk again?" asked the boy holding the book up by its page. It was bound to rip if he continued to hold it like that. "Shouldn't you be reading a children's book? Aren't you like five?"

Selene frowned at his mockery. Sticks and stones. She reminded herself.

"Seven. But good guess." She smiled politely, quickly yanking the book back to herself before damage could be done to it. The two other boys beside him laughed, clearly amused at her adult display.

"Shut it!" He barked at them, instantly shutting them up. Fear shone in their eyes because of him. Selene saw it and felt a bit of remorse. They weren't following him because they liked him, they were following him because they were scared. Pre-teens proved to have lots of peer pressure, it seemed.

He then turned to Selene, who had yet to move from her spot. She only stood and stared at him with bored eyes. "Seven or seventy?" he snickered, crossing his arms and leaning over her. He was much taller than her, at least more than a foot. She tried not to feel intimidated. "You should be reading things that fit your age. No one likes a wannabe!"

The brunette felt her temper flare. Who did this boy think he was? She was trying to be nice, trying to keep to herself, but people like him were making it severely hard to. "At least I can read." She replied monotonously.

She knew that she was an old soul. She preferred it that way. It made thinking a bit easier and learning as well.

Her comment made the boys cheeks flush angrily. Before she could turn on her heel and evade the upcoming situation, the boy threw his hand out, knocking her down and making her lose her grip on her book. It landed in the mud a few feet away from her, now sullied like she.

"You…" he growled, slamming her prone form down into the dirt and straddling her waist. He didn't continue his words, but his fists had proven the point for him.

She couldn't remember how many hits he got in. Ten? Eleven? The numbers went up as he mercilessly beat her down, her whimpers only fueling his hurt pride and hatred. He continued until her eyes were bruised closed and her face was barely recognizable.

The duo behind them could only watch in horror, trying to think of things to possibly stop the boy from his beating. It seemed that they didn't need to, though, because the sound of Leanne's shout reached their ears as she came barreling down the steps towards the two on the ground, ripping the boy off of Selene as fast as her hands would grab him.

"What have you done?!" she screamed at the boy, anger now turning into confusion and then to guilt as she continued to berate him. "What have you done?!" she cried again, holding the bloodied and broken girl in her arms and weeping hysterically over her.

Eva appeared at the sound of her friend's screams, trying to figure out the situation as she stood at the top of the steps. "What is—Oh my god!" she felt her heart drop into her stomach at the sight of Selene.

She looked so bad that Eva feared she was dead. Her eyes were swollen shut, her nose at an odd angle with blood pouring out of it while her face was decorated with black and blue bruising. She was unconscious, furthering the caretaker's worries.

"I-I don't think she's breathing…" Leanne sobbed when Eva's knees hit the dirt beside her. Her alarmed expression turned to the two boys standing next to the guilty boy. "Go inside and grab me the phone! Hurry!" she snapped, and they both skirted away. She then looked to the boy still on the ground with his guilt apparent on his face. "You are in deep, deep trouble, young man!" she spat angrily, promises of retribution in her eyes.

The rest of the night had been a blur. Selene had missed her adoption appointment due to her time in the hospital. She was thankfully alive and breathing, but she still hadn't woken from her seemingly deep slumber. Eva had taken the time grilling the boy for answers on what he had done, and when she had found out, she immediately called the police and had him sent to a children's correctional center. She didn't like it, really she didn't; she had never had to do that until this had happened. But it had to be done.

Leanne and Eve stood outside Selene's room, watching her sleep through the glass window that peeked into her room. They'd been standing there for almost an hour, contemplating on what to do from there. They didn't know Selene was being bullied, and that broke their hearts for the little girl. She was sweet, smart, and fearless and she didn't deserve to be hurt like this.

"Excuse me? Are you Selene's caretakers?"

A voice asked from the side, making the two women whip their heads in its direction. There stood a man and a women, a couple which were in their early thirties and had a mixture of worry and grief on their faces. They looked out of place in the hospital, but the caretakers instantly knew why.

This was the couple that had wanted to adopt Selene.

The both of them had been wearing suits, obviously coming from their workplace to the hospital in a rush. A few other men in suits behind them watched their conversation carefully, adjusting their earpieces every so often in case something was amiss.

"We are," Eva spoke first, reaching out a hand to the couple. "We thank you and your wife for coming, Senator."

Senator Grieves was a senator of Minnesota. At first, Leanne and Eva were surprised that he and his wife wanted to adopt a child, but after his wife went through two miscarriages, the two of them decided against trying again and decided to adopt Selene. Selene had been their first initial choice upon hearing about how brilliant of a child she was. The duo couldn't have asked for a better candidate.

"Think nothing of it." The senator replied, a sad smile on his face. The politician had seemed so stern and hardheaded when the media portrayed him, but he was a good man under his acting. "We came as soon as we could. How is she?"

"She's stable. She'll probably be in a lot of pain when she wakes up, though." Leanne said quietly. She was still trying to get over the fact that she had been the one to find the boy beating up her precious girl.

"I wouldn't doubt it," the man sighed, running a hand through his blonde strands that had become unkempt due to his stress. "We're just glad that she will be okay. Is there still a possibility that we can talk about her adoption?"

Leanne and Eva looked at each other, awe and disbelief set on their features. They hadn't expected the Grieves' to suggest such a thing at the time, especially in a hospital, but that showed just how much this adoption meant to them. It made both of their hearts warm.

"Of course!" Eva replied, smiling when the couple sent back surprised but happy looks. "How about we go to the lobby?"

(~0~)

Three months passed.

Selene was healed of all her injuries when the time came for her to leave the orphanage. It had been a rough process—they had done all of the deciding when she was out cold—but she wasn't complaining. She loved her caretakers but she adored the idea of having a family of her own.

The boy that had hurt her was sent to juvenile hall for the remainder of the year; four months. She didn't hate him. No, of course she didn't. She was mostly angry at herself for letting him get the best of her and letting an outburst spill. Had she left and kept her mouth shut, he wouldn't have been in the position he was now and she would have been adopted earlier.

Better late than never. She told herself, words laced with positivity.

She had been so excited.

Sitting in the living room, surrounded by silence until her new parents filled out the papers of her adoption was unnerving. Only until Leanne read the last line on her papers was when the silence was broken, her voice choked up as she recited them: "On this day, the twenty-sixth of August in two-thousand and seven, Selene Carmichael is now appointed under the guardianship of Jeanine and Jameson Grieves and will be until documented otherwise."

Those words brought a large grin onto her lips and made her caretakers cry happy tears.

She had left them with a long goodbye, forcing herself to not squirm in the two women's holds when they hugged her tightly. They had smoothed down her hair, fixed her clothes, and pinched her cheeks in adoration, telling her how proud they were of her and that they would miss her.

She promised them that she would visit, kissing them both on their flushed cheeks and bid them a final goodbye.

She didn't look back in fear of crying.

As her new family walked to the car with their arms placed on her small shoulders, her new mother spoke. "You are such a strong girl." She complimented the child softly. She tucked her blonde hair behind her ear and her eyes sparkled. "I can't believe you didn't shed one tear, sweetling."

Sweetling? She tested out the words in her mind, finding that she liked them.

"I was taught only to shed tears if absolutely necessary." She replied back quietly. That made the couple look at each other with worried glances. Alarm bells rang off in the little girl's mind. Oh no.

"I'm sorry…" she tried not to sound alarmed. "Did I say something wrong?" she asked hesitantly, looking up at them with worried teal eyes.

Senator Grieves only shook his head, ruffling her locks with barely concealed affection. "We were only surprised, that's all." He assured her. The car appeared in sight, the giant exterior causing Selene's eyes to widen briefly. A man stood outside the vehicle, his suit clean and pristinely pressed as he eyed them upon arrival. He nodded to the couple, opening the back door to the vehicle.

His eyes shifted to Selene, and they softened upon seeing her wary form as he gave her a small smile. That made the tension in her shoulders drop, and she smiled back until she could see him no more when she was guided into the vehicle next to her guardians.

They arrived at their destination about thirty minutes later, in front of a white gate that opened when they stopped in front of it. The house that they occupied was bigger than Selene ever imagined. She had heard that Mr. Grieves was an important man, so she knew he would be wealthy, but this exceeded her ideas.

It was a marvelous estate. Selene thought it resembled the Whitehouse with its marbled appearance, columns reaching up to the high roof and holding up the balcony in front. The brunette fought the urge to run into the house and explore like someone her age would. Unless allowed, she would respect her guardians and their wishes.

They were let out of the vehicle and led inside the glorious house. Upon entering, the marbled flooring and grey walls spoke volumes to the child and she peered around to see multiple paintings and statues lined against the walls. There were two staircases—who needed that many?—that led to the upper level, of which she was sent to by her guardians.

The upstairs was just as nice as downstairs, but rooms lined each side of the hall. There were sixteen rooms and eight bathrooms in total; six bedrooms, two guest rooms, two offices, a guest office, a library, a workout room, a theater room, an artist studio, and even a playroom for children. She felt elated when hearing that part.

The room they had planned to be hers hade nearly made her jaw drop in awe. The walls were a pale violet, the carpet plush under her feet as she stepped carefully to the canopy bed. She sat down to take in the rest of the room; grey vanity with a plush purple chair, a soft purple dresser to fit her clothes in placed next to a floor-to-ceiling window that had its grey curtains pulled back to overlook the dark backyard.

They had even left her glow-in-the-dark star stickers to decorate the room with as she wished.

The thought made her smile.

She could hear the Senator chuckle at her display. "I see that you like this; I'm glad." He waved a hand around the places that were missing furniture. "The rest of the room is yours to add whatever you want. Just let us know and we'll do our best to find it."

Selene couldn't have been happier. She was a lucky girl and she was grateful towards the couple for their kindness. "I don't know how to thank you…" she said honestly, getting up and making her way back over to the couple in the doorway. Once she stopped in front of them, she reached her arms out and circled them around the Senator's waist.

The man ruffled her hair again—he really liked to do that, it seemed—and gave her a smile that brightened his features. "This is one way to." He stopped his caressing of her head, his smile widening when she turned and hugged his wife the same way. The women leaned down and wrapped her arms around the girl, radiating a happiness that could only be described as motherly love.

"We hope that you like it here." She started, pulling back to look at Selene at an arm's length. "You can call us whatever you want. Mom, Dad, Mother, Father, even our names. Whatever makes you feel comfortable, we won't mind."

"I, um…" Selene trailed off, thinking for a moment before continuing. "I need time to think about that…"

"Of course. However long you need." Mrs. Grieves stood, her hand still on the girls shoulder to offer her comfort. "We should let you get some rest. Do you want my help with anything?"

The women meant well, Selene knew that. Even so, she was old enough to dress herself and tuck herself into bed (at least she thought so), so she shook her head and gave her new mother a reassuring smile. "I'll be okay."

"Alright." She nodded, albeit a little sadly. That made Selene deflate a bit. Perhaps she should have let her stay and help? "If you need anything at all, our room is two doors down." She leaned down, kissing the girl's forehead softly and making her cheeks heat up. "Goodnight, darling."

Mr. Grieves did the same, pecking the girl on the top of her head before turning and following his wife out after saying a quiet 'goodnight'.

Once her door was closed, Selene eyed her surroundings for a final time before opening her suitcase and picking out her favorite pair of nightwear. She flicked the lights off before climbing under her silver comforter, sinking into the foamed mattress and shutting her eyes to fall into a deep sleep.

(~0~)

A/N: This is only the prologue. The next chapter will be a few time skips, and they will be large. I don't want to focus too much on the modern world because this fic is specifically AU. I don't know much about adoption considering I never was, but please don't be offended if I am not right in the sense. I wanted to focus on the life after adoption, not before.

With that being said, I hope you enjoyed this short prologue! I will most likely have the next few chapters up with every few days, but they will be about 7-10k words each. I was never one for writing short chapters so I hope this pleases you guys.

~M