Absence Breeds Desire, or something? Here's the next chapter lol

"I spy, with my lil' eye… something off-tan!"

"Did you just make a pun out of that?"

"That's not what I spied…"

"The ground?"

"No."

"That wall?"

"No."

"That skeleton?"

"No."

"That tree?"

"Oh for the love of – the sky you idiots!"

"THE SKY IS YELLOW!"

"OFF-TAN!"

"Stop yelling. Something will hear you."

"Ug. You've been saying that for nearly an hour now, but nothing's shown itself yet! We're perfectly sa-"

Velvets ears twitched as a bullet pinged off of Yatsu's hilt and scored a goal between them.

"This proves nothing."

"We have you surrounded, Vaultie cowards! Surrender now or prepare to fight!"

"NOTHING!"

The trio who weren't Fox let out a collective sigh as a large group of bandits moved out from the trees. Armed mostly with bats, rusty swords, and crude-looking pistoles – 'Are those actually pipes with a firing mechanism attached?' – the bandits weren't very impressive. Hell, Velvet figured she could solo the entire group if she needed to, though considering the initial attempt at taking down Yatsu it was likely they had snipers. 'That'll make this a pain in the arse.' Velvet also took note of their… she assumed it was armor and not a terrible fashion statement because if it was the latter Coco would've woken up to berate them by now. Coco aside, the armor consisted mostly of crude metal chunks roughly shaped for protection and covered in poorly-welded rebar cages for some reason. 'That would just slow them down… can take advantage of that. Wait is Ruby talking?'

"-won't be able to kill us, so just bugger off and leave us alone before we kill you instead."

"Woah, when did you start throwing deaththreats?!"

'A very good question from Fox… what happened to her?'

"Around the same time I watched a group of bandits and civvies trying to murder each other into oblivion and taking no prisoners. So what're we doin'? Takin' out the trash or are you lot gonna run?"

"Arrogant little – KILL THEM!"

At that the four Hunters leapt into action – by which Yatsuhashi meant that he chucked Coco out of the battle and into a tree 'Oops… at least she won't remember that when she wakes up…' while Fox and Velvet both engaged the enemies to the right and left. Normally that's the part where Coco would open fire on the center and he'd ensure nobody took her down, but since they had a sniper not a minigun in the center it just left Ruby open to the enemy.

Well, until she cut three poorly armored bandits in half with her scythe at least.

'Well that's horrifying. Wasn't she the cinnamon roll? What the hell?!'

The sound of more bandits attacking from behind forced Yatsuhashi to discard his worries in favor of bring the sword around and taking a casual swing. Nothing too serious, enough to knock the bandits back and give them a reason to - and they didn't have aura and now they're dead.

'Oh.'

"The blighters don't have aura be careful!"

"Already noticed Velv!"

"Just kill them damnit!"

"Yikes Rubes you need to-"

"LESS TALKY MORE KILLY!"

'Not a… bad plan.'

Sadly, no plan survives contact with the enemy, as Yatsuhashi was reminded when his Aura tanked three shots from three different snipers, none of them doing much damage but all of them both annoying and potentially lethal to a weakened teammate.

"Ruby, snipers."

"Got it. Cover me."

Yatsuhashi didn't even bother to reply, instead simply doing so. With his reach and strength the bandits didn't dare get close, and with Velvet and Fox handling the clean up there was no rush to finish the fight. The little red sniper of theirs would have the most trouble, needing to find each target and then take them out before they notice she's aiming for them.

'Breath in.'

Yatsu was behind her, keeping the enemy at bay. His sword flashed in the sickly light of the sun, shrouded as it was by an endless haze. The bandits backed away from the giant of a man, taking note of his muscles and the size of his sword. Not even they were stupid enough to test that might, but the snipers were picking away at his aura, she needed to focus on them.

'Breath out.'

Velvet ducked, dodged, and wove between enemy attacks with remarkable agility and speed. Not a movement wasted, not an attack missed, not a dodge failed. Velvet knew how to fight unarmed, likely due to the nature of her weapon and it's need for images of other weapons simply to become active.

'Breath in.'

Fox powered through, dodging most attacks, tanking what he couldn't dodge. Agility was balanced by strength in his build, and ever movement he made was with purpose. Three enemies down in a single full second, but the bandits seemed to be a large group.

'Breath out.'

A flash of light on the top of a nearby building, a bang, and the light was gone. One sniper down, an unknown number more to handle. Yatsu's sword carved through the air above Ruby as she sought out the next target, trying to see through the bandits in front of her.

'Breath in.'

A shift in a cluster of bushes, suddenly the outline of a humanoid can be seen – ghillie suit. A bang, the humanoid bush now has a spread of red across part of it and is limp, target removed. Fox swivels in between Ruby and her area of vision, forcing her to shift to a different one.

'Breath out.'

Nothing yet, but a few bandits are running away. Ruby removes the threat – permanently – and continues her search. She doesn't hear Yatsu's gasp of shock. A tree rustles in a way that isn't with the wind, focus on it, there's the person. A woman, dark green clothes turning red as she falls from the tree, a crater in her chest from the high caliber rounds used by Crescent Rose.

'Breath in.'

A spray of dust next to her, noticed by her free eye that's paying attention to the near rather than the far. Some quick mathematics, an educated guess, and the sighting of a poorly hidden barrel. Patience. Wait. The target leans forward for another shot, Crescent Rose vibrates from the force, the target falls bonelessly from the window they were looking out of.

'Breath out.'

Fox and Velvet are finishing up, the sound of battle is pretty much gone, though Ruby hears something she can't place coming from the trees. Not far enough to be a sniper, she disregards it. A bullet pings off of her shoulder, jolting her a little but not breaking her aura. Damage taken, target needs to go. But where are they?

'Breath in.'

Target found when they take another shot at her, wait until they come out of hiding. There. Vibrations felt in her bones as the .50cal round leaves the barrel, a spray of red from the target, a body hitting the ground. Target removed. No more targets found, and a sound, her… name?

'Breath out.'

Contrary to common sense, Velvet does not have the best hearing on team CFVY. That lofty position goes to Fox, blind as he is, and his sensory-semblance enhanced sense of hearing. It was thus formidable sense of hearing that allowed Fox to hear – painfully loud – each of Ruby's bullets. This impressive sense that enabled Fox to know that Velvet and Yats (to use Coco's name for him) were trying to calm her down from some sort of battle-frenzy. This terrifying sense of hearing that gave Fox the chance to hear voices in the trees nearby.

"… go for a … … … market …"

"Use … first … … eh? Hehe!"

"… why … use her … … sell … market, they … notice …"

'Slavers… fucking trash. If they're no better than the rest of this scum than I'll have no issues taking them on my own.'

Without further ado, Fox darted forward with his armblades ready for battle. A moment of pinpointing later and he arrived to the rather horrid scene of his team leader being felt up while still out from the wanamingo queen. Fox took but a moment to process the scene – far too much skin, three dirty men, and a pair of pants on the ground – before his brain fully realized the situation.

"YOU GET YOUR FUCKING HANDS OFF HER YOU LITTLE SHITS!"

What? It wasn't only Velvet who could have a mouth! 'And I'm certainly justified right now' was the last real thought that went through Fox's head as he hurled himself at the man who was least dressed – bare from the waste down in so little time, if only they were that skilled at com- 'NO HUMOR!' It really wasn't the time, after all, what with the gore that had been the mans intestines flopping wetly off of an armblade and onto the dry, dead ground. The other man was stumbling back, attempting to turn the safety off his rifle and get a shot in. Fox didn't want to give him the chance to pull it off, but had to dodge the flailing upper limbs of the man he'd just disemboweled.

BANG!

Shrugging off a surprisingly well-aimed bullet Fox charged the remaining man – the third having turned to run away at this point – and rammed his armblade into and through the mans chest. The sickening sound of bones shattering and splitting was accompanied by an agonized gurgle as a human took their final breaths, the last remaining man swearing loudly.

"WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU MONSTERS?!"

"HA!"

'The fucking rapist slaver has the arrogance to call US the monsters? Rotten bastard…'

Paying no further thought to it, Fox discarded his distaste for cutting down someone who isn't a threat in exchange for satisfying his need to hurt the man who tried to commit such a horrid act upon his teammate. A few moments later, an cry of agony was cut short as an armblade removed a large portion of the mans neck, leaving him bleeding on the ground and sobbing mutely, unable to produce sound anymore. Fox grunted, and then stomped on the dying mans head, shattering his skull and spraying bits of brain and blood across the ground nearby.

"Coco doesn't need to know what happened Fox."

"Yes, yes she does. You think she's not gonna notice the bruises? Or the bloodstains? Or perhaps not notice the fact that her top is TORN IN HALF?!"

"Fox, quiet. Sound got us into this mess."

"I… I know. Sorry. I'm just riled up."

"We all are, but we need to keep calm and keep moving forward. The Vault is safe. We can explain what happened to Coco once we're there and she wakes up."

"Maybe we can, but we all know that's not the real reason I'm riled up."

"You mean how the world has changed?"

"No, Velvet, I mean how my scars are unique anymore – YES I MEA- sorry. Yes, I mean how the world has changed."

"I get you, really I do, but we need to look at the bright side of things. 'It is only when the sun has set that you can see the stars.'"

"Yats, I love ya bro, but the sky is too smoggy to see the stars anymore. There's nothing left."

"Then we need to look harder… though I do agree it won't be easy. I can cook, but nothing fancy, and I can't farm or build houses or anything else."

"All we can do is fight…"

"Yes – but we can do that very, very well. There are still monsters, hell, more monsters than before. We can find a way to fit into this world we've been given. And if that means… if that means… killing people… well… we can do that. We've all done it now. We… can do it again."

"You're… taking this well… I think…"

"My horror factor burned out when I saw a grown civvie murder a child-bandit after I disarmed her. Or maybe when I killed the bastard immediately after. I don't know."

Four very different people let out one shared sigh as they accepted that this was their reality now. Whether they wanted it or not they had been forced to trade their older, better, happier world for… well, for this hell. This world where murder was the modus operandi and 'slave' was just the name of another type of market and where the sky hadn't been blue yet because of the seemingly endless smog that drifted through it. A world where only the ruthless did well. Another world.

Forest green hair blended into one of the few remaining trees to have life as a single crimson eye watched the immense vault door shriek it's way closed behind the small band of Vaulties. That door really made a racket, every living thing for miles could hear it opening and closing even without the sirens her grandmother claimed other Vaults had once made. Lowering the binoculars – though they were more a telescope after the red girl (and now that was a shocker) had blown out one of the lenses and barely missed the eye behind – the woman frowned. This Vault changed the entire political (military) landscape of Patch now.

Hopping out of the tree and thanking her Aura for the ability to do so, the woman stood up and turned towards her home base for now, leather armor creaking near-silently as she rose from an impact-dispersing crouch to her full height of 5'7". Mocha skin blended into the brown and green armor even as the slight rustle of a similarly colored cloak – once entirely green, if that same grandmother was to be believed - shifted down around her body to make her look remarkably similar to a human-height bush. If she closed her eyes and held still enough even ferals and mutants could have difficulty picking her out from an actual plant.

As the woman began to walk in complete silence (always good to be safe rather than sorry) she thought back on the battle between the Vaulties and the Barons... though calling it a battle was, frankly, an overstatement. The big guy – also an understatement – was terrifying to behold, swinging a sword as large as he was with such contemptuous ease and cutting down Barons by the dozen (well, half-dozen, but still). The man in red with dark skin had been a fighter out of her own book, using speed, stealth, and agility to take down opponents with ruthless ease, especially when the petite one with the porcelain skin was being shagged. 'Wish I knew what that one could do, she seemed to be important to the lot if their actions later were anything to go by… then again, she got KO'd first, probably the weakest of the group… even the faunus was stronger than her, to come out of those mines intact.' And it was the truth, as far as the cloaked woman could tell.

'But none of them are important. The only one that really matters is the red girl – the one with the cloak and the scythe! That's gotta be a Rose! By the Waste my family's claimed they were real for five generations now! The mightiest of warriors, the Red Reapers! It can't be the original, but definitely a descendant… and if she's anything like the one my grandmother spoke of she's probably a hero, a savior of the people! She could help us… we just need to find a way to convince her to meet with us. Hell, even if she turns out to not be a Rose at all anyone with that kind of sniping skill is worth trying to get on my side…'

"Yo! Boss is back everyone, look like you were busy, quick!"

"Haha, welcome back Boss!"

"You get anything good on 'er?"

"Oh yeah – Red's as dangerous as the rumors claim. I even confirmed the scythe – she's either a Rose or a wannabe-Rose, either works for what we need."

"Heh, you Sustrai's and your Rose mythos. Well, if she's real she's real."

"She IS real! But she's not alone either."

"Oho?"

"She's got friends… dangerous friends… but I think they'll be on our side as well."

"How dangerous we talkin', Boss?"

"Heh. They had a giant with 'em, more than twice the height of any of you lot, built of muscle and using a sword twice my height! Saw 'em get into a fight with the Barons. Utterly one sided, I don't think a single one of the Vaulties got so much as s scratch. They've all got Aura I'm sure, and each seems more dangerous than the last. Well, 'cept the one that was out before the fight started, but she's probably a medic or something, all I saw on her was a black bag of some sort."

"You sure they'll join us?"

"'Course. If they're anything like the Rose from my family stories they'll be happy to join the Thorns."

AN: Sorry for the long wait everyone! I basically woke up one day without any motivation and only recovered it through sheer force of will and lots and lots of tea. I'll try to update other fictions but my will to write is still limited at the moment. Hopefully things will be better after the holiday season (sometimes called Stressmass, Chanustress and New Year's Stress) but no promises. Also, SubRemnant fans, the rewrite is about 8% finished (like, 1/3rd of the first chapter, sorry) and probably won't be out for a while… I may be avoiding that one like we all avoid the Dunes region, not even sorry, that's gonna be a pain the rewrite (even if it is necessary). Expect either Fallout: New Remnant or Rose of the Dawn as my next update.

On an entirely unrelated note, shadowstorm17 ( u/7936091/) (story beta/co-author) asked me to post a challenge they want people to try out: A Fallout: New Vegas/M*A*S*H Crossover with a Female!Courier (alignment is up to you) transported via the Transportalplonder into the M*A*S*H universe either at the start of the series or after Colonel Potter arrives. CourierXHarkeye Pairing if you can pull it off, but not necessary, and the Fallen Idol episode is touched but there's no confrontation with Radar due to the Courier.