Disclaimer: This story was created for no personal gain other than enjoyment and improvement on my own writing skills. None of the characters within this story, or the universes they come from belong to me. RWBY belongs to Rooster Teeth and Fallout belongs to Bethesda. Please support both series.
Chapter 1: Ruby Rose and Arthur Maxson
It was strange. Usually, the only thing that he would ever wake up to was a decaying roof somewhere in the middle of a dead city on a dying world. He would wake up to gunfire or the crunch of gravel under a massive steel boot. He would wake up to the stench of irradiated meat being roasted over rotten wood. Sometimes, he would even wake up to the whimpering of men and women who were slowly being pulled from their bodies by burns or bullet holes.
But this time, Arthur Maxson awoke to something totally different. He awoke to the sound of something he had only ever heard on old holodisks and in an errant dream or two. He was pulled from his slumber by the sound of a police siren.
When he opened his eyes, he was greeted with a black sky, the walls of two neighboring buildings, and the cold night air prickling his face. He looked to his sides to see a street at either end of the alley he found himself in. He found it peculiar how the concrete and shops across the two strips of asphalt seemed to be intact considering the state of the world.
Even more unusual though, was the apparent existence of power coursing through this part of the city. Bright light illuminated the front of the shops and the roads before them as if the world had never ended. As if almost every other manmade structure in the world wasn't a bombed out husk that stood through some form of pure luck.
He wondered absently where he was. Last thing he could remember, he was patrolling the D.C. ruins by himself because there was nothing better to do. Then again, that was all he had been doing for the Brotherhood of Steel ever since Paladin Vargas had been appointed as Elder following the death of Sarah Lyons. Not exactly the best position for a Maxson but the Brotherhood wasn't exactly running right ever since the final descendant of the Lyons family passed.
Ever since her death, Vargas had been trying to hold the Eastern chapter together through seemingly sheer will power. Will power he just simply didn't have. Arthur could see it; he could see the brotherhood slowly coming undone at the hinges thanks to the split in ideals between the ways of the west and the ways of Elder Lyons senior. It was painful to watch too. He had believed deeply in the ideals that Elder Owyn had focused on following the eastern chapter's founding.
Unfortunately, keeping the brotherhood together following the death of Sarah would require a very fine balance between the new and old ideals. It would require someone who could return the chapter's focus towards finding technology while keeping the safety of the people as a side objective at best. It would be a very delicate process to be sure, and Elder Vargas was definitely not capable of doing so; no matter how honorable or passionate he was. The man was a soldier, not a politician. Regardless, before the Brotherhood's problems could be fixed, he needed to get back home.
Figuring that it really didn't matter how he ended up in a random ally and that finding his way home was more important, Arthur brought himself to a sitting position and finally took note of his own personal attire. He was fully equipped in T-60 power armor; complete with a jetpack and a helmet that rested between his legs. A grin splayed across the young knight's face as he saw the small tally marks etched into the side of the angular helmet. He lifted the piece so that he could peer at its front and stared at the black eyepieces and shiny respirator integrated into the face piece of the armored headgear. He always thought that the helmet looked like it was crafted into a constant snarl.
Flipping the helmet upside down in his hand, Arthur spun it so that the mask faced the proper way before quickly placing it on his head, locking it into place, and listening to the short hiss as the helmet connected with the suit's air filtration unit on the back of the armor. He ran a quick diagnostic check on his suit and found that each part was exactly as he had left it.
Every piece had been optimized to run at peak efficiency, and his helmet even had a built-in data base filled with every document that the brotherhood had ever collected. After giving a small nod to himself after looking over the condition of his armor, Arthur quickly rose to his feet in a squat and reached to the small of his back to find exactly what he had hoped to be there.
He pulled a long barreled laser rifle from its holster before thumbing the safety on the bulky weapon. Raising the gun to aim at the nearest street, he slowly made his way to the end of the alley, keeping his senses focused incase anything decided to test its luck. He listened to the sound of his massive armored steps clanking onto the concrete in a slow rhythm as he neared the exit. He watched as more buildings began to come into sight and found himself extremely curious as to how he had found himself in such a well-preserved settlement.
Coming to a stop at the end of the alley, Arthur began to gawk at the city around him while his rifle fell to hang at his side pointed to the ground. The road stretched on for at least three blocks to his left before coming to a split that forced it to the left and right. On his right, the street split again, but only one building down from where he currently stood. But that wasn't what made him so shocked. What did that was the fact that each and every building as far as he could see was perfectly fine.
No broken windows, no collapsed in walls, and no faded or chipping paint. The entire thing seemed unreal. He could even see lights in each small window, a luxury that most people in the wastes severely lack. The craziest thing though was the trees. Green trees! Three Dog may have talked about their existence before but everyone had always agreed that the man had probably only imagined the plants, but these? These were actually here! The very sight made Arthur want to rub his eyes, if not for the helmet in the way.
He really didn't know what to think. How could a town like this really exist? A town with absolutely no signs of any form of destruction was unheard of! Was he dreaming? Did he die? No. No he couldn't be dead or his armor wouldn't be here. And he certainly couldn't be dreaming because he could feel the armor encasing his body. That meant that wherever he was, it was somewhere with enough luck or progress to be able to rebuild their society to at least give the appearance of a pre-war city.
Finally reigning in his thoughts, Arthur shook his head to fully clear his mind before bringing his rifle back into both hands. keeping the rifle at the ready, he moved to a shop at the end of the street to his right, figuring his best bet would be to talk to a local about where on Earth he could possibly be so he could start making his way home.
He could focus on trying to form actual relations with this place after the Brotherhood wasn't in shambles. while he walked to the store, now standing to his full height on account of the pointlessness of stealth on a fully lit street, He looked to the sign above the shop to read out the name: From Dust Till Dawn.
The name seemed a little strange to him. Honestly, he had no idea what he would find in a store with such a name. On his approach, he saw the owner of the store, some old Asian man, look up from his register to see Arthur in his hulking suit of armor open the door as he placed his rifle back in its holster. The door gave a quiet ping to alert the old man that a customer had entered, regardless of how useless it had been considering how hard it would be not to notice the armored warrior.
Arthur quietly glanced around the store. The left wall held an assortment of pipes and tubes that came in from the ceiling above and stopped at about chest height. Each one was made of clear glass, showing each tube held a different colored liquid of some sort. He then looked to the wall behind it and noticed its Victorian style that consisted of a dark grey plaster and fancy wooden designs that made up the lower half of the wall.
The boy then turned to look at the shelves and isles that were made of deep brown wood much like the material used on the walls. The isles surrounded the majority of the store, including the far right wall, and made Arthur unable to see the back one at all. Laying his eyes back on the counter, Arthur noticed that it was actually a display case filled with different colored gems and jewels with small price tags lined up beside each one.
"Hello," Arthur began through the speaker in his helmet as he approached the counter. The slight robotic tone that the armor gave his voice hid his young age as the old man behind the counter simply nodded cautiously to him. "I was wondering if you could give me some directions."
The old man nodded again and pointed to the back of the store.
"You can find an assortment of maps on the back wall next to the magazines and comics," he said in an old creaky voice.
"Thank you," Arthur said politely, attempting to be as courteous as possible so his eventual return was met with a handshake and not a flurry of bullets.
Making his way past the counter and wooden shelves, the young teen headed in the direction that the old, wrinkled man had indicated. He made sure to walk very softly while on the smooth tiles. Several tons of armor tended to leave rather large footprints no matter what surface you were stepping on after all.
Once past the aisles, Arthur found several smaller shelves made specifically for an assortment of books and magazines which also appeared to be made out of the same wood the other shelves had been made of. He took note of a small figure cloaked in red that appeared to be about his age standing before the magazines and quietly reading one as they rocked back and forth on their feet. Deciding to leave them be, Arthur moved to the maps and began looking through each one.
Again, the boy found himself baffled by the ability of the local people to create products like the small assortment of books and pamphlets before him. The paper each one was made of was a pure white and the words upon them were printed perfectly, much like the papers and documents from before the destruction of the old world. He quietly took the first one in his hand and began thumbing through it, wondering to himself what he could do to convince the Brotherhood to trade with these people in the future. Having good relations with such a place would certainly be beneficial in the eyes of both the Western idealists and the Eastern idealists.
Several moments later, while Arthur was still thumbing through the small pamphlet that described the settlement as a place called Vale, Arthur was interrupted by a man shouting to him and the teen beside him.
"Hands in the air!" he shouted angrily, garnering the attention of Arthur.
The boy slowly placed the map down and raised his head to stare at the wall before him as his arms fell to his sides. Apparently, thieves were still around, even in a place like this.
"Hey! I said hands in the air," he yelled again, "you got a death wish or something?"
Arthur simply turned his head to the side to peer at the man behind him. What he found, didn't impress him. It was some kind of suited thug, complete with massive red shades and fedora. Arthur almost chuckled at the sight of him as he approached the two with some blade that obviously wouldn't do anything to him.
"Listen," Arthur said calmly, "You don't want to fight me."
The man simply sneered at his response as he thumbed a small button on the side of his weapon's handle. The blade quickly folded in on itself before changing into a gun by some strange feat of technology. Arthur's eyes widened at the sight as the man approached him and the hooded bystander next to him with the gun pointed right at Arthur's head.
However, Arthur wasn't scared by the idea of being shot. He was more surprised by watching a blade become a firearm. His mind immediately went to finding a way to obtain information on the tech eventually. Surely, such an ability would be extremely useful when a knight or Paladin needed to switch from long distance to close quarters combat.
"Hands up," he said again, regaining Arthur's attention. "I don't care what kind of movie characters you're trying to imitate so don't be stupid and put your hands up hero." The last word dripped with sarcasm as he came to a stop directly behind the two and yanked down the hood of the second "hero" as the thug had put it.
When the hood fell, the two saw as the face of a small fifteen year old girl with short, dark red hair and pale white skin appeared with large earphones atop her head. She blinked at the sight of the two with big, pale gray eyes before the looter pointed at his ear, trying to get her to remove the earphones. She complied quickly, pulling them down around her neck.
"Yes?" she asked in an extremely confused tone. The thug glared at her from behind his shades.
"I said," the thug growled, "hands in the air!" To accentuate his point, he aimed the gun directly at her head, momentarily forgetting about the armored man beside him who stood a head taller than the outlaw while inside the man-shaped tank.
Her eyes narrowed at the demand. "Are you… Robbing me?" she asked slowly, as if the weapon he held inches from her face hadn't made his point clear enough.
"Yes!" He shouted angrily, moving the gun slightly closer to her skull.
Arthur, who had watched the exchange almost baffled by the thug's dismissal of a man in power armor, simply grabbed the man by the throat. He lifted the crook in the air with one hand, deciding to put an end to the robbery and be done with it. The man gave a yelp of surprise as the gun fell from his hand in his haste to remove the massive metal fingers from around his throat.
"I warned you," Arthur said with a quiet snarl, "that you didn't want to rob this store." The man clawed at the massive hand that kept him suspended by his neck, trying desperately to get air into his lungs.
"Now I have to teach you the hard way," Arthur grunted, throwing the thug back to the front of the store while he spoke. the action ended up sending the unlucky man through a window and onto the street.
"My name is Arthur Maxson," he began in a loud, confident, voice as he walked casually towards the front.
His face hardened into a scowl when he saw several other thugs begin to converge on him with blades matching that of the first robber clipped to their belts. The loud thumping sound of his footsteps echoed throughout the store while he strode forth, creating a harsh rhythm.
"I am the last descendant of the Maxson line," he continued as he came to a stop beside the display case the owner now cowered behind and drew his rifle from his back to hold across his chest in preparation for what was about to come. "The same Maxson who founded the Brotherhood of Steel."
The group of thieves simply drew their weapons and moved in on him like wolves preparing to pounce their prey. "Therefore, I have been trained and prepped to kill a wide assortment of abominations in order to further the brotherhood's interests."
The apparent leader of the group, a man in a white coat with orange hair sticking out of the bottom of a bowler's hat, simply shook his head at the sight as he leaned on a cane and watched the spectacle. "And ensuring that lowlifes like you don't go around terrorizing people just trying to live peacefully is one of those interests."
"Get him," the leader said casually as he pulled a cigar from his coat and lit it.
The group quickly complied with the order, each swinging their blades at him. However, even with their strikes being far harder than Arthur expected, the only thing it did was cause several of them to break in half on contact with the massive plates of metal while the rest glanced off with little more than a small spark and slight scratch on his armor's paint being the only indication that they had even made contact in the first place. Arthur simply stood in the center of the group listening to the silence as his opponents stared at him in shock.
"Pathetic," Arthur said with a tired shake of his head after finally deciding to even acknowledge their attempt at harming him.
Arthur then quickly brought the butt of his rifle into the face of the thug directly in front of him. The man's head bucked back in pain, his hands flying to his nose on reflex. Next, Arthur brought the rifle down to his hip and fired several beams of energy into the man's chest, causing him to fall directly onto his back.
The other thieves then went into motion, attempting to find a weakness to exploit in the armor. Several who still had intact weapons began jabbing desperately at the joints in the armor, only to find that the fabric covering the sections were made of something far more durable than leather or cloth.
When one of the blades came for Arthur's neck, he quickly snatched the weapon in the Armor's metallic hand and snapped it like a twig. He then threw the piece in his hand behind him before punching the man directly in the chest and sending him flying back. The others finally gave up on trying to stab him and instead jumped back before shifting to their pistols and putting up a constant stream of fire that simply bounced off of him like rain drops.
In response, the knight shouldered his rifle and returned fire, placing three rounds into each thug's chest, knocking them to the ground before moving to the next target with brutal efficiency. As his opponents dropped like flies, Arthur heard the sound of something far larger fly past him, causing him to look back to the front of the store to find the young teen in red holding a massive scythe to the leader thug's neck as rose pedals slowly fluttered to the floor around them.
He watched as the man simply grinned at the sight of the ridiculously massive weapon before batting the girl away with his cane, causing her to slide across the floor until she finally came to a stop with her Scythe held before her, ready to lash out again.
Arthur was dumbfounded by the display of the seemingly impossible situation as the girl began swinging her weapon in massive arcs almost faster than the eye could see while the man dodged each one before knocking her back with what looked to Arthur like a normal steel cane. The two continued to slash and stab at each other, leaving massive gouges in the floor, and cutting shelves in half before Arthur was pulled from his trance by a bullet bouncing directly off of his helmet.
He then returned to taking out the remaining henchmen before turning back to see that the girl and leader of the robbery's fight had migrated to the street. He watched the teen jump into the air, spinning her scythe to build up momentum before flinging it down towards her opponent.
The man jumped back at the last second, allowing the weapon to embed itself deep into the road. As the Maxson heir noticed the youth struggle to remove the scythe from the ground, Arthur quickly vaulted over the window sill where the glass that had been broken out by the first goon he had thrown at the start of the fight had been before charging directly at the orange haired man.
While he closed in, the thief was alerted to his approaching adversary by the thundering thump and crunch sounds emanating from Maxson's feet, allowing him to dive out of the way of Arthur who had attempted to shoulder-tackle him. As the teen skidded to a halt beside the young girl that had been in the middle of pulling her scythe out of the ground from her over-head slash, their target rolled to a standing position and walked back towards the store, never letting the two leave his sight.
The two watched as the man held his cane like some form of side arm while taking cautious steps back, giving himself distance from the teens. Finally prying her weapon from the ground, Arthur and the scythe wielder fell into their respective combat stances side by side as their enemy glanced to his right and grinned.
"Well," he began briskly, "I think we can all say it's been an eventful evening. But, I'm afraid this is where we'll have to part ways."
As he spoke, he quickly raised the cane as a small iron sight popped up from the bottom part of it. The two tensed as a large ball of fire blasted out of the end of the cane-turned-canon with a resounding crack. Reacting quickly, the girl propelled herself in the air using some form of weapon integrated into the head of the Scythe.
Meanwhile, Arthur simply threw his left arm up to cover his eyes as the blast connected with the ground at his feet, causing him to stumble back several steps. Arthur regained his footing soon after and shook his head side to side before looking up to find that the man had managed to reach the top of a nearby building and the girl who had thrown herself into the air had managed to land in front of From Dust Till Dawn.
Arthur looked to his ally whose eyes narrowed slightly before she quickly glanced behind her to see the store owner looking at them with concern.
"You okay if we go after him?" She asked hurriedly.
The old man's face dawned a look of determination as he nodded at her. She looked back to Arthur and gave him a quick thumbs-up before using her Scythe's second feature to fling her to the top of the roof.
Arthur immediately followed suit, using his armor's integrated jetpack to launch him up after the girl. He landed to find her standing behind the robber with her Scythe held with the head pointed backwards, ready to launch her at the man. Arthur jogged up to stand directly to the left of her with his rifle trained directly on the back of the thief's head.
"Hey!" The girl called as he finally slowed at the end of the building. Arthur tightened his grip on the rifle and bent his knees slightly, preparing to fire should anything happen.
"It's over," Arthur said calmly through his helmet, allowing the speaker to amplify his voice. "Give up before I end you."
If he said anything, the two wouldn't have been able to hear as the engines from a flying vehicle of some sort rose from the side of the building, blowing the man's coat back violently and forcing the girl to look away momentarily as it opened its hatch to allow the man entry.
Arthur, not having to worry about the wind thanks to his armor, immediately began firing at the man, managing to hit him in the shoulder and elicit a small yelp from the outlaw as smoke rose from his ruined jacket before he quickly turned and produced a small red crystal.
"End of the line kiddies!" He yelled above the scream of the engines and howl of the disturbed wind as he threw the small gem at the two's feet, naturally forcing the eyes of both Arthur and the girl to track it on instinct.
The stone rolled across the ground for a moment until it finally stopped only inches from where the two stood. Realizing what had just occurred, Arthur jerked his head up to see the man grin victoriously before he fired off another blast at the rock from his cane.
Arthur gritted his teeth while he grabbed the girl's hood to throw her as far back as he could while he stared at the flaming projectile hurtling towards them. Then, with a loud shout, he brought his arms up in an "x" shape, still clutching his laser rifle by the barrel in his left hand while the girl was thrown clear.
He felt his teeth grind together painfully as the blast threw him back to the edge of the roof and he heard the deafening boom of the explosion. During his small flight, he finally lost his grip on the rifle, along with his hearing, allowing it to clatter to the ground. He felt his body rattle within the armored cage that encased it until he eventually skidded to a stop face down on the now ruined roof.
After simply laying there for a few moments, Arthur slowly rose up to one knee and allowed his head to hang lazily from the neck, all the while looking through his Armor's HUD to find that the blast had only managed to ruin the suit's paint job, and that Arthur himself only had minor bruising and fatigue after the blast along with a momentary loss of hearing. One thing was certain, the armor wasn't wrong about his condition. He could feel his body ache, and he wanted nothing more than to kill the thief and sit the hell down to rest until the ringing in his ears finally stopped.
Finally looking up from the ground after running through the analysis the suit had done, he found that that rest might not be as far away as he had thought. A few feat ahead of Arthur, the girl in red stood beside a taller blonde woman wearing some type of business attire with complete with glasses and… A cape? He watched as the woman turned to the teen and seemed to scold her for a moment before eventually turning to see Arthur. The boy watched her cautiously as the ringing in his ears finally receded to allow him to hear the wind blow past quietly.
She seemed to be unsure of what to say to him really. Her brow was furrowed in a look of concern as her bright green eyes looked over his scorched armor. Then, the younger girl, the one about his age, walked over to him with a sheepish grin and offered him a hand. Arthur quickly waved it away before forcing his aching muscles to raise him up into a standing position.
The blonde approached the two after another moment of apparent indecision. As she did so, she shook her head and placed a neutral look upon her face to make herself seem more certain. Arthur could hear the clicking of her heels on what was left of the now scorched and cracked concrete roof as she neared and Arthur forced himself to stand slightly straighter in an attempt to appear in control of the situation.
"Ma'am," he said politely while she approached, trying not to offend someone who could have very well been extremely important to the locals.
"Yes," she said cautiously, almoslike she was still debating whether or not to speak her mind.
"First, I would like to thank you for protecting Miss Rose tonight." She began in an uptight and official manner much like what her appearance would suggest, except for the… cape. Arthur absently wondered if it was normal for women to wear capes and cloaks with their attires considering the appearance of the two women in front of him.
"However," the blonde continued, returning Arthur's thoughts to the conversation, "I am going to need you to follow me to the police station for questioning concerning the attempted robbery that has just occurred."
"Understood," Arthur replied with the signs of his fatigue beginning to show through. Besides, he still had many questions himself. Questions that needed answers. "However, I would like to ask a few questions of my own." The woman cocked an eyebrow at the request before nodding for him to continue.
"To begin," he said, "I would like to ask where I might be in relation to D.C., as well as ask what form of technology Miss Rose and the thieves were using to allow them the ability to shift weapons from blades to guns and how a Scythe of such a massive size can be wielded efficiently in combat."
As asked this, he peered out of his helmet to the roof in order to locate his rifle several feet behind the two women before moving to retrieve it.
"Well," The older of the two women began with no small amount of confusion in her voice, "I have to apologize, but I'm afraid that I have no clue where D.C. is."
Arthur frown. returning the rifle to its holster on the small of his back, he looked out at the city before him.
"Uh," Miss Rose began after the older lady finished, "about the… Technology, that's kind of common stuff around the world isn't it?" Arthur could hear the worry in the young girl's voice, as if she were talking to someone seconds away from some kind of mental breakdown.
Arthur simply scoffed at the idea of transformable weapons and six-foot tall weapons being common around the world as he turned back to the two women, and immediately lost track of all thought at the sight before him. And who wouldn't stare slack jawed at what sat in the air behind the girls? It was like something out of a Pre-war science-fiction novel. The moon, the giant white rock in the sky, was shattered into little, tiny, miniscule pieces.
Author's note: So I have been playing around with the idea of actually sitting down and focusing on a story that I intend to stick with from beginning to end. I know my previous two works died out quickly but I honestly think that I can really sit down and finish this one from beginning to end. I already have the plot written up to season two of RWBY with Arthur tagging along to make his own mark on the group and with the way season three has been progressing, I think that Arthur is going to have plenty of personal enemies in the form of Atlas and general Ironwood as the story progresses. Keep in mind though that I have no idea how often I will update. That will be something that will only happen when I have the time to focus on this and am not worrying about keeping my grades up so I can get into college.
I will be trying to stay pretty true to the original plot of RWBY for a fairly long time because I really don't see Arthur getting too mad with the people of Remnant until he finds out about what Atlas has been cooking up. He will be very slow to trust others with his equipment and he won't just go blabbing that he is from another world once he realizes that he really has left Earth behind him now. I also wanted to have Arthur be around Ruby's age because it is immediately before his promotion to Elder and I wanted to have him be a little less experienced. (I also kind of wanted to play around with the idea of Arthur and Ruby as a pairing, but you can't prove that!)
That being said, Arthur is going to be extremely strong so long as he is using power armor. He has been trained to fight giant mutated abominations and psychotic murderers for years and fought off a Deathclaw single handedly at the age of fourteen. But when out of the armor he will be about on par with a spec-ops soldier. This means he will only be capable of going toe-to-toe with people like Mercury and Emerald when he has his armor.
Furthermore, I will warn you right away that I have no idea how nuclear fission or fusion work; nor do I know what goes into making power armor tick. Therefore, how he keeps his armor and weapons running will mostly be an enigma. Luckily, the nature of the brotherhood means that I can attribute his ability make fusion cells and fusion cores to it being common knowledge among brotherhood soldiers on how to refill spent cores and cells. Is this a cop-out? Probably. But honesty, I don't really know enough about the details of energy weapons and equipment to go into depth about them.
So with my long note out of the way, allow me to welcome you to my newest fiction: Dust Ridden Steel! Please Review and let me know of anything that seems off or wrong, criticism is great considering I want to really try and make this story as good as I possibly can.