Don't worry, I don't have any intention of abandoning The Heroes of Legend. It's still my priority. But occasionally one wants to write something other than their usual fare for a while. I think the reason I was never able to finish Total Drama Redux: 52 was because at a certain point, I had been focusing exclusively on Total Drama for so long that I just didn't want to write any more of it. I don't want that to happen with The Heroes of Legend. I'm not going to have a consistent balance of when I upload chapters of one fic or the other; I intend to write what I'm inspired to write. If that ends up becoming a problem for either THoL or this fic, I'll address it when it happens.

Now for my thoughts on the properties I'm writing for in question. It's no secret that I love Fallout. New Vegas is my favorite game of all time. That being said, Fallout 4 is a contentious game among the fandom and...I understand why. Even without New Vegas having raised the bar for the franchise to a height that 4 just couldn't reach, the game has a lot of problems that frustrate me in ways that the flaws of other Fallout games, barring the dumpster fire that is Brotherhood of Steel, never have. As someone who only joined the Fallout fandom recently, I didn't hype myself up for the game, hoping for a masterpiece and ultimately ending up disappointed when it was finally released, but I can certainly see how that would have been other people's experience. When I played the game, I knew to expect a dip in quality compared to most of the previous Fallout games, but ultimately, I did find enough aspects of the game that I did enjoy. Still, I understand that the game had potential to be so much better than it actually was.

As for RWBY, it's a property that I feel never lived up to what it should have been. A lot of people will tell you that the series lost its way once Monty Oum died, but while there was a decline in quality when that happened, can you honestly say it was great before? The world and characters had the potential to be fascinating, to be sure, but a lot of time that could have gone to compelling lore and characterization ended up being wasted on fight scenes that ultimately just didn't feel as impactful as they should have. I honestly think that writers like gorilla_fingers and erttheking have done a better job writing RWBY than the actual creators.

But for all of the disappointment, there's a core of what could have been that fascinates me, in both Fallout 4 and RWBY. Maybe that's why I wanted to make this crossover. Maybe I'll succeed where Bethesda and Rooster Teeth failed, or maybe I'll fail just like they did, but this is something I want to try.

It was 2289, and the Commonwealth was an okay place to live.

It wasn't without its problems, of course. There was no shortage of amenities that had gone the way of the dinosaurs when the bombs dropped. As one of the few people who had been around before the Great War, Nathaniel Howard could tell you about them. But the remains of what had once been Boston had no shortage of food and clean water. Raiders would never truly stop being a problem, but since Nate and Preston Garvey had helped build up the Minutemen, they had really come into their own. Some raiders would try their luck against them, but a noticeable number had decided to look for softer targets elsewhere. And the people of the Commonwealth no longer had mad scientists or dogmatic technophiles breathing down their necks. In the Wasteland, you couldn't ask for much more.

There was a time where if Nate had been told that, he would have sighed and pitied the person telling it to him for having such a hard life that their expectations had been set so low, but it rang truer now. Life before the bombs had been more comfortable, to be sure, but in many ways it was just as harsh. He hadn't understood how cruel and oppressive his country's government was until he had tasted actual freedom.

There were things that he missed. Most often his wife, Nora, and his son, Shaun. Kellogg had taken them both from him. Nora was dead, and Shaun had gone down a bad road, one that had ultimately led to Nate having to go to war against his son. He hadn't been the one to kill him, MacCready had spared him that, but it was still painful.

"Master, are you paying attention? You seem lost in thought. And while I am sure whatever you are currently contemplating is quite important, you yourself said we were heading into potentially dangerous territory today. I would hate for something awful to happen to you because your mind was elsewhere," Codsworth warned him.

Nate shook his head. It wasn't as if he was alone. Hell, he had made plenty of close friends, who had showed him that life after the end of everything he knew could still be worth living.

In the beginning, it had been just him and Codsworth, his loyal Mr. Handy. And he had needed Codsworth. It wasn't until the world had ended that he realized how much he appreciated the robot. For all that some might think Codsworth was loyal simply because he was programmed to be, Nate knew Codsworth cared for him, and he couldn't articulate how much it meant to him. Codsworth had gone beyond the bounds of what he could have been programmed for so often that it couldn't be simple programming. In fact, that was how he knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that the Brotherhood of Steel was full of shit when they claimed robots could never be people. If Codsworth didn't have a soul, Nate was a Mirelurk.

"It's okay, Codsworth. He isn't exactly going it alone. Between all of us, if there is danger nearby, at least one of us will probably see it," Preston reassured the robot.

Everyone knew Preston Garvey had a one-track mind, but there were worse things to live for than helping people in need. Preston had given Nate purpose, and that had meant more to Nate than Preston could have known. There might have been some people who would balk at the idea of all the work Nate had done clearing out raiders, organizing construction, and making the Commonwealth safe and prosperous, but Nate took pride in it in a way he never really had during his time in the U.S. Army.

"Still, it's a bad habit to get into," Nick Valentine pointed out. "When you're too focused on the big picture, there's no telling what clues you might have missed because you weren't paying close enough attention to what's in front of you."

"You aren't wrong, Nicky," Piper agreed. "But I'd say it works the other way too. Focus in too much on one thing, and you might miss something else that was just as important."

"That's true enough," Valentine agreed.

Of course, Preston wasn't the only one who had helped build that sense of justice. Nick Valentine and Piper Wright had done just as much. The witty Synth detective and the snarky reporter had senses of justice that were each only matched by the other, and they had done just as much as Preston to help Nate realize justice was worth fighting for.

"You two just love your mysteries, don't you?" Hancock said sarcastically. "Me, I left that bullshit back in Diamond City. If there's one thing I've got no patience for, it's people pretending to be something they're not."

On the other hand, while Valentine and Piper had taught him about justice, he wouldn't have understood freedom without the help of John Hancock. With Nate having only ever known the pre-war government's totalitarianism, and Hancock only having been able to conceptualize freedom as anarchy, they had both needed the other to realize what freedom really meant. Together, they had endeavored to learn the lessons America's history could teach them, the freedom that men like the original John Hancock had fought and bled for before men like Thomas Eckhart had corrupted that vision. Together, they had found that balance. Justice and liberty, both to exist in equilibrium and guide the Commonwealth's future as one. Or so they hoped, at least.

"While I agree with you, I think they were using a metaphor," MacCready told Hancock. "Yeah, danger isn't always what it seems, but right now we're keeping watch for things like raiders."

Robert MacCready hadn't had noble aspirations when Nate had met him. He hadn't been particularly altruistic, preferring to act primarily in his own interest, and if that happened to help others, that was a bonus. But as Nate had earned his respect, MacCready had started to share Nate's altruism just as Nate had learned to share Preston's, Nick's, and Piper's. Over time, MacCready had opened up to Nate about his family. Nate and MacCready had shared stories of their late wives, and in MacCready Nate had found someone who understood him more than most. When MacCready had told him about his ill son, Duncan, there had been no doubt in Nate's mind that he was going to do everything he could to help. Duncan had recovered well since Nate had provided the money for his treatment, and MacCready had brought him to Boston. Nowadays, he was thick as thieves with Shaun II, and the two boys had every intention of being Minutemen like Nate and MacCready. MacCready had promised to pay Nate back, but Nate had insisted that MacCready instead pay it forward, that perhaps someday MacCready would have the chance to help someone else the way Nate had helped him. MacCready had resolved to do just that, and since then, he had always been ready to help those in need.

"Bah! Strong hopes raiders attack. Strong, humans, ghoul, and robots kill raiders, not have problem."

There were rumors that on the West Coast, there were Super Mutants who were as intelligent as the smartest of humans, who were not even slightly inclined to eat you and would much rather discuss philosophy over a bottle of wine. Strong was not one of those mutants. He was brutish, boorish, anti-intellectual, and savage...but Nate had realized he did sometimes have something interesting to say if you knew what to ask. Mean as he could be, he was fundamentally unselfish in a way that Nate honestly found refreshing. Kindness was not his strength, but he was possessed of a spirit of generosity, simply because he thought that selfishness was of no benefit to anyone. He was the polar opposite of the people of the Old World, and he had honestly in many ways helped Nate see the ridiculousness of it all.

"Took the words right outta my mouth, Strong," Cait said. "I'm gettin' pretty bored just walking around."

Despite their mutual love of fighting, Strong was quite the contrast to Cait, who when he met her had been cynical, bitter, selfish, and violent. Had their initial meeting gone differently, Nate might have gunned her down instead of befriending her. But as he had gotten to know her, he had begun to understand why she was the way she was-and had helped her understand she hadn't been who she wanted to be. With his help, she had been cured of her drug addiction, and had become a better woman. Travelling with her had given Nate a fresh perspective; it had taught him that he never knew what others were going through, and that had led him to value mercy in a way that he hadn't before. He still would kill to protect people, and some crimes couldn't be forgiven, but there had been times he had stayed his hand when he could have killed because of what he had learned from Cait.

"Yeah, because not having people shooting at us for once is such a problem. No, it's not a nice change of pace at all," Deacon said.

The lesson had only been cemented by Deacon. Nate hadn't worked with the Railroad much; that's not to say he didn't respect their goals, but he considered the Minutemen the group that ultimately would do the most good for the Commonwealth. But Deacon also respected the Minutemen, especially their drive to help everyone, not just humans or Synths, and had been glad to help them with their troubles, especially when the Minutemen decided to make a stand against both the Institute and the Brotherhood of Steel. He had eventually confided in Nate, telling him his past, that he had once been everything he currently despised, and had joined the Railroad to atone for his sins. Nate knew Deacon was a liar, but he felt that Deacon was being more honest then than he usually was. Deacon had helped him see that who someone was was not set in stone, that someone's past didn't determine their future.

"Either we'll be attacked or we won't. It doesn't change what we came here to do," Danse said, in a tone that brooked no argument.

If there was one person who was Deacon's opposite in every way, it was Danse. Formerly a Paladin of the Brotherhood of Steel, Danse had been forced to leave the Brotherhood when they realized he was a Synth. Danse had truly believed in the Brotherhood, and the fact that they hadn't believed in him had been truly hard on him. He hadn't taken it well when the Minutemen had gone to war with the Brotherhood either, and had initially been furious with Nate, refusing to even talk to him. But Nate had eventually been able to empathize with him by sharing stories about his time in Pre-War America's army, showing understanding towards his situation of having fought for a cause unworthy of him. Eventually, Danse had accepted that the Brotherhood had brought their destruction on themselves, and even if the Minutemen had been the ones to destroy them, they were still the ones doing the most to help the people of the Wasteland, and he had once believed in the Brotherhood because he had thought they were the ones doing just that. He had joined the Minutemen afterwards, and rallied some survivors of the Brotherhood who were less inclined to shoot him on sight to do the same.

"If zese scientists are up to something nefarious, we will stop zem," Curie said. "Let us hope we will not have to resort to violence."

Every lesson they had all taught Nate was important. But the one who had taught him the most important lesson was Curie. Having spent her entire existence in a Vault, she had been filled with wonder at the world outside. To Nate, the world had been nothing but a wasteland, a broken shell of what it had once been. But seeing it through her eyes, full of awe and wonder, had shown him there was still beauty after the end. That the state of the world didn't always have to be cause for misery, and it could still be a world worth living in. He had quickly fallen for her; how could he not? And while there was a part of his heart that would always belong to Nora, he didn't have to think only of what he had lost.

Each and every one of them, he would trust with his life. And he had, many times.

This wasn't the right time to be maudlin, though. They had come out here for a reason.

The Institute as an organization had fallen, but there had been many survivors. Some had chosen to abandon their mad science in the face of the loss of their organization, while others had taken on new projects, ones that were unlikely to get them killed. Much as a lot of people hated the Institute, they were hardly going to risk losing their shot at a cure for cancer by shooting the researchers. Some had just decided to pack up and head elsewhere, looking for somewhere else to stay where they would be viewed with less suspicion an resentment. But there were still those who refused to accept their failure, who chose to continue their experiments on the people of the Commonwealth even without the safety of their underground fortress. Nate and his friends were going to make sure they understood that sort of behavior would no longer be tolerated. With bullets if necessary.

Soon enough, they were coming up on the building that the scientists were using. It was an old factory, though what it had manufactured before the War Nate couldn't say for certain.

"Let's do this quickly and quietly," Deacon said. "I can get one of these doors open in..."

"Strong can break door down faster," Strong said.

"If we do that, they'll all realize we're here, Strong," Piper said.

"Strong not afraid of science-humans!" Strong said.

"Could we not just politely knock on the door and ask them what they're up to?" Codsworth suggested. "I imagine if they aren't up to no good, they'll be more than happy to clear the air."

"And if they are up to no good, they'll be more than happy to shoot at us," Hancock reminded Codsworth.

"What if we sneak into the security office and hook Codsworth here up to the cameras?" Valentine suggested. "Then maybe he could see what we're dealing with."

"Strong still thinks we should break in," Strong said.

"If we can get the tin can here to see where the scientists are, we'll know how many there are. If we don't know how many there are, some of 'em might get away," Cait argued. Strong gave a grunt of grudging acceptance.

Getting into the security office wasn't too hard; it was guarded by a few mercenaries, but their combat armor didn't stop Deacon and MacCready from putting them down for the count with cattle prods, and soon Valentine had connected Codsworth to the cameras.

"Okay, Codsworth, what do you see?" Nate asked.

"Mostly scientists, a few first-generation synths, and a few Gunners. The scientists appear to have built a teleporter," Codsworth said. "There's no data here on where the other side is..."

"Maybe the Institute had a backup base," Piper suggested.

"There's no way this is benign," Danse said. "We have to go in there and take that teleporter down, before they bring some fresh horror to the Commonwealth."

"For once, I agree with Danse," Valentine said. "Waving a gun in someone's face and demanding answers isn't the most subtle approach, but this time I think it's warranted."

"We can't take the chance," Nate agreed. "We have to shut that portal down."

Everyone knew their roles already; there was no need to elaborate. Danse and Strong took point, because a man in X-01 Power Armor and a Super Mutant in the armor that Super Mutants wore were more resistant to gunfire than most targets. Nate had considered bringing Power Armor himself (he did have multiple suits of it, and had learned to use it in the Resource Wars), but it was cumbersome. Combat armor over a ballistic weave was more practical for any task that required agility, so that's what he and the others (barring Codsworth) were wearing.

Danse pointed his Tri-Beam Laser Rifle at the left side of the room, while Strong pointed his minigun at the right. "Put your hands up!" Danse shouted.

If all of the guards had been human, it might have worked. But, not knowing fear, the first-gens started shooting, and the scientists and Gunners followed suit.

If they thought their only hope of survival was to fight, their judgment was poor. But what else could you expect of Gunners? It didn't take long before every last one of them was dead.

"Great. Because we didn't need to question any of them," Valentine said sarcastically. "It's not like we don't know where this teleporter leads."

"Hey, if any of them were surrendering at any point in that fight, I need to get my eyes checked," Hancock snarked back.

"I do not think any of them were offering to surrender, but do you wish me to give you an eye exam anyway?" Curie asked.

Suddenly, the teleporter suddenly started shaking and making noise. "Oh dear. It appears the power is surging," Codsworth noted.

"Great. Someone must have hit something important," Piper said as she tried to shut it down. "This is why I didn't want to take the Danse approach!"

"Focus on shutting that thing down, not pointing fingers!" Danse shouted.

"I don't know, it is kind of your fault," Deacon said.

"The teleporter is approaching critical mass!" Codsworth reminded them.

Three words rang out before the teleporter exploded. "You fucking idiots!"