Author's Notes:

Next chapter will be longer, promise.

This chapter also marks the 400,000 word mark. Never thought the story would end up being this long when I started...

Enjoy!

"Text/Messages"

"Speech"

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

Remnants of a Courier

Arc 4: Chaos Theory

Chapter 73: Something Wrong

Something was wrong.

It was less than a week before the Festival began now and team RWBY had just sent a message to Ozpin. But this wasn't sent through the usual means. At some point the Headmaster had given the students a scroll that only connected to one other scroll in his possession; the two scrolls used a direct encryption tunnel to communicate. It appeared the dear Headmaster still suspected that someone might be listening, smart.

While he had managed to snag it in transit, it was still encrypted. That was what he was doing on his one day off from Beacon, sitting and waiting for that encryption to break. And also trying a few exploits for CAPL. Even if it was disconnected from most networks and a fresh image, it was still on the same operating system. It was just a matter of which worked first, one of his exploits, or his decryption method.

More concerningly–and the reason he believed something had gone wrong–when the message came in, his agent in Rhyt had stopped responding. That wasn't a good sign. He'd need to check in with the students when they got back. Just as soon as he cracked this encryption.

The Courier leaned away from his workbench and opened the mini-fridge in his room. He'd try "Electric Dust", a yellow soda can from Dusty's Dust.

As he cracked open the can, his Pip-Boy buzzed. He was getting an incoming call from Adam. Strange.

Answering the call, Six greeted, "Something I can do for you?"

As his Pip-Boy projected Adam's face to him, he could instantly tell the Faunus was furious. His usual frown was replaced by an outright scowl.

"They took them!" The White Fang officer shouted. "They took my people!"

That needed immediate clarification.

"Explain," the Courier demanded as he dropped the frivolities and leaned back in his chair.

"The Dogs of War raided a caravan of refugees running from Atlas. We smuggled out Faunus that were 'working' for SDC. On their way to Vale, the entire ship disappeared!"

That was bad. Especially with the Festival coming up, trying to find them was going to be a problem.

"We found a survivor–a guard–stranded at sea." As he spoke, Adam turned and rammed his fist into a wall. "He had almost drowned for over an entire day!"

He turned back to the camera as he muttered, "But he came back with something. A scroll with a key logged on it that is in use by the Dogs of War."

So that's how they confirmed the perpetrator's identity.

If it was a private encryption key they found, that could be useful for decrypting any DoW files encrypted with the matching public key. Still, that key would be useless without something to decrypt….

"Send it to me, I'll use it to decrypt any files that match what we have. Hopefully, they'll have something on them we can use to track them." Six suggested that as he thought over what a bunch of PMCs wanted with Faunus refugees?

Adam nodded and Six felt his Pip-Boy buzz. That was probably the key.

"Get back to me on whatever you find." Adam's request was easy enough to meet. Six nodded his head before closing the line.

He already had a copy of everything the Voidwalkers had managed to dig up so far on the Dogs of War. Using the newly acquired private key, he ran it against every file he had, decrypting a handful of them.

Taking a sip of his soda and tasting an acidic lemon flavor, he continued perusing the newly decrypted files. Lemon wasn't exactly his favorite but the soda would do for now.

The first few documents were transactions between Leonard Dream and the DoW. It seemed that his Voidwalkers were getting too close to something that both the DoW and Dream were working on, and due to their involvement, Ozpin was now catching wind. That was why the Councilor wanted them gone. While that would be good for keeping the troublesome Councilor in check, that wouldn't help finding the missing Faunus.

It wasn't until he reached the last document that he learned a harsh truth.

"FF3 - 750"

"MH3 - 800"

"FH2 - 900"

"FF7 - 700"

And so on. The list extended for a while. A series of labels and numbers that stretched down a list that were oddly suspicious.

It also showed various areas that the listed labels were going to. "FF4 JR MI". Of course, it was all in some kind of code but then Six had a thought.

He cross-referenced the information of the newer listings with where Adam had said the caravan disappeared.

"FF11 NVC JR MA"

"JR" kept popping up in several of the listings. And Six recalled a mass string of disappearances across Vale. Specifically, he recalled that the Jade River led from the capital of Vale to the northern ocean between Vale and Atlas, or the North Vale Coast. That would connect it right to where the Faunus caravan was.

Six recalled an interview between Amberly Flame and Leonard Dream where those same disappearances were happening near the Jade River. There was no way that Vale's police force was incompetent enough to not pick up on that. There had to be some kind of interference…

Leonard Dream was covering this up. Judging that the majority of these individuals were making stops before being shipped off to either "MI" or "MA," there was only one answer in his mind. This was human trafficking.

Just like the Legion.

Six's can crumpled in his hand as yellow fizzy soda drizzled onto the floor.

He had seen these tactics before. Why hit a town when a traveling caravan would be easier and hardly missed? Why take from known settlements that would retaliate and instead prey upon the needy and unmissed.

This was obviously an illegal trade of people. People being treated as property!

"Scum!" Six shouted as he jumped to his feet.

Slavers. Out of all the bastards he had killed–murderers, rapists, cannibals–slavers were some of the worst. They didn't just want to kill, but to tame people, to keep them like pets. To make their suffering never-ending.

Quickly reading through the document and the repeating abbreviations. It was easy to pick up where these Faunus were being sent. Everywhere.

Vacuo, Mistral, Atlas, even some in Vale. This trade had ties to every Kingdom. And Leonard Dream was helping to cover it up. He was dead. Dead!

"JR" likely referred to the Jade River. It led out of Vale and Northwest, one of the few waterways that actually connected to the ocean north of the capital.

All he'd have to do is follow it until he found them. Then they were all going to die. No, not just die. He'd show them what happened to raiders in the Mojave.

He'd need one day to prepare. One day to get the necessary supplies. It didn't matter if there were a dozen or a thousand slavers there, they were all going to die!

He wouldn't get the Voidwalkers involved in this with the Festival around the corner. And the White Fang were too slow, too inept, and wouldn't be willing to go to necessary lengths. Too weak and pathetic. Everyone around him always was. It was always on Six to get their shit in order and put down some rabid monsters. To bring terror to those who thought they were above consequences.

Six stormed out of his room, he needed to grab a few things.

Something was wrong.

Ozpin had never been one to jump the gun on things. He liked to analyze and fully understand the situation before resolving an issue. Over his very long life, that was the only way to avoid unnecessary casualties.

That was why when his agents reported that House was on the move he decided to monitor the man. But the supplies he was getting were disconcerting.

Metallic Acid Dust, freshwater ferns, crude oils, and various assortments of medicine. Not to mention the amount of Dust he bought. It's like he wasn't even trying to hide it. What had set the man off?

That was why he decided to quiz the man today. They were having their morning meeting and Ozpin had arrived early, enjoying the colorful trees around him. It was nice to come here and relax; to take his mind off everything. And with what James had done, he had more time to do it. Perhaps the only positive thing to occur from James' reckless actions.

Ozpin turned as he heard footsteps approaching the bench. This was going to be interesting.

House was walking towards him or rather marching. The man didn't greet him, only strode over with intent and sat down. But Ozpin could immediately tell the man didn't want to be there. He said nothing, just tapped his foot against the ground as he sat tensed, ready. But for what?

With the information he had at hand, it was easy to see that House planned on doing something drastic soon. And with the man's current mood, he needed to calm him down. But he couldn't do that without first knowing what was eating at him.

"House, are you planning something reckless?" Ozpin's question caused the man to turn. It was best to get to the heart of the issue. They had agreed to work together after all.

The masked man's response was instant. "I found the people that keep disappearing."

The statement made Ozpin both elated and cautious. While it was good to find the missing people–a problem that had been plaguing Vale for months now–House seemed to be dead set on something violent.

"Great, then hand the location over to the proper authorities or myself and we'll handle it." Ozpin figured that would placate the man's visible anger. He was wrong.

Shaking his head, the instructor responded, "Won't work. People on the Council are backing it. They'll strongarm you and stall you long enough for them to get away." His gaze finally turned towards Ozpin and the Headmaster felt a choking pressure around him. "This requires a personal touch."

"House, you can't, there's a proper way-" But Ozpin was cut off.

"A proper way!" The irate man shouted. "The proper way sees those people enslaved and shipped off. The proper way lets those murderous animals get away! My way…" He pointed at himself. "My way gets results. Not a single one of them will leave."

"No," Ozpin protested. "Not only would the negativity attract Grimm, but that's not how we do things!"

"And that's why you can't catch them!" House shot back, turning his finger at the Headmaster. "You and this inept Council can't protect them. I can."

The Headmaster's gaze hardened. He didn't want this to continue but there was a part of him that knew the man was right. If his claims about someone on the Council backing this horrible act were true, then they'd stonewall anything he would try to do and warn the perpetrators. It was likely the individual had already been stonewalling him on other investigations.

"Just give me one day and it will be over." House's bold claim was tempting. Having this problem disappear overnight would let him focus on Cinder and her cohorts. To truly immobilize their movement and keep them from acting during the Festival.

"I could hinder you here," Ozpin warned. "I could have my people take you in and keep you from going through with this foolish idea."

House leaned in just enough to be uncomfortable. "But you won't," he replied with a certainty that made Ozpin question himself. "Because you know I'm right."

Ozpin gripped his cane tightly. He felt cornered. It was either try and do things the bureaucratic way and possibly have them slip away, or have House go on a rampage. If Qrow had returned already, this wouldn't even be a question, he'd have his most capable agent go.

Maybe he could contact James instead? Were there any Atlas operatives that could go and check it out quickly and quietly? Probably not. Not only would getting the team ready and requisitioned take too long, but his friend wasn't known for subtlety. If anything, he might very well approve of House's methods. And the man was ready to go that night.

With the Festival right around the corner, Ozpin's options were limited. He closed his eyes and sighed as he made a decision.

"Then go, I'll make sure no one follows you tonight." The words felt wrong in his mouth, like he was making a mistake. But this seemed like the only option he had at the moment.

House merely nodded before standing.

"But House," Ozpin said, getting his attention again. "Know that I can't protect you from the possible consequences of the Mimic's actions."

This warning was twofold. Not only did it mean that he wanted House to reel himself in and that he shouldn't make too big of a scene of this. But it also meant that if House caused a scene, he wouldn't be able to stop James from acting. After all, the report from team RWBY all but confirmed in the Headmaster's mind that House was the Mimic. But it's better to have House do one last good act before he was taken off the board if that was the case.

"I'll do what needs done," House replied as he walked away.

Ozpin barely kept himself from praying to the Two Brothers that this wouldn't go awry.

Author's Notes:

I hope you look forward to the next chapter. There's a lot of action to come.

It's a bit of a touchy subject. But I did some research and modern day slavery is theorized to be around $90 per person in the illegal slave trade. They believe this number has reduced significantly since historical slavery as the supply is so much larger than the demand due to humanity's increased size and modern technology. However, this would not be the case for Remnant as their population and world size are much smaller. Still, they're in a more modern age so it's not going to be as expensive as historical slavery in the setting. So I settled somewhere in the middle for the numbers.

On a less grim(m) note, I went back and made two changes to the story. One is minor and can basically be disregarded as I went back and fixed a few curses to be more lore-friendly to Remnant. I want you to know this was kind of painstaking as I had to go through every usage of the word "damn" and "dust" in not only the published chapters, but the unpublished ones as well. For a small and tiny difference no one will notice. Why did I do this to myself?

The second is a detail for Chapter 52: Master of Fear. Specifically where Six is "devoured" by the Grimm a line or two has been added. This is set up for a later chapter.