Chapter 70 - Ansel - A Perfect Plan

Year 71VE (Vytal Era), May

Cover Art by Mi Chumi

"Garek, son..." Grace paused in the process of folding the large sheet, her adult son holding the opposite end and prepared to mirror her movements, "this is the eighth visit you and Selene have made to Ansel in six months. I know that I complained for years that you didn't visit often enough, but this? I hate to look a gift horse in the mouth, but you're starting to scare me." She shook her head. "I keep waiting for bad news."

Well shit. So much for being subtle, Garek thought.

Garek gestured with the corners in his hands, and his mom rolled her eyes, and brought hers together so that he could follow suit. "Mom, we just want to make sure that you understand the kind of relationship that Selene and I have, and the kind of person that she is." Awesome. Intelligent. Sweet. Totally not interested in summoning Grimm to carve out your heart and eat it in front of you.

She frowned. "Garek, I've been convinced that Selene is perfect for you since the first time she had a rock dropped through our roof with a love letter wrapped around it." They repeated the fold once more so that the sheet was quartered down its length.

"Yeahhhh…"

"Look…" She moved forward, taking his end and pitching the semi-folded cloth onto the bed, and then grasped him by the shoulders. Her golden-brown eyes bore into his. "What's going on, son? Are… is she pregnant? Did you get married secretly and you're trying to butter me up so I don't cut your ears off for doing it without us? Are you dying from a terminal illness?" The open concern on her face made Garek squirm as her eyes flicked back and forth between his.

Garek sighed. "No… none of those."

She dug her fingers into his shoulders. "Then what the hell is it, son? Because while I love having you here, I know that you've had to leave Cinder with friends over half the time, and the way Selene talks about her, that's not easy for any of you. You're not fooling your mother, young man." She gave him a forced glower, the scar on her cheek wrinkled slightly. "It's time to come clean."

"Come. Clean. Right. That." Garek felt his face twist in ways that probably mirrored his stomach.

"And there it is again! I know that look, son. That's the look you had when I told you to stop doing stunts on your bicycle and you went ahead and did anyway, broke it, and tried to hide it from me. That's the look you had when you overslept and missed a test and didn't want to tell me your grade was a zero. That's the—"

"Ma…" He gently pried one of her hands off his shoulder, and patted it. "It's not like those."

"Then spit it out!" She leaned forward and hugged him tightly. "Your father and I love you with all our hearts," she said softly into his ear. "You're the best thing I ever did, even considering my job was saving lives. And the fact that you followed in my footsteps." She pulled back and shook her head. "There is literally nothing you can say or do that will change that."

Garek took a deep breath. We're about to find out whether that's true, I guess.

. . .

Selene was outside with Rorson Grae, wearing a thick liquid-proof apron and long-sleeved gloves that matched his. She was assisting Garek's father with transferring dressed game from a walk-in cooler to an insulated and chilled chest in the trunk of his car. He would be selling it to a local business for further processing and sale to the locals, or for shipment to fancy restaurants in Argus, Atlas, or Mistral City.

Rorson had been surprised, as had Selene herself, that Selene had no compunction about dealing with the carcasses of animals. Cinder on the other hand had expressed zero interest in this, and was at the Arc house playing with some of the older siblings there. She'd developed a remarkable rapport with Sable.

The truth was, Selene was barely paying attention to what her hands were doing, and after some of the things she'd seen… well apparently a dead and previously bled-out animal carcass was not likely to cause distress.

Especially because she'd been watching Garek's mother, Grace, and had caught the hints the faunus woman had been dropping. Grace had clearly decided that this trip was enough to establish a suspicious trend, was ready to press the matter, and had cornered Garek inside the home demanding he help her with folding laundry. It was even possible that Rorson knew exactly what was going on inside, and had asked for her help to separate the two so that Grace could grill her son privately.

"So… you three thinking of settling down out here in Ansel?"

She promoted the likelihood of this being a setup from "possible" to "likely".

"I do not believe so, at least not any time soon."

"Uh huh. And not that I'm complaining, mind you. Appreciate the help, and the company." "But…"

Make that "definitely". She sighed. "I suspect that before you are able to extract a satisfactory answer from me, Rorson, that—"

There was a sound of a woman's loud and above all hysterical laughter from inside the house.

"Oh dear…"

Rorson had paused, and was listening with head tilted, arms full of a sizeable deer carcass. "That… didn't sound good." He eyed Selene. "Going to leave me in the dark?"

"I suspect you will both be enlightened shortly."

"Selene…"

"It is not…" Selene examined the small game carcasses held in her gloved hands. "It is me. I am the issue."

Rorson's mouth twisted and pursed doubtfully. "Is that so…"

"Unfortunately, yes."

There was the sound of a door slamming somewhere in the house, followed by Garek speaking quickly and loudly.

A window slid open. "Rorson Grae! Selene! Get your asses in here!" Grace's voice blared. And then the window slammed shut.

"And that's our cue, I guess," Rorson grunted. He dropped the deer in the insulated box, took the carcasses from Selene and did the same, and then closed everything up. "Guess we'd better get cleaned up."

"Should we not—"

"She'll keep. Hell, if we're lucky, she'll take it out on Garek and have cooled off some before we make it through the door." And with the nonchalance of someone who has been married for many years, and knows their spouse's moods and habit intimately, he sauntered to the side of the shed where they stripped off their overclothes and washed thoroughly at an outdoor sink.

"ROR-SON!"

Garek's dad paused, and his ears swiveled. "Then again, there's a first time for everything. Come on lass, let's see what exactly has her so worked up about… you I suppose."

When they entered the living room, Garek was sitting on the couch with the posture of someone resigned to his fate. Grace was pacing in the open area in front of the couch like a predator, muttering to herself, and paused only when she saw Rorson. She stopped short and pointed an accusing finger at Garek.

"You're not going to believe the batshit story Garek tried to tell me, Ror," her expression was a complex mixture of outrage and frustration. But somewhere beneath it, Selene imagined she could sense… unease.

Rorson glanced back at Selene's wary face, "Oh I'm beginning to think I might, honey."

Grace's mouth fell open and she blinked rapidly for a second, then she turned back to Garek. "Fine then! Tell him what you told me!"

Garek sighed. "Dad, you know that Selene and I have been together for three years now." His father nodded. "And you know that we met… under unusual circumstances."

"You said you ran into each other out in the field."

"Right. Right."

"Don't sugarcoat it! Spit it out!" Grace growled, getting a pair of raised eyebrows from Rorson.

Garek patted the couch beside himself, and Selene made her way over slowly and sat down next to him. He put a comforting arm around her. "So, reason we met out there, in the middle of nowhere, is that Selene isn't completely human. And she isn't faunus. She was… out there because it wasn't safe for her to be seen by other people."

Rorson examined his son's face, and his future daughter-in-law's as well. Then he eased up to his wife, put a hand on her shoulder, and eased them both down onto the loveseat opposite. "You're not joking."

Grace goggled at her husband. "You're not taking this seriously, are you?"

"I am so far. If it's a joke, our boy suddenly found the world's best poker face." He looked at Garek again. "You say… not completely human. And not faunus."

"Right."

"Are you about to spin me a fairy tale?" Rorson continued. "She's not a changeling is she? Mermaid?" Rorson was smiling slightly, trying to lighten the mood, but he caught Garek's wince and it faded.

Two of those ridiculous guesses had struck close to home. Not all fairy tales were pleasant. One of those that had terrified Garek as a child had been the one where family and friends were possessed by a Grimm Spirit called The Chill.

Garek rubbed his face with his free hand. The entire goal had been to get to this point. He and Selene had discussed it ad nauseam. They'd gone over scenarios, bounced ideas off of Pete / Sophia and Summer / Tai. In the end, the answer had been stupidly simple: Spend as much time with them as you can, get them used to Selene as a person, and then just trust them.

The reason for that approach had been hard-earned lessons from Argus and Cinder, combined with the fact that Garek and Selene had decided that three years was long enough. They wanted to get married. Legally married, after which they would jointly adopt Cinder. And there was no way they were going to do that without his parents' involvement.

"Right. Fairy tale. Tell me dad, what's your favorite fairy tale?"

"The Hunters Children," his father said without moment's hesitation.

"Of course you'd say that." Grace groused, then turned back to Garek and sighed. "This is serious, isn't it? This is really something you've been building up to telling us." She glanced back and forth between the two young adults and took a deep breath. "Alright. You've got my attention. I'm just freaked out because I can't imagine what it would be!" She threw up her hands. "Seriously! Part human and part what?!"

"Mom. Dad. Do you trust me? Really trust me?"

"You know we do, son," Rorson said steadily.

Garek took a deep breath, and hugged his lover tightly against him. "Once upon a time, when magic was real, there was a lonely girl in a tower…"

. . .

"…and so, despite herself, the Immortal Witch who could control Grimm found herself a mother again," Selene said quietly. They had traded off in the telling, and it felt right that Selene finish up this portion of the tale.

"Wait… wait just a damn minute," Grace objected. "I've played along with you so far. But… this is crazy! A Queen of the Grimm? An immortal Queen of the Grimm? And she just…" her voice faded as she felt her gaze being drawn to Selene. The young woman's eyes had a wary cast to them, as if she were the one being assaulted by insane tales and not the teller of them.

Her gaze snapped back to her son. "Garek, are you about to tell me that… Selene is…"

"Yes."

Grace's laughter in response held that same hysterical tinge to it from earlier. "Okay! Okay! Joke's over!" She started to stand up, and Rorson tried to grab her arm. Unfortunately, a Huntress could out-brute-force a mundane game hunter easily, even one twice her bulk, and he just ended up being pulled up with her. "You're joking. Tell me you're joking, and we'll just pretend all this never happened, and enjoy the rest of the weekend." She was standing now and shaking slightly.

"Grace," Rorson said softly beside her.

"No. No. This isn't funny anymore."

Rorson lifted a hand to cup her face, and traced the scar across her left cheek with his thumb as he turned her face toward him so he could hold her gaze. "Grace, it never was funny." He shifted his hand. "Look at your son. He's not laughing. Not even cracking a smile. Look at Selene."

Grace stared at her husband, then at Garek, and then at Selene, who looked… miserable.

"Mom, if I knew a better way to do this, I'd have picked it," Garek said evenly.

"Mrs. Grae—"

"Grace, dammit," Garek's mom spat. "Selene, I've told you. I'm Grace to you."

The corner of Rorson's mouth twitched up ever so slightly, and Garek's spirits lifted slightly with it.

Selene's fingers fiddled with the seam of the sofa. "Yes. Of course. My apologies, Grace."

"Hmph. And you… Selene… you're going to stick to this story? I expect things like this from Garek but… are you… you're serious?" Grace's voice had grown quieter as she said the last portion. She lifted a hand and began chewing softly on a nail. "It's… insane. Impossible. Someone like that can't exist."

A nostalgic smile spread slowly across Selene's face and she turned slightly toward Garek. "I see now where you get your reactions from, love."

"Yeah… mom, I said the same thing the first time I saw her."

"He attempted to remove my kidneys with Cats Paw."

Garek chuckled. "And she's never letting me live it down."

Grace's eyes tried to focus on everything at once. "But… but… she looks so…"

"Normal? Yeah, that's a thing. It takes a bit of Aura to keep it up."

Grace blinked and her mouth worked. "She… Selene?"

"I look physically the same as this, and I sound the same, but I have… characteristics that would mark me as something to be feared, and likely killed. So I am forced to… conceal those aspects of myself."

"Oh…." Grace didn't sit down so much as controlled-fall backward into the loveseat, dragging her husband back down with her.

"Do you… wish to see?" Selene offered, "We would need to ensure the shades were drawn, and the doors secured against accidental interruption."

"I… I…"

"I don't think that's necessary, right now," Rorson said gently. "You've told us and…" he glanced at his wife. "I believe you, and Grace does too." He coughed. "So… part Grimm. And the daughter of the enemy of all faunus- and human-kind."

"Unfortunately, yes." Selene replied.

"And…" he scratched the side of his jaw. "You want to marry our son."

"I do. He is… wonderful. You have raised an incredible person," her face took on an impish expression, "when he is not around Rhodes."

"Hey!"

"It is true. You become… juvenile."

Rorson barked a laugh, and Grace's expression softened, then took on a concerned look. "Does the uh… Queen…?"

"My mother is fully aware of my feelings toward Garek and is supportive… insofar as she can be."

"Right. Right. But how…"

"That's another long story," Garek interrupted. "Are you up for more at the moment?"

"I could use a beer," Rorson said. "Grace?"

She nodded. "Garek will want one also. Selene?"

"I prefer wine, if that is acceptable?"

"Princess prefers wine," Rorson chuckled good-naturedly as he stood and went into the kitchen.

Grace stiffened. "My. Gods."

Oh shit. "Ma—"

"Mygods! Is that… it is! You're a princess?!"

"I fail to see how this would be something to… celebrate, Grace," Selene attempted to moderate her future mother-in-law's reaction.

It worked somewhat. Grace's right hand curled and she gnawed on her knuckles. "Right. Right. It's just… whooo this is a lot to absorb."

Rorson came back with the drinks, and they all spent a moment gathering their wits before he broke the silence. "So Selene, your… mom. Who also wants to… kill everyone..."

"Yes, well, it is not so simple at the moment," Selene replied. "You see…"

And another complex tale was woven.

"Ye gods… son. What in the twelve hells have you gotten yourself into?" Rorson muttered, then caught Selene's expression and lifted his hands. "No offense to you, Selene, you're a fine lass, regardless of…." He blew out a breath, "well that's just it, isn't it?"

Grace was lost in thought, frowning.

"Mom?"

"Give me a minute, son." She glanced up. "Oh, you two are fine. I'm just… realizing some things. Things that I wondered about during my years at Haven Academy, and then as a Huntress. Losing my friends and associates one by one…" She was quiet for a moment, then sighed and looked at Selene. "You can talk to Grimm? Can you command them like your… mother can?"

"To some degree," Selene said slowly, tensing for Grace's response. She had hoped the conversation would not veer too far into this territory. "I cannot override her explicit orders, and I can only directly influence those who can hear my voice, or who I can make eye contact with. And the orders are not… permanent?" She wrung her hands in slight distress. "If you seek to ask of me, 'can I end the threat of Grimm', I cannot, save in my immediate vicinity, or for a limited time in a broader area. And if the Queen were to instruct them otherwise…"

"They'd ignore you and kill everyone around you."

"Yes. I am sorry."

"Like Rorson said, can't help how you're born, one way or another." Selene felt some of her tension bleed away, and Grace gave her another long look. "You're awfully well-behaved considering…"

Selene smiled thinly. "Mother was a very strict parent. Sometimes terrifyingly so."

Grace nodded, and took another long pull of her beer, then held it in front of her, frowning in thought before turning her attention back to Garek. "And the Academy Headmasters know all this?"

"As far as we know, only Ozma… uh… that's Ozpin, knows it all. And Salem of course. And us now."

"Some truths, mere mortal man was not meant to know," Rorson intoned solemnly, and took a swig of his own beer.

"Oh, shut up, Ror," Grace said as she rolled her eyes and slapped his leg.

Garek's father grinned, and Selene felt her body untense further. No one has attempted to kill me. This is progress, yes?. A Huntress sits across from me and has not tried to kill me.

Of course, it is Garek's mom, he would not have allowed it. But still.

Grace suddenly became suspicious. "But why are you telling us all of this now? What-" Her eyes widened…. "grandbabies?!"

"Not yet!" Garek waved his hand wildly. "Marriage, mom! Remember?! You insisted! A wedding that you got to attend! Then Grandbabies!" He chewed his lip. "Though that might get a little… er…. complicated too. We aren't sure what… uh…" He waved his beer around. "….well genetics and all?"

"We fear our child may look… uncanny… at birth," Selene continued. "Which would be cause for alarm and possibly devastating consequences if the wrong person were to observe it."

"Oh. Oh gods."

Rorson frowned. "No… that's not gonna happen." He gestured with his bottle. "If… no when… you two decide to have a baby, we'll find somewhere safe until you can…" he gestured toward Selene, "do whatever it is Selene is doing now."

Selene pursed her lips. "My mother taught me this, but it required unlocked Aura. I do not know if she can… force this with a child."

"Well, shoot."

"You're telling me I might not get grandbabies?" Grace said with mock outrage. "After all of this?"

Rorson laughed. "Easy Grace."

Garek's mother grinned ferally, and with her faunus features that was something. "'Easy Grace', my ass. I survived twenty years as a Huntress. I've earned this." She turned back to the couple. "You two figure this out. Do whatever you have to do to get this… Queen to come up with something." She reconsidered. "I mean… whatever doesn't involve killing people." Grace chewed her lip. "She… Oh gods, she would, wouldn't she?" She turned back to her husband with a bewildered expression. "Rors, how do we…" She shook her head wordlessly and turned back to her son. "Garek how do you deal with this?"

"One day at a time. And mom, remember we're stlll the good guys here. We just… aren't on the same team as Ozpin and company.

"Right. Well." She took another drink and followed it with a too-bright smile. "Let's celebrate! Oh my gods, we have to plan a wedding! Will it be in Argus or here?"

Garek and Selene shared a look. "We were thinking… two ceremonies. First one at a certain island off the coast of Vale. A small wedding there. With a very limited guest list."

Grace blinked. "Why?"

"Well the in-laws are…"

"You're… inviting…" she started to hyperventilate.

"Easy Grace. Breathe in. Breathe out. Garek, go get some water."

Cinder knew, as soon as she walked into the living room, that things had been… explained. She flipped her bangs out of her eyes and considered the four people seated, along with the empty bottles of beer and half-finished bottle of wine on the table.

"So… I guess you guys know, huh?"

Garek and Selene's smirks told her she'd hit the mark, as did her future grandparents dropped jaws. "You know?"

"Duh," Cinder replied, folding her arms. "I mean, not at first, but…"

"What Cinder went through had a big role in us telling you now, mom. That's another long story."

"And… you're okay with it all?"

"Yeah. Mom's the best. I've known people who looked more human than she does, and were just pure nastiness inside." She walked over and sat next to Selene, pulling one knee up and curling up against her. "You get used to it pretty fast. She's kinda… exotic looking? Once you get past the whole black and red eyes thing."

"Crap..." Garek muttered.

Cinder paled. "Oh crap. You didn't show 'em yet?"

Selene sighed. "No, Cinder, but it's fine."

"Okay. Okay," Grace panted. "Now I have to see. I can't not see now."

Cinder bounced up, all bubbly energy. "I'll get the blinds!" She turned a wide grin on her grandparents. "This is gonna rock your brains, but it's still Selene. Got it? No screaming or anything."

"No screaming." Grace echoed. "Right."

"Seriously, you'll freak mom out. No freaking mom out."

"Cinder, you're freaking my mom out."

"Eh, she'll get over it," Cinder said impishly.

. . .

Someone passing by the Grae household in the next ten minutes would probably not have heard any screaming whatsoever, especially over the sound of Cinder's cackling laughter.

[A/N] Mostest Specialest thanks to my binge reader MollyPollyRolly who apparently consumed almost 70 chapters in seven hours! I am in awe and it warms my heart that you found it engaging enough to hold your interest like that.

And of course thanks to my regular reviewers Shadowstorm-Vash, Rookie80, and AtomicR4y! To answer your observations about Blackfeather, I have big plans for our Bestest Boi. Things that happened in that chapter started out as just "stuff" but have rapidly evolved into "plot-critical" much later. So stay tuned!

To my anonymous reviewer, appreciate the feedback. I'm doing my best. :-)

Quick note about the dates. I've decided to start adding dates to the chapters (and I will gradually back-load them into older chapters). It doesn't appear that Remnant has an established "calendar" so I chose a historical event as "Year zero": Namely, the signing of the Vytal Treaty at the end of the Great War between the Kingdoms. Since the Vytal Tournament occurs every 2 years, we know for a fact that the treaty (year zero) was signed 80 years before the Fall of Beacon in Canon (40th Vytal Tournament). So our current date is May in Year 71VE (about 8.5 years before RWBY Volume 1 as of this chapter) and our tale started about three years ago 69VE with Garek and Selene meeting on a remote island.

As far as this chapter goes, now the final barrier to Garek and Selene's pending nuptials, and legal adoption of Cinder, falls by the wayside with minimal screaming and (probably) zero bloodshed (other than the deer carcasses).

Next chapter covers the actual wedding itself and will feature two very special guests and some surprising impacts!