Sandstorm over Remnant
Chapter 1:
"Winter what is going on? Are you ok?" Weiss' words escaped her mouth out of pure instinct as she wrapped her arms around her eldest sister, she could count with one hand the times she had seen her sister break down like this, none of those times where something the young Schnee wanted to think about.
There was a pause as Winter managed to wipe her tears on her sleeve and smile at her "I just… oh Weiss, I was afraid that I would never see you again" Winter looked around as she tried to recall where in Vale she was. Weiss held onto her sister a little while longer, the rare affection given by her older sister something she treasured.
"But your letter said that you did not have time this week and that you would make time before the festival" the confused younger sister said as Winter's eyes widened. "Weiss, I need you to answer to me very carefully. How long ago was that letter sent?"
Weiss blinked as she recalled the information "About two day ago, you send it to my dorm" Winter felt her head spinning as she held her sister for support "But… but I was gone for more than a year… I…" Weiss tilted her in confusion. The sound of robots marching stopped Weiss from asking what was wrong, the Atlas military arrived along with someone she did not recognize.
"Uncle Qrow!" Ruby yelled excitedly at the now not so mystery man, Qrow nodded at her "Stay with Winter Ruby, things might get ugly" the robots surrounded Courier Six as he raised his hands with a small smile, the irony of a robot army surrounding him not lost on him. "So, you kidnapped the princess huh? What happened, nagged ya until you gave her back?" Qrow said as he pointed his weapon at the tall man.
Six reached for Old Glory in case things turned ugly "Nah, I just did what I promised that's all. I am not your enemy" Qrow watched the weapon carefully, his eyes narrowing as he looked at the golden bird's beak, it was full of dried blood.
Red blood, human blood.
This man was a killer, his red eye shining eerily like a grimm. One of HER minions no doubt, Qrow would not the chance with his niece so close to the place "QROW DON'T!" Winter yelled as Weiss stopped her from running to them. Qrow jumped into the air as he brought down the scythe Six slammed Old Glory against him sending him into the air again.
Qrow growled as he shot at the courier, expecting him to move. The courier took the bullets to the chest, as they bounced off his riot gear. Dust rounds barely making a dent "Slow and strong eh? Doesn't matter, you're going down!" Qrow moved faster than before as he shot at him while he jumped into the air again. His scythe hit its target, just where the armor was its weakest, the abdomen. But instead of glass shattering Qrow's weapon went straight through the man as blood fell to the ground.
Ruby screamed as Qrow could only look in shock at the person he had just murdered, he was scarily still. His blood ran cold when the corpse let out a sigh "That hurt"
A fist smashed against Qrows jaw followed by a strike from Old Glory, the streght of it sent Qrow to the ground shattering his aura. Six slammed his fist against the concrete, making a large crater next to Qrow's head "Like I said, not your enemy. If you don't believe me, ask Winter" the courier backed off as Qrow looked at him confused.
"What… but my aura? In two hits?"
Six pulled out Qrow's weapon out of his body, the Riot gear still mostly intact. He placed the weapon next to its owner when he spotted that the robots were done just watching "Yeah, yeah. Don't worry I'll sit here and don't move" Six said as he stealthily injected himself with stimpaks, as his wound began to heal the courier looked down at his hand, it was shaking slightly. Closing it into a fist he snorted as he looked at Winter who by now was yelling orders at the robots and just yelling at Qrow in general, they weren't shooting him which was good but then again they were not lowering their weapons either.
"SCHNEE! That's enough!"
Winter stopped as she turned to general ironwood "Sir! I… it's good to see you again sir" Ironwood raised an eyebrow at this and at Qrow who was dusting himself off the ground "Hey there Jimmie"
The general let out a long sigh "What on earth is going on? You disappeared for two days soldier, I want to know why and who is the man that just assaulted Qrow?"
"He started it!" Six yelled from the sidelines.
Winter opened her mouth and then closed it as she tried to think where to begin. A small chuckle escaped her lips "I… don't think this is the best place to talk about this sir. I have been through a lot this past year" the comment made Qrow and Ironwood stare at each other.
"Beacon might be the best place for this. What about him?" Qrow said as he pointed at Courier Six who was staring into the streets and buildings, marveling at how clean and new they looked. "He's coming with me, he can verify my story and… I also think it's best if he listens, that way we can begin to help them"
Qrow raised an eyebrow "Them?"
The ride back to Beacon was awkward, Six was placed on surveillance by the robots their weapons trained at him, flanking him by the left while Winter sat next to him on right. Weiss was next to her sister while Ruby and Qrow sat across them. Ruby hummed softly as she tried to make eye contact with Weiss to make a face at her.
Weiss noticed this, but chose to ignore her leader.
Qrow for his part reached for his flask "Uncle Qrow really? Is not even time for lunch!" Ruby complained making her uncle chuckle "I just got my ass beat Ruby, I think I deserve some happy juice" Ruby rolled her eyes "You reek when you drink too much" Qrow simply downed half the bottle "Numbs the pain… you got one hell of a right hook my guy. Never caught your name by the way and also nice trick with avoiding the blade"
Six looked up from his PipBoy and smiled "Thanks! You have nice moves too, barely could keep up with you. Courier Six" Ruby giggled a bit "Like… a mailman?"
"Yup, I was the courier with the number Six. So the name kind of stayed"
Weiss frowned "But why…" Winter placed a hand on her shoulder. She gave her a small smile "I'll tell you later" the next part of the ride was spent mostly in silence Qrow still unsure on how to talk to the man he had skewered while Weiss obediently waited for her sister to tell her all the details later, Ruby just felt confused about what was going on.
When they arrived at Beacon Glynda Goodwitch, right hand woman of Ozpin, was waiting for them at the entrance to guide them to the headmaster's office. Six gasped in awe at the sight of Beacon "Holy shit! This place is beautiful!" he muttered to himself as they walked. Forest as wide as the eye could see surrounded the academy, beautiful lakes and a clear sky.
The Mojave's brown and red a stark contrast to this place.
Inside it was even more grand, like something out of comic book that Six was sure he had read somewhere in the wasteland, Glynda stopped as they reached the central toward. "Mr. Six, your weapons if you don't mind" Glynda said as she motioned a desk where he could put his stuff. The courier let out a sigh oh he minded alllright, but he did not want to cause more tension on the already volatile group so he just nodded at the blonde woman "Sure… just give me a moment" Old Glory was the first to be placed along with the Riot Shotgun. Following his two primaries he placed the grenades slowly on the surface of the table to not alarm anyone and he reached into his pockets for Maria and the Nail gun, spiked knuckles followed along with a silenced pistol. He reached for knifes from his boots and just for them to feel safe he dropped the nails on the table, no need to alarm anyone "Oh I almost forgot the bleak venom hold on" Six said as placed the flask on the table.
General Ironwood looked at the weapons and then at him "And you are… a mailman?"
"Courier and what can I say. You never know what you're delivering"
Winter snorted, but she was glad that she had convinced him to travel light. God knows they did not need to explain why he was carrying around a missile launcher or shoulder mounted machine gun. Qrow looked at his niece and her friend "Time for you to go kiddos, we're going to… I don't know what we're gonna do but tell you what. I'll drop by later with Pizza, tell Yang I'll be there in a bit"
"Yeah! You're the best uncle Qrow!" Ruby said as she turned to leave, Weiss staying behind. Winter smiled at her sister "I think it would be best if Weiss listened to this, I will tell her regardless"
Glynda frowned "That doesn't sound like a good idea, she's just a student. There are some things that are better if she does not know"
"Yes but she is also my sister" Winter said as the General hummed. "As long as Ozpin is fine with this then I don't see why not" the elevator arrived. Ruby waved at Weiss "I guess I'll see you in our room then" Weiss nodded and just stayed behind her sister as she still felt confused with what the hell was going on.
The ride was short and quiet, the group more at ease now that Six had disarmed, when they got to the office Ozpin greeted them with a smile "Ah specialist Winter, good to see you. I am glad that you're safe the general was quite worried about your wellbeing, I was told in advance by the general that you… wanted to speak of something that might be best if it was spoken behind closed doors"
Winter nodded "Yes… I just don't know where to begin. So if you don't mind I would like to verify some things before I start speaking about what happened. Have I really been gone for just two days?"
"You were missing?!" Weiss said with her eyes widening.
Ironwood was the one that gave her the answer "Yes, Specialist Winter Schnee disappeared of the face of the earth approximately fifty hours ago. We did our best to track her down but nothing turned up… now she appears in the middle of a plaza, surrounded by bolts of lightning and a man armed to the teeth. So if that is all you wanted to recap, I would like to know what happened"
Winter let out a sigh "I think its best if I began with mission. I did everything according to protocol, I had captured the scientist and was about to confiscate the experiments. But he managed to slip the hands of one of the recruits and then he did something to the gravity dust reacted and it reacted poorly, that wahat he was experimenting on. He intended to create a portal to escape but instead… sent me to another world, for a long time"
Qrow laughed "Come on princess, get serious" Winter glared at him "I am being serious you drunk. I have scars all over my body that prove what I have been through, the scientists created a bridge between our world and…" the room fell into an uncomfortable silence as everyone stared at Winter like she had grown a second head.
"I told you it was hard to believe general"
Six hummed "I think I can help with that" Winter looked at him wondering what he was going to do. "Anyone have something that I can use to stab myself with? No... Ok then, I guess I'll just tear this one open again"
The courier dug his finger deep into the fresh wound that Qrow had caused as everyone in the room took a step back "What are you doing you psychopath?" Glynda yelled as she moved to restrain him. Six raised a finger as he injected himself with the Stimpak, before their eyes the wound closed faster than anything they had ever seen "You can also take a blood sample, I am irradiated to hell and back. From what Winter told me your world does not have radiation, nor this kind of technology. I mean don't get me wrong you are advanced but nothing like the Old World"
Weiss looked at Winter and then to Six "You were on another planet?"
"A different dimension if what was explained to me is to be believed, a thin layer on reality separates our world from the rest" Winter said as the gears in Ozpin's head began to turn. This was new, in all his lives he never expected to deal with a situation like this one, Glynda looked like she was having a hard time processing this while general Ironwood looked more concerned than anything else "You said a long time? How long where you there?"
Winter frowned "About a year approximately sir… I lost the precise count after the Sierra Madre"
"So then… he is an alien" Qrow said as he pointed at Six, the courier laughed while Winter shrugged "Not really no, he is human and so is everyone back in his world… well not everyone is human but you know what I mean"
Glynda raised an eyebrow "So there are Faunus there, his world is just a copy of our world then?" Weiss shook her head "Negative, its way more complicated and I don't want to bore you with a history lesson just yet"
Weiss looked at her sister with worry "But that doesn't matter! Wow did you survive? And how did you even get back?"
Winter pointed at Six "Him, he kept me alive in the wasteland. I don't think I would have survived if not for his assistance and now… well here I am, I could go into specifics but I am sure that this information is enough for now, anything else that I say might just confuse you"
Ozpin spoke up "I believe you're right. Miss Schnee would you mind escorting your sister to one of the spare rooms, I assume she must be tired and maybe it would be best if you stay with her for now. As for you Mr. Six would you mind talking with me for a minute"
As the sisters left Six waved at Winter, the elder of the sisters nodded at him while Weiss glared at the man "Heh, they really look the same" Six said amused. General Ironwood looked at Ozpin. The headmaster of beacon nodded as General Ironwood excused himself to check on his army.
Glynda extended a cup of coffee to the courier who happily accepted "I must say in all my years, I never believed I would be part of something so… peculiar. Winter seems to trust you Mr. Six but right now I think I would like to know more about your world"
The courier let out a sigh as he finished the cup of coffee "Man that's good coffee! Thanks for sharing… now that question is a bit complicated, do you want history or just the basics?"
Glynda pushed her glasses up "I am more concerned about the fact that specialist Schnee called it a wasteland" Ozpin chuckled "I also wanted to ask that, so if you don't mind Mr. Six"
The courier leaned forward as he prepared to tell a story "Well then… I guess we can begin with one country America and their last war, the Great War and the fires that burned down the world"