A/N Guess who had the maddening impulse to write a Fallout story.

It's a bit of a side project. I have a basic idea of where I'm going to go with this. As you will see, the chapter was inspired by Inquisitor Halbread's Knight of the Wasteland. I got his permission just in case if it got a little bit too inspired if you know what I mean. Also, it turns out Knight of the Wasteland is not abandoned, which is good to know. That story has definitely got tons of potential, but anyways on with the story!

*EDIT: 21/11/2018*

*EDIT: 16/02/2019*

Beta'd by CeleneTheAngel

Dreams.

They're what guide the paths of human and faunus alike.

One of the things that made both species different from the Grimm, single minded beings who only sought destruction.

Dreams made Heroes.

Dreams also created War.

No matter how much Humanity and Faunus tried to prevent it,

war would always come back.

After all,

war…

…. war never changes.

Jaune Arc was considered the Black Sheep of the Arcs by many.

He never showed any skill in combat, even though he was born into a family of heroes. He often was bullied due to this and had never retaliated against his bullies. His grades, while good, weren't as impressive as his sisters, except for the sciences which strangely, he had a knack for.

Overall, Jaune was a good person.

But as an Arc he was a failure.

He suspected he knew why he was never put into training to become a huntsman. His twin sister, Jeanne Arc, was put into training first by their older sibling, Lavender Arc, the second oldest of the Arc children. Jeanne had somehow found blackmail material on Lavender to "persuade" her to start a bit early.

Not that Jeanne ever told him what the said material was, she would laugh her butt off and would completely forget to tell him. When he tried asking Lavender she would blush a bit and tell him to forget it before leaving muttering how she had left some door unlocked.

His sisters were weird.

When they both came of age to train, their father, although he had unlocked their Aura, was far too busy to train them. Not that Jaune could blame him, preparing for a sixth child had that kind of toll on a man, super-powered or not. So, when the entrance exams to Signal started, Jeanne was eligible to go, although she barely made the cut.

Not that that deterred Jaune. Far from it actually, he just became more determined. It was just like the books he read, the hero faces a trial before his adventure could begin. The hero had to prove himself that he was ready to take on such an adventure.

So, he made it his goal to pester his sisters about going on one of their hunting trips.

Of course, they all outright refused with big fat no's.

Not that it would stop the 11-year-old Arc.

He was the hero after all.

And heroes never gave up.

Three years had passed, and he had yet to convince any of his older siblings to take them out on their hunts.

But he was getting pretty close!

"Come on Chris! Please", begged the 14-year-old Jaune Arc.

"No means no, Jaune", said Christa Arc in an exhausted tone. She yawned as she wrote a new note on her textbook. She gave an internal groan at the amount of homework she had to go through before finishing and silently cursing a certain hyper-caffeinated Professor.

'UGH! School break is meant to be a break dammit!' She thought with frustration, struggling with her self-control not to rip the textbook to shreds.

"Chris I've trained with Crocea Mors and everything! Please let me go."

Christa looked at her younger brother wearily. He had been an unfortunate case to say the least.

Long story short, Jaune had no talent for formal combat. They've had practice spars with him, and he'd never shown raw talent for it, unlike Jeannette who soaked it up like a sponge in very little time, resulting in his sisters being unable to train him due to the fact it would take longer. It didn't help that they were always either in one of the Academies or out on missions. It was just impossible to train him.

Their father being unable to train him because of their mother was just another unlucky coincidence.

Not that it stopped him from trying over and over again. Night after night he would practice on an old wooden tree with a practice sword, he'd even sometimes collapse with exhaustion, and sleep there for the rest of the night where their mother would find him and berate him for working too hard.

She could never understand what drove him. He would constantly beg both her and Lavender to take him on one of their missions in order to 'prove' himself that he was able. But she knew no matter what the male Arc did he would never be able to go to Beacon, Haven or any other Huntsman Academy, as he could never be able to reach the bar set by people who trained all their life to become Huntsman and Huntresses.

Not with only three years left to go.

Everyone had tried to steer Jaune away from the path of a Huntsman, but the boy adamantly refused and was determined to push through, no matter what they said. Resulting in the current situation of them denying his every request to train or take him on one of their hunts.

Unless…

There may just be a way to stop her kid brother on this foolish path of his.

"Alright Jaune you can come along."

Jaune slashed the air with a resounding swing of his sword.

He panted heavily and fell onto his back, grinning.

Finally, after all this time he had his chance.

A chance to prove that he wasn't a failure.

He'd worked every single day for this one chance.

The bullies and his family believed he couldn't do it.

But he'd show them all,

that Jaune Arc can become a Hero.

Christa Arc laughed and giggled as the landscape went by in endless shades of green and blue.

Only slightly ruining the mood was Jaune vomiting in the background.

Her team had been mostly okay with bringing Jaune on board with the mission, although some still had their doubts, but eventually they agreed on her plan, saying it was for the best.

She still felt more than a little guilty about bringing him along. No doubt he was thrilled to get chance to prove himself. But the longer he deluded himself into believing he could become a huntsman in such little time, the more crushed he would be later on.

The problem would be that he wouldn't quit even after that.

He would continue beating himself up training and throwing himself at missions. Sure, he'd be upset, but he'd always just continue on no matter what anyone told him. She had seen it happen once before with their father, and she regretted not being able to help back then, but she couldn't change the past.

The less he accepts the unlikeliness of his dream ever happening and crushing him in future, the higher the chances of him potentially dying. Better sooner than later, and before he can get the chance to seriously hurt himself and possibly get killed.

And she'll be damned if she lets anything happen to her kid brother.

Honestly, she was surprised he wasn't asking to go home halfway into the ride.

But she should've realized that a little motion sickness wouldn't be nearly enough to discourage him.

Christa Arc was pissed.

"OUMDAMNIT! GLASS, GIVE ME COVERING FIRE!"

Correction, she was very pissed.

It was supposed to be a relatively simple mission. Get in, kill some grimm, and leave with minimal injuries.

I say minimal because injuries, even if just minor ones, were usually a given with these kinds of missions.

Bur after they had landed, they were immediately swarmed by beowolves.

An entire horde of over century-old beowolves.

They were told that there would be quite a few of them, but this was ridiculous.

Someone up there hated her, she was sure of it. That, or her luck was as shitty as ever.

The fight was hard, but they weren't Hunters of Beacon Academy for nothing.

They were just about beginning to push back the horde when an Alpha Beowulf pounced onto the hood of the bullhead and scooped her brother away like a child taking candy from a baby.

Leading to the current situation.

"JAUNE!"

Christa tried to give chase but more of the horde blocked her path. She growled as she loaded up her double-edged spear/revolver with Dust rounds.

"Alright you damn mutts, I'm only gonna say this nicely once."

She leveled her spear in front of her and split it into two short swords.

"Back the fuck off."

The beowolves charged.

A hurricane of steel and bullets rained down on top of them.

Christa Arc quickly glanced at the Alpha as she decapitated another Beowulf and was soundly surprised and worried at the same time.

Jaune was fighting the Alpha.

He was actually fighting and surviving against an Alpha Beowolf.

Jaune ducked and rolled, slashing at the tall beast's hindlegs at every opportunity. Deflecting powerful swings with the flat of his shield and even rammed the edge of the shield into the Alpha's groin.

That was the first time she'd ever heard an Alpha-type Grimm whimper.

Despite Jaune's inherent lack of skill with fighting, he seemed to have inherited what the rest of the family called the ole' Arc stubbornness. Even so, Christa knew he wouldn't last long. She could see him quickly tiring and the Alpha was only getting more and more enraged.

She had to hurry.

A pack of 9 beowolfs began clouding her vison.

She had six shot left before needing to reload.

Shooting forward she ran through the first beowolf, its mangled corpse flinging forward spearing into two more before dissipating.

6 left.

Pouring in as much Aura as her legs could take, she converted her spear into two sabres. Side-stepping a swipe for her head and thrusting the blades into the throats in quick succession.

4 left.

Jaune was knocked back into a tree. Blood spilling from his lips. The Alpha bounded forward in a mad rush showing it was done playing with its prey. Jaune scrambling to leap away.

She was running out of time.

Converting swords back into a double ended spear she slashed through the legs of the next pair. Not even caring if they died or not.

2 left.

The remaining two roared and ran towards her. She raised her spear up before smashing into the dirt in front of the grimm. She spun in the air as her weapon shifted back into the gunblades, firing two shots through their skulls resulting in her being launched even higher in the air.

Her spear shifted again, this time the two barrels were in parallel at one end of the spear while taking a javelin throwers stance midair.

"GET AWAY FROM HIM!"

She threw with all her might and as she launched it both the bullets fired causing the velocity to be increased exponentially.

The Alpha whirled and saw the incoming projectile.

Spear crunched through flesh.

The Alpha roared.

"No…" Christa whispered in disbelief.

Her spear hadn't pierced all the way through.

She had failed.

The Alpha roared as it ripped the spear out from its chest, tossing it away as if it was a toothpick.

Only to get cut off by a boy jabbing into its hind legs.

"Jaune!"

The boy was knocked back and skidded against the ground before coming to a stop. The Alpha stalking after him as Jaune struggled back onto his feet.

"NO, NO, NO!" Christa screamed as she ran after it. She may not have her weapon, but she refused to let her brother die in a place like this.

But she was too slow.

The Alpha leaped forward head first, jaws wide open as it came down on the weak human.

Christa reached out, pumping even more aura than she thought possible into her limps.

The jaws clamped.

And a brilliant white flash lit up the clearing like a second sun.

Christa blinked away the black spots in her vison.

"Gah! - Who set off the flash grenade?!" said a voice coming from behind her.

Christa ignored her and looked at the dead Alpha that was now evaporating.

And Jaune who stood over it.

Exhausted he used his sword as crutch, he gasped for air as he wobbled and tried not to fall flat on his face.

"Jaune!"

Christa ran as quickly as she could to her brothers' side and hugged the life out of him.

"Chris…air!"

Christa quickly let go of him and gave him a once over. Satisfied her brother wasn't going to suffer any long-term injury she took a deep breath.

"Jaune Miles Arc!"

Jaune flinched.

"Never in my life have I seen something so stupid! You reckless idiot! I told you specifically to hide in the Bullhead, but you end up fighting an Alpha Beowolf with little to no formal training?!"

"But it took me out of the Bullhead..." Jaune meekly tried to defend himself.

"No excuses! Once Mom hears this you are so grounded!"

Jaune hung his head. He knew it was pointless trying to argue with any of his sisters. He always lost.

"But…"

Jaune perked up. There was a but? Well that was a first.

"You did good. You survived fighting an Alpha, and most couldn't do that at your age. Sloppy, yes. But you still survived."

Jaune smiled at that. He finally proved himself. Maybe now he can ask again.

"Can I train with you and Lavender then? I wanna become a hero!"

Christa laughed and gave her brother another hug as she quickly considered it, and decided that maybe there was hope for him yet.

"Alright. I'm going to train you like no tomorrow. But first let's get back home 'kay?"

Jaune grinning and hugged her older sister tightly.

"Arc's promise?"

"Arc's promise."

"CHRIS! THERE'S STILL SOME LEFT! GET A MOVE ON!" One of her teammates called.

The two siblings looked at each other.

"…we'll go home after we're done with this."

"'Kay"

"And Jaune."

"Yeah?"

"Go hide in the bullhead."

"… Fine..."

Christa and her team walked towards the new Bullhead with Jaune lagging at their feet. The old one had been damaged and had to be air towed away.

As they walked up the gangplank Jaune called out to them.

"Chris... I feel funny."

Before Christa could so much as even turn around to look behind her, a flash of bright blue light filled her vison.

Once she was able to see again her shrill scream echoed through the surrounding area.

Her brother was gone.

Allie Fillmore was very annoyed.

"Your antics have gone on long enough Watson!"

"What is it now Fillmore?" The old scientist growled.

"You know damn well what I mean Watson. You messed with the Relay again!"

"It was needed for valuable research," he explained calmly.

"You didn't even ask to get clearance from me!"

"What's going on here" asked Madison Li.

"Your subordinate messed with the Relay again."

"It was required for the new batch of synth relay grenades."

"And it was due to your incompetence that a human jump was made."

"W-what?" Evans spluttered in shock.

"This could potentially compromise us," muttered Allie.

"We need to report this to Father," said Madison, turning to the nearest terminal and began typing.

The Institute would eliminate the threat.

By any means necessary.

The last thing he saw was his sister's worried face.

Jaune didn't know what happened to him. There was a flash of white and blue then he remembered a blue tunnel with lightning. Groaning, he rolled over, his senses coming back to him. His eyes blinked out the black spots that covered his vision, faintly wondering when had it turned night-time. He tried standing up.

Immediately, the second he put his hand on the ground his aura recoiled.

It felt dead.

Jaune scrambled up to his feet, stumbling as he did so. His feet digging into the dead earth as he withdrew Crocea Mors, raising it high he tried slashing at the ground.

Only for his sword to get caught in the trunk of a cut down tree.

Resulting in him falling flat on his face as he lost his balance.

Boy did he feel stupid right now.

He rose up again, looking at the grey-yellow earth in confusion. Never had he seen soil that felt so dead. So...soulless.

Like a grimm.

He looked around. Leafless trees stood, and he could barely make out a tower in the distance through the haze. Picking up Crocea Mors and sheathing it, he anxiously called out for his sister.

"Chris?"

Silence.

When he had looked up at the sky he had the sinking feeling he was going to be here for a while.

Because what greeted him was not a cracked and broken moon,

but a small, unbroken moon with thousands of stars filling the midnight-black sky.

End.