Author's Notes:
Welcome back to Six's perspective. We'll be starting slow but that won't last long. From here on out, we'll be slowly building towards the Festival itself. The end is nigh and there are many parties at play. Who will get what they desire? And who will be left wanting?
Also, thanks to the reader that left the review pointing out the line about Yang in the chapter. That was a remnant from a previous draft that needed to be removed.
Enjoy!
"Text/Messages"
"Speech"
Disclaimer: I do not own Fallout, RWBY, or any associated characters
Remnants of a Courier
Arc 4: Chaos Theory
Chapter 71: Different Life, Different Teachings
The past week had been taxing but not in the ways the Courier had become accustomed to since arriving on Remnant. Where his life had been fraught with fighting and deception, all of which could lead to dire consequences should he fail, instead he found a busy life in 'teaching'. Or more accurately, being a teacher's assistant.
Filing paperwork, grading, keeping students in line, and even stepping in to do some teaching himself. It was… Peaceful. A life that the Courier couldn't have even dreamed of on Earth.
The thought brought both a sense of peace and unease to his mind. While he wanted to enjoy a more peaceful life, another part wasn't used to it. A part of him couldn't accept that he was in some alien place living a seemingly average life among students. It just didn't feel like his life. It felt like an illusion ready to crash down at any second.
Granted, it technically was as he was playing them all. But it wasn't like it would suddenly end at any moment. So why did he feel so anxious about that? At least he didn't have to worry about team RWBY returning for another week. And with his agent in Rhyt, he'd just have to hope that everything went well.
Six sighed as he walked through the halls back to his room. His talks with Ozpin were having some kind of weird effect on him. The Courier was slowly being convinced that the old man wasn't human. Rather, he must be some kind of entity that feeds on emotions and secrets because it always felt like the Headmaster was trying to get both from Six.
For now, he needed to focus on the approaching fake-student. What did Neo want now?
The criminal in disguise tapped a cane not so dissimilar to Roman's on the floor as she approached. Her grin and wide eyes gave away her happy and most likely mischievous mood as she stopped in front of him. Looking up, she gave him puppy-dog eyes and stuck out her lower lip before using her cane to point at the open doorway behind her.
"Yeah, I'm going to be assisting Professor Port in his lectures today. Is your team sitting in on it?"
His question garnered a nod from the girl before she stepped to his side and stuck her arm forward. Oh, she was playing this game. Fine, he could "escort" her to class.
Rolling his eyes, Six stepped past her as he responded, "Just follow behind me." But instead of following in his footsteps as he instructed, the mute matched him step for step at his side. The man let out a sigh of annoyance but then remembered something.
This was Port's class. Neo had never been to Port's class. This was going to be a treat.
Stepping inside the lecture hall, Six noted several students already there including team JNPR. But the rest of Neo's team seemed to be missing.
"Take a seat and make sure you reserve some for your team as well," House ordered as he moved to take position at the teacher's side. But before he could, he heard a small whine and turned back to see Neo staring at him pleadingly with her arms to her chest.
"What? I got you to class." His crass response was not what she wanted to hear as her pout turned into a frustrated frown. She raised a hand and patted her own head before pointing at him.
Fuck no. He was not going to pat her head like she was a good student and he an overly fond teacher.
With a frown under the helmet, Six replied, "I'm not going to praise you for following me here. If you need affirmation for every little thing, ask Nora."
The mute's eyes narrowed and she scowled at him before turning away sharply. She made a noise akin to a "harumph" before crossing her arms and stomping off towards team JNPR.
"Hi Carmine!" Nora greeted the pouting fake-student who immediately dropped the angry facade and smiled at her 'friend.' The mute darted over and lunged at Nora, the two embracing in an excited hug as Nora began gossiping. Looking at Nora's side, Six could see Ren checking out, staring off into nothing. Poor boy now had to deal with two of them.
"Miss Dawn, please calm yourself for the lesson." As the professor chastised the students, Six glanced at the items in front of his desk.
Several small poles and cages had been set up. Six knew that the eccentric professor liked to use live Grimm in his demonstrations but all of the cages were empty. Perhaps he had others hidden somewhere?
The loud clanking of metal feet marching down the hall caught Six's attention. He turned to the door and spotted the Atlesian androids patrolling. Just part of Ironwood's new security since he was in charge of Beacon and the Festival now.
Taking his place at the professor's side, the portly man leaned in and whispered, "House, I unfortunately don't have all the material I need for the lesson prepared." Translation: he didn't have time to collect Grimm for the students to fight. "I can go on as I usually do but if you have any ideas for a practical lesson in Grimm Studies, let me know and I'll let you take the floor."
Great, now he got to do the professor's job for him, what a wonderful time. Still, he'd wait for a bit before stepping in. Besides, he'd need to come up with something to teach first that applied to fighting Grimm and be educational.
So the professor started his lesson, beginning with a rather simple message of knowing yourself before facing your enemies. And in typical Port fashion, the lesson quickly devolved into self-aggrandizing his own adventures. It was well worth it though as the rest of MACC arrived only to be bored to death by the lesson. Even the usually reserved Cinder was daydreaming as she stared at the chalkboard. Good, it was nice to share the pain of his job.
Even better, Mercury was almost falling asleep. Their entire team of Markus, Ashling, Cinder, and Carmine could suffer for all he cared.
But roughly halfway through the period, the older man finished, "And so the saying goes, 'We are born from Dust, and we return to Dust.'" What an odd saying to hear, one that got Six's mind thinking. Then there was an uncharacteristic pause from Port as he glanced back at House. House in turn nodded at him.
With newfound confidence, the professor turned back to class, "But that's enough about the past. It's time for the practical portion of the class." This had a few students actually tuning back into the lesson. The teacher twirled his large mustache as he continued, "Now I didn't manage to get anything for you students to practice against- '' A chorus of sighs rang out at that. "-But! I want to give my new assistant a chance to teach his own lesson."
Several of the students, more specifically teams MACC and JNPR finally glanced down in his direction.
"The floor is yours House," the professor informed as he stepped back and behind his desk.
The lesson he had settled upon was a simple one in premise but a harder idea to make interesting. The conservation of energy.
Clearing his throat and stepping forward, House began, "How many of you enjoy learning about Physics?" His question got the desired result, frowns and groans from the students. "Yeah, that's fair, it's not the most interesting thing."
As he spoke, House bent over the tools present. Several small metal bars, ropes, and cages lay scattered around and he picked up several of them.
"Which is why I'm going to use a practical example to teach you about the conservation of energy." This got the students murmuring as he grabbed a square base and moved it to the center of the lecture area.
As he began stacking the bars on top of each other and connecting them, he continued explaining, "Who here can tell me why a punch hurts someone?"
There was a pause from the students before Cardin raised his hand. Six hadn't even realized the student was awake. This was going to be interesting.
As he connected more bars, he pointed at Cardin who answered, "Because a fist hurts when it hits you."
Wow, even more disappointing than he expected.
"But why does that hurt? Why does stubbing your toe hurt? Why does getting hit by a bat hurt?"
He received no response, causing Six to sigh. The teacher's assistant had stacked the bars high enough that it was taller than him. Taking a moment, House hopped up onto the teacher's desk–with a slight grumble from the teacher–before stacking more bars. This earned more than a few confused stares from his students.
"When an object is in motion, it has energy. More specifically, kinetic energy. When a fist collides with another object, that kinetic energy traveling in the fist is transferred to the object. Either the absorption or transference of this energy is what hurts a person being punched. It's also why your fist can hurt when you punch someone."
House set up a horizontal pipe at the top of the assembled metal pole that was exactly ten feet tall. Hopping down, he grabbed a longer piece of rope before measuring ten feet and cutting off the unneeded length. He then tied one end to the horizontal piece at the top as he continued explaining.
"You can also harness gravitational forces for kinetic energy. Take wrecking balls for example, a long pendulum with a dense metal ball on one end." As he explained, Six turned towards the crowd.
"Cardin, the end of your Executioner, give it to me."
There was a look of confusion but the tall student knew better than to question House. He reached down and unscrewed the top ball portion before tossing it at Six. Which would have actually been dangerous given its weight if Six was your average human.
As he was not an average man, he caught the ball with a soft grunt. The dull metal ball weighed a little over thirty pounds and Six figured it probably weighed more when put together.
Six tied the ball onto the other end. With the knots at both ends, that brought the height of the rope to nine and a half feet, roughly half a foot off the ground and hanging from the horizontal pole.
"Then they let gravity do the work by swinging or dropping the ball from a height," Six began as he picked up the ball, walked away from the center point, and dropped it so that it swung in a pendulum arc to the other side. "And letting gravity increase its kinetic force, the rope alters its direction at the last moment, and the kinetic energy is transferred into a wall. Pretty simple."
Most of the students seemed to be following so Six decided to continue. He grabbed the ball once more, stopping its swing, before moving as far as he could away from the pole. The rope stretched and Six allowed the ball to rest under his chin.
"When I hold the ball here but don't release it, the ball has potential energy." Six was tempted to try to explain joules to them but the scientists of Remnant didn't use that measurement. He'd have to explore what term they used instead later. "Once I drop the ball, it has kinetic energy thanks to gravity."
"Now, the conservation of energy states that the total energy of an isolated system does not change." He smiled under his helmet as he continued, "Understand that with the weight of this ball and the kinetic energy it would have from this swing, this would kill a regular man. For you or me this would hurt a lot."
Six took a calming breath before continuing as he really didn't want to accidentally add even a little bit of speed when he let go of this ball.
"In other words, because the ball's energy will never increase when let go, it cannot hit my chin when it swings back toward me. Now, I believe in the conservation of energy so much that I am going to perform this for you right now."
And without further ado, he dropped the ball. Gravity tugged it downward, the rope caught and swung it towards the other end of the room. The ball reached the end of its arc, a few of the students were staring intently at it, and a student even gasped as it swung back towards him.
But the ball slowed its ascension and came to a halt just under his chin as House foretold before swinging back down. Over time it would lose momentum and energy.
"And that is the conservation of energy," Six finished as several students let out a sigh of relief. And much to House's satisfaction, looking over the students, most of them looked at least interested.
"Now who can tell me how you'd use this in a fight?" House questioned as he caught the ball and began untying the knot.
A few awkward moments passed before a certain ace student raised her hand. Looking up, the teacher's assistant nodded his head at Pyrrha.
"By using your opponent's kinetic energy against them."
"Correct," House praised as he tossed the ball back to Cardin. "And how would you do so?"
"By attacking when the opponent is attacking or moving towards you."
"Correct again Miss Nikos," Six praised once more as he disassembled the pole. "If you were to punch someone, that would only be able to generate so much kinetic energy on its own. However, when an opponent moves toward you, especially for a big obvious attack. They are generating kinetic energy as well. If you hit your opponent when they're attacking you, you are generating more kinetic energy than if you were to hit them while they were standing still."
A certain grey-haired bratty criminal teenager raised his hand at that. "So, plenty of us already know to hit them when they're attacking. Why's it so important to know the little details?"
Great, the brat hadn't even waited for Six to call on him. With a sigh, House set the equipment down before turning to him.
"First, because you expand the mind by learning. Second, it's applicable elsewhere too. Take Yang Xiao Long's Semblance."
Taking his place in front of Port's desk, Six continued, "She takes a hit and then deals it back, right? Wrong." Several of the students in class murmured under their breath at his statement.
"What do you mean?" Mercury questioned.
"Yang's Semblance absorbs kinetic energy, stores it, and then dishes it back. Not only could she maximize this damage by utilizing her opponent's kinetic energy on top of their already stolen kinetic energy, but it also exposes a weakness in her Semblance." He glanced around the students before continuing, "I'm sure many of you have fought Miss Xiao Long and lost. I'm sure many of you have also struck her and done damage, correct? Maybe less but still some."
A few nods from the crowd confirmed what Six already knew. "That obviously means that any kinetic energy she takes from an attack is not completely absorbed. Some of it slips through. If she was truly absorbing all 'attacks' or kinetic energy coming at her, she wouldn't be hurt at all."
"It means she gambles when she's fighting. She's betting that she'll absorb enough kinetic energy before her Aura breaks to deal it back. If she were to learn how much kinetic energy she regularly intakes and how much goes through, she could make more accurate judgements during her fights. This understanding of her Semblance comes from the idea of conservation of energy."
Turning back to Mercury, Six made sure to ask, "Did that answer your question?"
The teen grumbled but nodded his head as he leaned back in his seat. It looked like he had won that exchange.
"A grand lesson, let's give a round of applause for Instru-Assistant House!" Port said he stepped forward and clapped.
As the students clapped with mild enthusiasm, Port leaned towards House and whispered, "Fantastic work. I'll be sure to mention this in my reviews of your performance."
Oh good, Port thought he was doing a good job. Six took a step back now that his part of the lesson was done. Content to let the class continue as normal.
Six stepped out of the classroom, having been dismissed long after the students as he assisted Port in grading a few assignments. That actually saved him from interacting with Neo again who was utterly put off by the portly professor. But since grading was done, he now had ten or so minutes before Port's next class began.
Six idly glanced at a pair of Vale androids escorting a student walk by him. He wondered where they were going. Was the student in trouble? Was this Ironwood's newest method for controlling the school? It wasn't his business for now.
After classes that day, he'd need to finalize what he was going to say to the Voidwalkers in a few days. A meeting was scheduled and he'd be slipping away to host it. To that end, he'd be sneaking out of his apartment when appropriate via a route he secured under the apartment complex. Or more accurately, one he bribed the landowner into letting him use discreetly. It wasn't a permanent solution but it would last long enough for the Festival. For now, he'd have to focus on keeping a low profile and performing his job duties.
If he recalled correctly, he would be assisting Doctor Oobleck tomorrow in his History class. Probably Six's favorite as it caught him up on many of the events most people would know on Remnant. While his own spare time spent reading helped, it didn't make up for a lifetime spent not living on Remnant.
Speaking of not being born on Remnant, Six had discovered something utterly fascinating during his research into smokeless powder and firearms, more specifically in the sodium department.
It was almost entirely illogical that sulfur did not exist on Remnant entirely. It was a building block for life along with Carbon. However, Six had so far been unable to find anything on the CCTV network–or "internet" as some referred to it–about either. On their periodic table, it wasn't that both were renamed to something else, it appeared to be entirely absent. Either they had somehow completely missed both of them, or they both didn't exist. That seemed entirely impossible.
How was anything alive on this planet without the strong and common bonding elements of Carbon?
But then Port had mentioned a small saying to Six, that combined with the fairytales Six had been reading had struck a deep curiosity in the Courier. He could hear the older man's lecture now.
"We are born from Dust, and we return to Dust."
The Courier pulled up a few articles on his Pip-Boy as he leaned against a wall. He even received a ping that Ozpin and Ironwood were meeting soon but he needed to know something now.
Pulling up a few articles, he quickly read through them, then another, and another. All scientists of great renown agreed on one thing. Dust was in almost everything on Remnant, including humans. Every research paper and study taken showed that when dissected, humans of Remnant contained Dust on a molecular level. Hell, it wasn't even a secret that they were made from Dust.
Six had been looking in the wrong places for sulfur replacements. Instead of looking for a non-existing element on Remnant, he should've been looking at what was almost identical. Dust.
Life on Remnant was not Carbon-based. It was Dust-based.
The revelation caused the Courier's hands to shake with excitement. The people of Remnant technically weren't people! Or at least, human. They would be classified as some kind of subspecies of human maybe? Six wasn't sure about the exact scientific nomenclature behind naming conventions for species.
He imagined if he examined a human from Remnant's molecular structure, they would be literally made from Dust like in their fairy tales!
Scrolling through a few separate articles and pages of differing types of Dust, Six learned that while technically different, they served the same purpose as the elements from his world. There was a Dust that was nearly identical to Carbon, that was why life was so similar yet so strangely different.
This could serve to prove that the people of Remnant weren't channeling their "souls", a ludicrous idea in his mind, but rather the innate Dust they were born from!
While they appeared almost identical on a molecular level, the small differences likely gave the people of Remnant their Auras and Semblances. When Six got more time, he'd have to study the effective differences between Earth's and Remnant's humans.
He then formed an interesting hypothesis about the differences between the two peoples. The reason Remnant's people had not traveled to space yet was because Dust stopped working outside the atmosphere of Remnant. No one was sure, but something about Remnant's atmosphere made Dust viable, conductive, alive even.
So the obvious question then was, if Dust couldn't survive outside the atmosphere, would Remnant's humans? Or were they different enough from Dust to sustain their Dust even outside their atmosphere? If he brought Ruby back to his world, would she simply dissipate into nothing? Would her Aura and Semblance stop working? Would she be perfectly fine? All ideas he couldn't confirm for the time being unfortunately.
However, this also meant he could create a compound nearly identical to smokeless powder but use Dust instead of sulfur! It was all finally getting a bit clearer for the Courier why this world was so different from his own.
Six was just about to pull up another article when a voice called out to him.
"Hey Instructor House," the voice belonged to a student with brown ear-length hair and average looks, this was Dove, Cardin's teammate. The student scratched the back of his head as he continued, "I just wanted to say that your lesson was way better than Port's."
Was he trying to butter him up? Maybe Dove thought he could get in good with Cardin by getting closer to him?
"I wouldn't be confident enough to let a big metal thing swing at my face like that. Besides, you also saved us from Professor Port's yapping."
Either way, it was endearing to hear at least. Being a teacher wasn't all that bad.
"Don't let him hear you saying that," Six responded as he glanced back down at his Pip-Boy. The meeting was starting. The Courier needed to get somewhere private.
"Thank you Dove, but I need to be getting ready for the next class, and you should head to your next one as well." As he spoke, Six stood up and began walking to the nearest unused classroom, but was stopped as Dove called out to him again.
"Yeah, I'll do that… I uh, I also wanted to thank you for what you've done." The brunette cleared his throat before continuing, "Velvet is way too nice to… Ya know…"
Six turned back to the student and was grateful that his helmet was on, because he couldn't contain the giant grin plastered across his face. It was so easy to see this student had a serious crush on his upperclassman.
"Right, well, good luck in getting her teammates to greenlight your relationship," Six responded in his best neutral tone, but even he knew that it would sound teasing as he turned away.
"That's not-Hey, that's not what it is!" Dove called out after him as Six turned a corner before entering one of the unused classrooms. He didn't want any more disturbances as he looked into Dust-based lifeforms.
Then his Pip-Boy buzzed again, indicating the meeting between Ironwood and Ozpin had already started. Damn, he didn't have time for research at the moment. Though the meeting did intrigue him as well. It would be a bit odd now that the roles were reversed thanks to Ozpin being put on a probationary period. He wondered if whoever was pulling the strings behind the DoW had something to do with that.
"James," Ozpin greeted as he walked into the room. Since Six couldn't visually see them, he could only imagine the calm but irritated look at being forced to walk into what was once his office.
"Oz," the General responded in a neutral tone.
The former sighed due to the awkward feeling in the conversation. "Is there an update for me?"
"There is," the General replied before Six heard the sounds of a keyboard–likely a scroll–being pressed. "The Voidwalkers have been on the move, retaliating at every opportunity against the Dogs of War. So far, they have been completely within their legal rights to do so. However, we believe that they may have or currently are working with the White Fang."
Well, that wasn't good. Their operation with the White Fang was supposed to be very hush-hush.
"And we're sure about this information?" Ozpin replied as he tapped his cane on the ground, the sound coming through Six's Pip-Boy.
"Our informants in the White Fang have confirmed it, though they weren't there personally. So we have no concrete proof of their affiliation…" The General paused.
Ironwood's report was unsurprising to Six. The White Fang weren't exactly picky about their recruits and a leak was disappointing but expected.
"Hmm, have we made any progress with the Voidwalkers directly?" The former Headmaster's question earned a sigh from Ironwood.
Continuing in a more exasperated tone, Ironwood explained, "not a single one of them has been cooperative so far. And our attempts to insert an agent have failed, we're not sure how they're sniffing our agents out."
The Courier mentally thanked his chief security officer Donner for that. While many of the Voidwalkers didn't like how strict the Overseer was, his paranoia also kept situations like this at bay.
"For now we will have to continue our efforts, there is nothing else to be done. A few rumors from 'terrorists' as you call them is hardly effective proof." Ozpin's statement made the General sigh.
"I fear by the time we make any progress, it will be too late," James responded with a silence settling between the two.
Six would have continued monitoring the conversation if not for his Pip-Boy pinging him again. It was time for class.
Author's Notes:
The lesson was actually one I saw online from a video by Walter Lewin. Please check out his channel "Lectures by Walter Lewin".
Also, I am not a physicist or a scientist. My explanations as to differing elements not existing on Remnant and the conservation of energy may not be perfect. I've had a couple long discussions about the former with a few people so I hope it makes sense. Let me know if it was confusing or if there was something categorically wrong.
A small update/retcon. I'm not usually a fan of doing this but I went back and reworked a small section of chapter 2. Remnant using English as a spoken but not as a written didn't make much sense to me and I didn't like the way his augmentations worked. From now on, English is used as both the common spoken and written language on Remnant.