Team EMBR (RWBY oc)

Chapter 33: Homecoming (V4 "premiere")

(I'm still an awful artist, so I stay to recoloring. Above is basically a redesign for Ember. She changed up a little bit because of her semblance and the cold of Atlas)

       I stared out of the window of the airship, looking out to the vast expanse of the ocean. Everywhere I looked was just water. The Fall of Beacon was three days ago, and it was still fresh in our minds, but we all figured it was best to grow from it, rather than let it break us down.
    Our airship was heading up to Atlas. We technically weren't even supposed to be on this ship. It was supposed to be a military only ship, but Bondi, being the daughter of a councilman, managed to pull some strings, but they made sure we didn't roam the ship, except Maggie. I guess they respected the Brand name enough to trust her with the tech. She stayed with us anyways.
    "How long have we been going?" Rose asked, sitting on a cargo box, one leg hanging off, looking out a window opposite of me. They might've been keeping us in a cargo bay.
    "A couple of hours..." Mag sighed, "and we're gonna go for a couple more..."
    Rose just sighed and twirled an arrow through her fingers. She leaned back up against the wall and shook her head.
    "We're not even supposed to be on this ship..." Mag explained, "they're just being safe by not letting us leave..."
    Bondi just chuckled softly. She was sitting against a wall, one knee bent, the other straight.
    "I honestly thought they'd treat me better than this when I played the Ewens card..." she explained.
    "Well any flight is better than no flight..." Hazel cut in, laying down on two boxes, "I'm glad we're at least here..."
   We all just shrugged. We were all bored out of our minds. And yeah I was still sad from the fall of Beacon, but what could I do about it. Moping wouldn't do anything for me. We all felt the same.
    I turned my head away from the window and glanced over at the wall by the door. Where all our weapons were resting. I had no clue why, but we all leaned our weapons up against the wall, including my moms. It still hurt to look at that, but I wasn't sure if because she was gone, or because she lied to me.
    I knew it wasn't a great thing to hold grudges against the deceased, and I obviously still loved her, but I was still a little mad at the way she raised me and dealt with me because she was scared for me. After the fall of beacon though, I understood why.
     Out of the corner of my eye I noticed a flash of black fly past the window, and I wasn't the only one who noticed. The rest of my team glanced up when they saw it too.
    "That was a nevermore wasn't it..." I asked blankly. The boredom was really setting in hard.
    We felt a slight shake in the ship and we heard an explosion. One of the cannons went off. Hopefully they hit it.
    "Yyyep..." Rose confirmed, not moving her head from the window, "a dead one now."
    "What's a nevermore doing out this far?" Hazel asked, "we're over the ocean...it shouldn't be here..."
    "We're not too far from land actually..." Mag answered, "we actually passed the northernmost island off the coast of Vytal not too long ago."
    I let out a slight wince when she said that. Even the name Vytal still stung a little bit. It would probably be a fresh wound for awhile.
    "We should reach the southern Tip of Solitas in an hour...the kingdom in another..." Maggie finished.
     Bondi sighed deeply in her corner, "I don't know about you Mag...but I'm really not looking forward to the end of that second hour..."
    "It won't be so bad..." Mag tried to reassure her, "I'm sure after seeing the fall he'd be worried and he'd be glad to see you safe."
     "Please," Bondi chuckled, dismissing the idea he'd be worried about her, "the only thing my father cares about his how the public views his choices and the family name. And as far as I'm concerned He thinks I'm a disgrace to that...I doubt he'd mind if I wasn't here anymore..."
    "And I thought my mom was Bad..." I muttered. I didn't mean for anyone to hear me, but we were alone in a pretty small room, so everyone did. Rose and Hazel looked at me in a slight shock. I guess they were surprised I'd talk about it so soon.
    "You guys won't have to worry about him though. He'll treat you guys like royalty." She said, clearly annoyed by her father, "taking in some "orphans" from the fall of beacon? He'd love what it would do for his image."
    "Do you think he'd know where my dad was..." Hazel asked.
     "Doesn't matter if he does or doesn't. He'll help anyways, but it won't be out of the kindness of his heart..." Bondi answered, "but you won't need to worry about that.,.you'll see him soon..."
    "What was he even doing in Atlas that's taking so long?" Mag asked, "Most business trips never take this long..."
"Well my dad, he's some manager, or consultant or something, I don't know his official title, but he works for a shipping company." I explained, "they've got an office in each of the four kingdoms, even Menagerie, and he goes around and makes sure everything's all good."
"So we assumed something wasn't good," Hazel finished for me, "but he didn't tell us what. Can't imagine it's okay with the stuff he handles. All kinds of people would love to get their hands on that stuff..." Ever since the fall Hazel had been looking at the world through a different lens. She seemed to see the bad in the world now, I didn't blame her.
She didn't even have to explain for the others to understand what she meant. Dust, weapons Tech, and more Dust. Of course they dealt with other things, but with the high demand of dust it was their main source of income, but up in Atlas it was an issue. Because of the Schnees, and a little bit of the Brands, the business there never took off. That's why it was surprising he had to stay, almost nothing important happens up there.
"But it's whatever..." I shrugged, "it's not like he's in any danger or anything." I leaned backwards and threw my arms behind my head. Laying down, staring at the ceiling.
"But I'm gonna take a nap..." I said through a yawn, "wake me when we get there..." I shut my eyes and fell asleep, and trust me, it wasn't easy to fall asleep on cargo boxes.
• • •
"Cmon Emmy..." I heard as I felt someone nudge me on the shoulder, "we're here...might wanna make sure your jacket is on tight..." It was Rose.
I could already feel the temperature difference, and it sucked. I sat up and stretched, trying not to shiver. It was probably a livable temperature for everyone else, but I guess I'm just special. I made sure to press Calor into my palm as hard as I could, not that it helped a whole lot.
I rubbed my eyes as I stood up. My back was a little sore. Sleeping on boxes probably didn't help.
   "Catch..." Rose said to me as she tossed me Ignis and Aestus from their spot on the wall. I caught them by the handles and folded them up, clicking them on my hip holsters. Bondi, Mag, and Rose were all doing the same thing with their weapons. Even Hazel was getting in on the action. She grabbed our moms weapon and put it into the sword form.
     "You sure you don't want me to carry that..?" I asked, she just shook her head at me and put the blade in her band she had around her waist. The blade almost dragged along the ground as she walked, and Hazel had to walk funny, but it was her choice.
     "I can handle it..." she said with a little bit of sass as she turned to the Atlas soldier that came through the door.
    "Please...don't touch anything on the way out..." He pleaded, "the last time we took someone on this ship our comms got knocked off for the entire day. I'd rather not repeat that situation..."
    We all just nodded in agreement. According to Bondi it was best to just agree with what they said. The soldiers got testy pretty often. I was starting to learn she was right. Not that it was their fault, that's just what they were taught to do. It's the same reason Mag was as stone-faced as she was when she first got to Beacon.
     We followed him out to the exit ramp. As it opened I reared back as if I got punched in the face. Which honestly is what it felt like when the cold wind hit me. Whatever skin I had exposed felt like it was touching dry ice. Which was really something, considering I only had my face and thighs exposed.
     We walked down the ramp and it was quite the view. Ignoring the councilman, scientist, and security detail that was in front of me, everything was beautiful. All the buildings were grandiose and overly extravagant. My dad always said he'd take me here, so it was nice to see the place, even if I wasn't with my dad just yet.
    The moment Mag saw her father, the two broke for each other and gave each other a longing hug. Her father was clearly concerned for her. I couldn't say the same for Bondi's. Bondi walked up to her father, but he just stayed planted. His arms held behind his back. Rather than a loving reunion, it was more of a tense standoff.
    "Bondi..." he said blankly. Maybe she was right, it didn't seem like her father cared for her all that much.
     "Sir..." she replied just as blankly. It must've been pretty bad if Bondi didn't even want to recognize him as her father. By the way he twisted his face, I'm sure Bondi knew he didn't like that, and judging by Bondi's grin. I knew that that's what she wanted.
     "Who are your friends..?" He asked coldly as he leaned to the side and stared past her.
     "They're my teammates...and one of their sisters..." she explained, still staring down her father. Grinning, knowing what buttons she was going to push.
     "They were orphaned during the fall..." she continued, "I figured you'd take them in while they got on their feet...figured you'd think it'd make you look good. That's all you seem to care about anyways..."
    "Know your place girl..." he scolded her sternly as he slid his way past her towards us.
    "Trust me I do..." she muttered back, but he didn't hear it. He was too busy studying us. To my surprise, Hazel spoke up before the rest of us.
    "Hello sir," she said politely with a smile, giving a curtsy. Rose and I figured we should do the same, so we did, "I'm Hazel, and this is my sister Ember and her friend Rose."
    "I see...it's nice to meet you all..." he said, trying to appear polite, as if we didn't just see him practically ignore his daughter, "so is it true that you're orphans now?" What a terrible question to ask so soon after tragedy. This guy clearly wasn't very emotional.
    "Yes sir, well...somewhat..." I answered. If Hazel did all the talking he'd probably think I wasn't the brightest, "our mother...she didn't make it through the fall, but our father is somewhere in Atlas, but we don't know where. He never told us."
    "I'm terribly sorry for your loss." He said solemnly and grabbed my hand in between his. I had to fight the urge to yank it away, although the warmth was welcome. Fortunately I turned calor inwards too, or else I would've just burned him.
    "But it seems like you three don't have much, or a place to stay?" He asked us, even though Bondi already told him. I guess if it came from her he just ignored it.
     "No sir we do not..." Rose said, sounding as polite as I'd ever heard her. I guess she chose a good time to lose her usual sassy tone.
   "Well then why don't you come with me and my daughter..?" He suggested, "it's quite the lovely place of you ask me."
    "We'd love that..." I answered with a cheeriness I didn't know I had in me. It wasn't really forced either, just the thought of a heated room was enough to make me happy, "thank you very much Mr Ewens."
    "I assure you. It's nothing." He gave us a smile. For looking so annoyed with Bondi earlier, her sure did a good job of pretending to be joyous, "now please. Follow me."
    We started to follow him, but Magnolia stopped us quickly.
    "I'll make sure to visit you guys..." she muttered as she brought us in for a quick hug, "I love you guys."
     "We love you too..." I answered as we hugged back, "we'll see you soon." We all let go of each other and went back to going where we were supposed to. I waved back at Mag with a smile. It was a shame she didn't live close to Bondi.
    But with how Bondi's father was. I'm sure I'd end up finding any excuse to make the trip across town.