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

Remnants of a Courier

Chapter 8: Out of Patience

Another loud bang rang throughout the forest as the bullet hit its mark. Six glanced up from his make-shift workstation in the forest and glanced towards the source of the noise.

Carmine held a small .22 in her hands and was currently firing at a target pinned to a refrigerator. Said refrigerator had been thrown out a few days ago by a neighbor and then carried by Six to his makeshift range.

It had been a few days since Joshua and the girl had talked, making it about three weeks since he had arrived on Remnant.

Joshua had set up this range for a few reasons. First, he had wanted to get away from many of the eyes in town so he could work on his equipment in peace. Second, it was a good place to test out his firearms he was modifying to use dust rounds. And lastly, Carmine needed the practice.

Honestly, the range was tiny, only really viable for small firearms like the .22 she was currently firing. The two were about a mile out of town so none of the residents would worry as long as they didn't shoot anything too powerful. Of course, he also used this as an opportunity to test his guns out.

The current pistol she was firing was one of his test weapons. A pistol from his world that had been modified to fire dust rounds. He was pretty sure that she was perfectly safe.

He was currently sitting behind her at a small table he had set up to work on his gear. The .22 was the only weapon that he had managed to modify to chamber dust rounds. Of course, he had also made .22 rounds filled with dust to go along with it. He'd have to make his own ammo but that was a hassle that Six could manage. He was just happy he'd have a steady supply of ammo. In theory, when he was done he could chamber both dust and gunpowder bullets into his guns.

The current problem wasn't the weapons he was working on. Nor was it the red-head who was still learning how to shoot. It was the older gentleman sitting across from him with a deep scowl on his face.

Richter had found out about their little project in the forest and the fact that Joshua was teaching Carmine to shoot a gun. Now that Six thought about it, it was only a matter of time before the older gentleman found out anyways.

At first, her father had been furious, and for good reason. Not so much at Carmine learning how to protect herself which was the initial problem but rather that they had both tried to keep it a secret from him. A perfectly reasonable response actually.

Six had been used to going around people as almost no one ever just went along with his plans. In hindsight treating everyone like that wasn't a good idea and this had opened his eyes to that.

The only real punishment now was that Richter was going to be around at all times whenever they went to the firing range which meant Six would get no privacy to tinker. The Courier could work around that though.

"So, I don't want to pry," the older gentleman began as he put a dust round down. The Grimm attack had come early but that didn't change the previous order the militia had put in for weapons, gear, and armor.

This also meant that Joshua had been put to work helping the father of the Spring family make said items. "I assume you're going to ask anyway," Six replied loading more bullets into a magazine for Carmine.

A small grunt of confirmation came from Richter before he said, "you're a strange man from some unknown place. I get that. You don't have to tell me everything. But…" There was a pause as the crippled man glanced towards Carmine. "She told me some things."

"Wonderful," the Courier replied unamused at the situation. He didn't expect Carmine to keep everything from her father but he had hoped.

"This "Mojava" and "Strip" don't exist anywhere on any maps," Carmine's father said his eyes trained on Six.

The former ruler of Vegas shrugged not turning away from his dust project though he did have to resist correcting Richter on his mispronunciation of Mojave. "What of it?" Six's response was blunt and to the point. If Richter was trying to get information out of him, he might as well just come out and say it.

"I don't need to know everything and you can have your secrets," Richter began as he picked up a test bullet the Courier was working on, "but I have to know something about you if you're going to be staying under my roof much longer."

Six paused his work to look up at Carmine who was currently loading another magazine into her gun. Probably not the safest practice to let her do it on her own but he had taught her how to do it and he had been doing it at a younger age anyways.

The Butcher of House glanced towards Richter before responding, "then I won't. I never planned on staying here forever." The slight tensing of the older man's hand told everything Six needed to know.

The Courier had called the man's bluff. It was obvious that he cared a lot for Carmine and a lot of what was keeping the girl going right now after the Grimm attack was Six. She'd probably survive without the Wastelander but it would definitely hurt her for him to up and disappear. Six and her father knew that.

Richter's hand balled into a fist as he placed it against his forehead. "Why do you have to be so difficult about this?" Six knew Richter's question wasn't unreasonable but how was he supposed to explain everything he had been through? Six didn't even want to tell Richter anything.

Sure, they had been staying together for three weeks but that was nothing compared to his companions that betrayed him. As for Carmine, his eyes wandered over to the girl, he had a soft spot for children. If Six had to guess, he wanted them to have the childhood he never had, and the damage Carmine had gone through in her life reminded the Courier of himself.

Whatever, so this had been a nice change of pace, Six knew that he'd have to move on eventually… That didn't mean he wanted to move on just yet. A frown crossed the bandaged man's face as he looked back towards Richter.

Carmine's father heard a sigh escape the Courier's lips and glanced up to see the stranger staying in his house set down dust and casings before saying, "it's not going to be on any maps. I can't explain everything right now but just know that it's a very hard place to find."

The glance from Richter told Six that he was listening. "It's also not a very forgiving place. It might as well be the apocalypse there," Joshua continued knowing that it was far more than the apocalypse "might" have happened.

"I'm doing my best to put that place behind me for now," the Courier said before going silent and looking straight at Richter.

"I would suppose so judging from your attitude," Carmine's father replied before chuckling. It was a few seconds later before the aged man asked, "anything else important I should know?"

"All you should know is that I'm from there and that it should never be exposed to the outside world." Six wasn't lying about the latter of what he said. Interaction between his world and this one might be disastrous. It didn't mean he couldn't introduce technology and resources from this world to his. He could help both Remnant and Earth without any need for them to interact for now.

Joshua was fairly certain that this was a different world. It didn't make sense that it was his world but in the future since there was no record of such change and no radiation traces left. There would at least be hints of the old world… Right? He'd go with that theory until proven otherwise.

"I suppose that'll do for now, it's not much but it's something." At Richter's words, Six brought himself back to reality. The older man looked satisfied and Carmine was approaching the two.

"I need more ammo," the girl said setting down the empty magazines.

Six pushed two empty clips towards her before responding, "then load them yourself. You want to shoot the gun you have to put in the effort."

Carmine was about to reply when all three of them heard footsteps. Graham's .45 auto pistol was in Six's hand as a group of people stepped out of the forest. He instantly recognized some of them.

The first he noticed was the blonde-haired guard that had been in charge of the civilians during the Grimm assault. The second was the messenger Faunus that had been running information from one gate to the next. And the final guard he recognized was the greying-haired man with the large scar, the man leading the soldiers during the assault.

Along with those men were a small gaggle of civilians. Six managed to pick out Scarred Tom in the crowd.

The one leading the group wasn't someone he recognized. A young woman, short black hair, serious looking. She was likely the one that was going to be a problem.

The woman leading the group glanced around the range before asking, "what's going on here?"

Six glanced around at the range as well before turning back to the black-haired woman. "Firing practice… At a firing range?" Six's response was meant to make fun of her but he was also confused as to what the problem was.

The frown that graced the leader's face wasn't pretty as she replied, "I know that, why exactly did you build all this?" Oh, this was going to be fun.

"To shoot guns," Six replied the humor not escaping the group's ears.

The man with the large scar stepped forward before saying, "captain, he's messing with you."

"I know that sergeant," the captain replied pinching the bridge of her nose.

The young blonde guard he remembered stepped forward before speaking, "excuse me, she means why do you need to practice shooting so close to town? We have gotten a lot of noise complaints from the citizens here."

Joshua could see what was going on. This had nothing to do with the range. "We're a mile outside of town using small arms fire. If they heard anything, it's because they left town to come watch us."

There was a murmur from the crowd as the captain stepped in front of the blonde guard. "So, you're telling me a heavily armed stranger moves into town, ignores everyone except the problem family in town, single-handedly takes down swarms of Grimm, and decides to build a range for no reason?"

That's what this was about. The townspeople figured they could get rid of the dangerous stranger and the problem father and daughter with one go? Not likely.

"So," The Butcher of House began, mocking the way the captain had begun her own little speech. "You're telling me, a heavily armed friendly moves into town, helps the family that helped him, single-handedly saves the town, and decides to build a range for target practice, and you all want to have a problem with it?"

The "saves the town" part may have been exaggerated to a degree, it wasn't just him that saved the town, but he'd be damned if they didn't remember him helping.

"No offense stranger," the one identified as sergeant said as he scratched the back of his head. "But you don't exactly inspire confidence, you're kind of an asshole."

"Not to mention how you knew so much about the Grimm," the Faunus messenger piped up from behind the sergeant. "You knew where they were heading and what they were doing, how did you do that?"

The Courier placed a hand on his hip and sighed. This was getting nowhere; they were just going to keep finding excuses. He was about to reply when he was interrupted by Carmine.

"Leave him alone, he helped me, he helped all of you!" Her tone was a bit shaky as she stepped in front of Six and he could tell she was nervous. "Why do you have to be so mean?"

"Because not only did he threaten me in my own shop but he also went and made friends with you, ya little shit!" Six identified the one who was speaking as Tom.

Richter was about to step in front of Carmine and reprimand Tom for speaking to his daughter that way when Joshua placed a hand on his daughter's shoulder.

The air seemed to heat up to Carmine's father but he knew that couldn't be right. "The fuck did you just say you little piece of shit?" Six took a few steps forward and Richter was legitimately worried that Joshua was going to try and strangle the man.

"Wanna run that by me again?" At the Courier's words, the guards reached for their weapons but didn't say a word. "What did you do, while you sat in your home shitting yourself like the worthless maggot you are? While I went and saved the town."

Six could feel that familiar anger build up inside of him. He took another step forward. This worthless dead man dared to talk to her that way? He was the chaff, and it was Six's duty to cut the chaff from the wheat.

"You sat there and did nothing, and the only reason I saved this pathetic, worthless little town, is because these two were here." He still had the pistol in his hand but didn't raise it for now.

Six took a few calming breaths as the messenger tried to pipe up, "we helped defe-"

"No, I don't want to fucking hear it! If I wasn't here, you'd all be dead, remember that!" Six turned to Tom after shouting down the messenger. "The next time you run your mouth off like that to her, you're dead. Hell don't talk to any of us like that."

Even after the shouting, even after putting these cowards in their place, he could still feel the rage. He raised his arm before pointing the pistol at Tom. He could barely even register the sounds of the captain telling him to stand down. His limb remained motionless; his pistol trained on the worthless idiot. One squeeze, that's all it would take.

"This town has always been against these two, as far as I'm concerned, none of you deserve to live." His finger began squeezing the trigger when he was finally snapped out of it.

"Joshua," Carmine said grabbing his arm and yanking it down, almost causing him to pull the trigger. "It's okay, he didn't do anything, he just said some mean words. It's okay."

It took a few calming breaths for Six to regain his senses. Only now did he realize all the soldiers had their guns trained on him. When did he get so prone to such outbursts of anger? His free hand went to Carmine's head as he looked down at her. It was a good thing this girl was more in control than he was. It almost made him want to chuckle.

"Leave," the Courier demanded. "Leave this range and don't come back, I'll protect you from the Grimm but if you ever insult me or the Spring family again by doing something like this…"

The tone had gone from a fiery rage to cold anger as he tilted his head back towards the group before continuing, "you're all dead." He was specifically staring down the captain that had the audacity to try and pull this off.

The captain looked like she wanted to say something but the crowd had been thoroughly shouted into submission and even her own men seemed nervous.

"We're leaving, move out," the captain ordered as she turned on her heel and began marching back towards town.

Once they were out of sight, Six felt a kick to his leg and looked down. "What did you do that for," the Courier asked noticing that Carmine had done it.

"Thank you… For standing up for me," the red-haired girl replied slowly. "But you can't go around threatening people like that! Just because they say mean things doesn't mean you can threaten them!"

The Courier felt like arguing the point but realized that after his little outburst it seemed rather childish to do so, especially with a little girl. "Fine, fine, I won't threaten them again. Unless they deserve it."

"No," she shot back pulling his sleeve. "Promise you won't do it again!"

Six didn't like making promises. They seemed childish and he didn't like being held to them but this one seemed relatively harmless. Besides, he doubted she'd be around the next time he would inevitably threaten someone. "Fine," he muttered back. "I promise."

The girl nodded her head before trotting over to the make-shift workbench. One quick glance towards Richter and Six knew the old man was now very nervous but at least slightly amused. Richter was doing his best to hide how uncomfortable he was around Joshua right now.

"That's my girl," Richter said jokingly before heading towards the workbench.

The Courier holstered his pistol before heading back over to the workbench himself. He still had to keep working on the dust rounds and modifications for his guns and teach Carmine. It was going to be a long day.