Sandstorm over Remnant

Fall

"In the history of the world of this world many times could be said that time froze" a cold voice said as it stared into the fires of Armageddon with cold indifference, thousands of lives, minutes uncountable and she had overseen it all. She had played the longest game to get to this, her hand behind almost every event that lead mankind and faunus-kind to this very moment.

And yet… this was new.

Next to her, the ones that called themselves her subordinates all stared with quiet horror and confusion as a large part of their army was destroyed. The grimm burned as the large mushroom cloud expanded their skin melting as tumors erupted from withing, fur fell to the ground and bone shattered, she could feel their deaths the way their life disappeared from reality "What in the gods name is that?"

No, not in the gods name. She remembered them and they did not create something like this, everything that was transpiring before her eyes was by the hand of man and their endless creativity for destruction but this should not be possible yet, not even the most technologically advanced nation had a way to produce such horrors.

Ozma had made sure of that "Those robots… they are not Atlas robots" a nervous comment behind her made her almost smile. Of course they weren't, Watts was not her only means to gaze inside the city but she let the man believe his delusions of grandeur, the old monster raised her hands as she turned to her followers.

"Beacon has fallen, everything is still going according to plan. It matters little what happens in the city now, but this new threat must be studied carefully, Cinder has yet to report but I am sure she has the power of the maiden on her hands. Leave, there is no longer any reason for you to be here" the sound of shuffling feet and a door closing reached her ear. They where all so obedient, so eager to please and yet none could give her what she truly desired.

Salem caressed the screen as her children all corroded and died by this invisible crater in the middle of Vale, there was nothing like this but she had found her answer.

This new power could do exactly what she desired, her red eyes shone with anticipation as more explosion ravaged the area, the roads becoming nothings but dust. The buildings reduced to rubble and everything with life melted and decayed to nothing "This is going even better than I could imagine."

If war doesn't change then men must, those where the parting words that Ulysses had said to him in the last of his tapes. The conclusion of the other courier after witnessing so much of what the wasteland had to offer, of what it had taken from him and from others, the birth and death of nations.

Those words had been burned into Six's brain and he had many nights thinking about the meaning behind them. Even with Winter sleeping next to him Courier Six did not understand the why of it, change to him was nature.

Everything changed, people changed and even he had changed.

The kid that had left Vault eighteen was no more, before Benny put two bullets on his head he had feeling that he no longer had what it took to be that star player that his memories oh so desperately tried to paint him as.

And his evolution didn't just stop there, he changed the moment he fell for her. He changed on the Big MT, he changed on the Sierra Madre where he felt he left part of his soul.

But most evidently he had changed on his last trip home. The Divide had changed him, the fire he had brought with him from California had turned Hopeville into the irradiated hell-hole that it was now was because he had changed.

Or at least believed he had changed.

So if he had changed, why was he doing it again? The nuclear blast swallowed the area that the Grimm had been approaching them, the last Bullhead had taken off with whatever people he could put inside and now only some atlesian soldiers and some hunters remained "Are you not going to leave too?" he asked them absentmindedly as he prepared another bomb.

Their expressions told him everything he needed to know, they feared the weapon on his hands "There might be someone trapped here. We cannot leave them behind, Vale is lost to us"

To them, yes that much was true. But not to him, not if he wanted the next step of the plan to succeed, so with that in mind he requested a ride with his PipBoy "Then I won't stop you from being a hero, I will bombard the Grimm from above hopefully they will follow me" Six said as a bullhead arrived, he ignored the blood on it and turned to his pilot a battered looking assaultron.

"We need to reach Beacon, the big building over there. Ignore the giant dragon, just land near the top of the tower" he yelled as the machine jerked forward and Six reached for his sniper rifle. Anti-Material Rifle he was no Boone but he knew how to use it, now all he needed was the right ammo for it, in his fingers laid one of the most expensive bullets he had needed to buy.

.50 MG explosive.

Loading the ammo carefully into his rifle he felt the bullhead shake, and a loud screech ah the dragon had spotted them. "Get close to that part of the building please and keep him distracted" Six said as he prepared to jump.

"Affirmative" the robotic reply reached his ears as he jumped, the robot crashed into the dragon momentarily stunning him. Six wasted no time and began to run towards the top of the tower. He heard the roar of flames and he pressed on faster, his artificial heart beating faster by the second he was almost there.

Slamming the door open Six saw what looked to be a locker fly away into the distance and a kneeling Pyrrah kneeling as a woman in red prepared for the killing blow. "No" he heard the soft whisper before he entered V.A.T.S, Ruby?

No, that didn't matter now. He had to save the girl, two shot was all he needed to do so. The arm first and then the head, it didn't matter how strong anyone was they would not survive this caliber and this weapon.

"NO!" blinging light exploded next to him as he pulled the trigger, Six heard the aura shatter as the bullet almost ripped the arm out of its socket a loud scream followed as the crimson woman turned to him "Who dares?!"

Six was no idiot, he knew that any monster capable of doing this two the gladiator lady could kill him in seconds, he was not as superhuman as the Father would have liked, so he needed to act fast. Jamming med-x., turbo and psycho into his system he ran as fast as his body would allow him, almost to the speed of a hunter. The crimson demon aimed her hand at him and flames fiercer than any flamethrower struck him, but Six would not yield, running towards her he ignored the red tornado of flames that covered his body and grabbed her by the head. Taking a piece out of the Legion books he used his brute strength to slam her to the ground and then he placed his thumb on top of her eye "WAIT!"

The flames that surrounded him were so strong that he could feel how some of the Riot Gear began to melt but that did not matter, he had suffered worse. The screams almost became deafening as he felt the eye burst under the pressure of his thumb, the flames died down as the girl clutched her face in agony "Do not move, if you want to live that is."

"You will burn for this!" Cinder screamed as the tall man removed his helmet, a red eye glared down at her, reaching for his shotgun Six aimed at her injured hand and fired. Blood erupted from the wound as he severed the limb, the screams that followed made him frown "Now now, don't act like a victim"

Six slammed his foot down on her only arm and grabbed her by the throat "You and I, we will be getting to know each other a lot better, but for now… have a good-night" Six slammed his fist on her head with all his might as he shattered her nose. He stared with some fascination at the weird black thing that had burned her, it almost looked like charcoal.

"Man I didn't know that anti material rifle did…" Six looked up as he stared at a frozen dragon. He turned to see Ruby and Pyrrah passed out on the ground "What the fuck?" was all he could mutter. Things slowly to click on his head as terrifying realization dawned on him, he had once again gotten lucky; Ruby had done something to the crimson lady and the giant beast, and he had just capitalized on it.

If he had not done anything would it have been the same? Or did he actually help in something?

"Hi! All of Vale has been either evacuated or in an area free of Grimm! Every single factory is under our control and best of all, Beacon has been secured! There are some pretty neat weapons and gizmos here. Oh I also found Winter and her sister… she seems mad, good luck!" the voice of Yes Man snapped him out of his musings, taking a look at the horizon and the city that now was either burning or eerily quiet

Six could only let out a sigh as he shut off his PipBoy, there still was much to do here. Looking down at the city Six he could spot the are where he had struck it with the FatMan "I also have some thing to clean up too I guess" he muttered to himself as he walked towards the wounded with some stimpaks on hand.

He held the head of Ruby as he checked for her pulse "Nice and healthy" seems like she had just passed, maybe something to do with the blinding light that had almost blinded him, she at least did not have any signs of being burnt like that other bitch.

As for Pyrrah she did need some Stimpaks but her breath was still labored and erratic even after he administered the Old World drug, there was something here that he did not know about, something that he maybe should not be messing with. "RUBY!" he turned to see Weiss kneeling next to her friend, Winter stood next to her sister as she stared at him with a large frown, Six wondered if it was the blood on him, the robots or the fact that he had unleashed the power of atom on her world.

"What did you do?" Winter could only ask as she looked at him up and down.

Six looked at the burning buildings, a reminder of the scorched earth and smiled sadly "I changed"

"…easy there, you girls are going to be okay" soft whispers reached her ears as she fought to open her eyes, Ruby felt like she had no energy. The pain on her head was constant and increasing. Forcing her body to react she turned to the side with great effort as her eyes began to obey her command.

White, blindingly so.

That was all she could think about, shadows danced around her area of vision as she heard hushed whispers "…yes general… many survivors… radiation."

Winter, she remembered her. Weiss's sister. Struggling to groan to catch the attention of the eldest Schnee sibling Ruby felt sensation come back to her little by little "W…Win…" there was a pause as she heard something being pushed out of the way as a cold hand touched her forehead "She is still burning up, Winter what do we do?" Weiss, she was here with her.

"For now we let her rest. Evac should be here soon, God what a mess"-"But Vale was… saved right?"

Ruby heard a long sigh "But its empty Weiss, there is no one here anymore. Nothing but another irradiated wasteland" there was a lot of sadness in the tone of voice, a betrayal that ran deep.

"Did… radiation freeze the giant monster?" Weiss asked tentatively as Ruby's vision finally cleared and she could see herself reflected on Winter's new metal sword, her silver eyes stared back at her "Something that we don't know… there is so much that we don't know, we are going back to Atlas and try to make sense of this attack, this was planned and who knows if we might be next"

Ruby turned her head to the side as she caught a glimpse of something red, soft breathing could be seen on the prone body as Ruby felt her body gently go back to slumber, but her soul was not as tired anymore as if a big weight had been lifted off her, after all Pyrrha was alive.

A/N: I really debated if I should have adapted the entire episode but the more I did it felt as if nothing changed and I was just describing what had happened in the fall of Beacon. It felt very robotic so I decided to better focus on the things that mattered, now its all going to be different and I am very excited to show you.

As for the other stories, Snowflake on the Sand is slowly being remastered so that the rough grammar and some things that didn't make sense could be ironed out, Blood from Vault 18 (The New California Novelization) is coming along nicely and I really like how Six can be seen in bits and pieces of that story, and as for the Frontier fic well that is just beginning, thank you all so much for all the support that you have given me, I appreciate it a lot, see you soon!