Chapter 61: Argus - Passing Judgment

Cover Art by Mi Chumi

When they reached Pete's Emporium, Selene found herself thankfully distracted by the mass of energy that exited Crystal's vehicle. Summer's two girls exploded from the vehicle in a cloud of babbling excitement, followed by their father Tai, and a toothily smiling Visha, who appeared to have enjoyed her introduction to the two waifs.

When Summer exited their car, she was mobbed immediately, Ruby running up to her and clinging to her like she'd been away for a week. Selene felt the pleasure of seeing Summer close her eyes and savor that moment.

Selene enjoyed the knowledge that this was something she had done. She had played a key role in this.

Surely that, in the balance of sins and virtues, would weigh for something?

Summer's silver eye opened to find Selene's attention on her, and smiled softly before tilting her head toward her in acknowledgement.

Apparently for one person, at least, it did.

And then Visha swept over. "Come little ones! Grammy Visha gets to introduce you to what is, I'm told by the younglings, the coolest place in all Argus." She waved the two girls toward her, and with an encouraging nod from Summer, they followed Visha inside.

The sound of squealing that filtered out through the door said that Visha was likely telling the truth. By the time the adults entered, Visha had apparently already coaxed two family passes out of Saphron Arc, who was manning the desk, and young Ruby was bouncing up and down literally feet in the air as she stared at the sheer variety of games present. Golden-haired Yang was just standing, open mouthed.

Selene's stomach sank when she realized who else was there.

"Selene!" Suddenly she was surrounded. Sarah, Laurel and Argent were there, along with, Tomas who'd become another regular.

Sarah spoke first. "Selene, I thought you were going on a trip? And where's Cinder? Sophia said she was busy or something, but she's not answering messages."

"I.. I…"

Argent was the one she couldn't look away from, though. Thirteen year-old Argent's normally good-natured and impishly freckled face was… drawn. She knew something was wrong. She was Cinder's girlfriend. She would have been calling, messaging, and Cinder would have answered her, if she could. Her greenish-blue eyes held Selene's begging for an answer.

Answers that Selene didn't have at the moment. Or she did, but speaking the words to Argent, here like this, would destroy them both.

Garek pushed forward. "Sarah, Argent, Cinder had to take an unexpected trip."

Argent shook her head. She wasn't buying it. "She always tells me if she's going somewhere," there were nods of assent from the others. "Always."

Garek sighed. "Argent, I promise, explain what's going on. But we have to meet with Pete first." He knelt down. "Theres some important stuff going on. And yeah I know Cinder's important to you. And I know you're important to her. I promise as soon as we can, we'll make sure she calls you. But she doesn't have her Scroll right now." Those were all truths. But not the ones Argent, much less Sara, wanted to hear. He looked past Argent to see Sarah Tourmaline watching him intently, her entire expression screamed that she wasn't satisfied at all.

That girl is going to be a problem with all this. He looked back to Argent. "Our meeting might take a few hours. But if you can wait, we'll talk when we come back upstairs."

"Cinder's okay, right?" Argent asked.

Behind her, Sarah scoffed. "Cinder? She's tough as nails. She's fine." But she was watching Selene's face as she said it, and the expression she saw there made her eyes go flat.

A big problem.

"Yes. Cinder is okay." Wherever she is right now, but I'm sure of that. Sarah's right about one thing. Cinder is a survivor.

Sarah reached out and gripped Argent's arm, pulling her gently backward. "Come on. Time for a team meeting." Garek watched with narrowed eyes as the crew huddled around her at a far corner of the Emporium. He could feel the plans forming in that little cabal.

Huge problem.

"Come on. Let's go," Crystal said.

Summer and Tai chattered between themselves as the adults worked their way downstairs and through the secured entry. Raven's scowl just deepened. When the security door opened to reveal the dimly lit but large open basement that had become so familiar to Garek and Selene, the four newcomers murmured interest. Garek had forgotten how… cool TLH Central looked to a newbie. Wall of screens, both solid state and holographic. Filing cabinets and wall maps.

And in the center of the room, at the conference table, sat the original three Lone Huntsmen. Reggie, Pete, and Sophia all looked like they'd gotten some sleep, though Sophia was clearly the most haggard of the three. Her normally well-brushed short hair looking like she'd been able to fully banish bed-head.

There were extra chairs set around the table, and Pete nodded toward them. "As we agreed, we're bringing the rest of you in on a non-voting basis for this matter." His expression was a little sour. "Not like you didn't already know more than we did."

"Speak for yourself, preppy-boy." Raven objected, "I was pretty much in the dark about all this shit too, until this morning."

Pete blinked. Preppy-boy? He looked down at himself. Huh. Well shit. Beside him, he heard Sophia make a choking noise.

Soon they were all seated around the table in a full circle. Reggie had offered water and coffee. Raven inquired about alcohol, to which Pete shook his head. "Sophia killed that sometime in the wee hours," which earned her a few raised eyebrows.

The seating was… a little telling. Garek sat to the right of Sophia, then Selene, Summer, Tai, Raven, Crystal, Reggie, Pete, and back to Sophia. The newcomers continued scanning the room with interest, while the old-timers sat in tense silence. It was a far cry from the easy camaraderie that they'd had only a few days prior. Selene noted more than one of them fixed their gaze on her new, much shorter, haircut, likely remembering what it had looked like. Pete wouldn't initially meet her eyes, though. Reggie's expression was unreadable.

And the more she looked, the more she realized that Sophia looked exhausted.

Pete cleared his throat. "Alright. First item. Cinder." Selene couldn't keep the eager expression off her face. "I'm going to be relaying most of what Sophia's found, since she's pretty wiped out and she's briefed me on pretty much everything." His mouth turned down. "We haven't heard anything yet." A small cry crept past Selene's closed lips, and Pete raised his hands, even as Garek squeezed her shoulders. "But that's both good and bad. Sophia and me both believe that means she's alive, and moving. Reggie made another run in the Bullhead this morning, now that the heat's died down on…" his eye's caught Selene's and he flinched before dragging his gaze away to the others at the table. "…the incident. We're sure by now that she's not hiding out in the woods anywhere around here, we'd have found her by now. We think that means she's slipped back in to populated areas, and she's working on not being found."

"My fault," Selene breathed. "She thinks that-"

"Stop that," Sophia snapped tiredly. "Selene, you have no damned idea…" She seemed to realize she'd spoken, and sighed. "That's… shit… Pete?"

"Getting ahead of ourselves. Selene, I know this is hard for you, but if you could gods-be-damned hold off and just listen, you'll understand." He shook his head, looking like he was trying to control himself. "I know I was… pissed yesterday, and I'm trying hard not to be." He gave Reggie a look. "Someone said they'd break my fucking nose if I didn't calm the fuck down, so." He coughed. "The second bit of news involves…" He stared around the room and threw up his hands. "Uh, does fucking everyone here already know who Watts is?" Everyone but Raven and Crystal nodded. "Alright, first vote, then. Any objection to filling those two in, at least on this?" Selene held still and no one else spoke up.

Except Raven. "What's this voting shit?"

"We… uh… don't have a leader so much. We made decisions by vote."

"Huh. Alright. And it's just you four?"

"Five. Selene gets a vote, unless we vote to remove her voting rights."

Selene felt that like a kick in the stomach. But it… wasn't the worst they could do, right?

"Anyway, as I was saying. Fucking Watts. At three o'clock this morning, we believe that Watts, at fucking Salem's request," Selene stiffened, as did others at the mention of the name, "did some housekeeping." He ran his hands through his hair again, nervously. "A Bullhead that was transporting the sole surviving Huntsman from… yesterday… flew into the fucking ground. All hands lost."

Summer gasped. Raven started cursing.

Selene felt… crushed. She felt empty. Hollowed out.

My fault my fault my fault my fault.

Even Garek's arm around her shoulders, his hand squeezing hers under the table, couldn't stop that voice in her head. She wanted… wanted to wake up and find out none of this had happened.

Pete continued regardless of her clear distress. "He also, we believe, deleted all evidence of the events yesterday, including any evidence of Selene's… thing.

"Pete, thing isn't the right word for-," Crystal objected.

"Yeah, yeah. We're getting to that, dammit." He looked at Sophia, who nodded. Reggie still hadn't said a word. It was likely that they'd already discussed some of this. "But before he did, Sophia was able to download audio and video from those Huntsmen's scrolls." He glanced at Selene. "We think that we should all watch it. Except for Selene."

Selene felt like she would be sick.

"Why," Summer asked flatly. She had on hand holding Tai's openly on the surface of the table. Her other hand was clenched around a bottle of water. Her silver eye was intent.

"It's not… easy to watch. But I think before we have any further discussion on what to do, we should all see it."

Pete sighed. "Look, we've got some decisions to make, the five of us. Like I said, Selene still gets a vote." Selene started at that. "But the truth is, from what Sophia's told me, what we're going to be seeing is… fucking brutal. And… and we don't think it's something Selene should be subjected to again."

Selene blinked. Of all the things she'd expected, care for her own well-being was not what she had expected.

"And after we do, we have to make some decisions, the five of us." He pointed to the Crystal. "You're here as Selene's advocate, more or less." Then the three other visitors. "And we need you three as kinda expert and character witnesses, to give us a Huntsman's perspective." He gave Garek an apologetic nod. "I know you're a Huntsman too, Garek, but we think you're too compromised. You can't be objective. Hell, you three are biased too, cause Selene was involved in saving Summer."

"Bullshit," Raven scoffed. "Tai's a by-the-books-boy. If he thinks Selene fucked up, he'll haul her in front of the cops himself. And I hate Salem more than anyone else here. You don't get to fucking call me soft on Selene just because she saved Summer from her fucking mom."

Reggie considered Raven carefully. "Huh. That's… reassuring, I guess." He turned to Pete and raised an eyebrow.

Pete nodded. "Yeah. Alright. I believe that."

"You better, unless you want a boot up your ass," Raven retorted, and Pete rolled his eyes.

"Regardless, from what Sophia's told me, the files we've got here will… answer most of our questions about Selene's actions…"

Sophia dragged herself up from the table. "Yeah… and I've already seen it… so… I'm going to offer to hang out with Selene in the 'sound booth" there, while the rest… see and hear for themselves. I've got the system set up, Pete knows how to work it."

Selene considered her… friend. The gazelle faunus looked rough. Her black irises were framed by bloodshot sclera and she had bags under her eyes. She'd clearly not gotten much rest. "I… will agree to this."

"Good. Come on, Selene. Let's chill in a quiet spot. Can't promise I won't fall asleep on you, though." Garek gave Selene a final squeeze as she stood.

. . .

As soon as the door closed behind them, Pete made a sour expression. "When I said it was rough, I was… sugar coating what Sophia told me. She told me it was shitty and traumatizing. You guys prepared for that, cause I fucking ain't."

Raven rolled her eyes, and got a sour look from Pete. The rest looked noncommittal except for Summer and Tai, who shared a look. They'd seen their share of trauma. "Any of you can tell me to pause, if you want to discuss or have something to add. Sophia's apparently spliced it all together from the various scrolls, so it all plays in parallel." Pete hit play on Sophia's scroll, and a holographic screen sprang into life in the middle of the table.

The video was from the perspective of… someone's torso apparently, facing outward. The scroll had been mounted on their chest. The scene was a darkened woodland setting, and showed the back of one woman. There was the sound of two others speaking, a man and woman, from behind the scroll's owner.

"Ah," Tai said. "Yeah, I heard that the newer teams out of Haven were doing that. Get one of the members to record the contract, in case there's an argument over how many Grimm they collected." He nodded. "It's not a stupid idea, especially for young Huntsmen who haven't proven their reliability yet and are worried some idiot might try to screw them out of a bounty."

Over the next fifteen minutes or so, they learned the names and a little bit about the personalities of Team THUD, and the contract they'd pulled. Garek already looked a little sick. Crystal and Reggie had grim expressions, anticipating what was about to happen.

Raven appeared dismissive and slightly bored.

And then Tyree announced that she'd heard what could only have been Blackfeather. From there, things went to shit quickly. As soon as the lighting/fire dust-laced munition exploded on Blackfeather's side, Summer requested a pause.

"This is… not going to be easy," she said thickly. "I know what we're seeing… what we're about to see… but…" she looked over to Raven, who'd stopped seeming bored at least, "I don't think any Huntsman, including us, would have done anything differently so far."

"Yeah, that's what I was afraid you'd say." Pete replied grimly. "I was hoping you'd tell us that these guys were… I dunno, breaking standard practice or something."

Raven shook her head. "Nope. See fucking Grimm. Kill fucking Grimm. Get paid, go home, get drunk."

"Pay bills," Tai added.

"Eh. Ok. Pay bills. Then get drunk. Unless you're my brother, then it's get paid, get drunk, get broke, fall down, wake up in gutter."

"That's enough I think," Reggie interjected. "Keep going."

There was silence again, until the description of Selene falling from Blackfeather, and the distant and still sickening sound of her hitting the ground. They didn't pause the video, letting it play as the Huntsmen talked.

"Shit. That must have fucking hurt," Raven said, shaking her head.

Garek was pale. "If she hadn't woken up in time. That probably cost her most of her Aura. She could have died right there." His hands were shaking.

They realized what the Huntsmen were about to do. "That's fucking stupid," Raven frowned. "Splitting up the team like that when there's two unknown dangers around?"

"Young group," Garek said quietly. "And I'm nobody to talk about teams."

"No, I guess not. Alright, keep going."

And then the moment when that Tyree and Hickory broke into the clearing, and their lights found Selene there, Grimm-visaged, blinking at them in the darkness.

Raven and Tai were the only two who hadn't seen Selene in that form. Summer felt Tai tense slightly against her at the sight. She knew what he was feeling. Everything about Selene's appearance screamed Grimm-Thing.

"Holy shit," Raven said, "you weren't kidding. Hold that a second." The image paused, and she leaned in, eyes flicking over it. Finally she leaned back. "I can see how… first glance… they'd just charge in." She shook her head, "But, as someone who's faced Salem and nearly got my ass killed for it, that… that's not scary at all."

Summer exhaled as she felt Tai untense as well. "Nope. Look at her. She's been hurt, and she hit the ground hard enough to black out. She doesn't have any idea what's going on at that moment." Reggie and Pete shared a look. "Alright, keep… gods… keep going."

The next fifteen minutes were… agonizing for everyone at the table. The Huntsman watched Grimm, summoned by someone they knew, attack Huntsmen. But it was Huntsmen who were, unknowingly, attacking someone who'd done nothing wrong. The back and forth wash of impotent horror left them all shaking, to one degree or another, except maybe Raven. But even she flinched when Tyree screamed as the Grimm killed her off-camera.

And then… just when it looked like Selene was about to die, white-hot flame shot from just above the camera and across the clearing.

Multiple voices yelled all at once, variations on "Holy shit! / Stop! / Fuck!"

Selene, in her haste to comply with their wishes earlier before leaving the room, had forgotten one key fact.

The camera doesn't lie.

"Cinder…" Garek breathed, feeling sick. "Oh gods…"

"Fucking hell!" Pete swore, standing up so fast he knocked his chair over. "Selene fucking lied to us fucking again!" He started pacing, hands balling and unbaling.

"Pete," Reggie said quietly.

"What?! She did! You just saw it!"

"To protect her daughter? Of course she did," Raven sneered. "You fucking people. Seriously. Get your heads out of your asses. You saw what was about to happen. Cinder saved Selene's life. Of course she's gonna take the blame." Raven stared at her hands, and her voice lowered. "Shit, I'd like to think I'd have done the same thing." She looked at Summer. "Summer or Tai would, in a heartbeat." The two of them nodded. "And that's beside the point." Raven eyed each of them in turn. "I know all that... sucked. But none of you gonna comment on what Selene was saying, the whole damned fight, and what they said to her?"

"She was begging them to stop…" Garek said thickly. "But…"

"Fucking Huntsmen," Raven finished for him, then turned to Reggie. "We… spend years training to kill Grimm. We don't try to negotiate with them first. We don't ask them to surrender. Cause… Grimm don't fucking talk. There was no way it wasn't gonna end one of two ways, them dead, or her dead." She frowned. "I need a damned drink."

"That man… Hickory," Summer said softly. "He wasn't… all there. He sounded simple."

"I'll ask Sophia about that later," Pete said. He'd stopped pacing, and looked beaten. "But yeah… I got that, too." He took a deep breath, and moved back to his chair. "Let's finish this damned thing."

And almost immediately, the camera rotated, as its wielder fell sideways, showing Blackfeather emerge from the darkness, and they got to see the third Huntsman killed bloodily, this time fully on camera, as first Semblance and then Aura failed.

"Shit," Raven said flatly, "What a fucking way to go."

They didn't pause, not wanting to linger on the scene, focusing instead on the final exchange between Selene and Cinder. The entire group turned when Garek spoke next.

"Godsdammit Selene," Garek said, head in his hands. "You didn't realize what was happening." He lifted his head, and his eyes were bleak. "Cinder wasn't calling Selene a monster."

"No…" Summer said… "that was her own guilt," she leaned on her husband. "Gods."

"Sorry to force the matter, but… I need to ask," Reggie interjected. "What do you guys do with what Cinder just did? From a… Huntsman standpoint. I don't have any context here."

Garek just put his face back in his hands, clearly overwhelmed. That left Tai, Summer or Raven to answer. Raven shrugged, "I'm… not the best person to ask that question. I've only gone back legit recently. My opinion, though? She was defending an innocent person against someone who was about to murder them for no reason. Sure, the attackers were Huntsmen, and they didn't know what the fuck they walked into, but… shit… nah. Cinder walks."

Tai nodded. "What we'd normally do is… take it to whichever Headmaster had their license. That'd mean Lionheart." Garek made a choking sound, and Tai lifted a hand. "Hold up, Garek. What I'm saying is, if it was a normal situation where you had a Huntsman trying to kill an innocent person because of a misunderstanding, we'd take it to Lionheart, since it's Mistral. And I can tell you that my gut says that they'd decide that Cinder did what she had to do to save an innocent person." He shook his head. "But based on how Garek just reacted, I'm betting Lionheart doesn't know about Selene."

"Welcome to the fucking club," Pete muttered.

"Godsdammit, Pete," Crystal finally snapped. "Why the fuck don't we just take an advertisement out in the paper? Parade Selene in a fucking cage down the streets of Argus? It'll all be fine! No reason to keep secrets, right, Lone Huntsmen?! What bits of knowledge have you held back from me for months?" She slammed her hands down on the table. "Fucking hypocrite!" The corners of her eyes licked with gentle flames.

Pete's face went red, and he started to stand up, but Reggie grabbed his shoulder and forced him back down. "Pete." He frowned. "Crystal has… a point. But…"

"Well shit," Raven said focusing on Crystal, "Calm the fuck down, sister, before you give away all your secrets." She laughed, "Not that I don't like your style."

Crystal paled and covered her face, apparently trying to even her breathing.

Reggie cleared his throat, deciding to backburner that one. "But back to the question at hand. You three, do we do anything with this? Seriously, I'm going to defer to you on this one, and I'm betting Pete and Sophia will to."

"Hell no," Raven said. "What's done is done."

"No," Tai said quietly, his expression pained. "If it was me making the decision… no."

Summer shook her head as well, not trusting herself to speak.

"Okay," Reggie said. Same question then, different person. Selene?"

"Same answer," Raven said. "She had no damn choice."

Crystal spoke quietly, "Summer? Raven? Do you believe what Salem said… about what she'd do if Selene had been killed?"

Summer's fingers toyed with her eyepatch. "Yeah she's…"

"Stupidly powerful, that's what she is. She'd pour Grimm onto the nearest population center," Raven frowned, "Well, shit. You people have quite a little quandary here, don't you?"

Garek had recovered some, and was frowning, glancing between Summer and Raven. "Eh?"

"Selene's your own personal dead-man switch. You guys are screwed," She frowned further and glanced over at Summer. Her red eyes widened. "Fuck, Salem knows we're associated with her, doesn't she? We're all fucking screwed. Godsdammit…"

Reggie and Pete held a whispered conversation. Reggie nodded. "I think we should bring the other two back in. Pete and I got what we needed out of this."

. . .

Sophia was groggy as they led her back to the table, Selene looked fearful and pale.

"Alright," Pete began, "let's—"

"Yo, Grimm-girl,"

"Raven!" Summer hissed.

"Oh relax, Sum. Fine. Selene, why don't you drop the mask? We all know what you look like now. Seen it in full color. Wouldn't you rather—" she waved her hand up and down. "let down your hair or whatever?" She eyed the short sides, "What's left of it…"

"I… if you are sure."

Raven snorted. "Gotta admit, I'm curious. Can't believe I almost gutted you all those months ago. A shit-load of people would have regretted that."

Selene glanced at Garek, who looked worn, but nodded assent. "Very well… it does require some effort to maintain." She kept her eyes open this time, watching Raven intently, and let go of her guise.

And saw Raven's eyes widen, and her posture tense.

Then, to Selene's relief, Raven visibly relaxed, and she barked a laugh. "Well shit, I'd be a hypocrite if I criticized your eye color, that's for sure. Though the whole red on black eyeballs definitely give you a…. dunno…. do an evil laugh for me. Got a cackle handy?"

"Rae…."

"I'm having fun, Summer, trying to lighten the mood. Seriously, look at Selene, she knows I'm screwing with her." It was true, there wasn't any heat in Raven's words. And her hands were still tapping the tabletop rather than drawing Omen, so in Selene's estimation, that was a positive. Raven continued, a slight smile on her face, "Any urges to devour other people's Aura, go into a murderous rage when you see someone crying?"

Selene shook her head.

"Too bad, I do," Raven continued smoothly. Sophia barked a laugh at that one, and Selene saw Summer roll her silver eye.

Selene felt the ache in her chest ease slightly. "I will… attempt to maintain my composure."

"Yeah, don't be a whiny baby, Selene. You've got good people here," Raven eyed the others at the table, and pointed at Pete. "Except for him, I bet he's a piece of shit."

"Fucking hell," Pete complained.

"Joking again. You're fine."

"Alright, if we can wrap up?" Reggie said. "Sophia looks like she's about to fall over."

"Right. Right," Pete said, picking up from Reggie. "Uh, first item is Cinder. We uh… figured out you lied to us about Cinder, from the video," at Selene's expression, he raised his hands, "I'm apparently being a dick about that, and everyone agrees there's nothing she could have done differently. Right, everybody?" There were assents all around, and Selene sagged against Garek. "The second regarding you specifically. We all watched the video. It was hard, but I think we all agree that you didn't have any good choices there." There were nods and murmurs again, and Selene felt numb.

Pete inhaled, and exhaled. "That leaves the third. I think it's damn obvious how dangerous it is to let you go wandering around on your own, and if we'd known… everything… we'd have never let you do that. I'm going to move that Selene be confined to quarters, unless escorted by Garek, and she can't participate in anything dangerous."

"What?!" Garek barked out. That was not at all something they'd discussed. Selene absorbed the words. That was… somewhat better than how she had lived at Evernight. She was inclined to agree. "That's too far, Pete." Garek realized something, "And frankly, you can't enforce it."

"Calm down, Garek," Reggie said, palms outward, "that was an opening offer, and for the record we can enforce that if you want our continued help. You want to go it alone? We can cut each other loose, but I don't think any of us want that."

"Garek, if we must—"

"Um… I don't have a vote here, but I'd like to suggest something?" Summer said, hesitantly.

"Go ahead," Reggie nodded as all eyes turned toward her.

"How about, any Huntsman level escort. I mean, no offense, but Raven or I can kick Garek's butt on a bad hair day. If she's safe with him, she's safer with us."

"And me," Crystal said.

Reggie looked between Raven and Crystal. "That depends, what's this… secret you've got?"

"Oh, this is gonna be good," Raven scoffed.

Crystal fidgeted. "I… uh… accidentally got magic powers, back when we went looking for Raven that first time."

"Look, if you don't wanna tell us—" Pete said.

Raven started laughing her ass off… "oh this is fucking rich. You sure you want to volunteer for this duty? If push comes to shove, you'd have to out yourself."

Crystal frowned. "I… figure that's not likely, and Salem already thinks I'm Selene's bodyguard. I'm fucking cooked if anything happens to her anyway." She sighed. "Might as well."

"Wait… she's serious? You're serious? Magic powers?"

"Something like that. I'm still figuring them out, and I can't do anything too showy, or certain people will automatically know."

"Ozpin and Salem," Raven said flatly.

"Wait… you're a freaking Maiden?! Summer exclaimed. She and Tai shared a look. "Alright. Yeah. Why the heck not. Which one?"

"Spring," Raven said flatly.

"Wait… that's the thing you told me about. Crystal's the freaking Spring Maiden?" Pete said.

"Look, can we get back to the point?" Reggie said. "We can work all that out later. Any objections to Plan B? Selene gets Huntsman level escort at all times and no combat missions. No jailbreaks. Nothing stupid." He looked around the table, and no one spoke, though Garek still looked troubled. "Alright, then that's done too."

"So you guys want in the club?" Pete asked.

"Fuck no," Raven said. "I don't need any bigger target painted on my back, and I already have my hands full. Besides, I already work with gunny over there." She pointed at Reggie.

"We're happy to help," Tai said after confirming with Summer, "but we don't need a vote, unless you're all going to do something stupid."

"Not anytime soon," Garek said. "We'll bring you in if we do. Right guys?" He glanced at the other Lone Huntsmen, and got nods.

"Alright." Pete continued. "Then I don't think we'll be changing our numbers any time soon—"

"I want in," Crystal said abruptly. "Hell, I'm… all the way in now. And I deserve to have a say."

Reggie nodded slowly. "Fair enough. Anyone object?"

"She's your employee. If you're okay with it, I'm okay with it. Sophia?" They turned to see the gazelle faunus, chin rested in cupped hands, snoring gently. "Uh… we'll call that one abstention."

"And on that note, I think there's a group of teenagers upstairs that… want some answers from Selene and Garek," Reggie said quietly.

"And I need to get Sophia to a real bed. She's wiped, and I have to make up for all the shit I said the last 24 hours."

As the rest filtered their way upstairs, Selene felt the reality of what had just happened sink in. She was 'out' now. Everyone in the room had seen her. And they knew what she'd done. And they accepted her for who and what she was. It should have felt liberating, but she felt numb more than anything else. Perhaps later, when things…

After they found Cinder.

"Garek. Cinder."

"Yeah. About that. I have some things to clarify for you. Then we'll go upstairs and tell her crew," Garek took her by the arm and gently led her into the soundproof room.

When they exited the room minutes later, Selene looked human again. Her face was dry, though her eyes had the telltale signs of someone who'd been weeping. But her heart was not quite as broken as it had been before.

She would get her daughter back. And she would tell her that she loved her, and that she wished to adopt her. That Cinder was not a monster.

Nor was she.

The rest, the restrictions, she could accept. For the good of everyone.

Of these things, Selene was now certain.

A few miles to the northwest, the tide had come in, and the cold water of the northern sea lapped against a body that lay sprawled upon dark sand, shadowed by tall cliffs. It was a young woman, dressed in Huntress garb.

The water was very cold, and it caused her to stir, groggily.

Memory seeped in with awareness, and the woman gasped, jerking her head up and looking around wildly. Looking for the Thing. The Demon Grimm. She managed to get shaking limbs under her, and scrambled crablike away from the water, up the beach to the deeper shadow at the base of the cliffs.

There she held her head and took stock.

Am I… alive?

She scanned the landscape for the Thing that might be hunting her, and found nothing. But it was out there. It had found her once already. It had known she was in the Bullhead. It had… tried to finish the job.

She couldn't trust anyone. She had to hide.

Wait… how am I even alive?

She screwed up her face, trying to remember through the massive headache that throbbed through her skull.

The Bullhead. My scroll. Then the Lieutenant's. Then the screens and… weightlessness. Her body had screamed at her that she was falling. But the pilot acted like…

She'd trusted her gut. And her terror.

There'd been a moment, a fraction of a fraction of a second, when she'd sensed somehow that they were all about to die. That there was something massive and far too solid heading right at them.

And instinctively, Deedee had Ghosted in a random direction.

She'd never tried that before in her life. Blindly activating her Semblance?! That was stupidly dangerous. She could have come out inside something solid. But apparently that's what she'd done.

She glanced down at the beach, at the indentation in the sand where she'd woken up. And her eyes wandered upward. And then back at the cliff she was crouched beneath. Her Aura felt like it was near zero, but gradually recovering.

"Holy crap… did I… go through that? No wonder my freaking head hurts," she muttered quietly. She took time to finish being sure she was alive, that nothing was broken, and then made a decision. She had her clothes, but her scroll and weapons were nowhere to be seen.

She'd head back to Argus, and find some different clothes, something boring and easy to ignore. And she'd get a temporary scroll. She had some lien stashed away. She'd been saving it for… she shook her head. She couldn't get distracted by crap like that. She had to focus on surviving. For them.

She could probably get to that lien without drawing attention and get a few other items.

And then she'd find a place to hide. Maybe, just maybe, the Thing thought she was dead.

And it was best if she kept it that way.

[A/N] Special thanks to recent reviewers AtomicR4y, DragonL0RD, Shadowstorm-Vash, and Flairindalin (who is grinding their way through the chapters!)

Atomic: Yes bridges on fire, yo.

DragonL0RD: Yep, cats are out of bags.

Shadowstorm-Vash: I'd assume they did call Argent's house quietly "off camera". Hope you found this chapter met your expectations!

QUICK NOTE that due to travel it'll be about a week and a half before I can publish the NEXT chapter. Sorry about the wait.

Judgment has been rendered. Team STR and The Lone Huntsmen all know who and what Selene is and ALL that she's done. There will continue to be some fallout from all this (don't forget that an open-channel warning about a humanoid Grimm went out that night!) but the bulk of Selene's external angst about her secret is done, for now.

Raven was the most bluntly pragmatic about it, once she got past wanting to murder Selene and instead knocked the crap out of Summer (all off camera). I hope I got her personality right here. My read on her is that she's brutally pragmatic, jagged around the edges, and direct with very little patience for whining and crying. In some ways, she and Pete would get along, and I think her teasing proved that. She's generally focused on her own team and her own problems, and doesn't really want to get tied up in Watts and Salem's bullshit if possible. But we know very well she'll get dragged in by Summer at some point, don't we...

I think Tai and Summer would have been the most emotionally impacted at seeing what Selene's Grimm did to that poor Huntsman Team. But watching it in real time, complete with seeing Selene's expressions and initial confusion, along with her pleas (not all of which were included in the text), would have driven the point home more effectively than any attempted explanations or justification could have. I might have some follow up conversations between Tai and Summer later. He's going to be the one to harbor the most doubts, but I think his conclusion is reasonable... that it just sucked, and Raven was right. There were only two ways for that encounter to end, and both were bad.

Cinder and Selene are both absolved of 'criminal guilt' by our little cabal, though Cinder doesn't know it yet, and both are going to be wracked with guilt for a while yet. Selene's punishment is essentially supervised release for her own good, and right now, she thinks that's justified and reasonable. But over time, that's going to chafe, though she doesn't realize that now. And of course, Lionheart still doesn't know about any of this, and he'd be the final authority. And Selene has been told how badly she misread what Cinder was trying to say, at least as the rest interpreted it, and realizes she made things worse… but that they aren't as bad as she had feared.

Crystal outed herself as a Maiden to the group, and is now a full member. So that's six voting members right now. She's proven herself sharp and loyal.

And that little ending bit. Originally, I had Deedee die in the Bullhead accident. But after I'd fleshed out the character and remembered her Semblance… an alternative presented itself. And from there, the vampire plot bunny grabbed my jugular. And now she's going to play a longer-term role in the story line. I swear I didn't plan that.

Near-term chapters will include lots of stuff with working titles like: The Grimmslayers Search for Cinder, Deedee's Adventures in I Don't Wanna Die Land, the Lone Huntsmen Search for Cinder, Summer's Epic Beacon Medical Visit, Freaking Everyone Searches for Cinder.

The story keeps lengthening on me, but I hope the chapters aren't coming across as just bloat, but are enjoyable and interesting reads along the journey.