Beta: Coeur Al'Aran

Re-edited: 07/09/16

Chapter 1: The Promise

It was dark.

The low humming of the ventilation system reverberated throughout the room. The light from the hallway creeped through the cracks between the metal blinds that blocked the single window that the room had.

At the corner of the room was a bed and atop that bed lay a boy. He had blonde, unruly hair and blue sapphire eyes which were open and held an annoyed expression. The boy's name was Jaune, and he has not been able to fall asleep since curfew.

It was not the noise of the ventilation system that kept him awake. He had long been used to the low humming of it. To be fair it was more like he barely took notice. He was born in the Vault. Since birth the sound was almost like a lullaby to him, not that it helped him much at the moment.

The same can almost be said of the light that creaked through the cracks of the metal blinds. While light did seep through, it angled off away from his bed and instead hit the other side of his room.

The only thing keeping him awake was his thoughts. Well, one thought that kept repeating over and over in his head.

Go to sleep, go to sleep, go to sleep, go to sleep...

As much as he wanted, as much as he willed himself, he could not go to sleep. He usually had no problems sleeping even on a bad day. Which to be fair, he felt like was most days. He knew exactly why he couldn't go to sleep on this particular curfew as much as he tried to deny it. In just a few hours he was going to take a test. A test that would forever define his life in the vault till the day he died.

Jaune never did well on tests and the fact that this judged his worth in the Vault frightened him. He had heard the horror stories about those that became garbage burners after failing. He began to imagine living the rest of his life burning trash. The smell would probably stick on him for days and right when he got rid of it he'd had to burn trash again! He'd perpetually be smelling like trash for the rest of his life. Just the thought what the trash was composed of made Jaune gag a little.

Go to sleep already, damnit!

He rolled over trying to banish such thoughts. He needed to sleep if he wanted to at least try and pass the test. If he was being honest with himself, it didn't matter what he did... he'd end up failing, and he'd always end up making a fool of himself. He was the black sheep of the family. His sisters would say otherwise, especially Joan, his eldest sister.

Almost as if on cue, he heard his room intercom switch on. For a few seconds all he heard was static until a soft and concerned voice whispered out.

"Jaune, you awake?" Joan's voice broke the silence.

He sighed, getting up from his bed and walking towards the intercom.

"Yeah, I'm awake," Jaune sluggishly said.

"Took you long enough to answer," Joan quietly chuckled, "can I come in?"

Jaune was a bit reluctant at first, but denying a request from Joan was like denying a request from his mother. Jaune pressed the button and the gears and hinges on his door began to shift around allowing the metal beams that dug into his floor to lift up and then finally slide open in opposite directions. Jaune shielded his eyes from the sudden flash of light from the outside hallway and as his eyes adjusted he could see the silhouette of his sister take shape.

Joan was pretty tall, about six feet in height, her long blonde hair which normally reached the middle of her back was tied in a bun and she had golden eyes. Besides the usual blue and yellow vault jumpsuit that everyone wore she also had on a black kevlar vest, plastic armor padding on her knees and elbows, and black leather gloves. She also had a baton which hung at her waist and small riot shield which she carried on her back.

"How'd you know I was awake?"

"I just had a feeling, something like a motherly intuition." Joan replied, taking off her gloves as she walked to the nearest seat at the back of the room. She placed her helmet with her gloves inside on the desk and placed her shield on the side of it to free her hands. "So Jaune, what's keeping you up?" Her eyes were focused on his.

After closing the door Jaune moved to sit on his bed, and slumped his arms on his legs. "It's nothing really, I just can't go to sleep is all. You really don't need to worry. I don't want to keep you from your nightly rounds - " he stopped talking as soon as he noticed his sister's eyes become stern.

"Jaune, don't lie to me. Your eyes tend to wander about when you lie." She said flatly.

He should work on that if he ever plans on lying his way out of things, he mentally noted.

"So tell me," Joan continued with more concern in her voice "what is really keeping you up?"

Jeez Joan.

There was no point avoiding it now, he had to come clean or else they'll both be there for the entirety of curfew. Joan was stubborn enough to just sit there and stare at him till he talked. He decided to stare at floor as he confessed "Well, tomorrow's the test and all I can think about is whether I'm going to fail or not and..." Jaune hesitated to continue, his voice growing thick, but after looking up and seeing his sister's caring eyes he continued "and I don't want to disappoint you, or my sisters, or...my parents." He glanced over to the worn picture that stood on the metal framed cabinet on the other side of the room. "I'm not the best student in class, in fact I'm probably the worst. I'm gonna end up a garbage burner and then everyone will avoid me, mom and dad would be disappointed with me and I will be a stain to the Arc name and…" before Jaune could finish he was quieted.

"Jaune, you're not a stain, you're my brother - our brother." Joan whispered, voice full of care and love, embrace gentle yet firm. He quickly began to relax, not even noticing that he was shaking beforehand. "If you become a garbage burner, so what? We'll just get used to the smell." Jaune almost wanted to pull Joan back into the embrace as she sat back to face him and look directly at his eyes. "As for the "Arc" name, that name has long since lost its meaning. We haven't exactly been a family of warriors for some time now. So dry your eyes and pull yourself together."

Jaune didn't realize that he was on the verge of crying from spilling his guts to Joan. Out of all his sisters, she seemed to be the only one able to make him confront himself about his fears and insecurities - and she knew what to say to make him calm down and be himself.

"Besides, no matter what you become... mom and dad will always be watching over you."

"I think they'd haunt me instead of just watch if I became a garbage burner."

"Haunting, watching, same thing." They both began to laugh as quietly as they could, hoping they didn't accidently wake up any of their sisters in the nearby rooms.

As their laughter died down Joan noticed Jaune's eyes drifting behind her. She turned to see what he was looking at and saw an old framed photo. She got up from her seat and walked over to it to take a closer look. As she picked up the photo a sorrowful smile spread across Joan's face, her hand tracing the surface of the photo.

Jaune was a lot smaller in the picture and he had a huge smile on his face. A hand was draped on his shoulder which trailed up to the tall man in a lab coat on his left. She chuckled at the resemblance that Jaune had with the older man. Unlike Jaune though, the man had tamed, golden hair - his sapphire eyes full of pride and joy. To Jaune's right was a beautiful woman in a lab coat as well, with short yellow hair. She was about as tall as the man next to Jaune and her eyes were focused on the bundle of joy that she held in her arms. The baby's orange eyes were wide open and though she was suckling on a pacifier you could see the smile on her face. Siena was but a year old in the picture.

Surrounding them were the rest of the Arc family. To the left of the tall man were two identical twins with blond ponytails and mischievous smiles. They mirrored each other's pose, one had her left arm stretched out in front of her with her hand gesturing a peace sign, the other did the exact same thing except with her right arm. The only thing distinguishing them from each other were their reversed heterochromia eye colors. Ao's left eye was blue and her right was green. Midori was the exact opposite, her left eye being green and the right blue. Between them was Lapis who was trying to hide behind the two of them. She was pulling on her yellow pigtails close to her face, trying to hide her indigo eyes which were on the verge of tears.

Next to the woman was Joan herself, and next to her was her bespectacled sister, Scarlett. Her long hair was braided into a ponytail which slumped over her shoulder, her red eyes strict and disciplined, and her arms folded in front of her. However, as strict as her demeanor was, there was faint smile on her lips. In between them was Viola, her hair was styled in an inverted bob cut. There was a little bit of oil grease on her cheek which was peeled back into a grin. No doubt she was tinkering around in their mother's workshop before the picture.

This was the family that Eurig and Ariana Arc raised.

Had raised…

"You know... every time you held Siena in your arms people thought you were mom." Joan didn't know how long she stood there till Jaune's voice pulled her out of her reverie. "I think your eyes had a lot to do with it." Joan had to admit that the resemblance to her mother was a bit uncanny but she had long since gotten used to it.

"Doesn't help that Siena calls me mom sometimes." She sniggered as she gently put the photo back on top of the cabinet and returned to her seat.

"You did kind of raise her yourself, heck you raised most of us by yourself."

"Not entirely, Scarlett helped too, especially with Midori and Ao. Only she could keep up with their antics and discipline them."

"True, but you made sure Scarlett never killed them for some of the stuff they did. Like that one time when they lit firecrackers in the toilet before she went in to use it... I can still remember the look in her eyes." Jaune shivered at the memory.

"It did take all I had to hold her down - and now that I think about it, it was thanks to that incident that Midori and Ao began to listen to me more often."

"That's because you threatened to unleash Scarlett on them if they ever did something like that again." Jaune deadpanned. "Still though, just goes to show that you effectively raised us." Jaune's eyes began to drift downward.

I'm just a failure though, nothing you could do to help that...

Jaune's thoughts began to drift back into depression, and Joan could easily tell. She leaned forward and cupped her hand on his cheek.

"Jaune, you'll do fine tomorrow, I'm sure you'll pass just fine. Just... promise me you'll try." She began to caress her fingers on his cheek.

"...Alright, I promise I'll try sis." He said clearly, his eyes looking directly into hers.

"Glad to hear it." Joan stood up from her seat and began to gather her things. "I should go back to my rounds now before shift change." She re-geared herself and carried her helmet under her arm. As she walked towards the door to open it, she turned to look at Jaune one more time. "Get some rest Jaune, I'll see you soon." Jaune waved good-bye as she left his room.

An Arc never goes back on his word.

Jaune once again was laying on his bed staring at the dark ceiling, hands behind his head, thoughts once again keeping him awake. Those words kept echoing in Jaune's head after Joan left. He promised Joan he'll try and an Arc never goes back on his word. Never, not even when an Arc's life was on the line.

An Arc never goes back on his word.

Jaune had only broken a promise once. His father, taught him the importance of keeping a promise after that one. No matter the size of the promise, big or small, short or long, every time Jaune made a promise his father would remind him with those words. He promised Joan he would try to pass and he was going to fulfill that promise, whatever it took.

There was still time tomorrow, still time to fight against certain failure. Jaune's eyes harden with his new found resolve. There's someone he needs to see tomorrow, someone who he knows can help. If they refuse he'll just have to make them an offer they can't refuse. Jaune had a plan and he can only hope it'll work.

Hello Everyone! Thank you for taking your time and reading my first Fanfic ever! I would like to address some issues that I think some of you might have regarding this fic. First off, for those of you who know what a Vault is and has an idea of where I'm going with this then I just want to let you know that this is not a true cross-over. There will be elements from the Fallout games that will show up, but over all what I'm doing is putting the world of Remnant in a post-apocalyptic setting similar to that of the aforementioned game. The story will mainly focus on Jaune and the rest of the RWBY cast and their journey through the Wasteland.

Please leave a review and tell me what you think, any criticism is helpful!

Next, I would like give credit to two of my favorite authors for inspiring me to write, Coeur Al'Aran and Super Saiyan Cyndaquil! Their stories One Good Turn Deserves Another, Auburn, and various other ones of theirs, have heavily influenced me and I recommend you guys to read those if you haven't! However, I would definitely like to give a little more credit to Couer for being my Beta and teaching me the ropes of writing. I've been taking writing lessons from him and they have helped me so much I can't thank him enough. If you're interested in helping Coeur (and want him to update his stories on a more regular basis like I do), and want some tips on learning to write or improve your writing he does have a where you can support him. Check it out at:

. com slash Coeur.

Till next chapter!