Team EMBR (RWBY oc)

Chapter 32: Aftermath (pt. 2) (V3 "finale")

      So there we stood in front of the gates. A team from a broken school, and parts of a family. It still hurt to walk on my ankle, and Bondi still ached in her ribs, but we ignored it. Fought through.
     The gates creaked open and we were met by sorrow. Mrs Grove, Forrest, and Rose's step-dad all sat waiting for us. I was surprised to see Rose's step-dad here. Her mom must've told him to come here once it started to get chaotic, but Why didn't she do that with my mom?
I noticed Forrest's face dropped into sadness. It looked like it happened when he looked at the Atlas rifle in Terra's, Rose's mom, hand. It was probably just coincidental.
     Mrs Grove quickly ushered us all inside, no doubt she wanted to keep any Grimm out. The village people all stared at us as we entered. Most of our clothes were pretty torn up, and mine smelled like smoke still to make that better. We looked rough right now. I wondered what rumors and words were spreading through the crowd. No doubt Rose was listening.
We were all silent though. Lost in our own minds, our own thoughts, our own sorrows. Most of us were just blindly following Mrs. Grove as we stared off. Staring off into space was all I could do to look strong. These people were undoubtedly scared, if it showed that I was too, it would only get worse.
I got woken up out of my daze when I felt some arms wrap around my leg. I looked down, and the boy I saved from the Gryphon was hugging my leg tightly. It almost brought a smile to my face, but it's much harder to drive out sadness than create happiness.
"Thank you for saving my son..." His mom said as she walked up to me, still holding the Rifle she picked up in the chaos, "I owe you everything."
"I'm just doing my job..." I said, a bit to blankly and toneless. I forced a smile, but I doubt it looked good, or convincing. I hated having to keep this front up. I felt dead inside. My entire life was flipped upside down, and I had to pretend that everything was fine, but it wasn't. It would never be, not for a long time.
"Thank you anyways..." she gave me a slight bow and pulled her son away from me. I forced myself to wave goodbye to him as he waved to me. I was surprised he wasn't traumatized by this. Maybe he was too young to understand, I mean, if he saw some of these things in the news, no reason for him to think this wasn't a huge thing that happened.
     I noticed Forrest and Terra talking to each other in the back of the group. Almost like they were old friends. They looked like they could be around the same age, so maybe they were in the same beacon class. I turned back to The front and followed Mrs Grove.
     I let out a sigh of relief when we finally got to the town hall. Forrest opened the door for us and ushered us in. That same table we had a joyous dinner at was now going to be the place where we held a, presumably depressing, talk.
   I sat at as close to the head of the table as I could. I was team leader, may as well lead where I could. Hazel sat to my right, and Rose to hers. Terra sat in front of me, and Mag and Bondi sat next to each other across from Hazel and Rose. Mrs Grove pulled out the chair at the head of the table next to me and sat down, Forrest standing behind her, almost like a guard.
    We all set our weapons down, most leaning up against our chairs, but Terra put the Atlas rifle up on the table.
    "Why do you still have that thing?" I lashed out at Terra, "it's just some stupid Atlas prototype..."
    I noticed Mag do a quick double take thing at me. She must've been surprised by what I said. She just looked back at the Rifle, and then back at me.
     "My father has never made anything remotely close to that..." She eventually said, "it's all wrong for how he'd do it...too fat, and too blocky."
     "But my dad...he said he got it from an Atlas market or whatever..?" I asked, desperately looking around for confirmation, "right..? I mean, where else could it be from?" They were making me feel like I was crazy. I looked at my teammates for help, but they just gave me a look that showed they had no idea either.
"I feel like we should tell her..." Forrest cut in, "there's no sense in keeping her in the dark..."
"Keeping me in the dark from what?" I asked, and no one answered, not even Mrs Grove, who always had something wise to say.
"Tell me!" I eventually shouted, my voice croaked. I was an emotional time bomb, and I was about to go off. Terra just sighed. Whatever it was, she didn't want to tell it.
"Please...?" I finished. At this point I didn't care if what it was would hurt, I just wanted to know.
"Did I ever tell you my teams name when I was at Beacon kiddo?" Forrest stepped in, leaning on the table from his mothers side. I just shook my head no at him.
"Well old Ozpin decided to call us FRST. We had your humble leader, Forrest Grove. The joker of the group, Royal Catalano."
Rose perked up at the mention of her real fathers name, but not in a happy way.
"What..." she muttered in disbelief, "no way...I was told his team was iceberg, you know, CBRG."
"Just wait kiddo...I'm not finished..." he cut Rose off, who looked offended for a second, but she sat back and listened, "The lovely Terra Bialla." Rose just stared at her mom in shock, but Terra hushed her before she could say anything.
Forrest turned his head over to me, "and our last member. Our S. Sangria Rune. Your mother." I just stared blankly at him and shook my head. There was no way, if she was a huntress, why would she want to push me away this badly? But also, how would Forrest know my mothers maiden name. Once she married my dad she practically never mentioned it.
"So Iceberg wasn't a lie then..." Rose said once she figured it out, "it was just a half truth. Your last names rather than your first..."
"That's what you're concerned about!?" I snapped at Rose, "some stupid Acronym and not my mom lying to us her whole life!?"
"You know Ember, some of us are going through hard times too!" She snapped back, she clearly had a lot pent up from tonight, but I was still surprised she yelled back, "so sorry if I get a little preoccupied with finding something out about my dad! Not like I ever got to talk to him or anything!"
I took a breath to yell back at Rose, but I was cut off from a shout from the most surprising person.
"Stop it!" Hazel shouted. I completely forgot she was here, I didn't even think about how she was taking this news. "Just...if my mom really was a huntress...why'd she quit? And why'd she push Ember away from it..?"
"You know how when someone experiences something tragic, it changes them..?" Mrs Grove cut in, apparently she was well informed of this as well.
"What'd she experience that was so tragic?" I asked, trying not to sound angry, but I was annoyed that they were speaking so vaguely.
"My dad..?" Rose asked, staring down at the table, "my real dad..?" Terra and Forrest just nodded.
"A couple years after we graduated we were on a mission together. We liked to stay as a team on missions, it just worked well..." Terra spoke softly, "we went on a mission, but there was just so many Grimm. Way more than we were told. It went wrong very fast...Royal...he never made it out."
"Your mother was stricken with grief..." Forrest continued, "she felt it was her fault, so she quit hunting. She thought it would prevent others from getting hurt. She ran awhile from us for awhile, never talked, but your father, they were only dating at the time, set her straight. She came back to us, but she still stayed away from hunting..."
"And it wasn't her fault..." Terra cut in, "it wasn't anyone's. She just told herself that because days after she found out she was pregnant with you. She thought she could've gotten him out if she wasn't. I didn't know it then either, but I was pregnant with Rose."
I remembered sometimes when I was a young kid she would look at me with disgust, almost by instinct, but when she realized it she always put her smile on her face. I finally realized it wasn't cause she hated me or anything, she just hated what I reminded her of.
"So she was trying to protect me from getting hurt...from losing someone I cared about..?" I asked, and Terra nodded at me. "A bit too late for that..." I muttered. Everyone heard me, but they ignored it.
"So the rifle..." Hazel asked, her voice trailing off, "that was hers...that's why she got so mad when my dad brought it in..."
"Have your sister go ahead and check for herself..." Terra said as she slid the rifle over to me. I stood up out of my chair and grabbed it. I noticed a switch on the grip, so I flipped it. The rifle clicked and started to move all its parts. Next thing I knew I was holding a long electric sword. No Atlas rifle would ever do that.
I sat back down and stared blankly. All the realization that this was true hit me at once. I looked over at Rose and she had the same expression on her face. She was just as shocked as I was. This was a lot to take in at once. Hazel felt the same as we did, I didn't even have to look.
"Kinda ironic you two came from a team called Frost...Sangria met her husband because he was a friend of Royal..." Forrest cut in, trying to lighten the mood, not that it did, "so Ember and frost is obvious, but you don't see Roses in the winter either..."
Terra and Mrs Grove just glared at him. Clearly it wasn't the time.
"Okay I'm sorry...but now that we figured that out..." Bondi cut in, leaning forward onto the table, "can we figure out what our long-term plan is..."
"You're not gonna stay here..?" Mrs Grove asked, almost offended. As logical as it would be, it just didn't seem like the right thing, the natural thing.
"We...we don't fit in a place like this..." Mag saved it before Bondi could be Bondi. I was glad she was such an elegant speaker, "it'd be best if we found something that suits us best..." Rose nodded. At least we were all on the same page.
"Where might that be...?" Mrs Grove asked.
"As much as I hate to admit it..." Bondi sighed, "I think my best option is home..."
"Same here..." Maggie sighed too.
"With my dad up there...and Ash...I feel like that's what I have to do too..." I agreed. I'd need to upgrade my wardrobe before that though.
Rose just picked her head up and looked at her mother. She was basically stuck between choosing which family she wanted to go with. After a short moment her mom nodded at her.
"I've got my own jobs to do down here before I can even dream of going anywhere..." Terra answered, "it'd be best if you stayed with your team until I'm free..."
"So that settles it..." Bondi sighed, "its about time you learned about my family anyways..."