Prodigal Son

"I swear in the name of the brother gods, I will kill that bastard who put this baby in me!"

"You already have, your highness." Arthur Watts, once the greatest mind in all of Remnant, said with a sigh as he helped his queen give birth. He never thought that such a day would come.

Admittedly, this might be because he was not sure whether his queen was still capable of reproduction considering that she was technically half Grimm. But it seemed like she was and now suffering for it.

From what Watts had managed to understand, his queen had a... dalliance with a less than smart huntsman who had wandered into the Grimmlands. There always one such fool, searching for fame and glory in the land that was certain death for humans. He had been strong enough to get the Queen's interest though, also handsome enough to be suitable for her pleasure. He had been killed after he had tried to kill her though. Not that Salem seemed to mind it much, the woman cared little for the man after all.

Which made her current situation all the more awkward.

"Push, my queen!" Watts tried to encourage her.

"Silence!" And was rewarded by her roar.

He didn't hold it against her, mostly because she was still the immortal witch with enough power to turn him into a red smear on a wall in her fingertip; but also because he knew that she was in pain.

Immortal or not, childbirth was painful.

"Push!"

With one final cry, the child of Salem entered the world.

After cutting the boy's, and it was a boy, umbilical cord; Watts wrapped the newborn in a black blanket and then gave him to the new mother.

Salem was... not sure how to feel. She had been a mother once, but that had been centuries ago and had ended in tragedy. After all this time, she had almost forgotten the feeling of holding her own child in her arms.

It was indescribable.

This was her child.

Her's and her's alone. Her son.

He looked... rather normal. She could see a small amount of black hair on his head, much like his father had. And his eyes, they were red like rubies but his sclera was normal unlike her own black sclera. His skin was also a rather healthy shade unlike her own chalk white skin with black veins. He was normal in a way one would not expect from a child of Salem except for one detail...

"Will you not cry, my boy?" Salem whispered as she ran her hand through his hair, the only reason she wasn't panicking was because she could clearly see the boy's chest slowly raise and lower.

He was obviously alive, he was even blinking at her, so why was he so silent?

"Say something." The boy looked at her and Salem could almost swore that he was scowling. Why was he not...

"Waah!" Oh, there it was.

Relief flooded her dark heart as she listened to the sound of her child's cries, he had rather impressive lungs. His cried sounded almost like the storm itself.

"Rudra." Salem whispered as she held her child closer to her chest.

"His name will be Rudra." She declared with a smile and for the first time in centuries, Salem was happy.

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The next few years had gone faster than any before. Before long her little Rudra was talking, walking and running.

And fighting.

Her boy had been, as it was called in this era, an adrenaline junkie. He would do things that anyone with an ounce of logic would balk at simply for the excitement. Which included picking fights with elder Grimms that were strong enough that anything less than several teams of professional huntsman would have no chance against them.

If he had merely done that and got hurt, Salem would have been… not okay as the thought of her child being hurt made her very irritated, but willing to let it be as it would have been a lesson to the boy. But instead Rudra had managed to slay no less than five elder Grimm throughout the years.

Salem wasn't sure if she should be proud of her son's power or mad at him for costing her some of her stronger Grimm. In the end, she chose to be proud since what mother wouldn't be proud of their child's strength.

Admittedly, raising Rudra had been a peculiar experience. He had been quite a bit smarter than any child his age should be and proved that by impressing Watts with his intelligence.

His prowess in magic was also rather impressive, but it was nothing compared to his battle senses. It was a rather surreal sight to see a giant of a man like Hazel being brought down by a child. The gentle giant had seemed to be proud of Rudra though, Salem always knew that he had a good head on his shoulders. Mostly because he hated Ozma as well... or whatever name that started with 'o' he was going by these days.

Her child's relationship with Tyrian on the other hand had been... weird. There was no other way of describing a scorpion faunus following after a child while talking how he was a messiah after all. At least he had spirit, and was good at murdering her enemies.

Things had gotten a bit weird after Rudra had turned ten though. He had accompanied Watts to a visit in Atlas, he needed to know about the outside world after all, and ended up coming back with a 'minion'. At least Cinder was loyal, and cute.

One last thing that had Rudra caused was... not truly his fault as it had been Salem's decision. She had decided not to destroy Remnant.

Sure, dying would be very welcome but she couldn't destroy the world while her child was living in it could she? No, the new plan was to get the powers of all the maidens and collect at least three of the relics. Simply to make Ozma stress about her 'plans' and make the bastard suffer.

It would be easy, she had Rudra on her side after all.

"Your highness, I was told by the young sir to give this to you." Watts approached her with a frown, not looking happy to be a messenger, and an envelope in his hand that he handed over to Salem. Whose eyes widened as she read it's contents.

'Hey mom! I grew bored so I decided to go outside world and have fun. Maybe join a huntsman academy or something. See ya later! With love, from Rudra.'

Salem's shriek of panic and rage made all the Grimm near her castle whimper with fright.