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

Remnants of a Courier

Chapter 7: The Insufferable Child

Six had finally done it. Well, it wasn't a matter of if he would have been able to do it but rather when it would be finished. Either way, his new and improved Pip-Boy was finally finished. He had integrated the Scroll's features and now it had all the functionality of a Scroll with the added security of a Pip-Boy. Joshua figured few people in his own world could crack a Pip-Boy open and that there were even fewer here.

Now he would just have to make it so his weapons could chamber dust rounds and he'd be relatively set in terms of equipment once more. Of course, this didn't mean he wouldn't continue to research the world around him.

Joshua had learned much about the City of Vale and Beacon Academy as they would be his two biggest threats and starting points. Beacon could provide useful information and so could the city but more importantly he could acquire funding and resources to fix his transportalponder.

The most irritating thing about the academies and the four countries of this world—although there technically was five with Menagerie—was that none of them could do their job. Six had read some of the reports and history revolving around Grimm and if he had to be honest, they weren't that intimidating. Sure, they were large in number but the people of Remnant had the technology to drive them back.

From what Six could tell it was the bureaucracy of this world holding back such progress. The people in power had different priorities than the Grimm. If he was in charge, Joshua predicted he could have this problem solved within five to ten years for Vale and another five to ten for the rest of the world.

Of course, this was all for later, for now, he'd focus on tasks he could accomplish. That was why he had a dust bullet that he had stripped down on his desk. He knew the fundamentals of how the thing worked but he needed to know how the bullet worked from the inside out. More importantly, if he could chamber the right sized caliber dust round into his gun and have it work.

There was a slight distraction for him, namely the red-haired girl currently sitting next to him. He kept one eye on his Pip-Boy doing research and one eye on her.

Shortly after their talk, she had returned and asked him to make her "stronger." Though he wasn't completely sure what she meant, he could show her his kind of strength. That was why Carmine was currently taking apart and putting a 45. Auto pistol back together.

Six was planning to teach her how to shoot but first she needed to understand how to maintain and respect a weapon. She had to treat her guns with care or she was liable to not only have her gun misfire but to hurt herself.

It was a slow process but after he had shown her how to take it apart and put it back together, she had been practicing for the good part of… Six glanced down at his Pip-Boy; two hours.

Of course, he had taken the necessary precautions and given her an unloaded gun to work with. Right now, he was watching her go through the steps.

Take the magazine out, check the chamber for any rounds, clock the hammer down… His eyes wandered back to his Pip-Boy as he glanced at a news article. "More Dust Stolen by White Fang Criminals; When Will It Stop?"

It was interesting reading the current problems the city was facing but even more interesting that this had been going on for some time. The White Fang was stockpiling dust which could only mean they were preparing for a fight of some kind.

Joshua's attention was drawn away from his reading as the girl asked, "what am I supposed to do here again?"

The Courier's eyes glanced back over at her to find that she had pressed the spring down and turned the bushing before pushing the slide partially back. Six raised his hand before gently pushing the slide to a small mark on the gun. "Push it back to the indention," he began before turning the gun over in her hands. Six pointed to a small button before continuing, "and press this to make it pop out."

Carmine's brow furrowed as she struggled to remove the small piece that was keeping the gun together. It took her a few moments with Joshua's watchful gaze making her nervous but she managed to pop the piece out before removing the slide from the receiver.

It looked like she had remembered what to do from here so Six turned back to his readings. Even as he continued to read the article, the Courier found his mind wandering. He was almost certain that Richter hadn't given her permission to learn about guns from him and would likely be upset if he found out.

That was why Richter didn't need to find out. Everyone should know how to protect themselves and Carmine was no exception. If the old man didn't want that, too bad.

He glanced over and smirked to himself, she was rather good at this anyways. The red-haired girl had removed the barrel from the slide and was currently cleaning the now taken apart gun.

"Joshua," the girl began, pausing her cleaning to turn to him. "What do you do about bullies?"

Well, that was different. Six raised a brow before responding, "are you asking for yourself or someone else?"

He was fairly sure what the answer was as he watched the girl shift in her seat. "A friend," she replied as Six eyed her from under his bandages. Joshua would have to phrase this carefully.

"I'd… Tell this friend that he has to stand up for himself. He can't expect anyone else to do it for him." There was a lull in the conversation as Six thought on his next words. "Never show fear, bullies will latch onto it and use it against you. And be prepared for a fight, and to put your enemies in… The… Groun-"

Joshua turned towards the red-head realizing that what he said was probably extreme. "Bullies will sometimes want to fight you when you confront them so… Just be ready for a fight. I promise if you beat them, they'll leave you alone." Hopefully, his words would hit home for her and not seem weird and psychotic.

"What if people know my friend for fighting? What if my friend doesn't want to fight because it will make people blame her?" Her lie wasn't too clever but it was decent for her age. If Richter hadn't told him about Carmine's situation earlier, it probably would have taken him a bit longer to figure out who she was talking about.

This was also the closest she had come to telling him about her "dark" times. "Then own up to it, accept that you've made mistakes and move on. You can't hold yourself back." Six's words were slow as he formulated them quickly in his mind. He paused for a few moments before continuing, "accept your mistakes, know that the bullies might want to fight you, but don't go looking for a fight."

Her one eye glared at him as he met her gaze. "You know?" Her question was accusatory and Six could only shrug in response.

"I have ears," he replied going back to his Pip-Boy. "I was going to find out eventually, the way everyone blabbers on."

Carmine's hands met each other rubbing together nervously. "You… Don't think I'm a bad person," she asked glancing away from him.

Six glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. If only she knew what he'd done in the past, Carmine wouldn't be asking that question.

"No," came his simple and blunt response as he scooted towards the counter. Six wanted something to distract him from his thoughts, figuring out how the dust rounds worked seemed as good as anything else.

There was a long silence after that. The only sound that filled the room was the clinking of the dust round casings.

"Thank you," she said breaking the silence. Carmine got a grunt from Six in response. More silence filled the room as the two fell silent again.

It was the red-haired girl that broke the silence again as she asked, "what did you do… Back home, in the Mojave, at the Strip city?"

Six held in a chuckle at her idea of the Strip. He figured that the girl saw it as a city of wonder but it was nothing compared to the cities here.

"A lot," he replied still toying with the dust rounds. Six had been running a few tests on them to make sure that they wouldn't explode in his gun. From what he had found dust functioned like gunpowder with a few drawbacks and added effects.

The drawbacks were lower overall velocity and impact as well as being utterly useless against non-organic material. Essentially, if it wasn't Grimm or flesh it was near useless. The only dust rounds that could hurt metal were ones that exploded but that was more the triggered explosion than the impact from the round.

The positive was that it was very good at its job. Flesh and Grimm really couldn't stand up to the stuff. It even seemed to do more damage against Grimm, probably some rudimentary chemical reaction that not only penetrated Grimm skin but boiled it alive. Although it looked like some Grimm had adapted and were now resistant to such weapons.

"There were a lot of people that had me do a lot of things," he continued as he saw the annoyed look Carmine was giving him. "There was the NCR, the Legion, House, Followers of the Apocalypse, and a lot of small groups all wanted my help."

"But why your help?" Her question was innocent enough and it made sense. Why would a bunch of different factions all want his help? Six knew it was because he was good at what he does, and that was hurting people.

"Because I hurt people and I was good at it. Might have even been the best in the business." His statement carried with it a hint of pride but for the most part he was monotone. Six did take some pride in his work but when it came down to it the killing was just a means to an end. As The Burned Man put it, "I don't enjoy killing but, but when done righteously, it's just a chore, like any other."

The gun Carmine had been cleaning lay on the table. Joshua had to admit she had done a good job and it was ready to be put back together.

Her one eye glanced up at him and asked the question he had been waiting for, "did you kill people?"

More silence filled the air as she looked up at him. Six's body was tense under the staring and questioning. He was never this nervous when he was lying to even the most powerful men in the Mojave, why was he nervous about this girl?

Joshua let out a sigh and allowed his body to relax. His eyes turned to her as he replied, "yes. Most of them deserving… Some of them not. It's why I could handle the Grimm as well as I did."

The Butcher of House leaned in before continuing, "you can't trust everyone you meet at random. I've hurt people, a lot of people, and I could've hurt you." He could see it now, the fear in her eyes, the fear that everyone eventually had of him, or maybe that was just his eyes playing tricks on him.

"But you didn't hurt me," Carmine replied a small pout on her face as she turned away and picked up the pieces of the auto pistol. Joshua blinked in response; it wasn't often he was surprised but here he was. "In fact, all you've done since you've been here has helped me and Papa. So, I think you're nicer than you think."

The girl continued putting the pistol back together as she continued, "I don't know why anyone would ever hate somebody enough to kill them… But to me you just seem sad."

Six let out a sigh before turning back to his Pip-Boy. This girl was absolutely insufferable, kind of like him when he was younger. Maybe a little too intuitive for her age. A small smirk crossed his face underneath the bandages. No matter how much he tried to deny it, a simple life like this was nice. He'd enjoy it while it lasted.

Author's Notes:

If anyone is curious, I based the 45. Auto pistol cleaning scene on the 1911 since the 45. was based on it. That is a step-by-step breakdown on how to clean a 1911, hopefully accurately.