Author's Notes:
Please stick around after the chapter. I will be explaining the hiatus and also detailing the future timeline there. I will also have a question for you the reader about your preferences.
If you're in a hurry, just read the bold sections of the author's notes after the chapter.
Also, I am posting this two days early as this is a rather long section. If there are errors, please tell me and I'll change them over the next couple of days.
"Text"
"Speech"
Disclaimer: I do not own Fallout, RWBY, or any associated characters.
Remnants of a Courier
Arc 4: Chaos Theory
Chapter 53: Actions Taken
The Courier hummed to himself as he stared at the security room's monitors and listened.
A couple of days had passed since the attack on Vale and people were still up in arms. Headlines ranged from "Terror of Vale 'The Mimic' Strikes Again" to "Vale Council Fails to Protect Its People."
It was an amazing turn of events for Six who wanted the general populace to turn against the Council and by extension Ozpin. Because as more pressure was put on the Council, they would in turn put pressure on Ozpin. The Headmaster could share in the stress that Six felt throughout Cinder's entire plot.
From what his Beholder Initiative had gathered on the subject, the Council was scrambling to save face in wake of the terror attack. Promising to bring both the White Fang and the Mimic to justice.
There were dozens of rumors about who the Mimic actually was. Forum threads that extended over fifty pages long theorized and drew connections out of nothing.
"He's the serial killer that's been running around Vale."
"He's part of the White Fang."
"It's all part of Atlas' plan, he's a plant to weaken Vale."
All inherently incorrect conclusions. While Six was connected to the White Fang, they were most certainly at odds. And as for being a serial killer…
The fact that the real perpetrator hadn't been caught yet was concerning. Another three victims had been found, brutally mauled to death. Even with only a few weeks left until everything came to a head, it was becoming harder to put this murderer on a back shelf.
Six forced his muscles to relax as he let it go. The likelihood that this killer would die during the Vytal Festival was decently high. And if he or she didn't, well, then Six would hunt them like the animal they are.
But that was getting off topic. What was more important was the fallout of their little terrorist act. Roman was in prison, which was somehow part of the plan. The local authorities hadn't released where he'd be held. When he got some spare time, the Courier would look into it further to determine his holding place. It likely hadn't even been decided yet given how recently he was captured.
More importantly, the Courier was monitoring any possible channels that he thought Roman would try to use to contact Cinder. If, for a second, Six thought that Roman was going to betray him, he'd scrub the whole operation and shuttle the Spring family to safety.
But so far, no communication. Which meant Roman had either sided with Six or was still deciding. It was a little nerve-wracking but with his Beholder Initiative Six was confident he would pick up on Roman betraying him.
The Beholder Initiative was also set to be on the lookout for a current runaway Grimm. If that small fry from the train dared to show its face again in Vale, Six would know. And this time he'd put it down for good.
His Pip-Boy chose to ring him at that moment, indicating that Ozpin was about to enter another meeting. This time it was a secured video call between him and Ironwood. Another one of their grand meetings apparently.
Six idly listened to the call while staring at the several monitors in the security room.
"General," Ozpin greeted in that familiar friendly tone of his. The one that masked how he was truly feeling at any given moment.
"Ozpin," Ironwood replied but in a significantly more strained tone.
"I know what you're calling for. And no, we're not going to make more arrests." The Vale Headmaster's tone was final, hardened from the start unlike their previous encounters.
An exasperated sigh came from the other end. "You can't be serious," the General began, already sounding irritated. "The Mimic, Cinder, her lackeys, at least give me something. Gods above Ozpin, they committed the largest act of terror seen since the Revolution. Nine dead, sixteen injured, and one still missing. Not to mention property damage."
"I know," Ozpin began before letting out a sigh of his own. "I know news outlets have been focusing on the negative aspects but that's not what we should focus on James. We need to keep a level head, it's what differentiates us from them. They focus on the negatives but we both know there was a positive as well."
"Roman." There was just a shred of relief in the General's voice. "Since we've captured him, we can squeeze him for information. But Oz, it's not working. He'll never tell us what we want to know unless we force it out of him."
The Vale Headmaster's voice turned grave as he replied, "no. Don't even think about it. We do not torture our prisoners James."
"Bu-"
"No James, just no…" The Headmaster's voice trailed off, sounding more tired than he ever had been. "We just need to find the right incentive for mister Torchwick to work with us. When we do that, we'll have all the evidence we need to bring Cinder and House into custody."
"And what incentive would that be?"
Ozpin went silent for a few moments, deep in thought. In a more neutral tone, he replied, "let me worry about that for now. I want to know how the CCTV search has been going."
"Not good," the General admitted. "We've found no traces of whatever they put in our system. It's beyond professional work Oz. At this rate, we're going to have to wipe the entire system and start from scratch. Hardware and all to ensure nothing is on there."
"Which," Ozpin cut in, "we can't do so close to the Festival. It would take weeks at best to get the tower back up again. And during that time all international communication would be down. Not to mention even local communication for Vale. During such a critical and shaky time, we can't afford that, maybe after the Festival…"
"We could postpone or even cancel the Vytal Festival this year."
There was a silence before another sigh escaped Ozpin. "No, no." He began, his tone more resigned. "With the fear we've already amassed, Grimm have been constantly testing our perimeter to the city. If we did this, who knows how much worse it could get."
"What about your own systems?" It was the General who spoke, earning a small silence from Ozpin.
After a moment, he responded, "if you're referring to the break-in from earlier this year, that should be resolved. I had the system wiped and reloaded. Restored from a backup. With my credentials changed, that shouldn't be an issue."
To be fair, it normally wouldn't be. In fact, Six was almost certain that Cinder was pissed she didn't have a way to spy on the Headmaster anymore. But unfortunately for the Headmaster, Six was a little craftier than her.
The malware he had installed on Ozpin's Scroll didn't infect the storage device. Instead, it accessed parts like the bootloader, flash memory, and other parts of the Scroll. Even if Ozpin reloaded the device, that would simply wipe the storage. He'd have to get a whole new scroll to officially remove his malware.
The real irony of it was that Ozpin would never think to suspect this happening for one simple reason. Malware that could infect the BIOS of a computer or store itself on different parts of a Scroll hadn't been invented yet. His malware infected the most basic and vital files for a Scroll. For all intents and purposes, Six had invented the first kernel-level rootkit for Remnant. And if Six had his way, he'd die with that secret.
The General seemed satisfied with the Headmaster's answer. "What about the reports you received?"
"Concerning, to say the least. We've sworn Doctor Oobleck and team RWBY to secrecy but there were other rogue elements there. It's only a matter of time before word gets out about the Grimm that can speak."
"And what are we doing about the Grimm?" James pointedly asked, cutting to the heart of it. Six imagined they had already read the reports.
"With its apparent death on the train? Nothing. Without being able to capture and study the creature, there's nothing left to glean from it, other than it could speak."
An irritated huff came from the General. "Then what about what it said? According to Ruby's report, it referred to the Mimic as a parasite. It even seemed to be hunting him. Could this be a ploy by Queen somehow?"
A silence descended once again as Ozpin thought over his words carefully. With a slow and thoughtful tone, Ozpin replied, "I have never known her to be able to grant these creatures awareness or intelligence of this level. That being said, we can't rule out the possibility."
"James, with this new information, it's critical we either find new evidence or convince Roman to work with us. We just need one piece of solid proof to take instructor House into custody. I believe this will be the only way we can unravel this mystery. In this regard, I am going to elevate the priority of Rhyt. We will not wait for team RWBY to get back, as soon as Qrow returns, he's going there as well. Whether team RWBY has completed their mission or not."
"And if none of them find anything?" Ironwood questioned as Six leaned back in his chair. This was entertaining, they certainly liked talking about him.
Ozpin took a breath in. "Then you have my full permission to take him into custody regardless."
"Good, we're finally making progress. What about your contact with the girl?"
The sound of a door opening cut the two off as Glynda's voice came over his Pip-Boy. "We have a situation in the cafeteria with Miss Dawn and Miss Valkyrie. It's ice cream again."
Oh shit, that was actually his job. Six quickly flipped monitors to the cafeteria before spotting the issue. There behind the food counter, Nora and Neo had broken into the kitchen by breaking down the door.
Six jumped up from his seat before dashing out of the security room.
Bursting through the doors to the cafeteria, he watched Ruby fly past him.
"Nora! Carmine!" Six felt wrong just shouting out Neo's fake name.
"Get your asses out here right now!" The Courier continued shouting as he stomped towards the broken kitchen door. Students made way as he passed, obviously not wanting to antagonize him.
The sound of his fury caused Nora–who had been bringing back her hammer from slamming Ruby across the room–to jump. The shift caused the hammer to move oddly and knock her off balance, sending the excited girl crashing to the floor.
"Jesus…" Six muttered under his breath as he approached.
As he stepped up to Nora, the mute menace popped her head in from the kitchen door. Looking both pleased and ashamed with a spoon in her mouth and ice cream on her chin.
"That's it, you're both banned from pancakes and ice cream for a week."
"WHAT?!" Nora screamed from the floor. This even earned an angry glare from Neo.
"You heard me, if you want to behave like children, I will discipline you like children." Six's words caused tears to form in Nora's eyes. She was on the verge of crying.
"And you," he said, turning to teams JNPR and RWBY who had formed up behind him.
"Us?" Jaune squeaked out.
He pointed a finger at them before continuing, "why is it that every time something goes wrong, you're all involved?"
"That's not fair!" Yang shot back, stepping in front of her sister.
"It is! You don't need to have an issue every single day!" Six brought his hands to his helmet. "Learn to stay in your damn lane! If I catch any of you breaking a rule from now on, you're all getting punished."
A chorus of groans greeted Six who hissed "no, you don't get to complain! I've had to deal with your shit all year. Every damn day it's something with you delinquents. You all can't behave like adults, so you've earned this treatment."
"Oh, and Jaune?"
"Please no…"
"Every day, for the next two weeks. Training after classes."
The boy actually collapsed to his knees in despair. Good, it was time someone realized the gravity of their constant fuck ups.
Turning his gaze to Blake, she looked healthier. Not happy, but more sleep and rest at least. Maybe them actually interfering with White Fang operations actually improved her mood? Either way, Adam was probably pissed.
If not at him for how the operation went, then at Blake for getting in the way.
"Now…" Six trailed off as he stared the students down. "Get the fuck out of my sight."
As the students grumbled and slowly filed out of his sight, Neo–still disguised as a student–walked up to him with puppy dog eyes.
"That includes you too," Six added in a cold tone. Turning her hurt expression to one of anger as she stomped off. He'd probably pay for that later. But if she was going to make his life harder, he'd do the same to her.
Carmine Dawn, what an outrageous disguise given her crazed attitude.
Speaking of Carmine, the real one hadn't deigned to call him yet. It was probably for the best. Safer that way for both of them. Especially with Ozpin attempting to contact her and Richter after their little meeting at Beacon.
Ever since Ozpin ran into Carmine, he had been attempting to contact her and her father. Fortunately, having been born in the Wilds, records for Carmine were near nonexistent. That meant it was damn hard for Ozpin to contact her or her father. But it was just a matter of time until the Headmaster sent someone to either converse with or retrieve her or her father.
Luckily, the older man behaved like an old man. He didn't answer numbers he didn't know, period. Thank god for stubborn old men.
The Courier turned to look at the damage the students caused. Thought about trying to fix it. But then decided it was Glynda's problem since she had magical powers.
With that, he turned, and left the cafeteria.
Ruby did her best to maintain a positive attitude for her team as they trudged back to the dorms. After Instructor House's scolding, they were in a pretty negative mood.
"Man, who does he think he is?" Yang huffed as she punched the air. "I should show him how much of a kid he is!"
"My pancakes…" Nora cried while Ren patted her on the head.
"He's not a kid, Yang," Weiss commented from Ruby's side. "Though that did seem unnecessarily harsh from him."
"Not that we would know," Blake followed up from behind Weiss. "No one knows anything about him. What he looks like, where he comes from, how old he is."
Then something clicked in Ruby's head. She had heard his age before! When Ozpin had been first interviewing them, he mentioned it. It was the perfect thing to cheer them up!
"Oh, House? He's 22, or 23. At least, Ozpin said so."
All eyes turned toward her, making Ruby feel incredibly small.
Then several of them shouted at her at the same time.
"What!?"
Author's Notes:
I won't lie. Last chapter probably should've been broken down into three–maybe even four-smaller chapters. But I didn't want to flood people's alerts with three to five alerts when I posted all of them. So, here we are.
Over 300,000 words. This has been a lot of effort. But I'm proud to say we're officially finished with roughly a third of Chaos Theory. Roughly. And we're at the end of Volume II of RWBY. Thank you for sticking through thick and thin with me. It's been a wild ride these past four and a half years.
With that said, I am officially going on a hiatus. This is for primarily three reasons.
One, personal real life stuff I want to resolve.
Two, I want to get ahead in my writing again so when I come back I'll post biweekly instead of monthly.
Three, there are two side stories I want to either have finished or mostly finished by the time I begin posting again. This will ensure that when relevant, I can begin posting these side stories alongside the main story.
A title hasn't been confirmed for either story but I will give a general idea or synopsis of each.
The first side story that will be relevant will be regarding Richter and will take place long before the main story. Specifically during the Faunus Rights Revolution. This will go into how he got his Richter "Bloody" Spring moniker and how he got out of a bad situation.
The second side story I'm a little more nervous about and I'd like to ask you the reader to chime in. The Courier has always been a moldable character in the game. He has a variable backstory that doesn't go into great detail. That being said, I'm thinking of taking him far more into OC territory with this side story (and another way down the line). This will be a side story of how the Courier was raised/his childhood, how he learned a great many of his skills, where he learned his mentality from, and why he set out on his lonesome road (no it will not be about Ulysses). This will deviate from canon 'technically.' I say technically because the Courier's backstory is never given so it's really up to the player to decide.
That being said, would people be interested in seeing a side story during Six's childhood days and his origin? Or would people rather Six remain more anonymous? This story would reveal his real name as well.
Keep in mind, neither of these side stories will be required reading material to understand the main story. It's just extra content to flesh out the world and characters.
And finally, I'll reiterate the timeline one more time. I plan to go on a 5-7 month hiatus (though it could be a year if things go slow) starting from this chapter. When that hiatus ends, I will come back to a biweekly upload schedule.
With all that out of the way, I'll answer a few reviews as a parting gift since I'll be going on hiatus.
I'd first like to say that there were a lot of very kind reviews. Know that I read every single review posted for the story. I always appreciate the kind words. You're all the reason I can maintain motivation and keep going.
S: "but the only thing that keeps bugging me is Yes-man betraying six. Honestly, I think a better way of explaining this wouldve been to say that Emily Ortal(the followers of the apocalypse girl who reprogrammed yes man) managed to reprogram yesman to rebel against six, after all she programmed him for Benny in the first place."
Author: I do have an explanation for this but I can't go into it. One of my only debates I have with myself about the story is not going into more detail about the events that transpired before the betrayal and during it. That being said, I also did it on purpose (kinda) as it's going to be revealed later on in the story.
Guest: "Was that a Castlevania reference?"
Author: Yes. Yes it was.
EXCUBITORE: "I thought six would have showed up and stated he was their real boss?"
Author: Not then and there no. That's the only hint you get.
Guest: "Ok so I know neo and six's relationship is kinda weird and people think they are dating and that she is really young by according to the wiki apparently though volumes 1-3 she was 21-23 and you rote six as about 21 I was just confused if you could clear up how that is set up"
Author: Sure thing! Your ages line up about right. In fact, Ozpin believes he's closer to 23 than 21 because of a slip-up on Cinder's part (she doesn't know his real age either). That being said, Neo is in disguise as a student. Everyone around her believes that she's 17-19 at most. And since most students and faculty don't know Six's age, and with the way he acts, they believe him to be older.
In essence, it wouldn't be weird for them to date as she's only slightly older than him. No one else knows that because they think Six is older than he is. That and a professor and student relationship is seen as taboo.
Madma: "Ah I see you're a fan of thrilling intent as well it's always nice to see a reference to them."
Author: This person has taste. I actually need to catch up on the newest episodes. I'm like 100-200 episodes behind now.
And that does it for the reviews. I hope you've enjoyed the story so far. I will return to finish this Arc at a later date. Until then, stay tuned…
For anyone who made it this far in the notes, thank you. Not all of them are always important but this one definitely is. Maybe even the most important one I've posted to date. So here's a special bit of information for you dear reader.
I have a general and rough and rough idea/outline of the story up to Volume 7 created. That is, at minimum how far I'm going to take this story. I will most likely take it further as well. I also have an ending planned as long as canon RWBY doesn't contradict it. We'll see.
Possible future quotes the Courier will use or be used in the story:
"We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people cried. Most people were silent."
"People, often deceived by an illusive good, desire their own ruin."
"What is a drop of rain, compared to the storm? What is a thought, compared to the mind?"