Author's Notes:

This is a shorter chapter but I hope you still enjoy some character development! Also, I believe Jaune's Aura color is either golden or yellow. I used gold, I apologize if this is inaccurate.

"Text"

"Speech"

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

Remnants of a Courier

Arc 4: Chaos Theory

Chapter 42: The Good, the Bad, and the Apathetic

"Still too obvious," Six chided as he sidestepped another swipe from Cardin.

The tall student was currently trying to hit him to little avail. While he had the strength to send several other students to the nurse's office, that was only if he could actually land his blows.

Six ducked under the student's next swing as he idly wondered how much Cardin's mace weighed. Standard mace's usually weighed around ten pounds but the bully's had to be at least double that. Maybe more considering his Aura and brute strength.

Idly glancing over the student's shoulder, Six could see Jaune holding up the .45 he had given him. The smaller student was aiming at a few targets the Courier had set up on a makeshift pulley system in the Murder Box to make the targets move.

Jaune hadn't shot a single round for the past thirty seconds.

"Jaune! Get a move on! It's not the end of the world if you miss and you'll never hit it if you don't even try!" The Courier called out as he made another sidestepping motion as Cardin brought his mace down in a vertical smashing attack. The bully's attempts were getting a little sad at this point.

Cardin smirked as he pressed a small button on the side of his mace. A small burst of Burn Dust was violently ejected from his mace when it hit the ground, creating a small explosion and shockwave, shaking the earth beneath them.

It was a better plan than just wildly swinging but Six had sparred against Cardin plenty of times. The Courier lunged back and away from Cardin and as his back hit the ground Six rolled, performing a backwards combat roll before pushing off the ground with his arms and landing on his feet. If Six recalled correctly, it would have more officially been called a "back roll" in Jiu-Jitsu. He just used the momentum of it to propel himself off the ground and onto his feet at the end.

Regardless of the proper nomenclature, the move had successfully pushed him away from Cardin's attack and he was now resting on one knee.

What Six was genuinely surprised by was looking up only to see Cardin's mace swinging towards his face. Cardin had closed the distance as Six recovered and planned on following up his previous attack. A fairly impressive feat of endurance and recovery given the impact from swinging an explosive mace likely put pressure on the teen's body.

Six was forced to lean back and let his knees drop, stretching both his body and armor as he bent backward and under the student's swing. The Courier could feel the force behind Cardin's blow whiz past him.

Six then pushed off with one arm and one leg to the side to roll away from the tall student. Just in time too as Cardin brought his foot up and then slammed it down on where the Courier had been.

"Better," Six commented as he got to his feet. "But you still have two issues." House may have used his "instructor voice" but he could still see Cardin was eager for a fight.

The Courier strode forward and towards the smaller student. "I think a quick sparring session between you and Jaune will give you an idea of what they are."

There was a quick look of desperation from Jaune that Six ignored as he stared at the moving targets. The pulley system was fairly simple. A rope, a couple gears and an axis powered by a motor, and the metal frame it was mounted on. It was fairly easy to Jury Rig the system into place. Then he just clipped targets onto the rope. The last part was a hardy metal wall designed to stop the bullets placed behind the targets. Though even if Jaune somehow missed, the building behind the targets was made of stone and metal as well. While it definitely wasn't how it was "supposed" to be done, Six was not going to take them down to the shooting range with the rest of the students.

The targets looked like they had taken a few rounds and Jaune had even managed to hit the center mass bullseye a couple times. He was improving slowly but surely. Now he just needed to start implementing that accuracy and trigger discipline into his fighting style.

"You know the drill, starting positions and when I say 'go' is when you start."

House's words spurred the two boys into action, lest they annoy him. And they both knew better than to do that.

Despite ordering them to spar, Six was barely paying attention and only barely heard his own "go" for them to start.

Cardin charged at Jaune who shot him with the .45 as he did so. The usual way this played out was Jaune whittling down Cardin from a distance and then being defensive with his shield before getting overwhelmed by the taller teen.

Normally, he'd poke at weaknesses either of them were having but today he just didn't feel that in it. Primarily because of what Roman had sent him only a couple days ago.

There was going to be an operation soon. Something involving some kind of terror attack on Vale using a train. Before that, there was going to be a drive for White Fang recruitment for the mission. Needed in part because of his own slaughtering of the White Fang.

The Courier had two parts to this job. One was to stake out the meeting location for recruitment and then make an appearance as the recruitment happened. The second was to personally assist in making sure the train reached its destination. All relevant information on the latter was to be given after recruiting more Faunus.

How the hell were they ever going to sell any White Fang grunts on working with him? That wasn't Six's problem apparently.

Using his shield, Jaune deflected the mace swung at his head to the side before countering with his sword. The blonde delivered a short and quick jab to the taller student's midsection with the tip of his blade before darting back and out of reach.

The Courier must have lost track of what they were doing for a minute because he didn't recall Cardin closing the distance. Though Jaune was looking hard pressed now that he had. Taking a quick peek at his scroll, Six could see Jaune's Aura in the low yellow and Cardin's in the low green.

That yellow color quickly changed to red when the bruiser swung his mace hard enough to knock the shield out of the blonde's hand, sending the smaller student skidding backwards.

Figuring he could take one more good hit, Six let the match continue, watching as Jaune glanced at his surroundings and panicked when he didn't find anything. That was one of Jaune's weaknesses, the boy tended to lose resolve if he didn't have a solid plan going into things.

It was only when the bully began rushing towards him again did Jaune seem to steel himself. Instead of rushing back, the teenager pressed forward and gripped his sword with both hands.

In a move that looked suspiciously close to something Six would pull, Jaune ducked and then rolled under Cardin as the bully swung the mace at him. While sliding between the taller student's legs, the blonde cut into Cardin's Achilles tendons before jumping to his feet and swinging his sword around at the other teenager's back. A useful tactic if Aura wasn't a thing.

Cardin quickly turned and caught the blade with his hand, the sword digging into his aura but also halting its progress entirely. The Winchester grunted in pain and anger as he brought his mace up and then down only for it to meet the ground. Jaune had barely stumbled to the side and out of the way, letting go of his sword in the process.

The blonde stumbled for only a moment longer before finding his balance and launching himself at Cardin. As the taller student extended his hand and gripped Jaune by the throat, the scrappy fighter sent a punch into his face.

Even as the Winchester swung his mace around and defeat seemed inevitable, the blonde didn't give up. Instead, he pulled his .45 before letting loose a couple rounds into Cardin's torso. This was quickly followed up by Jaune taking a destructive blow from the mace.

The blonde's face contorted in silent agony as he had the wind knocked out of him before being hurtled several yards away from the bully. Still, the kid's Aura remained strong, a gold shimmering layer flashed around Jaune but didn't break as he lay on the ground.

After a few moments of silence, Jaune finally caught his breath as he coughed and wheezed to get air back into his lungs. At least he was alive.

And that concluded their little sparring session. Cardin was in the yellow while Jaune's Aura was nearly broken. A stark improvement from just a few months ago.

"Alright, Cardin, what can Jaune work on?" Six questioned in a bored tone. They had all run through this exercise countless times now.

The student being questioned stepped over to the prone form of Jaune before offering a hand. After a few more coughs and hacks, the blonde took the offered hand and was pulled to his feet.

Six would never admit it but while Cardin's growth combat-wise was slower than Jaune's, he had come far in attitude. He still had his mishaps but it was maybe once a week at most now. If House could just wean Cardin off his Faunus hatred, he would shape up to be an almost passable student.

Once Jaune had caught his breath, the bully spoke. "He gets in his own head too much. Sometimes ya just need to do sh-stuff when it comes to you."

A fair assessment. "Now Jaune, what about Cardin?" Six questioned in a neutral tone while doing his best to hide that he was pleased with their progress.

"Uh, I guess you could use some kind of ranged weapon?" The blonde started before descending into a coughing fit. He straightened his back before continuing, "I got some damage in before you even had a chance to do any."

The smaller student walked over to retrieve his fallen equipment, pausing when he went to reach for his shield.

"Ya know," Jaune continued as he stood up with said shield. "You could use a shield instead like me. Something to help close the distance."

That was exactly what Six was thinking.

"Good," the Courier affirmed as he glanced between the two. "Jaune, you could use more on-your-toes thinking. Cardin, you need a ranged option and a shield would be nice too."

"Cardin, the next time you get some downtime, I'd like you to go to the workshop and work on a shield and this." As he spoke, House messaged the design blueprints for an upgrade to Cardin's mace: The Executioner.

The design itself was simplistic. It took the Burn Dust vents dotted around the mace that could create the small explosion Cardin used earlier and enhanced them. He would keep the smaller vents but also have one larger vent that could be opened or closed at the top. When firing off Burn Dust, the top vent could be opened and the partially spent Dust crystal could be heated and propelled out the top, functioning as a high-velocity impact explosive. It wasn't as accurate or reliable as Roman's cane but it packed a far bigger punch.

"Jaune," Six continued as he turned to the blonde. "You're going to help him make this gear." When the smaller student tiredly opened his mouth to reply, Six cut him off. "And in turn he'll help you train. Unfortunately, when it comes to developing instinct and quick decision-making, experience counts for everything. What you need is more training and experience in the field."

"And Cardin, you only get one warning. I catch you fucking around and getting Jaune to do all the work or not helping in his training…" Six let his threat trail off. It was enough to let the student's mind conjure up what he'd do.

Both students quietly nodded their heads in response. Good, with his after class training sessions and them training on their own, they'd shape up in no time. And in doing so would help shape up their teams.

In Cardin's case, he'd have to drag his team upward. While some of his teammates had skill, they had no discipline and had only been in to see him when they had to. Team CRDL could be one of the top five teams of the first years if they just applied themselves.

The opposite was true for Jaune. His teammates were perfectly willing to work hard. Their leader just had to catch up to their skill level so they could work more cohesively. Even with their trainee leader, they were still amongst the top three first-year teams based on skill alone.

"If neither of you have any questions, you're dismissed."

And with that, both the students relaxed and Six was able to head over to the targets he had set up. It was annoying but it was part of his job now to take apart the pulley system when not in use. As he did so, Six could overhear Cardin talking with Jaune as they made their way towards the exit of the Murder Box.

"-nd Alex has been doing great man. I mean he's really been killing it. He was a little behind before I showed up to give him the lowdown on how to be a Huntsman but he's caught up with the rest of the class again."

Alex, that was Cardin's family friend if Six recalled. Essentially a cousin in all but blood.

"And, uh, don't tell House this," the taller teen continued in a more hushed tone as he leaned in. "But yeah, all I had to do was get a feel for what he was good at and what he was bad at and work from there. It was really simple when I listened to him."

"Don't worry about it. You kept my secret a secret. I'll keep your secret a secret right?" Jaune responded in an equally hushed tone. He seemed to be actually enjoying himself.

Six turned his head to glance at the pair as they headed out the door just as Cardin held up a finger to Jaune.

"Hey, speaking of secrets, you like that Pyrrha girl right?" At his question, the blonde sputtered and turned a bright red.

"Oh, don't be like that man," the bully continued as he patted his fellow student on the back. "Ladies like confidence. And from what I've seen, she's really into you. All we need to do is get a situation for you two to be alone. Ya see, there's this upcoming party thing, a ball or something, it's perfect for…"

The boy's voice trailed off. If Six really wanted to, he could have listened or trailed after them. However, the love life of students was not his priority. Besides, that endeavor was likely not going to end well.

What Cardin failed to understand about Jaune is that the boy doubted himself to the extreme. Six would call it an inferiority complex. Given Jaune's unique circumstances getting into Beacon and then being outclassed by every other student, it was easy to see why the blonde thought that way. Though, Six felt like there was something behind that as well, perhaps something rooted deeper? Eh, not his business to find out.

Cardin's change in attitude was a bit strange. Was it because he was spending time training? Or training with Jaune? Or maybe it was because he was pumped about his distant cousin?

Whatever it was, it made the teen infinitely more tolerable for Six. As for Alex…

Six had looked into the kid. He was an average student at Signal minus the grieving he was doing. Six had gone out of his way to provide a few extra funds for his family and keep track of the kid's progress through Cardin. It sounded like while Alex was grieving he was slowly recovering. Apparently, the kid had been close with his uncle so it had hit especially hard.

Whatever, he was doing his best to assuage that guilty conscience while doing his job. There was nothing else Six could do so there was no reason to worry about it for now. Instead, he'd focus on what he could get ready for the little White Fang meeting a week from then. Mostly gear. He'd bring explosives just in case.

While on the topic of recruitment, the Voidwalkers had been doing well. Their numbers were slowly but surely rising; soon he wouldn't even need to recruit anymore as he'd have all the soldiers necessary for any plan Cinder cooked up. Though he could do with better information gathering.

While he had Ozpin and his minions under close watch, he couldn't say the same about his associates, and after that debacle with the White Fang it was a good idea to keep tabs on them. Maybe he could utilize online search engine histories, facial recognition throughout the city, and maybe even "Social Media" to keep better tabs on them? The Courier hated how inane the constant stream of shallow and nonsensical thoughts were from social media platforms but maybe it could be turned into a useful tool. He could even create a program to monitor all communications through any device that uses the Common Atlas Programming Language. That would also require a large amount of manpower and physical servers reminiscent of the Cold War. What would he call such an undertaking?

The Beholder Initiative.