Chapter 1: Panama


A few keynotes:

1. Team VOLEN(Violen) is Nora, Oscar, Ren, Emerald, and Neo since Pyrrha is dead and Jaune is labeled dead since Beacon, Nora and Ren are co-leaders but it's mostly Nora who leads the team.

2. Certain Events played out differently since Vol.4-8.

3. Like Neo joined up with them in Vol.4, helping them fight the Nucklevee.

4. Vol.5 pretty much happened the same just with Neo sort of replacing Jaune while WBY tried to get along to her.

5. Vol.6's first half happened pretty much the same but they did meet Saphron and Terra and talked about Jaune, Adam did die (Which is something I hated I had to have to keep for the story), and it should be mentioned that Ilia went hunting down remaining White fang as not all of the White-Fang fell back in line with Ghira.

6. Vol.7 also pretty much happened the same, though Cinder failed to get the Relic of Knowledge.

7. Vol.8 was pretty much the same as well though since Cinder don't have help during the fight and didn't have the relic of Knowledge, she failed to get the Relic of Knowledge and the winter Maiden, but succeeded in getting the relic of Creation, but RWBY and everyone were able to escape without Penny dying and make it to Vacuo.

And while there are a lot of things/events/relationships that need to be explained they will as the story progresses, trust me on this.

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As she walked over the dirt hill by herself, she looked over it and only a mile ahead of them was the very place they had hoped to arrive since they had escaped Salem's attack on Atlas. They had finally made it. They were at Vacuo, they were safe for the time being.

Ruby Rose smiled as she saw the city of Vacuo. She turned to her team and the Atlas and Mantle civilians that they had brought with them. Penny noticed her smile when she turned around and she knew what it meant.

"Have we arrived at Vacuo, Ruby?" Penny asked with a smile

Ruby nodded, "We're here!" She cried joyously "We made it everyone!" She cried

Hearing this, the civilians and everyone else cheered and smiled, happy to know that their long journey through the desert of Vacuo has come to a close.

Ruby, her team, and Winter led the people of Atlas and Mantle to the front gates of the city, and there, they were greeted by many of the cities guards, who had been told to prepare for their arrival by the Headmaster Theodore and the Councilmen. Once inside, the guards lead every civilian to the refugee buildings while every soldier and huntsmen we're led string to Shade academy, in order to gain some rest. However, Winter, Penny, Team RWBY, and Team VOLEN were taken straight to Theodore's office.

Eventually, they had reached the office and were let in, and there, stood Headmaster Theodore himself.

He had dark skin, close-cut hair which is almost shaved off, and he wore a checkered vest that shows off his wiry frame, which was thin but with sharp lines of muscle like he had been chiseled from stone.

He wore an ankle-length, grey-blue cape, similar to the color of a stormy sky which is clasped onto his shoulders with a silver chain, He also wore, a silver belt with a round buckle, matching boots, and bright white slacks with deep side pockets, and on his hand were red gloves which are decorated in Dust crystals, no doubt those were his weapon of choice.

Theodore smiled as he saw all of them, "It's a pleasure meeting you all" Theodore told them "Welcome to Shade Academy" He said

Winter gave him a soft smile, "Thank you for having us here, Headmaster" Winter told him

"Yeah, thanks, but how'd you even know we be here?" Yang chimed in

Theodore smiled, "We were informed of what happened when I received an incoming call from Qrow Branwen"

Hearing this, Ruby and Yang smiled as they heard their uncle's name,

"Uncle Qrow's ok!?" Ruby asked with a smile

Theodore nodded "Yes," he replied "However, his bullhead needed to make a stop in Vale, he said he'd be here as quick as possible"

Yang smiled, "That's a relief," she said

Winter nodded, "Indeed," she said with a smile, but she quickly looked at Theodore, "However, I'm sure you know why we're here," She told him

Theodore nodded and sighed, "Yes," He said, "I figure the situation had become dire after Ms. Rose's Announcment and began to prepare for your arrival, knowing full well that this would be the only safe place for the Relic since no doubt Mistral was compromised and Beacon is still in the process of rebuilding... did you manage to bring back the Relics?"

"Sort of," Ruby said "The Relic of Creation is here with us, but the Relic of Knowledge was taken by Cinder fall"

Theodore sighed, "A Relic has fallen in her hands... thankfully, it's just one," Theodore said

"Yes, but we must not waste time in securing it and the other one," Winter said "Headmaster, we must lock the relic of Creation with the Relic of Destruction, where is the Summer Maiden?"

At this question, Theodore looked down at his desk in a sad look, "The Summer maiden went missing a few weeks ago..." Theodore said

"What!?" Winter cried "How could you let this happen!?"

"It wasn't our fault, we kept tabs on her but we lost track of her when we got reports of her village being attacked and she was taken," Theodore said

"So, she was taken?" Yang chimed in "Why didn't she fight back?"

"Because... she's... she's too young to fight," Theodore said

This confused some of them as they had no idea what they were talking about, however, Oscar and Winter figured it out quickly, both becoming a bit horrified.

"Headmaster... you don't mean to say-?" Winter began

"Yes, Ms. Schnee" Theodore cut in, "She is a child"

Hearing this, everyone was stunned by the news. They knew that any female could be a maiden, but they had forgotten that being a maiden wasn't always by choice. But now... the Summer maiden was just a child and she was taken, no doubt scared and alone.

"Do you have any idea where she is!?" Ruby asked with a worried tone

Theodore nodded, "As soon as we heard the news we looked into who attacked and where they might be heading" He replied, "When we found out who it was, the situation went from bad to worse"

"Who was it that took her?" Penny asked

"Remnants of the White-Fang that was under Adam Taurus Control," Theodore said sadly, "They've, telling anyone that they were dedicated to Adam's belief of Faunus being the superior race and making humans bend to their will"

Hearing this, irked Blake and Yang. Even in death, Adam "lived" on in others, which made things a lot worse since the Faunus population in Vacuo was much larger than any other Kingdom's next to Menagerie. So, they could have a lot more followers than factions in most kingdoms.

"So what did you do?" Winter asked

Theodore turned to her, "We informed Chiften Belladonna and he agreed that they needed to be dealt with so he sent a group of people that would help us track down the Summer Maiden and retrieve her" Theodore told her "They were being led by a master spy, in Cheiftan Belladonna's words, a young woman named Ilia Amitola"

Hearing this, Blake was both happy and a bit worried, "Ilia is here in Vacuo?" Blake asked

Theodore nodded, "Yes," He said, "When she and her team arrived, we gave them all the information we gathered and then they set out to get her back, however, we haven't had any contact with them in the past two weeks,"

"Have you sent any search parties to look for them?" Blake asked with worry

"I was planning to, but that is when we received your broadcast," Theodore said "Knowing that we may be next, we quickly prepared the city for any attack, and ceased all outgoing missions"

"So your just gonna leave them out there to die or worse!?" Blake cried

Theodore shook his head, "No, we need the Summer Maiden back, she is too valuable to just let go even with the threat of Salem" Theodore replied "We do need to send someone to look for her and Ms. Amitola, but we can't seem to find anyone right now willing to go out there and look for her, not with everything on High alert"

Ruby then stepped forward, "Then send us," Ruby told him "We can look for her"

Winter looked at Ruby, "You can not be serious!?" Winter asked, "We can not risk you going out there! You all have faced Salem and her associated before, so we need you here"

"But Salem needs time to regroup," Penny said "The whale was her big weapon, but with it gone, she may need time to gather a force strong enough to attack Vacuo"

"And with Hazel gone and no doubt Watts as well, half of her council is gone and I'm sure Tyrian and Mercury are waiting on her orders," Emerald said "So we have time, I'm sure of it"

"That may be true, but we can not have some of our best fighters go out and risk their lives for one person" Winter replied

"But Ilia is our friend," Yang said "She helped Blake and stopped Mistral from getting out of hand," Yang finished

Weiss nodded in agreement, "Without her, Haven would have fallen just like Beacon, if not for her, Haven and Mistral might have been lost" Weiss told her sister, "We owe her, and we are not leaving her out there" Weiss finished

"We all owe her" Ren chimed in "We're going with," He said

"Yeah," Nora said "We're all doing this together, no more splitting up"

{What Nora said} Neo said through text

Emerald looked at them all and rolled her eyes, "Guess that include me as well" she said with a sigh, "What the hell, let's go on another suicide mission" she said

"Don't forget about me!" Penny said cheerfully,

"I'm coming with too," Oscar said

Ruby smiled, "Then it's settled," She said "We're getting Ilia and the Maiden back," Ruby said

Winter sighed, but she knew that she could not stop them, if someone was in trouble, like Penny was, they would do anything in their power to rescue and protect them. Still, she could not feel terrible for having them do this after everything they've already been through.

Theodore smiled, "Very well then," Theodore said "I'll brief you all on the information we also gave Ms. Amitola and get you prepared to leave tomorrow morning... and get you some new outfits," He told them "For now, while I get everything ready, please go and rest, you all have been through so much"

With that, the two teams began to leave the office as Theodore requested the Information they had on The Horns of the Bull. They would rest after their long journey and prepare for their next one. After all, you needed to prepare for a journey through the deserts of Vacuo. They were not kind to anyone.

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Meanwhile, far from Vacuo city, in the southernmost part of the vast desert country, Ilia was sneaking around the massive compound that the remants of the White-Fang had been staying in while the rest of her team was waiting outside for her and the Summer Maiden. Currently, She was wearing her old White-Fang Uniform as that was what she was used to while in combat and it helped that it also was able to blend in with her surroundings.

Ilia and her team had managed to find the Summer Maiden a few days ago, but due to how far she was from any city, they could not get a proper signal on her Scroll, and worse, there were guards everywhere around the Compound. They had a massive force, Ilia was almost in shock at just how many followers they had. Guess many Faunus really did feel similar to Adam, which just made her feel terrible because she use to be one of them.

Currently, she was in the dungeons looking for the Summer Maiden. Thankfully, Ilia had gotten a good description of her and her name as well, thanks to the Information Headmaster Theodore had given them. The Summer Maiden's name was Furiosa, and she was around 11 years of age and had short blonde hair and had Emerald green eyes, she apparently had a light tan on her skin.

Anyway, Ilia snuck down the hallway looking for her and calling out her name, "Furiosa!" Ilia cried with a hushed tone as she snuck around, "Furiosa are you here?"

Suddenly, the alarms began to blare and Ilia quickly camouflaged to hide in order to not be seen by anyone, and she hid in an empty open cell. As she did, she saw a blonde man in arm chains running through the hallway, and he was being chased by the Members of the Fang.

"The damn human is trying to escape again!" cried a male member

"Doesn't he ever learn!" said another

"Bad dog! Bad!" Screamed another

When the coast was clear, Ilia exited the cell and ran down the hall again, keeping her camo up as she did. She kept calling out to Furiosa as she ran down the hall and passed each cell, no longer caring about noise and the alarms were still blaring.

"Furiosa!" She called out "Furiosa are you here!?" Ilia cried

"W-Who's there?" came a small voice

Ilia turned to her left only to see a broken cell door and inside of it was a little girl, it was indeed Furiosa, Ilia turned off her camouflage and looked at Furiosa. When Furiosa saw her, she was about to scream but Ilia quickly held a finger to her lips that told Furiosa to be quiet, and thankfully, she had listened.

"It's ok, it's ok, I'm here to help," Ilia said "I'm gonna take you away from this place

Furiosa looked at her, "What about Max!?" she cried

Ilia was now confused, "Max?"

"He's the one that was running away!" She cried "He told me that once all the guards were gone, I needed to use my gift to get out! We need to save him!" she pleaded

Ilia shook her head, "We don't have time! we need to leave Furiosa!" Ilia said

"No! I'm not leaving him!" Furiosa said with a shake of her head, "We need to help him!"

"Furiosa-!"

"I'll scream!" Furiosa threatened, "I'll scream the whole way if we don't go and help him!"

Ilia was a bit stunned, she was being threatened by a little kid, and Ilia could tell that Furiosa was being serious, and running through a compound with a screaming child would be tough. 'Ugh, this just became a lot more difficult' Ilia thought "Fine! We'll go and help him!"

Furiosa smiled a little and Ilia told her to stay close as they ran back to save this Max that she was so fond of. As they ran back down the same direction, they heard gunshots going off, and eventually, Ilia was facing the backs of a few Members of the fang. She quickly activated her whip/rapier and quickly shocked two of them, knocking them out, she quickly noticed a third turning around to face her, but they were quickly shot dead.

Ilia looked to see who fired the shot only to see the very same person who she had seen running away down the hall, it didn't take a genius to figure out that this was the Max that Furiosa was talking about.

He had long shaggy blonde hair that reached past his shoulders and had a small bit of facial hair on his face, and had dark blue eyes. He wore a dirty short-sleeved brown shirt and a pair of black pants, with a pair of torn and ruined black and white shoes.

When he looked to see Ilia, a crazed look appeared on his face and in his eyes as he quickly raised his hand and pointed a dust pistol at Ilia, no doubt ready to shoot her, until Furiosa stopped him.

"Max, don't!" cried Furiosa

Max didn't shoot as he looked over to Furiosa, though he still had the gun pointed at Ilia.

"She's here to help," Furiosa said "She knows a way out of here,"

Max looked away from Furiosa and turned back to Ilia,

"That true?" He asked, his voice sounding a little rough

Ilia nodded, "I was sent by Chieftan Ghira and Headmaster to retrieve Furiosa, I have a team waiting for me at the exit I came in through," Ilia told him

Hearing this, Max complied and he put the gun down and kept looking at Ilia, "Lead the way then" he said

With that, Ilia led Furiosa and Max to the exit as the whole compound was looking for them. They kept sneaking their way around and avoided any guards looking for them, and eventually, the three of them had made it to the exit that Ilia had come through, though it was no normal exit. It was the trash chute. Apparently, it was one of the very few unguarded places in the compound, and Ilia and her team used that and had their vehicle waiting just out front near the trash chute so Ilia could go in and out quickly.

As they heard more guards running around, they quickly jumped through the trash chute and fell down the long dark pipeline. As they went down quickly, they exited just as quickly as they shot right out of the end and right down into more trash. Ilia, Furiosa, and Max quickly got up and Ilia looked for the vehicle, making sure it was in the same place and thankfully it was as her team was still waiting for her. The vehicle was an Atlas Humvee, with a machine gun on the roof.

"Guys!" Ilia cried as she and the other two made their way to the car

A female team member heard Ilia and saw her coming back to them with no doubt the girl and apparently someone else.

"Start the car now!" Ilia cried "We need to go!"

They nodded and looked over to another team member and told them to quickly start the car quickly, which they did. With ease, Ilia, Furiosa, and Max had made it to the Humvee and jumped inside, and once they were all inside, they drove off quickly. Making away from the compound.

However, from behind, they were spotted by a few members of the fang, and some of them were ordered to follow after the humvee, and so they quickly jumped on their own vehicles and chased after them quickly, and they were gaining on them.

"Shit!" cried the female teammate "They're gaining on us! Drive faster Yuma!"

The driver and male teammate of Ilia, now known as Yuma, looked over to the female, "I'm driving as fast as I can Trifa!"

Max then looked over Ilia, "Does the gun work!?" he asked

Ilia looked at him, "What?" she asked him

"Does the gun work!?" He asked again, pointing to it,

Ilia nodded and that's all Max needed to stand up and take control of the gun, and Furiosa looked at him with worry, "Max! What are you doing!?" She asked

Max didn't answer as he took control of the gun and saw the gaining vehicles of the White-Fang members, he aimed the gun and quickly fired upon them. The Vehicles began to try and swerve out of the way of the gunfire, but some weren't as lucky as Max had hit one of their vehicles, killing the driver and causing the car to go out of control and flip and crash.

Max smiled and pumped his fist in victory, "Hell yeah!" He cried and he then continued to fire at the other vehicles, now with only four left.

However, the Vehicles began to fire back, but thankfully, like a bunch of stormtroopers, they were a bunch of lousy shots and Max kept firing back. He aimed at the first closet vehicle and managed to blow their tires, causing them to flip forward

"Take that!" Max cried

He turned back to fire at them again, and as he kept doing so, they manage to gain some distance from the White-Fang. Max kept firing and trying to aim his best at the other three remaining vehicles.

"Come on! Come on!" Max said as he tried to aim at one of the White-Fang Vehicles

However, one of them came to a stop and the other two followed suit, leaving Max confused as to why they stopped following them, but he wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth. He came back in and when he did, he was hugged tightly by Furiosa

"Max, you're ok!" She said

Max grunted from the sudden hug but he smiled a little as he sat down and Furiosa sat next to him.

Ilia looked at him with a bit of a smile, "She's really fond of you" she said

Max just looked at her and nodded his head, "I guess" he replied

"Hey," Came the voice of Yuma, "Nice shooting out there man"

Max just gave him a thumbs up in response.

Trifa turned around and looked at Ilia with a smile on her face as well, "Just who is this guy Ilia?" she asked

"Furiosa said his name is Max," Ilia told Trifa, she then looked to Max, "Is that right?" she asked

"That's what the White-Fang began calling me when they captured me" Max replied

Ilia was now a bit confused, "Why'd they call you Max?"

"Said I looked like a sad puppy dog, reminded them of a golden retriever, so they called me Max," Max replied

"So of Max isn't your real name, then what is it?" Trifa asked

Max looked solemnly at the ground and almost stared off into the distance, but he looked at Ilia with a sad expression on his face.

"It doesn't matter..." Max said "Max is fine," he said as he began t close his eyes

Ilia and Trifa looked at each other and both were a bit curious as to why "Max" didn't share his real name. Ilia was about to ask him but when she turned to him, she saw that he had fallen asleep as did Furiosa.

Ilia sighed and decided to wait till morning and when they were at a nearby town to further question "Max".

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"Someone broke in here, freed two of our prisoners, and then proceeded to destroy two of our vehicles while killing some of us in the process and you want me to be CALM!?"

Many of them were silent as their "High-Leader" went on a rant. Their High-Leader was none other than the terrorist known as Bane-Saw. Adam's right-hand man back during the attack in Vale. Not much had changed about the man, except that he wore a lot more armor and his mask had more red markings on them

He looked at his fellow brothers and sisters in arms, "This can not go UNPUNISHED!" He cried "EVERY SOLDIER AND WARRIOR, GATHER UP ALL OF OUR VEHICLES AND WEAPONS, WE ARE GOING AFTER THEM!" Bane-Saw declared

a loud eruption of cheers could be heard from the crowd below and Bane-Saw them scatter and do as they were told and he was pleased.

He would not let something like this go, be them human or Faunus, they would suffer the wrath of the new White-Fang, and show them that they were the rightful and superior race in this world.