Chapter 4: White Rabbit


Team RWBY's Vacuo designs are directly based on the outfits designed by acclast on Reddit. (I tried my best to describe their outfits to the best of my abilities.) Meanwhile, I had to come up with VOLEN's Vacuo design based on different fanart's and what I think would go well with them.

Also, just wait till you read Jaune's outfit. Ilia, Trifa, and Yuma are wearing their White-Fang outfits. (Due to them being used to functioning in them, Ilia will also wear her casual outfit eventually).

Anyway! Reviews!

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Kaze: Thank you and I hope you like this story!

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Anyway! I hope you all enjoy today's chapter and hope you stick around to read upcoming chapters!


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"Hello Again!"

'Go away... I don't want to think about you anymore'

"Max? Max, is that you?"

'No... Not you too, I don't want to think about you either'

"I'm sure our leader knows exactly what he's doing"

'go away... I don't want to think about you ever again...'

"Do you promise Max? Do you promise we'll make it out of here?"

'Stop it'

"Do you believe in destiny?"

'No! Stop!'

"Max! Help me!"

'Stop!'

"I'm sorry..."

'I SAID STOP!'

"You let us die!"

"Where were you!?"

"How could you!?"

"You let them die!"

'Ah, here they come again...'

"Why won't you help us!?"

"Stop running!"

"You let us die!"

"Stop running you pathetic coward!"

"You let us die!"

"Where were you!?"

"You said you save us! Why didn't you save us!?"

'Worming their way into the darkest part of my brain... Ready to drag me deeper into madness...'

Flashes of his memories began to flash in front as he could feel hands tightly grip him all around and begin pulling him down into the darkness.

Jaune's eyes shot open as he sat up quickly, and once he was away, his fight-or-flight response kicked in and he was prepared to fight any danger nearby.

However, when he looked around he saw no threat. Instead, he just saw Trifa facing him with a sleeping Furiosa on her lap. He calmed down and breathed in deeply before exhaling heavily, and he rubbed his eyes and then looked outside of the window and noticed that they were driving and that it was early morning as the sun was still slowly rising. He turned away from the window and saw that Trifa was still staring at him, she had a concerned look on her face.

"You ok?" She asked

Jaune looked back at her, "Just a nightmare" he told her

Trifa decided to take that as his answer even though she had figured out he was lying.

"How long have we been driving?" Jaune asked Trifa

"About three hours or so, thankfully we're gonna be stopping at another time just to pick up some food," Trifa told him

"Is that really a good idea?" Jaune asked her, thinking back to the town of Thunderdome and the event that happened because they had stopped there.

Trifa shrugged, "probably not, but we won't be staying as long as we did in the last one," Trifa told him "besides I'm sure the little brat here would love actual food instead of granola bars," Trifa said with a smile

Jaune nodded, "Yeah, I'm sure she would like that a lot," he said as he saw the sleeping form of Furiosa.

Trifa looked at him and saw how he looked at Furiosa. It was a look of concern like a parent would look at their feverish child. "You really care for her, don't you?" Trifa asked him

Jaune nodded, "I do" he replied "She's the only thing I got left in this world truthfully," he told Trifa

She looked at him with a brow raised, "Really?" She asked sound sad to hear that

Jaune nodded, "I'm sure my family thinks I'm dead, and I'm sure they're trying to move on, and the last thing they need is for me to suddenly pop back into their lives, and the White-Fang told me that they killed a lot of people during the attack, and I'm sure my team was one of them... I know one of them is already dead" He said sadly "And my other friends, I don't even know how they're doing or if they're alive as well..."

Trifa looked at him and wanted to tell him that she was sure that wasn't the truth, but also knowing what happened at Beacon, there was a slim chance that any of his friends were alive, and as for his family, he may have been right, they no doubt were told he was no doubt killed in the fall and with him missing for two and nearly 3 years, they may have come to accept his death by now, and if he did return, how would it affect them? She was sure it wasn't going to be all sunshine and smiles.

"How did they get you?" Trifa asked him

Jaune looked at her and knew what she was talking about, "I was distracted as I watched my partner die before my eye, and I fell to my knees when I saw her die, and that's when a few took advantage of my emotional state, They tried to surround me and kill me, but I fought back and killed a few of them out of just pure rage, though that's when one of them got me from behind with and I fell unconscious" Jaune told her "I thought I was dead for sure and at the time, I thought that would be fine, but when I woke up, I was on a bus loaded up with other human prisoners and being taken to their base somewhere in Vale, I was there for at least three months"

Trifa listened, "How'd you end up in Vacuo?" Trifa asked him

"Eventually, a large group of huntsmen attacked the base and they were forced to relocate out of Vale, they took some of the prisoners with them and made their way down to their base here in Vacuo, been at that base ever since," Jaune told her

"What... what did they do to you while you were captured?" Trifa asked

"Because I fought against them so much and tried to escape so many possible times, they would either put me in a pit and have me fight a Grimm or another prisoner, and other times they just torture me," Jaune told her

Trifa knew that it was like that. After all, she had assassinated people for the White-Fang, she also watched with joy as she sometimes watched two human prisoners fight each other, be it because someone forced them to or because it was over food, she knew some of the torture methods to that the White-Fang use on humans that held any information they needed, all we're meant to break people, so she had one question on her mind. "How are you still sane after any of that?" Trifa asked

"Who said I'm still sane?" Jaune told her "You know what they say about Vacuo right?" Jaune asked her

Trifa nodded, "If you're strong enough to survive Vacuo, then you are welcomed," She told him

Jaune nodded, "What they don't tell you is that you have to be Mad as well," Jaune said "You have to be strong to stay alive and to be welcomed, but you have to be crazy to survive these wastelands," He told her

Trifa looked at him concerned, "Are you crazy?"

Jaune looked away from her, and he looked out the window and watched as the morning sun began to rise, but as he looked outside, he swore he saw people standing in the sand pointing at him, all of them were the people he had killed and failed to save, and she was amongst the group as well, pointing her finger at him and she stared at him with her dead bright green eyes...

"I think so..." He replied

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Eventually, they had reached the town and stopped at a large store to get food, Jaune, Yuma, and Trifa volunteered to go inside and get food while Ilia and Furiosa, who was still sleeping, stayed in the Humvee. However, Furiosa began to stir and slowly wake up, the first thing she was when she woke up was the roof of the humvee, and she slowly sat up and looked out of the window's only to see that they were in the town as she saw other house's, people, and cars. She looked in the front seat only to see Ilia who was just looking at her scroll.

"Ilia," Furiosa called out, "Where are we?" she asked

Ilia looked turned around and looked at Furiosa with a smile, "Hey sleepyhead" she replied "Were at another town just to pick up food" Ilia told her

Furiosa nodded, "Where's Ma- Jaune?" she asked, her tone was that of worry

"He's fine, Jaune's inside with Yuma and Trifa," Ilia told her,

Furiosa seemed to relax and smiled, "Ok," she said

Ilia continued to smile at the young girl, "You really like Jaune don't you?" She asked

Furiosa smiled, "Yeah, he's like my big brother and he would always keep the other's from hurting me," She said

"Is that so?" Ilia asked with a smile, "What else did he do?"

"He would make sure I was clean and keep all the rats from biting me, and before bed, he would tell me stories about a Huntress who had amazing powers," Furiosa said, as her smile grew, remembering her stories "And her name was Furiosa too!" she said

Ilia smiled, "Really?" she asked

Furiosa nodded, "Yeah!" she said

"Jaune sounds like he really cares for you Furiosa," Ilia told him

Furiosa nodded, "Yeah, and he kept his promise!" Furiosa said

Ilia was now intrigued, wondering what the promise was, "What do you mean, Furiosa?" Ilia asked, "What promise did he keep?" Ilia asked

Furiosa giggled, "He promised he would take me home!"

Ilia looked at her, and she remembered the conversation she had with Jaune the night before, about how he had failed to save others before Furiosa and herself, and how that had affected him terribly, but she remembered what she had told Jaune, and how he had smiled at what he had told her, and even if he said he didn't believe it, she swore to herself that he would see it when they met up with Blake and the others, and she had a feeling that a part of Jaune was healed when he had saved both her and Furiosa.

"He did, and he's going to make sure you get safe and sound," Ilia said

"And you'll be there too?" Furiosa asked, "You'll help Max- I mean Jaune?"

Ilia gave her a nod, "of course," Ilia said "And we'll be there every step of the way and we'll always be with you, Furiosa" Ilia said

"Promise?" Furiosa asked with a smiled

Ilia nodded again, "Promise,"

Furiosa giggled, "Ilia, can I ask you a question?"

Ilia nodded

"You're not from Vacuo, are you?" Furiosa asked

Ilia was a bit surprised that she had figured that out, "No, I am not," Ilia replied "How did you know that?"

"My Mama said that we in Vacuo could tell when someone is an outsider," Furiosa told Ilia "Every time we went into the city, Mama would point to people and have me guess if they were from here or from or another Kingdom"

Ilia smiled, "Oh, and where do you think I'm from?" Ilia asked with a smile

Furiosa began to think, "Mmmm, Mistral?"

Ilia chuckled and shook her head, "Nope" Ilia said

"Vale?"

"No"

"Menagerie?"

"Menagerie isn't a Kingdom even if it should be"

"Atlas?"

"Bingo," Ilia said with a smile

Furiosa smiled, "You're from Atlas?" Furiosa asked

Ilia nodded, "Born and raised," she said a bit proudly

"What's it like?" Furiosa asked, "I heard from other kids that it's one of the most beautiful cities to exist since the great war, is that true?"

"Depends on where you live in the kingdom," Ilia said "if you live up in Atlas, you are always warm, always fed, always respected, live down below it, in the city of Mantle, your... well, you're not always in a good situation," Ilia said with a sad tone

Furiosa could tell that she was a bit off with her last sentence, "But is it still beautiful?" Furiosa asked

Ilia thought about it, there were problems with the kingdom, no question about that, she knew that better than anyone, however, she also remembered her first time she set foot on the floating city when she set foot off the tram's, she saw how beautiful the city was, and she couldn't move, her eyes were wide with amazement and awe at just the beauty of it and that's when she turned her head and looked over the to the other sights. She was as high up in the air as some of the mountains in the distance and she saw the vast land of both the city of Mantle and the outskirts. It was one of the most beautiful sights she had ever seen.

"Yeah, it's still Beautiful Furiosa"

Furiosa smiled, "Maybe, one day, I can see it," She said

Ilia smiled, "Maybe one day, and who knows, I may just take you there one day," Ilia said

Furiosa looked at her with wide eyes full of joy, "really!?" She asked

"Yeah," Ilia told Furiosa

Just then, Yuma, Jaune, and Trifa had come back and they opened the trunk of the humvee and put the food inside of it. As they did, Furiosa saw some of the food they had gotten her and she smiled with glee as some of it were sweets and junk food.

Yuma went to the passenger side and looked at Ilia, "You mind if I sit in the front?" Yuma asked

Ilia nodded, "Sure, who's driving through?" she asked

Yuma smiled and pointed at Jaune, "Jaune offered to drive" He told her

Ilia looked at Jaune, as he looked at her through the driver's side window, "You sure you're up to drive?" She asked

Jaune nodded, "Yeah," He said

Ilia smiled and nodded, "Alright just don't almost drive us into a sinkhole," Ilia said with a chuckle

"That was one time, Ilia" Yuma grumbled with a roll of his eyes,

"It only takes one time Yuma" Trifa chimed in with a smile,

Yuma groaned, "I hate you both," he said

Ilia got in the back with Trifa and Furiosa while Yuma got in the passenger side and Jaune in the driver's seat. He started up the Humvee, backed out of the parking spot slowly, and then turned it to drive out of the parking lot and onto the main road. He drove on it before he finally made his way out of the town and back onto the desert road.

As they continued to Drive, Yuma looked into the back seat only to see Ilia was sleeping and Trifa and Furiosa were playing a downloaded game on her scroll.

Yuma smiled and then turned back to Jaune.

"They seemed to be having a good time," Yuma said

Jaune nodded

"You really use to be a huntsman?" Yuma asked

Jaune nodded, "A Huntsmen-in-training, actually," Jaune told Yuma

"Right," Yuma replied

Jaune looked over to Yuma, "You a huntsman?"

Yuma chuckled and shook his head, "No, no, I'm not a Huntsmen," Yuma replied

"Then what are you?" Jaune asked the Bat Faunus.

"Just a man looking for a bit of redemption I suppose," Yuma told him

"Redemption?" Jaune asked

Yuma nodded, "yeah," Yuma told him, "I did a lot of messed up things in my past... Me, Trifa, Ilia, we all did some pretty messed up things, now, we're just looking for a Lil' redemption"

Jaune looked at the bat Faunus and nodded, understanding him a little as he too had once wanted something along the lines of redemption.

"What about you?" Yuma asked as he took a quick glance at Jaune before returning to the road, "what are you now?"

Jaine thought about it, but the answer was simple. He just had to think about it because he wanted to make sure that in his head, it was the person who he was now.

"Just someone trying to survive," Jaune told him.

Yuma smiled, "aren't we all?" He asked with a chuckle.

With that, the topic ended and they continued to talk about something else, Jaune was mostly asking questions about what he had missed while he was captured while Yuma filled him in as best as he could.

Later, as the day continued and as the day began to turn into night, Furiosa was slowly beginning to fall asleep, and when Trifa saw her yawning, The spider Faunus looked out the window to see that the sun was setting. She went over to the window and poked her head through, there she saw Jaune who was resting, though, she noticed that he sort of shivered and shook a few times as he slept, Trifa then looked over to Yuma who was focusing on driving,

"Hey Yuma," she called out to him

"Yeah Trif?" Yuma asked

"We should stop and get some rest, I'm sure you could use it too," Trifa told him

Yuma nodded, "Alright, but wake up Ilia," He told her

Trifa nodded and returned back to her seat and turned over to wake up Ilia, while Yuma looked for a place to park the Humvee and set up camp for the night.

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It was now 8 o'clock, and Teams RWBY and VOLEN had set up camp pretty close to a canyon, which they had to make their way through tomorrow in order to finally meet up with Ilia. Right now, Blake, Nora, Ren, Emerald, and Yang were looking over the map that they had laid out over the hood of the Lenco.

"Are you sure?" Nora asked

Blake nodded, she then pointed to the Canyon on the map, and then pointed to the one they were a few miles from, "We need to get through the canyon to reach the road that'll take us right into the path that Ilia and her group are taking," Blake said while holding the map,

Emerald looked at the Canyon, "The place seemed like a death trap, like an ambush waiting to happen," Emerald commented, she then turned back to the group, "I'm not liking the idea of going through that place"

"Can't we just go around it?" Yang asked Blake

Blake shook her head, "We can't go around it, it'll take us another day" Blake chimed "And if nothing has happened to Ilia, then they'll be taking the road through the canyon, we go around we might miss them,"

Nora sighed, "then we don't have any other choice, do we?" She asked

"Seems so," Ren told her

"What if tomorrow morning, I jump on the bike and ride a bit ahead and see if there are any bandit tribes waiting to ambush us, while you guys follow behind but not too close, in case I get attacked," Yang told them

"Sounds like a good plan to me," Ren said, "With Yang on the bike and her riding ahead if she does get attacked, she's fast and mobile enough to turn back and let us know"

"And if she is attacked and lets us know, what's the plan then?"

"Then we drive right through," Nora said, "We can't turn around too quickly or we might it into the side's of the mountains, and if we turn around and drive back, we're right back where we started, and we can't let that happen, or else we'll just be wasting time, and just put Ilia and her group in the sights of an attack," Nora said

"So we just Ram through?" Emerald asked

Nora nodded with a smile, "Yeah" Nora said

"Then what about the way back?" Emerald asked, "if we don't take down the group or tribe that may or may not attack us, do we go back through the Canyon or go around?" Emerald asked

"We'll go through the Canyon again, and this time we'll be more prepared in case of an attack" Nora replied

"Nora's right," Yang said, "We're on a time crunch, we need to be as quick as possible, so going back through the canyon being fully prepared for a 2nd attack after grouping with Ilia sounds like a plan,"

"So, is this the plan?" Emerald asked

"Yeah, this is the plan," Blake said

Emerald smiled and shrugged her shoulders, "Screw it, it's the only plan we got so far," Emerald said "Let's do it"

"Hey, guy! Get your weapons ready!" Came the loud shout of Ruby

The others heard her cry and they grabbed their weapons while they also raced to see who or what was seemingly going to cause them trouble.

Blake ran over to her leader, "what's going on?" Blake cried

"I was looking through my scope since we entered Bandit territory a few miles back, just to take a look around and from the canyon, I spotted a few motorcycles coming our way!" Ruby said

Blake looked through Ruby's scope and looked in the direction of the canyon, and sure enough, there was a large group of motorcycles riding in their direction, and they looked less than friendly. Blake looked away from the scope and then looked to her leader.

"What do we do?" Blake asked Ruby

"I'll get atop the truck and shoot their bikes before they can get here, stopping them, if I miss any, it's up to you guys stopping them," Ruby said "Make sure they don't get away with anything or anyone and make sure they don't destroy any of the vehicles"

Blake nodded, "Got it," Blake said

Blake informed the other of Ruby's plan and Ruby quickly ran over to the truck and got in the back of it and shift Crescent Rose into Sniper mode, and she looked through the scope and saw the still approaching bikers. She aimed for their wheels and she quickly shot one, causing them to flip forward, she quickly aimed for another one and shot their bike as well, causing them to hit another biker and crash together. Ruby went to aim for another but she was then shot at and she ducked behind the Truck.

The bikers were getting closer to the Group's camp as three of them were ready to fire their weapons, however, before they could get any closer, two pink dust canisters with hearts on them were flying at them through the air and then hit the ground right in front of them causing an explosion and sending them flying backward.

The other bikers stopped before getting any closer and looked around them as the dust and smoke settled.

"What the hell happened!?" cried one of the bikers

"Where the hell do those come from!?" cried another

"Did anyone see anything!?" cried a third

However, before they could prepare for another attack, Yang jumped into the middle of the group and punched the ground, sending a shockwave through the ground and then they flew back from the force and they and their bikes fell to the ground.

Some of them managed to regain themselves and quickly get back up and grabbed their guns and whatever weapons they had, and aimed at Yang. Some of them fired at her but from behind some of them, the rest of the group used the smoke and dust to surprise attack them, disarming them and sending some of them running.

"Shit! we need to fall back!" cried one biker

Another turned to the first Bandit, "If we do, then we lose the bounty!" cried a second bandit

"Fuck the Bounty!" cried a third "We need to get the hell out of here!"

Some of the Bandit Bikers got back up on their Motorcycles and drove back through the Canyons and escaped back to where ever they came from.

"They're retreating!" Ren cried with a smile

Yang and Nora cheered while the others were glad that they managed to survive the encounter with this bandit group. They holstered/sheathed their weapons and prepared to relax a little and figure out what to do now, as they were just attacked.

"Not all of them" came Emerald's voice

They all turned to her and saw her with a bandit at gunpoint, he threw them in front of the group and he fell into the sand.

"I swear I didn't take a thing!" He cried as he looked at the group "Let me go!" he cried

However, Blake stepped forth and looked at the bandit, and the bandit looked at her and froze up. "I have a few questions to ask you," Blake asked "Why did you attack us? Was it for supplies? Dus? The Vehicles?"

The bandit shook his head, "No, no, We thought you guys were the humans and Faunus that the White-Fang put a Bounty on," He told them

Blake quickly remembered that one of the retreating bandits mentioned a Bounty, she looked at him with narrow eyes, "A bounty on a few Human and Faunus, Why?" Blake asked

"They escaped their base and killed a few of their people!" the Bandit told Blake, "two of them were human, three of them were Faunus! Bane-Saw said that if we found them and brought them back to him alive then whoever brought them in would be rewarded!"

Blake sighed, 'Bane-Saw is here, of course, he's the one leading the White-Fang here in Vacuo' Blake thought "Do you have any idea as to who these Faunus are?" Blake asked

The Bandit shook his head, "No, Bane-Saw only said that they were "Traitors to the cause" and that the Humans were just scum!"

Blake looked to the others, "I'm sure he's talking about Ilia and her team" Blake told them

"Then we need to hurry and meet up with them, It's just them and those two other Humans, one of them is sure to be Summer" Oscar chimed in,

Blake nodded and looked to the Bandit, "Is that all you know?" She asked

the bandit rapidly nodded, and Blake accepted the answer and let him go. The Bandit quickly ran away from the group and picked up one of the bikes and started it up quickly before driving away as the other watched him leave.

"Ilia and the other's are in danger, and if Bane-Saw get to them, he'll kill them," Blake said

"Who is this Bane-Saw guy?" Weiss asked

Balke turned to her, "He was the guy you fought on the train back when the breach happened," Blake told Weiss,

"He's leading the Rouge White-Fang now?" Weiss asked

"Seems so" Blake replied

"So we get to Ilia and the Summer Maiden before he can get to them," Ruby said, "Which means we're going to have to leave now and get to them as soon as possible,"

Everyone agreed and quickly began packing up their camp and putting it back on the respective vehicles and then got in and drove to the Canyon, hoping to reach Ilia and her team a lot sooner in order to make sure they and the Summer Maiden were safe.


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We are coming close to the Reunion, and we might just see just how crazy Jaune has sort of become.

The Next Chapter is the long-awaited reunion of friends and the beginning of their troubles!