Hello again. It'sa me, Mechario! But more seriously, here's the first real update to Fallout: New Remnant in what, 6 months? Sorry it's not 3k words, I've decided I'm not going for wordcount anymore but will instead end chapters where I think they should end.

"…ake up then?"

"Yeah, pretty much. She's the one who saved us, and neither side trusts the other – for good reason – so we can't exactly lead you to the place we want to make our home."

"Can't really blame you for tha- wait, she's waking up!"

"You sure? Looks pretty out of it to me."

"Her eyelids fluttered, I know what I saw!"

"Okay, yeesh."

Ruby managed to win the war with her own eyelids after a struggle to be remembered for generations to see sideburns and some random woman she didn't recognize. Both were looking at her intently and it was actually a little awkward for her until she remembered what had been going on when she was last aware of the world. Jolting upright and then instantly regretting the choice as the pain hit her like an Ursa.

"Uuuuurg… Grimm… happened?"

"You killed most of them and the rest ran away and it was amazing! Can I learn how to fight like that?!"

"Uh? Who are you?"

The man snorted and introduced himself as Tukson. The woman on the other hand – in her mid-twenties if Ruby could tell it right – paused, glancing at Ruby with deep green eyes, coughed awkwardly into a patched gray sleeve before backing up a little and standing at her full height. This allowed Ruby to see that she wore a dirty lavender longcoat over a set of dirty gray slacks with an equally gray and equally dirty sweatshirt – a few patches and some holes indicating age and use – with crude and mildly rusted metal plate armor over her forearms, chest, and legs. Her hair looked like it could have been violet, but the dirt caked into it made determining hair color rather difficult.

"I'm Nebula. Uh. Nice to meet you?"

"Uh. Okay. Nice to meet you as well, Nebula. I'm Ruby, uh, Ruby Rose."

"That was painful to watch, you know?"

"Oh shut up."

"You two getting it on in there or what?!"

The deep male voice made both Tukson and Nebula jump with an (amusingly adorable and utterly out of place, in Tukson's case) eep and then a surprisingly in depth explanation of what's going to happen to "Bolin" (whoever that was) if he didn't shut up in the next ten seconds or so. Laughing, a tall man with a sleeveless denim vest over a yellow t-shit. At this point Ruby had stopped even noting that it was dirty as all hell and needed about twenty years in a washing machine before it could be safely worn again, as that seemed to be a given for people these days. Was it that hard to stay clean? Regardless, the man had black hair and… glowing amber eyes? And skin that was… melted off… like that thing she'd had to kill back in Patch.

Ruby stumbled off the bed a two yelps – the first of fear, the second of pain as she landed on her head with low aura. Ignoring the embarrassment and the pain alike, she scrambled off to a corner staring at this 'Bolin' person. He seemed started at first, then disappointed, then angry.

"Well sorry for being ug-"

"What are you?!"

"What?"

"How do you not know what a ghoul is?"

"Vaulter, remember?"

"She's a Vaulter? And took down all those Grimm?"

"Claims to be a Huntress. I'm thinkin' the Vault she was in somehow maintained the old world Hunters… maybe. She had Aura, that much I know."

"Well yeah, everyone who's supposed to fight Grimm has Aura!"

The group of three regarded her like she'd grown another head – what was with people and giving her looks like that? – and then glanced at each other.

"Neb, can you go get the group? We'll have Ruby here out in a few moments, just gotta do a quick checkup on her."

"Sure thing, Boli."

"Don't call me that."

"Sorry, sorry~"

"You know she isn't actually sorry, right?"

"Yeah, but if she fakes it hard enough it may become sincere."

"Pfft."

"At least I didn't fall in love with someone who was trying to kill me yesterday."

"I'm not in love."

"Suuuuuure."

"Uh?"

"Oh right, sorry, so we need you to real quick…"

While Ruby was finishing her little checkup, Nebula headed out to where her new "boss" was located. The man wasn't as cruel or commanding as Stoneskin, but his strength was real and his experience was by no means minimal. He could be relied on, so long as they followed his orders. 'Course, if the girl decided not to follow his orders they'd kill him and move on, but for now they were trusting the boy when he said that she wouldn't do that and would be angry if they did.

"Yo, boss. She's awake. Finishing up her checkup now. Having Tukson there definitely prevented her from going on a panicked rampage, considering how scared of Bolin she was. Didn't even know what a ghoul is. Definitely from a Vault."

"Yeah, we figured that much already, but it's good to have confirmation. She knows we're gonna be asking her questions right?"

"Oh yeah. I forgot to mention that. Sorry."

"Naturally…"

Nothing else to do, Jaune turned to observe the people who remained with him. The three members of the Long family, Mama Miku, and then Tukson was with Ruby and Bolin. Aside from those five, the remaining four people were strangers to him. A man in dirty purple with black and gray hair and eyes the color of his shirt – Brawnz, he remembered – stood next to a shorter woman in green with hair that could only have been produced in a Vault – May, a sniper, his mind provided quietly. Then there was Nebula, pulling out a cigarette to pass the time, and the boy Oscar who had intervened before announcing his desire to be a Huntress. Throw in Tukson and Bolin and that was five potential hostiles for his five allies – not that it would matter. If Ruby decided to help them all the firepower in the world wouldn't do any good, if she decided to help Jaune than all their numbers would mean nothing.

The rest of the Stone Men had decided to bail on this mess and left, taking their weapons but nothing else. They didn't want to risk bringing the little reaper down upon them any more than Jaune did. Speaking of the young girl, here she came now. He instinctively stood taller and stiffer, trying and failing to control his fear of what she could do. The girl, Ruby, looked so… small. Frail. Like she could be blown away by a meek breeze.

Hard to believe she could kill everyone there in seconds or less.

"So… uh… what now?"

Very hard to believe she could kill them all in seconds or less.

"We've got some questions for ya – I hope you understand, what you did… it impressed us, but it also leaves us wanting to know how you did it."

This would be the biggest test. Would she be willing to talk? Would she try to keep it a secret? Was it a secret? Was she a servant of the New Kingdom? Would she become their enemy-

"Okay. What do you want to know?"

Huh.

"Well, first off, the boy here, Oscar, says you spoke of Aura. What is this Aura, and how does it allow you do to these things?"

Ruby frowned, and everyone stiffened a little. Was this frown their only warning? Or was it something more sinister?

"Aura is the physical manifestation of the soul itself. It uses energy – from the body – to support itself, but even if you are poisoned or starving you can still generate an Aura field to protect yourself. Despite this, using too much Aura can lead to exhaustion and even death. It's mostly defensive, but also works to strengthen bones, muscle, skin, and the natural functions of the body. It can heal you as well."

Huh. That was… actually a very good explanation. Jaune assumed. He didn't know anything about Aura – the few who did tended to keep the information to themselves, either citing the danger is can pose if it becomes common knowledge or just not wanting to share it with others. Well, on to the next question…

"And where did you learn about Aura?"

"Signal Academy, from Professor Port."

"Signal… Never heard of it. Where was it?"

"Well… actually… the better question is 'When was it'."

"What do you mean?"

"I… I was special. Part of an ancient bloodline of warriors who had developed a natural power – magic, real magic not dust or semblance magic – that was uniquely powerful against the Creatures of Grimm. I don't know much else about the power, aside from it's real-ness. So… so the Kingdom of Vale built a vault, Vault one-eleven, for the sole purpose of housing every individual on Remnant who had silver eyes. There were twelve of us. We were… frozen, for the duration of the war."

"Wait wait, you mean you're pre-war? Like, you remember what all this looked like when it was new?!"

"Holy shit… that's like… damn."

"Must be a hell of a shock, waking up to… this."

"Wait, that means there's more of you right?"

"Not anymore…"

"What do you…?"

"Something went wrong. We were told we'd be there for twenty-five years, but… well it's been a bit longer than twenty-five years. And the system only thawed us because of a malfunction. I was the… the only one to survive."

"Oh gods… that's…"

"Terrible. Horrific. And completely in line with Vault-Tec. Everything they've built has failed in some horrific way, from what I've seen. Either damaged or sabotaged or simply doomed from the start."

"That's not true, there's that one Vault over by the old airfield…"

"Anyway! Ruby, I am deeply sorry for your loss. I would love nothing more than to let you rest, but I have a few more questions for you."

"That's fine. I'm… coping, I guess."

"Alright then. What do you plan to do now?"

"I was looking for people. I need to learn about this world I've woken up into… I can teach you about Aura and even unlock yours if you can teach me about the post-war world."

"That… would be grand."

"Anything else?"

"Yeah, you said you came from Patch. Was it… occupied? Damaged?"

"No, just very overgrown and very old."

"Okay, thank you. I'll take you up on the offer about Aura later – for now, I have more people to take care of, can you take us to Patch?"

"S-sure. There's some dogs living in the ruins – don't hurt them. They're friendly."

"Of course kiddo. Of course."

So, not much to say here. Mostly just going over some basic stuff for ya'll. Backstory stuff, explanations stuff, the like. Follow, Fav, Review - whatever ya want. I'll be aiming to update Trading One World for Another on Monday. Cya then.

Oh, and sorry for no update on RotS. That's a fic for when I get stuck on other fics, not meant to be updated regularly.

~ Mecharic