Chapter 11: Big Iron

Three things went through Six's head after he watched the gun pointed at him fire off a single shot. The first was an overwhelming feeling of stupidity for not letting his partner go first since there was a chance she was bullet proof like all of the Mantlesian soldiers that he fought earlier, and even if she wasn't, he would not have been the one getting shot. Next was a slight surge of confidence from recalling the time and effort it took to repair his battered armor a few hours ago, as the dozens of dents and scratches etched within his ancient armor proved just how many times it had saved his life in the past. While the scrap metal and bits of leather he scraped together might not have been his preferred materials to work with, he felt reasonably sure that it would be enough to help him survive.

The final thing to go through his head was the bullet he had been staring down until it punched through his helmet and splattered Julia, who was standing beside him, with a mix of blood and flesh that had been liberated from Six's skull by the lethal projectile. The Courier dropped to the floor in an instant, a bloody crater gouged in the side of his head where the bullet had hit him, his matted greying hair obscuring the worst of the damage. The only sound that followed his fall was the rattling of his helmet after it flew off of his head and rolled to a rest on the ground. Ironwood and Julia fixated their gaze on him as he laid there, both of them unable to believe that a single shot could take down the man that had terrorized an entire army by himself. They were both relieved when, after a minute had passed without The Courier so much as breathing, his legendary reign of terror appeared to have met a fitting end.

With only Six's partner and the man she they had come to kill still possessing enough life in them to do anything, Julia, intending to avoid the Courier's fate, quickly ducked around the frame of the double doors where her partner had been shot and cursed herself for not stealing a weapon from one of the guards downstairs. While she was confident in her swordsmanship in a confined space, even she doubted that she would be able to parry a shot from The Major's pistol or deflect it from her aura. As much as she wanted to rush in to kill the man she believed to be the source of all her problems, she had no intentions of becoming a martyr so someone else could exact her vengeance.

"I should have known that monster was working with you terrorists. Frost and my other soldiers kept on telling me that the Grimm Wanderer was the Spirit of Vacuo's newest pet psychopath, and like the generous fool I am, I never believed a word that they said." Major Ironwood said, sounding somewhat remorseful at the mention of his recently slain comrades. "I guess this is what both of us deserve for refusing to listen to reason."

"Reason? There is no reason for what you humans have been doing to the faunus in this city!" Julia shouted as she fought back the urge to charge at him in a blind rage.

"Two years ago you would have been right to say that, but not anymore. I have no quarrel with your people, girl, but I'm afraid I cannot stand idly by why you and your so-called 'patriots' let everything I have worked for burn along with the rest of the city." Ironwood fired back at her. "My predecessors in this position were clearly unfit for the job they were given, and they have already been dealt with accordingly back in Mistral. Now, as much as I want to offer you the same chance to defend yourself for your crimes against Remnant, I've already offered you that same mercy once before Julia. I will not make the same mistake again."

"I know what you humans call 'mercy', Major. I remember what you and Frost did to us, what the rest of your kingdom did to everyone in this city when they took it for themselves! I cannot let you live to see tomorrow, Ironwood, not if I want things to get better for the faunus!" Julia shouted.

The small, mirthless laugh Ironwood gave her only increased her building fury, but Julia still had enough presence of mind to bide her time until either Alex or someone else eventually showed up to reinforce her. She had no doubt that her leader had something planned in case Six managed to fail to kill Ironwood, and she could only wait and listen to the embodiment of everything she hated in the hopes that help would arrive soon.

"Do you really think killing me will change Vacuo for the better? I don't know what lies that damn rabbit has been filling your head with, but even if he doesn't manage to get himself killed and run this city into the ground, getting rid of me will only make things worse. I don't care what you think about me, but we both know I am the best thing that happened to Vacuo ever since the fools who first occupied this city nearly destroyed it in their attempts to turn it into their personal playground." Ironwood said, grandstanding as he started to make his way towards his hopeful assassin even though she was still hiding behind cover.

"Things are not as good as they should be, there is no doubt about that. I have nothing to say about how painfully slow the process of repairing the atmosphere in this city has been with my subordinates wanting to lynch every faunus they see after hearing about the most recent attack on our facilities that the Spirit of Vacuo has launched that month, as I have nothing to say in defense of those brainless idiots. As much as I would like you save me the trouble of finding something worth executing them over by killing them yourselves, the damage such an assassination would cause to my plans to reuinite the city and repair the damage done by Mantle and Mistral's initial occupation is too great to allow you to do whatever you want. Even if I believed that some of your people in the Spirit of Vacuo had the faunus' well-being in mind, I know what has been going outside of the city, Julia." The Major said, his voice starting to take on a hint of rage that had been absent until now. "Your leader is no better than the bandit clans of Mistral, but unlike them, Mantle doesn't have any reason to ignore the threat you pose to everyone around you."

"Then why don't you do something about it yourself if you're so committed to making the world a better place, Ironwood?" Julia mocked as she heard Ironwood's footsteps drawing dangerously close.

"If you're so determined to make me prove myself, then I can't see a better way to start defending Remnant by killing you, Julia." Ironwood said, finally ending his march a few yards away from the door to his office. "Go ahead and fight me if you're so confident that killing me will change anything, or run away and try to hide alongside your leader. I don't care what you do anymore, you will die no matter what you do. All you can do is delay the inevitable."

"Then how about I shut your fucking mouth by ramming my fist down your throat right here and now, Ironcock?"

Both Julia and Ironwood immediately turned their attention to Six's body upon hearing his familiar gravely voice now that he was pouring all of his rage into it. The Courier had just managed to pick himself off the ground and onto one knee when he spoke, and Ironwood did not hesitate to empty the rest of his magazine into The Courier's chest, firing the remaining four shots into the crazed killer's chest before he could react.

The first shot ricocheted off of the ramshackle assortment of metal plates strapped to his chest in a poor facsimile of a bullet proof vest, while the next two proved just how poor of a substitution his protection was. The second shot was caught in between two battered strips of metal, bruising the tender flesh underneath and denting Six's chest armor noticeably inwards. The third shot dug into his chest, embedding itself somewhere near his spine. Ironwood's last shot had gone lower than the other three due to the recoil of the previous shots and hit The Courier in the chest, causing a plume of blood to burst out of his lower back once the bullet tore a hole through him. The Courier barely even flinched, instead continuing to rise up in defiance of his gut wound that leaked a mixture of blood and radiant green fluid.

A look of unrestrained terror washed over the faces of both ally and enemy alike as they watched Six defy death so brazenly. Neither one of them wanted to believe anyone could stand up with the wounds Six had earned, let alone survive them, and yet he stood before them as if they were nothing to him.

"That. Fucking. HURT." Six growled as he pulled a Stimpak out of his medicine pouch and plunged it's needle into the gaping wound in his stomach, proving that despite his unflinching response, he was not as immune to injury as he looked.

"How the hell are you still alive?!" Ironwood shouted, unable to believe the absurd scene playing out before him.

"Because fuck you, that's how. Now be a good boy and stand still while I shove your head up your ass and rip it back out of your chest!" Six roared as he charged towards Ironwood with his bare fists.

Surprised by the Courier's stubborn refusal to die yet still confident in his ability to overcome the bare handed madman running towards him, Ironwood quickly grabbed a spare magazine from one of his pockets and exchanged it for the one he had already emptied moments earlier. The Courier closed the distance between them just as he finished reloading his weapon, and without any time to aim at his opponent, bashed the heavy metal grip of his pistol into the Courier's face as hard as he could. A sickening wet crunch rang out through the room the moment The Major struck the incensed assassin, but even with the air filter guarding his mouth now bending inwards and leaking blood, Six did not flinch as he tackled Ironwood to the floor.

Pinned underneath his murderous adversary and quite confident in his ability to outlast the Courier due to the madman's previous wounds, Ironwood thought he could easily force Six off of him with a few shots from his pistol if they wouldn't outright kill him. Ironwood thought that Six could hardly do any meaningful damage to him with his bare hands, and made no attempt to defend himself as the Courier raised his hands over his head and brought them down together, believing his aura was more than enough to protect him from any harm. Ironwood's assumption was proven horribly wrong once he felt a blinding pain pierce through his skull and saw his vision swim wildly from just a single hit, and he suddenly realized why so many of his men had fallen to the Grimm Wanderer so easily. With just his bare fists, the Grimm Wanderer had nearly broken his aura and came dangerously close to knocking him unconscious with a single blow to the head. Realizing that the next blow aimed at his head would almost certainly lead to his demise, Ironwood twisted his pistol towards his assailant and rapidly fired all five shots he had loaded within it, frantically hoping it would be enough to force his assailant off of him.

The Major's hopes were answered when the Courier cried out in pain and recoiled away as the barrage of bullets smashed into his chest armor, battering but not penetrating the surprisingly sturdy defense he fashioned for himself. Ironwood took advantage of the Courier's moment of weakness and pulled his legs to his chest before kicking the Courier in the chest with all of his strength, forcing the long coat wearing madman off of him and allowing him to scramble back to his feet as quickly as his unsteady legs would allow him. The very act of standing was now difficult for The Major, the earlier blow disrupting both his vision and his balance, making it painfully obvious that the Courier had given him a concussion before being driven back. The prospect of being pinned down once more and the brutal death that would surely follow was more than enough motivation for Ironwood to fight against the world as it spun around him ever so slightly. He was barely able to reload his pistol once more as he watched the Courier also rise back to his feet.

The Courier charged straight towards his opponent once again, and Ironwood likewise fired another volley at the man trying to kill him through brute strength and inhuman tenacity alone. Only three of The Major's shots hit their target, two of them ending up buried in the Courier's left arm that he rise to guard his face as he charged while the final hit was a glancing blow that raked against the head wound he acquired earlier. A metallic ting rang out as a tuft of hair fell from where the Courier had been struck, but he still continued to charge his opponent with reckless abandon even with the metal plate inside his head now fully exposed for anyone willing to look upon it.

Recognizing his attempt to take down the Courier at a range was a failure and knowing better than to risk meeting the madman's inhuman strength his own even with the help of his remaining aura, Ironwood quickly sidestepped the Courier as he made an attempt to tackle him to the ground once more. Six sailed past him and crashed harmlessly into the wooden desk behind Ironwood, quickly pulling out a few sizable chunks of wood out of his arms as he recovered from the near miss before throwing himself at Ironwood once more. This time, Ironwood retaliated as he dodged the Courier's wild attempt to land another headshot, slamming his pistol into the back of Six's head as the irate 'mailman' stumbled past him as he missed. If the Courier noticed he had been hit, then he simply didn't care to show it, instead attempting to throw a wild right hook at Ironwood, who simply ducked underneath it and punched him in his stomach wound thanks to his superior speed.

Much to his surprise, Ironwood found his fist hitting a mostly healed patch of flesh instead of the gaping hole he knew he gave his opponent, his momentary shock at the Courier's quick recovery almost costing him the battle when he barely noticed another fist sailing towards his face with just enough time to back away from it. Ironwood ducked under the quick jab that chased him soon afterwards, throwing his elbow into the Courier's chest and briefly regretting his choice of attack when the Courier's armor caught his sleeve. He barely had enough time to rip the cuff of his uniform off of the Courier's chest and avoid the madman's attempt to grapple him, once again taking a moment to bash his empty pistol against the back of Six's head as he lumbered back into striking distance.

Rather than attempting to take Ironwood down with a single, decisive strike this time, the Courier instead tried his best to wear him down with a flurry of jabs that only a drunk could consider quick. Ironwood easily slipped past the majority of wild punches thrown towards him, hitting the Courier with far more frequency in retaliation for every miss and his frustration growing every time he heard and felt his fists beat down on the scrap metal protecting his vitals and joints. For every glancing blow the Courier landed, The Major landed ten more, the larger Mantlesian man's attacks having little effect on the blood-soaked berserker that simply did not seem to care about the bruises and broken bones piling up underneath his armor.

Yet, even with The Major doing far more damage to his opponent than he was receiving in return, Ironwood started to fear that it would only be a matter of time until he lost against the Courier. Only a few minutes had passed since their fight had devolved into a simple brawl, but even so, Ironwood felt his body fighting against his efforts to keep himself alive and out of the Courier's grasp. As Ironwood continued evading and retaliating against the Courier's attempts to kill him, he grew more and more sluggish with every glancing blow that landed and every step he backed away from the madman that seemed to be immune to the same exhaustion he was suffering from. Ironwood knew that he needed to do something to turn the odds back into his favor, and lacking any more ammunition to unload into the Courier, he grabbed onto the latest wild haymaker that narrowly missed him and did the first thing that came to his mind in the hopes of ending the fight with his opponent's demise.

Clutching onto the Courier's right arm, Ironwood kicked out his opponent's knees from behind and drove him to the ground, holding onto the arm tangled around his own like a vice. The Courier was unable to do anything but watch as The Major brought his pistol down onto his forearm hard enough to see the broken bones inside Six's arm stretch the inside of his sleeve. Unable to do anything else to his opponent in their current positions, Ironwood threw down the broken limb and tried to stomp down on the Courier's unprotected skull in the hopes of ending the madman while he writhed in pain. Instead of feeling Six's skull cave underneath his boot, he was instead watched in horror, unable to do anything as Courier Six grabbed onto his foot and pulled him to the ground. Ironwood had thought Six would not have been able to retaliate with his broken arm, and he was going to pay dearly for his mistake.

With all the grace of a drunk opening one bottle of beer too many, Six grabbed onto The Major's leg with one arm and twisted his foot backwards with the other, a sickening snap echoing through the office as he did so. Ironwood roared in pain and tried to pull his leg free from the Courier's grasp, but in doing so, allowed his opponent the perfect opportunity to pull him down the ground instead. Ironwood fell beside his opponent who wasted no time in clambering onto his chest and pounding his skull, Six trying his best to pound The Major into submission by raining down a flurry of blows on his victim's head.

Ironwood tried to fight back at first, but his attempts to overpower the Courier with his own strength doing nothing more than bruising his knuckles even more than his previous attempts at punching Six's metal encased chest already had. He then tried to force the Courier off of him, but was unable to muster the strength necessary to move the strong pair of legs pinning him to the ground or coerce him to move once again with another punch to the gut wound which had already finished sealing itself. Finally, seeing no other alternative, Ironwood did his best to cover his head with his own arms to keep Six from bashing his skull in. The only thing his feeble attempt at defending himself accomplished was leaving his arms a bruised pair of hopelessly battered limbs and delaying the inevitable as the Courier continued to wail on him.

Neither man knew how long it had taken for Ironwood to stop resisting and neither of them were in a state of mind capable of finding out once the Courier finally climbed off of his near lifeless victim. Six was still trembling with anger as he stood back up, his fists covered in blood that was just as likely from Ironwood as it was his own, and looked down upon the long awaited sight of his broken enemy. The Major was a mess, his face bloody, bruised, already starting to swell, and most of his teeth were missing or broken, one of which Six took the time to liberate from his glove after it had become ensnared in the worn fabric surrounding his fingers. Ironwood's uniform was just as beaten and bloodstained as the rest of him, his collar stained red after his nose had been crushed and spitting up blood as he enjoyed the brief respite from the Courier's assault. Several patches of fabric were missing from where the Courier had landed glancing blows on him and tried to pull him in close before the fragile fabric tore to pieces. The Major's right foot was still facing the opposite direction of its uninjured counterpart, and his arms looked no better than the Courier's own broken appendage.

Even with his injuries, Ironwood still had enough strength left to scowl in defiance at Six. The Courier appreciated the effort his opponent was taking to defy him, and not wanting to disappoint his victim any more than he already had thanks to his chem addled body hampering his unarmed prowess, he took a moment to bend the broken bones in his right arm back into place before attempting to dispose of Ironwood. The Major couldn't even offer a token struggle as the Courier pulled the massive pistol off of his hip and, after a brief moment of inspection and muttering something to himself, pulled out a magazine out of his pocket and inserted it into his newly acquired weapon. It took him a moment to properly reload Ironwood's pistol with the ammo he had selected, but after taking the time to force the fresh magazine into place, the click of a fresh round loading itself into the chamber announced Ironwood's imminent demise.

"You know, this is the second time I've gone out of my way to track down a bastard too smug for his own good and found myself pointing his gun at his own head after he tried to kill me." The Courier said, taking a moment to catch his ragged breath. "It's kind of funny, isn't it? Probably not from where you're standing, but from where I am, the fact that this has happened twice seems like one great big fucking joke."

The Courier let out a low, dry laugh that held none of the supposed enthusiasm he claimed to feel. Ironwood, whether still remaining defiant to the end or wanting his suffering to come to an end, didn't attempt to discourage what would surely happen next. "Get it over with already, you monster. Enjoy your moment while it lasts, because once Mantle starts taking the Spirit of Vacuo seriously after my death, there won't be anywhere you people can hide from them." The Major said, his breathing labored and every word sending a torrent of pain coursing through his body.

"Thanks for the advice, I'll be sure to keep that in mind once I give Solitas a visit." The Courier told him.

"The Spirit of Vacuo will never last long enough to send you over there." Ironwood sputtered, his breaths becoming shallower by the second.

"It's a damn good thing I ain't planning to have anything to do with them after serving your head to Alex on a silver platter." Six growled, lowering Ironwood's pistol at his head as he did so.

"Y-you're not a part of the-"

"No, I'm not." The Courier interrupted, unwilling to waste time answering a soon-to-be dead man's pointless questions. "And before you ask why I'm working with them, I'll just say that we both had something that the other wanted and leave it at that."

"Now, do you have any last words for me or are you finally ready to finish this?" The Courier said as he caressed the pistol's trigger.

"You're making a mistake helping these people. They'll turn on you the first moment they can." Ironwood told him.

The Courier looked at him for a moment, his aim wavering for a moment and sighed, before lining up his shot once more. "I know." He said, before pulling the trigger and ending Ironwood's life with a single shot to the chest, leaving a gaping hole in his heart.

With the sounds fighting over and a victor finally decided, Julia stepped out from behind the door frame she took cover to find the Courier standing over Ironwood's fresh corpse. For a moment, she considered abandoning him and reporting that their mission had been a success to Alex and leaving her partner to his own devices now that he had nothing left to offer them, but decided against it after taking a moment to think about it. Instead she picked up his helmet, the damaged head gear having landed just a few feet beside her, and approached her partner who continued to stare at the corpse at his feet.

The Courier gave her a quick glance as she drew near, but soon returned his attention to Ironwood's body. Julia struggled to find something to say to him as he continued to stare at their target's corpse, unable to determine if his melancholy was from killing his victim too quickly or from whatever it is they had been discussing in Ironwood's final moments.

"You did. You killed him." Julia finally said, finally settling on saying this to prevent herself from earning Six's anger.

"Yeah… that was a bit harder than it should have been." He answered. "Damn chems are really taking a toll on me. I'd hate to have tried fighting this guy without that bottle of Battle Brew earlier."

"Right, because getting drunk obviously makes it easier to fight." She sneered back at him.

The Courier sent her a menacing look, and although she did take a step back just in case he lashed out at her, she did not back down. "Don't you dare look at me like that. It's not my fault you are a psychopathic drug addict."

"I'm not a drug addict, I'm a chem addict. There's a difference." Six said, whatever meaning he meant to convey being lost on his partner as he continued to speak. "Besides, I wasn't the one cowering behind a door the entire time."

Julia shot him a venomous glare, but did not give into the obvious provocation entirely. "It was your mission to kill Ironwood, not mine. I just volunteered to help you fight your way in here." She told him, leaving out the obvious part about helping him escape with their lives if anyone attempted to enter the embassy before they left.

"You're right." The Courier said after a brief moment of consideration. "There was no way in hell I was going to let you steal my kill."

"Steal your kill?" She asked incredulously.

"Yeah." Six casually as if he was describing the weather. "What about it?"

"Do you keep track of them or something?" Julia said with an uneasy laugh.

"Yes." He answered.

Now that she had finally learned far more about her partner than she ever wanted to, she began to make her way towards the doors she came through before Six revealed another disturbing hobby of his. "We should leave now before anyone comes in to check on Ironwood. It will only be a matter of time until someone decides to see what he is doing while all of Mantle's holding camps and other buildings are under attack." Julia said, desperate to be back in the comfort of the Spirit of Vacuo's hideout and the safety their numbers would offer her against Six.

"Alright, but there's a couple things I need to do first before we leave." Six said as he walked over to the ruined desk he had crashed into earlier.

"We don't have time for this. We need to leave now." She urged, unable to understand what her partner was doing.

"Then you can go ahead and do that, I'll catch up after I check for any- GOTCHA!" The Courier started to explain before raising up a blocky metal object and shouting in triumph. "I knew there had to be something worth hiding in there!"

Julia thought the Courier was just acting crazy, before noticing exactly what it was that he had found. "Is that Ironwood's scroll?" She asked him.

"Probably." Six said. "The desk felt way too hollow to not be hiding something when I crashed into it, and wouldn't you know it, there's a fucking Pip- I mean, Scroll tucked inside it."

Once again, Julia found herself equal parts amazed and frightened by the surprising amount of competence the Courier displayed despite his careless appearance. "Okay, now that we have something worth showing to Alex, can we finally leave this place?" She asked him.

"Sure, I just need to take care of one last piece of business before we head back." He said, taking off his boot and pulling out a massive knife as he did so.

Julia balked at the sight of the knife after failing to recall any possible moment he would have had to shove it in his boot. Deciding that now was not the time to be asking him how long he had been hiding a weapon capable of gutting her, Julia carefully racked her mind as to what he could possibly intend to do with the knife that didn't involve another bloody fight.

"Hey, is there something wrong?" The Courier asked her without any apparent concern towards her unease.

"What do you plan on doing with that knife?" She asked him, unwilling to act upon her instincts to pull out her sword to preemptively defend herself.

"Oh, this?" He asked, brandishing the serrated teeth of the blade in front of her. "You know I'm a courier, right?"

"So you say." Julia said, still doubting that a mailman could be as psychotic and capable of so much death as him.

"Well, let's just say that I'm going to drop one hell of a message on Bunny Boy's desk just in case he's thinking about shafting me for lacking proof about what I did to Ironcock." The Courier said as he started making his way towards Ironwood's corpse.

Julia was about to ask him what he was planning to do, but as he kneeled down by The Major's corpse, his intentions became all too clear to her.

"No, you can't possibly be planning to do that!" She shouted in disgust.

"I need to prove I killed this son of a bitch somehow, and unless you got any better ideas than this, then you can go ahead and fuck right off if you got a problem with it. I am NOT getting cheated out of another bounty."

It was just before noon when a series of shouts started ringing out through the lower levels of the Spirit of Vacuo's hideout. The source of this disturbance moved through the gathered faces staring at him with a mixture of fascination, glee, and revulsion without any care to the people he shoved out of his way as he climbed his way up the stairs to the office of the revolutionary fighters leader. Only Julia and Giles dared to follow him up, the former unwilling to let the crazed killer speak with her leader alone and the latter desperately trying to stall the Courier as he continued towards his destination. Their pitiful attempts to make him listen to reason and wait to report back to Alex went ignored, and Six burst into his uneasy ally's office with little regard for his position within the Spirit of Vacuo with two of its members trailing behind him.

"I believe I said that I was not to be disturbed until further notice, Giles." Alex said, glaring at both the Courier and doorman that had let him through as his ears wilted at the sight of them both.

"I tried to stop him, but he refused to wait." Giles said, looking uncomfortable under his leader's gaze.

"Very well, I understand." Alex said, brushing off the door guard with a single wave of his hand. "Whatever our mailman here has to tell me must be important, so I will forgive your mistake for the time being."

"Thank you. I'll be sure that it doesn't happen again." The snake eyed faunus said, rushing out the door, leaving only Six and Julia remaining in his office.

Six, visibly angered at Alex's use of his less respectable title but still possessing enough common sense not to act on his impulses, waited for his employer to gather his thoughts before continuing. As much as he wanted to give the rabbit faunus a piece of his mind, he was in no position to fight his way out of the Spirit of Vacuo's hideout if he did anything extreme and was hesitant to dissuade Alex from offering him a more lucrative job in the future.

"It seems that your distraction was more successful than anyone could have predicted." Alex said after a long moment of internal deliberation. "But it seems the rumors surrounding you are nothing more than that."

"The hell is that supposed to mean?" Six asked, earning a smug smile from the rabbit faunus in front of him who was all too eager to revel in the Courier's apparent failure.

"I do believe we had a deal, one whose terms you were quite insistent on. You would kill Major Ironwood and I would offer whatever supplies and information you required to complete your mission." Alex reminded him, taking a moment to look at the layer of blood coating the Courier and chuckling at the sight of all the recently acquired tears and bullet holes his armor had acquired. "It would seem to me that you failed, and quite terribly too."

The Courier, letting his hand hover over the recently acquired pistol he had strapped to his side, took a step closer to the smaller rabbit man who continued looking at him smugly from where he was seated behind his desk. "Is that so?" Six asked, allowing the rabbit faunus to answer him.

Julia, however, was far less inclined to continue the charade that her leader was falling for. "Alex, we-"

"Silence." He ordered her, a command which she obeyed despite her reservations of doing so. Alex then focused back on the man in front of him once more. He told the Courier, "Yes, you have failed me. Although the distraction you provided the rest of my people worked far better than I had expected it to, I cannot continue to support a psychopathic murderer and coward any more than I already have. I hope you can understand that."

The Courier gave his words a moment of thought, giving the rabbit faunus a chance to take back his words, before pulling out a bloody sack from the inside of his long coat and placing it on the ornate wooden desk in front of him. Neither Alex nor Julia dared to speak as the small, lumpy object inside the sack leaked blood onto the desk before it was greedily absorbed by the now tarnished wood.

"What… what did you just throw on my desk, Courier?" Alex asked, his ears standing straight as an arrow as he stammered out his question as best he could, finally using Six's proper name for the first time.

"I don't know, why don't you find out for yourself if you think I'm such a sad sack of shit that I can't kill a single man that prefers leading his troops from the safety of his office instead of the front lines." Six said, placing Ironwood's gun on Alex's desk now too as he lowered himself to stare him straight in the eyes.

"Go ahead. Open it." The Courier growled.

Alex looked at the familiar looking oversized pistol the Courier placed on his desk, then to Julia who was doing her best to not look at the bloody sack on his desk, and then met the cruel crimson gaze of Six's gas mask. It was obvious that he had fallen into the Courier's trap, and as humiliating as it was for him to have been outwitted by HIM of all people, Alex had no desire to act on his growing rage. The rabbit faunus was certain that if he made a wrong move now, there would be two severed heads sitting on his desk by the time anyone could attempt to save him.

"It seems I was wrong about you. My apologies, Courier." Alex quickly prattled in an attempt to appease the man before him, trying his best to ease himself back into his chair.

"No worries, partner. After all, we're all friends here, aren't we?" Six said, letting out a low, gravely laugh that sent a chill down the spine of the two faunus in the room. Despite calling Alex his 'friend', it was clear to everyone listening that the only friendly thing Six might have intended doing for the rabbit faunus was giving him a quick and mostly painless death.

Julia placed a hand on her sword in anticipation of the Courier doing something they would all come to regret, but Alex quickly spoke up after noticing that she looked as terrified as he felt by Six's overwhelming presence. "Y-yes, yes we are." Alex said as diplomatically as he could, his ears trembling as he spoke.

"Good, that's what I thought." The Courier said, holstering Ironwood's pistol at his side with deliberate slowness. "Now, friends are supposed to help each other out, right?" He continued.

"What sort of help are you in need of?" Alex asked, instantly picking up the lifeline the Courier had thrown him to avoid the brewing storm of rage gathering in front of him.

"I'm going to need two things from you, Bunny Boy. The first will be a place to stay for a couple of days while I get a few things ready to leave Vacuo." The Courier requested.

Seeing nothing wrong with that particular request and glad that Six would be miles away from him in the near future, Alex nodded his approval, as he was sure any other course of action would likely end in his death. "And what is the second thing you would like me to help you with?" He asked, clearly annoyed with how he was answering the Courier's whims.

"I want you to get me a goddamn drink that doesn't taste like ghoul piss, dry charcoal, or sweat." The Courier demanded.

Alex balked at the final request for a moment before finding the words to answer him. "You just want a place to stay… and a drink?!" He asked, unable to believe what he was hearing.

The Courier slammed his hands down on Alex's desk, cracking the bloodstained wood beneath his hands. He was practically trembling with rage at his request not being taken as seriously as he wanted it to be. "I have been shot, blown up, preached to, ran over by a fucking car, kept in a kinky-ass scientist's torture room, bitch slapped an entire army, and have been treated like complete and utter brahmin shit by a fucking guy in a suit that is too much of a fuckinng bitch to get his own hands dirty to get shit done all on top of waking up in a dumpster with the mother of all hangovers two days ago. I don't want a fucking drink, Bunny Boy. I NEED. A. FUCKING. DRINK. NOW!" The Courier roared, leaving both Julia and Alex at a loss of words.

Once he finally found the presence of mind to speak, Alex was eager to glant the Courier's request. "Of course. If that is everything you have come here for, then tell Giles that you have full access to my personal liquor cabinet." Alex said, hoping that would be the last time he would need to speak with Six for the foreseeable future.

Unfortunately for him, Six had one last item to offer his employer. The Courier threw a Scroll onto Alex's desk with little regard to its safety, cracking the screen as it landed. Alex looked confused for a moment before Six explained who the Scroll had formerly belonged to. "That's Ironwood's… 'Scroll' thingamajig. I don't exactly know why he was hiding that in his desk, but I figured that someone like you could probably figure out a way to put it to use." The Courier explained.

Alex's ears shot straight up for a brief moment, then slowly relaxed as he pulled the Scroll closer to himself. "I'm sure I can figure something out too." Alex said. "You didn't happen to investigate any of the files on it before handing it over to me, did you?"

"No, I didn't." The Courier answered. Alex's ears once again sagged before Six continued and said, "Even though I already downloaded them to my Pipboy, they're all locked tighter than the Sierra Madre. It would take way too much trouble than it is worth to crack into them."

"You haven't looked at them yet?" Alex said, his ears straightening out once again.

"No, so don't even think about asking me to help you out there. Right now, I just want to get drunk and forget about everything that happened for a couple of hours before trying to find my way back home." The Courier said.

"Oh, if you are so insistent about enjoying some well earned rest for changing the future of Vacuo for the better, then do not let me keep you here any longer." Alex told him.

"I wasn't planning on it, Bunny Boy." Courier Six said as he left Alex's office, closing the door behind him.

Alex sat deep in thought for a moment now that he was alone with someone he trusted, before a look of immediate concern swept over him "Julia, make sure he doesn't get into any trouble. I will not that idiot ruin everything I have worked for just because he started a drunken brawl now that everything is finally starting to fall into place."

"Of course. I'll make sure he behaves himself." She replied, trailing off after the Courier soon afterwards.

Now that he was finally alone, Alex rose from his desk and locked the door to his office to ensure no one could barge in on him in the immediate future. With no one around able to hear what he was about to do, Alex took a seat behind his desk once again and turned on the Scroll Six had placed on his desk. It was locked, proving that Six was telling the truth when he claimed he hadn't browsed its contents yet, and allowed Alex to be the first person to use the Scroll following Ironwood's demise. He entered the password to grant himself full access with practiced ease, and navigated his way to the sole contact on the device with equal familiarity.

The contact he was trying to reach didn't allow the Scroll to finish ringing a single time before answering. "Ah, Major, I was afraid you didn't survive the attack on your embassy. You never fail to surprise me." A sultry voice purred.

"Ironwood is dead." Alex said, doing his best to keep his temper restrained knowing the headache he would have by the time he finished talking to the woman on the other end of the call.

"Oh, Alexander Hasenjunge? I didn't think you were willing to leave the safety of your precious 'Spirit of Vacuo's' headquarters these days. You'll have to forgive me for assuming you weren't there beside the Grimm Wanderer when he killed Ironwood. I had been expecting to talk to your newest 'errand boy', not you sweetheart." The woman purred, her complete disregard of Alex's faction forcing him to bite back the torrent of curses he wanted to unleash on her.

How she learned of their temporary alliance without needing to be told about left him feeling uneasy, but at the same time, Alex had better things to worry about than a possible informant in his ranks. "Has there been a change of plans?" Alex asked, forcing his rising anger back down.

"Not quite. Rather than a change of plans, my Queen has decided that it would be better if you were to cut ties with the Grimm Wanderer as soon as possible and let another one of our agents deal with him in your stead." She told him, a small hint of hesitation trailing her as she finished speaking.

"Is there a reason behind your Queen's decision?" He asked, pouncing on the apparent weakness shown by the Queen's intermediary.

"Yes, there is. Now that Ironwood has finally been disposed of, you will be free to carry out the Queen's will as you continue to work towards your own plans for Vacuo. The removal of one of our more difficult associates has opened up the perfect opportunity for the both of us to work together, and my Queen has decided to place the responsibility of handling our affairs in Vacuo to you." The intermediary purred.

"We will be expecting great things from you, Alexander. Do NOT disappoint us again." She said, unleashing enough malice to make the rabbit faunus cower from behind the safety of his desk.

"Y-yes. You are right to continue putting your faith in me." He said in a feeble attempt to appease the woman he was speaking to.

"My Queen does not expect anything less of you. I will contact you once we are ready to act as well as a few other tasks we will have for you. Do not let Courier Six leave Vacuo before then, or else we will make sure everything you have built burns with the rest of Remnant." The intermediary threatened, ending the call and leaving Alex alone, allowing him to make plans to ensure no one could threaten him now that he was so close to achieving his goals.

So long as he could buy himself enough time to claim Vacuo for himself, no one would be able to stop him. Not Mantle, not the mysterious Queen that had aided his exodus from Solitas, not the King of Vale, and certainly not a crazy drug addict with an incredible capacity for violence. All he needed was time, and all he could do was hope that nothing would ruin his plans before they were complete.

Fucking slimy son of a bitch. So there was something on Ironcock's Scroll after all. Bunny Boy couldn't lie his way out of a gecko nest with the way he was acting once I set it on his desk. While it's true that the damn thing has some pretty impressive security compared to everything else Vacuo and Mantle have already shown me, I was still able to crack the password through brute force in under a minute and remove all evidence my of tampering just as quickly. 'Queen' is not the shittiest password I have ever discovered by accident, but it sure as hell is up there with the likes of 'Guest' and 'Swordfish'. As much as I hate the prospect of sifting through a couple hundred gigabytes worth of garbage, if I learn something that Alex is trying to hide from me, then taking a day to sift through all of those files would be well worth the trouble.

But that day is NOT today!

I have a fucking liquor cabinet waiting to be cleaned out with Alex's name on it, and I'll be damned if I leave that rat bastard a single drop to drink once I'm done with it. Figuring out what the hell he is so nervous about can wait. Right now, I deserve a fucking moment to myself.

With that said, it'd be a shame if I couldn't spend a little time swapping stories with someone else while I'm trying to get drunk off my ass again…

Julia offered to accompany me, but I'd rather sit on a cactus than spend any more time with a girl that freaks out at the sight of a couple of chems. I got real lucky that Antlers remembered that she had some other shit to do once I mentioned I was planning to enjoy some R&R with Giles. The snake-eyed old-timer seemed like the perfect kind of guy to crack open a couple bottles of some damn good tequila with, or whatever else is in Alex's stash. Raiding every single thing that isn't nailed down from Alex's personal stash of drinks would also be a whole hell of a lot easier without Antlers breathing down my neck.

"Hey Giles, guess I'll be able to offer you that drink a little bit sooner than I thought. Alex gave me permission to use private liquor stash, so let's go fucking nuts!"

"Yeah, of course I'm serious. Don't you want to see what that asshole has been keeping for himself?"

"Yep, that's what I thought. Tonight is going to be one hell of a night, friend."

*Knock* *Knock* *Knock*

"Alex, it's me." Julia said as she finished knocking on the door to his office.

"One moment." Alex called out, throwing Ironwood's Scroll into one of the drawers of his desk alongside the identical Scroll beside it, and quickly moved to let his longtime companion inside. She quietly slunk beside him, before Alex closed the door once again and returned to his desk with a menacing air following his previous conversation.

"He's still alive." Alex said addressing the elephant in the room now that he and Julia were alone. The antlered woman looked uneasy at his sudden declaration, and he did not look pleased with his observation. "Was I right to assume that you could not handle him on your own?"

"No, yes, I mean-"

"Answer the question Julia." The rabbit faunus interrupted, making his loyal partner flinch in response to his bluntness.

"I wanted to see what he was capable of when he tried to kill Ironwood." She explained after taking a moment to carefully choose her words.

"Did the Courier kill him on his own?" Alex inquired.

"Yes, I don't know how he didn't die after getting shot so many times, but Six single handedly killed Ironwood." She told him.

Alex remained silent, carefully considering his options regarding the potential interruption to his plans while moving forwards. "Will you need to expose yourself to our enemies in order to dispose of him, if he doesn't manage to get himself killed before then?" He finally asked her.

Julia looked hesitant to give her leader an answer, but still offered him one regardless of her own feelings about her recent partner. "If I need to kill him without any back-up or inside the city, then yes." She said.

"And if you're not inside the city?"

"Then it won't matter." Julia told him. "So long as we are far enough away from Vacuo and any of the villages scattered in the Wasteland, then no one will notice anything unordinary. Even then, I don't think there will be a need to get rid of Six. He doesn't seem like he will betray us."

"Unless he pledges his loyalty to the Spirit of Vacuo and starts following my orders, then I will not tolerate his presence any longer than I have to Julia." Alex said, clenching his fist at the very thought of the wild card that had entered into play. "Is that understood?"

"Yes, I understand." She said, conceding to her leader's judgement once again.

"Now, how about we head somewhere… private?" The rabbit faunus asked her, a lecherous smile forming on his lips. "I've been thinking a lot after you've done so much for me."

Alex rose up from his desk and headed towards his room, Julia following him closely behind with a light blush on her cheeks as she pursued him.

Author's Corner:

Finally finished the first story arc, and damn did this ending take a while to come together. It's shorter than the others, but I don't really care about the length anymore. I'm just glad I found enough inspiration to finally come up with something I liked in the end. I can't wait to see you all for the next arc of the story: The Long Journey Ahead. Remnant is a big place, and it would be a shame to keep a wandering embodiment of pure chaos restrained in a single city. Only time will tell if Six thinks the rest of Remnant is any better or worse than the Mojave he has come to love and loathe.

But before I get start uploading any new chapters will most likely be taking a month-long break on making uploads for the sake of maintaining a more regular upload schedule for this project now that I am caught up and working on others stories. The hiatus WILL end sometime in the beginning of July.

Anyways, that's enough from me for now. I thank you all for the support and patience you've shown me while waiting for this chapter and I hope to hear from y'all again.