Author's Note:

Hope you enjoy this chapter! This is the final one of this arc! Oh, and some story information and update progression info are in the notes after the chapter. If you want to know what I have planned next, look there.

"Text"

"Speech"

Disclaimer: I do not own Fallout, RWBY, or any associated characters.

Remnants of a Courier

Chapter 18: Of Roses and Couriers

Ruby had always been interested in weapons from a young age. This was fueled by her uncle teaching her how to build and use weapons like Crescent Rose. That and the loss of…

The scythe-wielder shook her head trying to dislodge any such thoughts and return to her magazine. Weapons were displayed on its pages and she took delight in them. That and the music that was currently blasting through the headphones she had on.

Right now, Ruby was located in a Dust store in Vale. She just needed to pick up some supplies for Crescent Rose before heading back to continue her studies at Signal. Her greatest desire was to become a Huntress and help people after all!

A tap on her shoulder brought the girl out of her concentration on the weapons in the magazine. She swiveled her head to spot a man in a suit and some fancy hat. The guy looked dress to kill. And from the red sword in his hand, Ruby guessed he was more than just dressed for it. The Huntress in training took off her headphones.

"Yes?" Her question came with a small smile spreading across her face.

The guy shook his head in an annoyed manner before replying, "I said put your hands in the air now."

There was a pause from Ruby and her grin slowly spread wider while she realized what was happening.

"Are you robbing me," she asked, raising a brow. She needed to be sure before she clobbered him after all.

"Yes," the robber replied in an exasperated tone.

"Oh…" Ruby held in a chuckle at what was about to happen.

In one fluid motion, the future Huntress extended her weapon—Crescent Rose—and pressed it against the ground. She then used it to prop herself up and deliver a kick to the thug and send him flying back.

Only a few moments later, a similar-looking man with a Dust pistol aimed at her. It looked like an older Atlesian model. No self-respecting Huntress would ever use such a thing. At least not without tuning it up first. Some cleaning, replacing a few parts, maybe some new Dust…

Her assailant got one shot off but it went wide as Ruby closed the distance in the blink of an eye. She and the robber were both sent out the window as the scythe-wielder kicked him through it.

She hoped the guy wasn't too hurt as the glass shattered on the ground around her. The rest of the muggers were gathering outside the store now. Okay, she needed to make this look cool. Strike a pose, strike a pose.

She slowly rose to her feet as her scythe extended out. Ruby then glanced at the bad guys out of the corner of her eye.

The future Huntress squealed on the inside. She had pulled that off perfectly.

Along with the armed thugs was a man in a white suit and bowler hat. He seemed to be leading these guys.

"Okay…" The leader said in a surprised tone. After a few moments of silence, he looked around before continuing, "get her."

The armed thugs sprung into action as they began charging at her. That was when a loud shot rang out and one of them fell to the ground while gripping his knee.

A man she hadn't seen before had taken down one of the thugs with a well-placed shot to the knee. She hadn't even seen him around the shop before the fight started nor did she see him approach.

His head was entirely covered in bandages and he wore a black combat vest over a white shirt. The man was holding a fancy looking pistol with engravings on it.

The thug leader with the brightly colored hair grimaced at the new arrival. She didn't have time to ponder on that as one of the robbers was closing in on her.

Ruby stabbed her scythe into the ground before using it to prop herself up and twirl around to gather momentum and kick the criminal in the face. The guy went flying backwards into the store as she landed with her feet on the ground.

Two more were charging at her but one fell to the ground with a bullet in his knee. Her new ally seemed to be keeping to the sideline and taking out who he could without getting in her way. What a good teammate!

She pointed her weapon to the side and fired it, using that to make her spin. As the robber who didn't go down approached her, she brought the non-sharp end of the scythe down on him, crushing him into the ground. She didn't want to kill him after all!

The last thug opened fire on her and Ruby fired her weapon again to give her the momentum to move out of the way. Ruby lunged left and right a few times to avoid the gunfire before using her weapon to close the distance.

As she came up to the thug with a gun, the bandaged man shot the weapon out of his hands. She used the opportunity to slide below the thug and kick his feet out from under him. The future Huntress followed this up by stabbing her blade into the ground and twirling around to kick the robber midair, sending him flying into the store too.

"Well… You were worth every cent, truly you were…" At the suited man's words, the bandaged man pointed his gun at him.

"Well Red, Bandages, I think we can all say it's been an eventful evening." As he spoke, the thug leader threw his cigar on the ground before crushing it with his cane.

"And as much as I'd love to stick around," he continued as he pointed his cane at the bandaged man. "I'm afraid this is where we part ways."

What looked like Burn Dust came out of the end of the villain's cane and headed straight for her new ally. In turn, the bandaged man lunged out of the way but this did give her time to close in.

Ruby came at the villain at incredible speeds and brought her blade down at him but this guy wasn't a joke. He brought his cane up and managed to redirect the blow away from him and into the ground. When Ruby tried to use the scythe to lift herself up and kick him, the robber stepped back and away before kicking her blade. This caused her to fall to the ground without support.

By the time she was back on her feet, the villain had made his way over to a fire ladder that went up a building and had begun to climb. Her new ally had recovered and was in tow, climbing up the ladder as well.

"Will you be alright if I go after him," she asked, glancing towards the Dust store owner. The man in turned nodded slowly at her. He was old.

She fired her gun again propelling herself to the ladder before turning her scythe to the ground. Ruby fired and found herself flung to the roof doing a cool spin to show off her moves as she landed. Being a Huntress meant being cool right?

The bandaged man was ahead of her and pointing his weapon at the bad guy.

"Persistent," the suit-wearing man commented from his position on the opposite side of the rooftop. He was looking away from the two of them and down at something.

There was a loud whooshing noise as what looked like an Atlesian bullhead flew up into the air in front of the thug who in turn climbed into it.

At this point, the bandaged man had opened fire and was pinging bullets into the side of the dropship.

"End of the line you two," the bad guy said as he tossed what looked like a red Dust crystal at them. Ruby's eyes went wide as it landed at her feet.

The suited man raised his cane before shooting the crystal but not before her ally shot him in turn. The bullet only grazed his shoulder but the bad guy ducked back into the vehicle hissing in pain.

The crystal exploded and Ruby's ears rang as a figure dropped in front of her. For a few long moments, Ruby's vision was covered in dust from the explosion. As it faded, she could see sigils carved into the air in front of the new person.

There was a woman with blonde hair who was taller than her. She held what looked like a riding crop and a black and purple cape billowed on her back.

Slowly, the sigils faded and Ruby heard a small humming noise from the person in front of her. A large grin was settled on the scythe wielder's face as she realized this was a full-blown Huntress! A Huntress had come to help her!

She had to hold in a scream of joy as the blonde Huntress fixed her glasses on her nose. Then she waved her riding crop in front of her and purple projectiles launched at the bullhead.

Only then did Ruby's concern turn to the bandaged man who was slowly getting to his feet. He was a distance away on the roof but he looked relatively okay. Scorch marks covered his back and he had to pat his shoulder to put out a small fire still burning.

Her attention turned back to the battle at hand as the bullhead steadied itself. The Huntress launched another attack this time creating a small black storm cloud over the dropship. It quickly began pelting it with what looked like giant icicles.

Just when she thought it was over, a woman in a red dress stepped by the bullhead's open doors. There was a flash of bright light and the Huntress had to throw up a shield of some kind. What looked like lava splattered the ground around the blonde woman.

Ruby had to take a step back to avoid being caught in the crossfire as the spot where the lava had hit exploded with heat.

Luckily, the Huntress had backflipped away from the explosion and was being assisted by the bandaged man who shot at their assailant.

The evil lady took a few steps back and took cover in the bullhead from the bandaged man's bullets. This gave the Huntress a chance to use the debris from the explosion to form a giant spike that glowed purple.

It hovered in the air for a moment before launching at the bullhead which tipped to its side and took a glancing blow.

The spear broke apart and formed three smaller snake-like whips of debris that were quickly heading towards the bullhead. It never made it as orange energy pulsed from the woman which caused the whips to break into small orange shards.

Ruby blinked a few times before realizing she was being relatively useless. She took aim with her Crescent Rose and fired with the bandaged man at the fire lady. She, in turn, seemed to stop their projectiles by simply holding up her hand.

The Huntress saved Ruby again when she used her riding crop to pull her forward right before their opponent caused the ground below them to explode.

Unfortunately, this gave the bad guys enough time to escape. The bullhead hatch closed before it flew off into the night.

There were a few long moments of silence before Ruby glanced towards the Huntress as she, in turn, glanced at Ruby.

"You're a Huntress," Ruby muttered as the last member of their group approached. She was so excited that she couldn't stand it anymore! "Can I have your autograph?!"

"Thanks for forgetting I exist," the bandaged man commented as he wiped away some of the dust and dirt covering him.

Ruby was about to respond but the Huntress grabbed her by the ear as she said, "we're going to have a talk." The blonde woman's gaze turned to her ally before continuing, "all three of us."

Six had tuned out of the conversation for a good while now. The woman he had come to know as Glynda Goodwitch was currently ranting and had been ranting for the past fifteen minutes straight.

The irritating woman kept switching from chastising the young girl next to him to chastising the unlicensed Huntsman. The Courier had, of course, corrected her that he was a private contractor but she hadn't taken it well. Since then, he hadn't spoken.

After that little debacle at the Dust shop, the Huntress had taken them to some dark interrogation room and seated them. This was both good and bad.

Bad because he didn't like being chastised or in an interrogation room. Likewise, the plan had gone south when the girl sitting next to him—Ruby—decided to intervene. Things were getting complicated.

However, it was good because he was still talking to the right people and things were still technically going according to plan.

Six was brought back to reality as Glynda slapped her riding crop on the table. Was the woman still ranting? Ruby had done a public service by protecting that shop. This lady needed to calm down.

"But there's someone here who would like to meet you." Glynda's words were punctuated by her stepping out of the way and a man with greyish-white hair stepped into the room.

This was the mysterious man himself, Ozpin. He had seen pictures of him in the reports. Joshua's eyes narrowed for a moment as he crossed his arms. All he had to do was play the rugged PMC personality up.

"Ruby Rose," the man said as he set a plate of cookies down. Ozpin leaned in before staring at Ruby and continuing, "you have… Silver eyes…"

"U-Uhm," the girl responded, obviously weirded out.

Six did not like where this was going. Despite wanting to lay low he couldn't help but lean forward and place a hand on the table in front of the young girl.

"Keep your distance," Six warned as he stared the headmaster down.

Ozpin leaned back, seemingly not caring about the threat. "So, where did you both learn to do this?"

A video of Six and Ruby was playing on a Scroll showing off their more skillful parts in the fight.

The girl responded by saying the name of some academy which seemed to direct the attention off him. That was fine with Six who leaned back in his chair.

The Huntsman and Huntress seemed skeptical at Ruby's claim and in turn the girl seemed to be eating the nervousness away. Six was impressed by the sheer number of cookies that Ruby could fit into her mouth at once.

Ruby went on to explain that she had been taught by her uncle before making some typical ninja moves. Six supposed children would be children.

He zoned out again, seemingly bored as they questioned her. Basic questions about her family and where she trained. Ruby was a nice enough girl but not what he was focusing on.

Six was double-checking his alibi and story over and over in his head. Waiting for them to turn their attention to him.

Though he did tune in as the girl went wild and said, "-she's trying to become a Huntress and I'm trying to become a Huntress because I wanna help people. My parents always taught us to helpotherssoIthoughtImightaswellmakeacareeroutofit-" And it was time to not try to decipher that nonsense as the girl shifted into overdrive.

It was obvious the girl was excited.

Ozpin seemed to have a calculated and knowing look on his face as he responded, "do you know who I am?"

"You're professor Ozpin, you're the headmaster at Beacon." Her response surprised Six. From her attitude, Joshua thought Ruby had no clue.

"Hello," Ozpin replied with a soft chuckle.

Ruby's incessant smile widened as she said, "nice to meet you."

The soft look on Ozpin's face remained but he leaned and spoke with a more serious tone. "You want to come to my school?"

"More than anything," she said with such sincerity that caused Six to look at her. The girl was really adamant about this.

The headmaster turned to Goodwitch and seemed to give her a look. In turn, the Huntress rolled her eyes which caused Ozpin to smirk.

"Well okay," he said while turning back to Ruby.

There was a pause in the conversation as Ruby practically exploded and began blabbering to herself in excitement. Weren't Beacon applicants supposed to be seventeen or older? He doubted this girl was over sixteen at most.

"As for you," Ozpin said as he turned to Six. "Ulysses House. Your file states you're from Rinewood, a small town that was destroyed by Grimm."

Six had to make this look good. He tightened the grip on his arm, making it seem as if he was uncomfortable.

"I am," Six responded through gritted teeth.

Ozpin glanced down at a scroll in his hand as he read off, "you have engaged Grimm and other combatants multiple times throughout your career as a PMC for anyone who would hire you. Atlas, third parties, even Vale at certain points."

The headmaster's eyes glanced from the scroll to Six as he continued, "and all while still so young. You're twenty-two correct?"

So, Cinder and her associates had figured out his relative age. He wondered how. Though he was actually younger by a year or two.

"That's correct," Joshua lied as Ruby glanced at him.

The grey-haired man tapped his finger on the table. "And you've already got an application in… Tell me, why did you decide to look into working at Beacon?"

"It's relatively safe, it pays well, and I have the qualifications for it." Joshua's response came without hesitation. Short and straight to the point.

"Some of our students can be… Troublesome to handle. As security, you'll have to handle these students you understand?" Ozpin's question was two-sided. He really meant handle it without hurting the students.

Again, Six answered without hesitation, "yes, the students at Beacon may be gifted but I have my ways."

There were a few long moments of silence as Ozpin deliberated.

"Welcome aboard Mister House. We'll double-check your credentials but if it all checks out, you'll start as security tomorrow."

Six's eyes widened causing Ozpin to chuckle. "What, the description did say we needed help urgently. Your first official task will be to escort Ruby to Beacon and to sit in on the orientation. We'll give you all you need to get in and fully brief you after orientation."

He was going to have to look over some young girl on his first day? Six glanced towards Ruby who gave him the largest smile he had ever seen.

Son of a bitch.

Author's Note:

I've done a bit of research and managed to finish this chapter. This is the official end of the second arc of this story. We're about to go into arc three, "Friends and Foes Blurred."

Unfortunately, there will be a hiatus as I read up on some of the extra material and get stuff figured out for the next arc. I hope you're all as excited as I am to be getting to where the show actually starts!

I'll probably upload again within the month most likely. Meaning April 6th is the deadline I have for myself but the next chapter may come sooner.

Current Gear:

Burned Man's Armor

Elite Riot Gear

Modified Stealth Suit Mk. II

Mysterious Magnum

Rebreather

Maria

Survivalist Rifle

Modified Anti-Material Rifle.

YCS/186 Gauss Rifle variant.

C4 – Plastic explosives (4)

Detonator.

Frag Grenades (4)

Frag Mines (0)

Combat Knife.

Plasma Grenades (10)