"Hey, wait!" Taiyang yelled out to the two men who were leaving, "Do you guys have a place to stay around here?"

The mint-coloured haired man, also called Mint, turned around and shook his head, he yelled back, "No! But wherever Courrier go I go too, we'll probably just camp out around the area, get a fire going y'know?"

Taiyang turned to Qrow, "You alright with those two staying over?"

Qrow just looked at him weirdly before shaking his head, "It's your house."

He grinned, turning back to the two men, "You can stay over if you want!" Taiyang waved at Mint, who nudged Courrier, making him also look back, "It's cramped but I think we can make it work!"

Qrow scoffed, "What? You gonna let one of them sleep next to you on the bed?" Taiyang grimaced, Qrow just laughed, "We have a spare bedroom, sure, but that only has one bed."

Taiyang watched as the two men walked back towards the house, "Not a problem, I have some bedrolls with me," Courrier said, "I got three on me," he turned to Mint, "Lavs will take the bed."

"You're awfully fond of that girl aren't ya?" Qrow took a sip from his flask, "What's up with that?"

"Nothing you should know."

"Okay, okay, no fighting in the Xiao Long house alright?" Taiyang grumbled, pushing Qrow back into the house, the man exclaimed indignantly before sulking back to the couch, Ruby in tow, "I assume that you have food too right? I don't think I can cook for uh… eight people, me included."

"I got food," Courrier reached into his duster and pulled out a strange can, "Canned food, and tastes better when you close your eyes, I have tons of these. So you don't have to worry about me."

"Or me! I'll take the canned foods too," Mint nodded, "The problem's going to be Johan. Greenhorn will listen to anything Courrier says so she's easy to convince but Johan? Heh, not a chance."

"Really? How come?" Taiyang raised an eyebrow, Mint chuckled.

"She has a… refined palette, so to speak," Taiyang let the two in, Mint looking around the place while Courrier just confidently waltzed in like this was his home, "Convincing her to eat anything other than restaurant food or home cooked meals is impossible."

"Okay, great! I'm Taiyang Xiao Long," he held out a hand for them to shake, "What's yours?"

"Mint Thresh." "John Courrier."

"Well alright! It's good to see new people once in a while."

Taiyang watched as Courrier lobbed a weighted bag at Ruby, "Here," he said as Ruby caught the thing deftly, "Some ammo for the troubles."

"Thanks, Mr. Courrier!" Ruby gingerly opened the bag; Taiyang glanced at the inside of it to see a bunch of randomly-sized bullets crammed chaotically inside of it, "Wow! It's like a variety pack but instead of cards it's bullets!"

Qrow just narrowed his eyes at Courrier, Taiyang wondered why that is… not counting the whole 'he's supposed to be dead' thing of course. Taiyang trusts Qrow, obviously, but him telling Taiyang that Courrier's supposed to be dead with a hole in his chest and with a missing arm while he's standing right in front of the two of them? Now that's crazy.

Courrier pulled out a bottle of… something out of his duster, now this Taiyang was surprised by; the bottle was ice cold and everything. Does he have a cooler inside of his duster or something? He collapsed onto the couch and took a sip out of his drink, Courrier leaned back as he placed the bottle on the coffee table, "Qrow, I know you have questions," Qrow scoffed, "Ask away."

"How are you still alive?" Ruby nodded vigorously at this, "Yeah!"

"My heart's made out of metal… so is my brain, and my spine, and most of my bones and organs," WHAT?! "So I can just like reboot myself whenever I'm near-dead or just straight up dead."

Greenhorn didn't look too surprised but Violet had her mouth agape, heh, like a fish, "Yep, I can confirm," Mint raised a hand, pulling out a chair from the dining room to sit down, "I was the one that got the job to restart him actually," How does that work? "I just like plunge my hand into his chest and press a button on his heart and boom! He just wakes up, good as new."

"I actually had two holes punched into me," Courrier looked at Qrow impassively, "The first one landed in my abdomen, nothing too crazy, it closes almost instantly," he then clutched his chest, "The second one grazed my heart, now that was scary, thankfully, I only died because of blood loss which is the tamest death I could've asked for."

"TAME?!" Qrow slammed his hands on the table, Courrier quickly grabbed his drink before it could fall and break, Taiyang will have to admonish him later for this, since that was pretty rude, "You- you call dying of blood loss tame?!"

"Well yeah," Courrier waved his hands dismissively as if what he just said wasn't utterly insane, "Technically, the face you're looking at right now isn't really mine," he chuckled, "I lost my actual head like five, six years ago."

"W- Wait how does that work?" Mint asked in horror, Taiyang felt the blood drain out of his face, he's sure that Qrow and the others did too.

"You saw how I got my new right arm, Mint, you can put two and two together," Courrier scoffed, "It's a lot easier when your brain isn't organic, or your spine for that matter," he leaned back on the couch, "I have several failsafes intact for different situations."

"Aren't you afraid of dying somewhere where people can't find you?" Ruby asked meekly, shaking her head as if to forget the revelation that's just been revealed, thankfully Yang was asleep in her room or else she'd try to give Courrier a new head right about now, "I- I mean… that almost happened now! What if Mr. Mint wasn't there to uh… restart you?"

"And another thing, where the hell did you get these prosthetics?" Taiyang will have to scold Qrow later for swearing in front of Ruby, but he shared the same sentiment, "You said that you lived in Vacuo before, but the last time I checked, they didn't have such things in… anywhere really! I don't think these things even exist in Remnant!"

"They're my invention," Courrier smirked, "I am a man of many talents after all… or woman, I don't know what body parts are still mine anymore."

"This is insane!" Qrow grabbed his head, Taiyang agreed because what the actual heck? "So you're like uh…" Qrow turned to Taiyang, "Hey, can you leave us alone for a few minutes?"

Taiyang turned his head towards Qrow, "What? Why can't I stay?"

"We're going to discuss some important information," Qrow turned to look at Courrier, who took a sip out of his strange drink, "Something like really confidential."

Taiyang relented, sighing, feeling left out again, "Should I take Ruby with me then?"

"No, I still have things to say to her too."

"Well… alright then, just call me when you're done."

"Will do, thanks Tai," Qrow nodded at Taiyang, who just sighed and walked upstairs to his room, what's up with Courrier? And Qrow? He's been acting really secretive recently…

Taiyang shook his head, deciding that if Qrow doesn't want him to know then why bother? Worrying over things too much will give you grey hairs anyways, heh, like Goodwitch…

Ruby glanced as her dad walked away before turning back to Mr. Courrier, while she was elated at the thought of him being alive, Uncle Qrow seemed to have a different reaction, "How long… have you been alive for?"

"Why are you asking it like that?" Mr. Courrier raised an eyebrow, "Are you asking how old I am?"

"Yeah, that."

Ruby noticed that Mr. Mint and Ms. Violet all appeared very interested at this, and she'd be lying if she wasn't too, although… Ms. Greenhorn doesn't look very interested at all, she just stared at Mr. Courrier weirdly, "Hmm," he rubbed his chin, "Let's see… the dam was twelve years ago, so was Zion… Sierra Madre was eleven… I'm anywhere between forty and forty-nine."

He's old?! "You're as old as dad!" She exclaimed.

"Or older," Uncle Qrow scoffed, Ruby looked around to see Mr. Mint and Ms. Violet with their eyes wide open, "You just gave us a range, not an exact number."

"Losing your head several times will do that to you," Mr. Courrier chuckled, "I don't expect you to understand of course, no one should get their heads blown open more than once."

"Wow," Mr. Mint said, "That's… awesome! Who knew an old man like you can move so agilely?"

"Now that's surprising," Ms. Violet laughed, "I'm surprised you can still fight like that at your age!"

"Alright, that's enough with the age jokes," Mr. Courrier laughed too, Uncle Qrow just stared at them laughing though, Ruby doesn't know why, "So let's get back to the matter at hand, you told Taiyang to leave specifically so that we can discuss Cinder, right?"

The laughing stopped as everyone looked deadly serious, Ruby narrowed her eyes too, "Right, Cinder and her goons came into the tournament disguised as Haven students," Uncle Qrow sighed, "Unfortunately, that's our only lead, since the Haven Headmaster and faculty should've noticed the discrepancy immediately, it's not like they're long time students or anything…"

"For the Black and Sustrai, sure," Mr. Courrier mentioned Emerald and Mercury; this made Ruby a bit more miffed at the thought, "Cinder… Cinder might've gone off into the deep end, I'm not surprised if she cut ties with… her…"

Who's her? "That could be true," Uncle Qrow rubbed his chin, "But Haven's still a good choice, going there to find out what exactly happened will allow us to track down Cinder, her lackeys, and any potential moles in our group."

"Well good luck with that," Mr. Courrier sighed, "We're going to Menagerie and then Vacuo, so we're not going to accompany you in Mistral," he then chuckled, turning towards Uncle Qrow, "If you wanna hunt down your sister sometimes then give us a call."

Uncle Qrow stiffened at this, he shook his head before regarding Mr. Courrier seriously, "You're going after her? Why?"

"I have… information that I want to confirm," Mr. Courrier took a sip out of his drink, "How's the Xiao Long girl doing by the way?"

"Yang? She's fine, got out of Vale just okay," Ruby nodded, Uncle Qrow continued, "I'd just like to say though… Thanks, for keeping her and everyone in Vale safe."

"Okay."

"…"

"…"

"That's it? That's the only thing you're going to say?"

"Yep."

Ruby watched intently as Mr. Courrier sparred Ms. Greenhorn. His movements were precise, and always seem to be on the defensive as he teaches Ms. Greenhorn to go on the attack.

"Be aggressive," he said, blocking a punch from Ms. Greenhorn, "Don't let up, or else your opponent will get a chance to turn the tide on you."

Ms. Greenhorn threw another punch, fast, straight, with no wind-up or telegraph. Mr. Courrier sidestepped the punch and quickly grabbed Ms. Greenhorn's wrist before twisting her arm around her back and bringing her to the ground.

"Remember to grapple your opponent too, Aura might block a punch but it can't block a grab," Mr. Courrier let go of Ms. Greenhorn's wrist, to which she quickly twisted her body around and delivered a jab at Mr. Courrier's face mid-sentence, he grinned, "Good! You're learning," Ms. Greenhorn went in again, throwing punches and kicks at Mr. Courrier while also trying to grab him as well, "Grabbing's more difficult than just punching, but if you get the timing right…"

Mr. Courrier threw a punch at Ms. Greenhorn, to which she sidestepped and tried to grab his wrist… Ruby winced as she watched Mr. Courrier used his other arm to punch Ms. Greenhorn's elbow from below, knocking her hand and her grab away from his wrist, "You can intercept a grab as well."

Ms. Greenhorn breathed out heavily, "Alright! We're done here," she slumped her shoulders, sighing in relief, Mr. Courrier the patted her head, "Good work, keep this up and you'll maybe, probably, perhaps beat me in the future. Maybe. Probably."

Ms. Greenhorn smiled, but she doesn't look convinced at all, "So when do I start training with a weapon, sir?" Ruby noticed that all of Mr. Courrier's friends? Teammates? Like to call him sir, darn, she should've made her own teammates say that! Imagine that… 'Yes Ma'am!' and 'Understood Ma'am!' but for her instead…

"When you beat me at hand-to-hand."

Ms. Greenhorn sighed, defeated. Mr. Courrier just laughed, patting her on the back, "You'll get it one day."

"Sure… one day…"

Wowee! Not only is he a drug addict but he's old as fuck too!

I like to think that if the Courier never visited Big MT then everything with the Think Tank and Dr. Mobius would just stay the same, since they don't have an intelligent lobotomite to do their work. Meanwhile, Honest Hearts, Dead Money, and Lonesome Road I think are more time sensitive.

With the White Legs in Zion, the gas in the Sierra Madre, and Ulysses waiting for the Courier and all that.

Also, big revelation on how the Courier keeps his youthful look! He loses his head sometimes, get a new brain replacement from the Think Tank, and get a new head! Like Kenjaku but freakier.

Thanks for reading!