Paragons of Virtue and Glory 1

The light from the portal faded, the words of the Blacksmith rang in Ruby's head as she opened her silver eyes. 'A land far from your own, but with endless possibilities. Your path back might be long, but do not doubt yourself or what you need to do.'

Cryptic or not, the Huntress felt reassured by the words as she looked around and took in her surroundings. We're in the middle of nowhere, hooray! She was in the middle of a dusty crossroads, plains of tall grass spreading in most directions beside the well-trod dirt roads. The place was unfamiliar to her, but the sight of her friends and sister by her side bolstered Ruby's spirits immensely.

Jaune's still young. Didn't think that would change when we stepped through the portal, but still. Despite the decades spent in the Ever After, he was indeed his young self again, even his hair having reverted back to the spiky style he had it in during the Fall of Atlas.

Jaune Arc started patting his face as if unable to believe it, before drawing Crocea Mors and seeing that his ancestral arming blade was back to its pristine self as well, not broken and battered from years of disrepair. His shield was currently folded up to serve as a sheathe for the blade, attached to his belt, overtop the red sash tied around his waist. The shield/sheathe had the same white with gold trim pattern that matched his breastplate, pauldrons and bracers.

Turning, Ruby saw the golden portal disappear entirely and took in her team. First was her partner, Weiss Schnee. The one time idol and heiress and full time huntress stood as elegantly as ever, her white hair tied in a long braid, flowing behind her in the wind. She wore her usual white dress/combat skirt combo with a number of pouches for dust and other supplies at her hip, alongside her rapier, Myrtenaster. Atop her dress, she had a navy blue jacket on, complimenting her light blue eyes. A faded scar ran over her left eye, a battle injury earned before Ruby had ever met her partner.

Blake Belladona was next, the cat faunus standing tall, her feline ears twitching atop her head as she tried to pick up any incoming threats. Her human ears were hidden underneath her mid-length black hair. She smiled as her amber eyes caught Ruby's gaze before turning to lookout for any familiar signs.

A white overcoat with long coattails covered the heavily zippered black catsuit she wore. Across her back lay Gambol Shroud, a Variant Ballistic Chain Scythe, which could shift to many different weapon configurations.

Finally Ruby turned to her sister, Yang Xiao Long. She had long blond hair and lilac eyes, giving her younger sister a big grin. Despite the unfamiliar terrain, she had no fear, punching her fists together - one a mechanical prosthetic, the other flesh and blood with a heavy bracer around it - as if to say 'bring it on' to anyone who would challenge them.

Not that there was anyone to take the busty blond brawler up on that, the road appearing quite deserted. She pulled down the zipper on her beige overshirt and shrugged her shoulders around her brown fur jacket, the seasonal heat of wherever they were greater than Atlas or even the mild temperature of most of the Neverafter climates they had been in.

For her own part, Ruby quickly checked her own gear and saw that she had everything she had before. Her red combat skirt/dress and black corset over top of it, with her special red cloak and hood tied securely around her neck. At her side were a large number of bullet rounds to go alongside Crescent Rose, her High Caliber Sniper Scythe, currently compactly folded into its rectangular box form on her hip.

"There's no signal," Weiss stated, pulling out her Scroll. While it could just be that they were out of range of one of the few remaining CCT towers, the glance Weiss sent her team leader's way were suspicious of the fact that they might be farther away than just that.

"Alright team… and Jaune." The boy in question gave a small moan at that, while Ruby stuck her tongue out to show it was all in good fun. Jaune's been with us since the beginning, and with his own team on Remnant, he's easily an honorary member of Team RWBY.

"Let's go that way," Ruby said, pointing up one of the paths.

"Good choice, the track marks on that route are a bit fresher than the others. We'll be more likely to find people there," Blake commented.

"Yuuuup, that's definitely why I picked it," Ruby said with a slightly strained smile. Blake smiled fondly at the younger girl's antics before Yang gripped her hand, and with a smile, they began following their leader down the road.

***

The journey was mostly uneventful, with no one else on the road. The world feels normal but, I dunno. Something feels off. I don't think we're on Remnant yet, and not just because of what The Blacksmith told me. A more definitive sign of that came from the first settlement they came across, a small village off to the side of the road.

The village had a very rustic feel to it, all wooden houses and shacks put together in a small circle off to the side of the road. There was a larger building in the center with much room for townsfolk to gather around, but only two stories high. A few barns and fields stood off at the edges for farmers to tend to crops and livestock.

None of that was too odd compared to Remnant, several small communities existed like that throughout the four Kingdoms. What was weird was the lack of defenses. No walls or barricades around the village to hold off the Grimm, and while they two guard women standing ready at our approach, but that's just not enough. Even an Alpha would be smart enough to circle around the road and could carve clean through the village from behind.. And the weapons and armor they carry… I hate to call any weapon 'garbage,' but those things are really poor quality. They look like just iron too, no mechashift or tech in them.

Still, with the sun starting to set, they approached, Ruby waving in a friendly manner. "Hello there!" She called out to the guards, who stiffened slightly. "We were hoping we could find a place to stay and maybe learn some information about where we are?"

The guards looked at each other and back at the group. "Wait here," one of them said. "I'll talk to Mayor Kay Lu about your request." That woman left, just leaving them standing awkwardly outside a small arch that led to the rest of the village.

Within it, Ruby noticed the townsfolk noticing their arrival, many villagers stopping and pointing at them. It wasn't hard to tell why - most of them wore very plain clothes, somewhat drab in comparison to the vibrant colors all of them wore.

Soon enough, the Mayor of the town came to see them. A middle-aged woman wearing nicer looking robes, albeit of the same material as the rest of the villagers' clothing and looking like they had been hastily put on. She had thin, reedy black hair.

She smiled in a manner that seemed only slightly nervous. "Welcome to Wayside, what can we do for such visitors as yourself? I'm afraid we don't have much by way of extravagant accommodations that you might be accustomed to, but we hardly need much silver for any travellers seeking rest from the road."

The team exchanged looks. "We don't happen to have any silver on us, but perhaps there is something else we could do?" Weiss offered diplomatically.

"Yeah! We're Huntresses, so we could help if you need anything fought off," Ruby chipped in. "Wayside seems nice but kinda under defended…"

There was a slight twitch to her face that gave away that Ruby had somehow hit on a sore spot. "We wouldn't say no to some help if you're offering. We lost a lookout and some guards due to some… misfortune."

"Anything you're worried about?" Blake inquired.

"Bandits, or perhaps wild animals. This is a quiet town, we don't see much danger day to day, though it's good to remain prepared." Kay Lu looked at their weapons with some confusion, only seeming to recognize the unfolded blades amongst their groups as dangerous weapons.

With that, the girls got settled in at the local inn. The place was homey, and clearly far less technologically advanced than they were used to, with candles and torches as the only illumination available as night fell. We stayed at places like this on Team Ranger's trip to Mistral, but even the farmsteads had more technology than this.

They got three rooms, one for Jaune, one for Blake and Yang, and one for Weiss and Ruby. "Another strange new world we find ourselves in." Ruby sighed, staring out the window and up at the full, unbroken moon hanging high above her. Even a quick glance revealed it wasn't just Remnant's moon in the full phase, different craters and marks scoring the celestial body. It also seemed brighter than her moon.

Weiss was silent for a moment before responding. "We'll get back home someday."

"I know, I know, I just… worried for our friends." Oscar, Nora, Ren, Winter, Qrow, and so many more. Salem and her forces won't be stopping any time soon. Of course, time might not flow the same way here; in the Ever After, Jaune had gone back decades in time.

"Well, we can worry about that tomorrow. After our fight with Neopolitan and the Curious Cat, it'll be nice to take a small break and get our footing." As if summoned by her alarm rang out through the village a warning bell rang.

In the distance, Ruby heard a cry of "Intruders!"

***

Yang was the first one outside, cracking open the window and leaping towards the sounds of intruders. In the dim light, she could make out torches and weapons flashing nearby the entrance to the village. Her partner and girlfriend, Blake leapt over her, ready to swing over to the danger before realizing the houses were too small to really swing across.

Together, they simply ran to the fighting, finding a dozen odd soldiers pressing against the guards. Past them were several odd caravans with plenty more soldiers pouring out looking to encircle the town.

"Guess you guys forgot to send me an invite to the party," the blond Huntress joked as she threw herself forward at one of the foreign warriors on the front line. With one arm held behind her, she fired a shot into the open air, the recoil spinning her ahead into a devastating haymaker with her mechanical fist into the chin of the enemy.

He had a helmet on, but apparently no Aura, as even pulling her punch somewhat, Yang's fist crumpled the metal and broke his jaw with a loud snap as he went flying away. "Huh, these guys aren't that tough, try to be careful with them," she called out as she proceeded to smack aside a few blades the others were waving at her and knock them aside with a few gentle punches.

"So I see," Blake responded dryly, her Faunus night vision easily enabling her to see the blood spilt by one of the soldiers she had shot with Gambol Shroud. The unfortunate woman's armor proved no match for a few bullets from her submachine gun and had fallen to the ground, clutching at her shoulder and moaning.

Jumping down from her perch atop the arch, Blake kicked one soldier aside before crossing blades with another. The enemy soldiers had better gear than the villagers, but the enemy blade still cracked upon impact with Blake's blade, the soldier easily overpowered.

"I don't think any of these people have Aura," Blake shouted, not just for her partner's benefit, but also for the rest of her team, spotting Ruby and Weiss racing in from the side.

The Schnee woman stopped in front of a large group of soldiers, planting her rapier into the ground, a glyph spreading out at the point where she stabbed. One of the enemies had just enough time to frightenedly shout "Sorceress!" Before they were enveloped in a wave of ice, the spikes sticking up to catch most of them within it, freezing them in place.

A few of the soldiers not caught by the ice peeled around to try and gang up on Weiss, while Ruby darted past them, chasing the ones who were going around around the other side of the town. Some of them had already breached the defenses on that part of the town, breaking doors and roughly grabbing the villagers out of their beds… for a moment.

Ruby blasted past the soldiers like a near-litteral hurricane, her Semblance fuelled speed letting her wipe them aside in petal form. Reforming here and there, the young woman struck, taking down the soldiers with controlled reaps of her scythe, careful not to hurt any of the innocents nearby.

Turning her attention back to the soldiers she was fighting, Yang finished moping the floor with them, taking the last of that bunch down with a quick combo. As the soldier fell, a lucky crossbow bolt flew right through the space the last man she fought had been before he fell, the blindspot making Yang unable to react in time.

Any excitement from the crossbowman died down quickly as he saw the bolt merely elicited a yellow flicker from her Aura as it bounced off her shoulder. "Alright, so you're next?" She asked rhetorically.

He gave a panicked yelp and alongside the remaining soldiers who were swiftly retreating, attempted to gather at the caravans and wagons they had rode in on and flee. Blake dropping down in front of them and firing a warning shot swiftly put a stop to that. Leveling her gun at the soldiers had them dropping their arms and surrendering.

"I'm here!" Jaune loudly proclaimed running through the arch, slightly out of breath, only to see all the enemies defeated.

"Little late, Vomit Boy." Jaune groaned, more at missing the fight than his old nickname.

"I miss Juniper," he grumbled in reference to the Jackalope steed he rode in the Neverafter, not his team it was named after. Yang clapped him on the shoulder, understanding the sentiment. She wasn't slow by any means, but she was arguably the slowest on her team and if she and Blake hadn't already been up at the time the call went out, they would have arrived after Ruby and Weiss.

"Look at it this way, you're just in time to help us with the cleanup!"

***

Despite her cheeky words, they ended up ringing true. The enemy had been defeated in a matter of minutes from their attack, but unlike Grimm, the soldiers wouldn't disintegrate upon defeat. All of them needed to have their weapons and armor confiscated, the wagons and horses rounded up, etc. The biggest issue was the soldiers themselves. They needed to be restrained and kept in place until the villagers could decide what to do with them.

The easiest way to do that was to stick all the soldiers in the town hall under the watchful eyes of Yang and her friends. Restraining them turned out to be easier than expected due to the suspicious amounts of rope and chain they were carrying with their supplies. Still, even bound, the sheer number of them was almost half that of the total townsfolk, which meant the team had to stay up and alert, away from the siren call of soft beds and more pleasurable activities the soldiers had interrupted them from.

Catching her gaze, Blake gave Yang a hidden sultry smile, promising better times once this little issue was dealt with. As the door to the town hall opened up, a few of the soldiers stiffened up, before slumping down at the glare the Huntresses gave them.

"Thank you ladies," Mayor Kay Lung said to the group. "If you'll join me in my office, we have much to discuss." As the words left her mouth, she pursed her lips, considering the soldiers stuck there.

"I'll keep watch over them," Jaune offered. "You can tell me what's up later."

With a quick nod from Ruby, the women entered the Mayor's office. Even with just the five of them, the place felt a little cramped, the room nicely furnished but clearly not a place for large meetings. "So? What's the sitch?"

The Mayor blinked, looking confused at Yang's slang before stating, "We've learned that the soldiers were part of a small mercenary company, the Blue Wolves."

"Should call them the Puppy Teeth. I'm surprised that they could be a mercenary company while being that, well, weak." Ruby nodded at her older sister's words.

Kay gave Yang an odd look. "Perhaps to Exalted heroes such as yourselves that fight was easy, but the mercenaries would have devastated our village and taken many of us as slaves. And this was merely a quarter of their band." She added the last part as an afterthought, recognizing that even with much greater numbers, it was unlikely the soldiers could have hurt the team.

Yang quirked an eyebrow at the effusive praise before stiffening up at the mention of 'slavers'. The rest of the team did as well, with Ruby asking "Slavers?" In a low, dangerous tone. One Yang hadn't heard from her sister since before the Fall of Atlas. Even with the young woman coming through the trials with her faith renewed, it was clear that some scars from the losses they had endured remained. Some scars remain forever.

"Yes. They were hired by a Guild merchant, Iko Pan. It's odd, he's been through our village several times on his circuits across the Hundred Kingdoms, but he's never been involved in that side of the Guild business."

Those words are a lot to take in, and from the glances her sister, girlfriend, and friend are exchanging none of them missed the implications behind those statements either. But that's all stuff they can worry about later, Yang is used to cutting to the heart of the matter.

"Take it he wasn't with the mercenaries he hired?" The Mayor nodded and the huntress knocked her knuckles together. "Know where he is so we can give him a talking to?"

"Ah, the commander of the mercenaries mentioned he's supposed to be holed up just a few miles down. There's a small Guild outpost off to the east past the crossroad. But, I have to warn you that we might not be able to afford to pay you to fight him-"

"We aren't going to take your money to stop a slaver!" Ruby beat her older sister to the punch, jumping up and sounding outraged.

"Ahem." Weiss cleared her throat. "Of course we'll be willing to do this just because this is the right thing. However, as you know our own financial situation is… not exceptional at the moment."

"A bit off from what you're used to, huh?" Blake smirked at Weiss, the white haired girl flipping her braid and sighing.

"I don't think any of us have been literally pennyless before. I'm used to roughing it, I've had just as much Huntress training as the rest of you, but if we can't afford to even buy food…" Weiss trailed off as Yang's stomach chose to speak up, grumbling loudly.

Kay smiled at that. "I'm certain we can find some food and rations to give you as thanks, as well as some silver." She did some mental accounting before saying "Perhaps about ten dinars? As thanks for defending the town and for hunting down Iko."

"Thank you, anything is appreciated," Ruby said, clearly out of her depth as the rest of them when it came to the money of this land. "Do you think we could get a map to help us find our way around?"

The Mayor frowned. "Sorry, we don't have many people who need maps in our little village. The ones we have are decades out of date, I'm sure the borders of the kingdoms have shifted greatly in that time. They'll probably have more accurate maps at the Guild outpost. I'm sure if you're looking to settle down," she said in much the same tone as one would say 'take over,' "that you'll be able to find it there.

Yang's darling younger sister missed that implication because she asked worriedly, "Will you be alright here? If you get attacked again…"

"We can deal with the soldiers for now, and I doubt they'll be planning another strike so soon, before you return. Afterwards, we can hire some mercenaries, make up for the mistake that idiot boy made leaving us so weak."

"Idiot boy?" Blake questioned.

"Hmm? Oh, Hayden Lu. He was supposed to be a sentry for us, but the reckless boy kept on raising the alarm when no enemies were there, then laughing at us for fools. On the day that some bandits did attack, we dismissed his warning as another prank and… we lost a lot of good people that day. It doesn't matter, Hayden is no longer a member of this village."

Without much further to question her on, the girls left to get some food and supplies. They explained the situation to Jaune before heading out. On the road they began a light Hunter's jog, which still had them travelling briskly over the land. It was hardly a sustainable pace, but from the direction the Mayor had given them, they'd be at the outpost by daybreak, assuming no interruptions.

"So, a hundred kingdoms? That's a bit bigger than home," the blond haired boy commented as they trekked back across the road.

"Perhaps," Blake replied skeptically. "They didn't sound very stable. History - Remnant history, that is - says that there were times when dozens of warlords and would-be-monarch declared themselves sovereign rulers. It's only in more recent times that things settled into four major stable regions."

"I'm more worried about this Guild stuff," Yang commented. "It didn't sound like the idea of slavery was that shocking to her, only that this particular guy would try it."

The ears atop Blake's head twitched violently. "Yes. That was worrying to me as well." It was long before Blake had been born, but all of them knew the faunus had been taken as slaves by some of Remnant's kingdoms in the past.

"You noticed it too, huh?" Yang said, giving her girlfriend's hand a quick squeeze. They could hardly jog and hold hands continuously, but Blake sent a quick smile back Yang's way, clearly appreciating the support.

"Noticed what?" Jaune asked, obliviously.

Ruby was the one to point it out. "That there were no faunus in the village. Not amongst any of the raiders either. Nobody seemed biased or uhh…"

"Racist," the black haired girl drawled. "You can say it. The little children would point at my ears and the adults would notice them, but they didn't seem to care. Like it was just a slightly unusual sight. Which would make sense if there were a couple faunus around town, but there weren't." It was hardly ironclad proof of anything, but it was another oddity to this world.

There were a few minutes of silence before Weiss spoke up. "I didn't manage to learn much, but I did find out that a dinar is worth about a months wages for a whole family."

"Whoa, that feels like way too much!" Ruby exclaimed, to a snort from Weiss.

"Trust me, that Mayor is shrewder than she looks. The horses, caravans and all the gear they took off the soldiers? She made a hundred times that from our efforts there alone, easy."

"Oh." Was all the leader of Team RWBY could say.

"It's fine," Weiss reassured her. "This will serve us well enough for wherever we need to travel next. Plus, as much as they received a windfall from our rescue, they probably didn't have all that much silver on hand and will need a fair chunk of that money to protect the village in the future. We can just keep the value of things in mind for next time."

The rest of the journey passed quietly, no ambushes or discussions before the sun peered over the horizon. Something about it struck Yang, as if she should be filled with awe at this celestial object. It only lasted a moment before she shook it off however, blaming it on the presence of the whole moon that dipped out of sight.

With the light of the sun comes the Guild outpost, easy to see. The building wasn't overly large, though it was fairly tall. There were stables to one side for horses, with a few small extensions for resupplies. A few caravans were stopped outside, with guards posted around the building.

There was no real way to hide their approach so they didn't, with Ruby openly waving the guards down as they approached. "Hi, is there an Iko Pan here?"

"Uh, yes. He's up at the top, but he's in a meeting right now-" A swift swing of the backend of her scythe knocked both the guards out easily.

"Thanks, we'll take it from here," she said sardonically, before grabbing Weiss' and Yang's hands. Knowing where this was going, Blake and Jaune grabbed on as well, and before the other guards posted farther away were even finished shouting in alarm, Ruby was pulling them all ahead.

A storm of petals wound through the Guild building, pushing past clerks and merchants before they all reformed in front of the door to the top floor, the tower where Iko supposedly was. From the sounds of it, there were two people talking in hushed tones.

"Knock knock!" Yang called cheerfully after punching the door off its hinges. There was a high pitched squeal as one man dressed in fine robes jumped back, falling out of his chair. On the other end of the large conference room, a young man whose clothing was so torn and tattered he was practically wearing rags, stood up stiffly.

"Who are you?" He gasped, the young man had pale skin and dark hair, but there was a burning spark in his eyes.

Ruby stepped forward. "We're looking for Iko Pan in response to his attack on Wayside."

The older man dressed in finer stood up from where he had fallen, frantically pointing at the boy. "It was all Hayden's idea! I didn't want to do it, he forced me too!"

Hayden snarled. "You were busy drinking it up with me not so long ago, boasting about the profits you'd make!" As the Hunters readied themselves, turning to face Hayden, he let out a bitter laugh.

"Those fools threw me out! They deserved to pay for what they did to me!" He steadied himself as the wind began to swirl all around the room in different spots. "I don't know how they hired a couple of Outcastes like yourselves, but you'll pay too if you're going to protect them."

As he finished speaking, the wind coalesced in five different spots to form the faint outlines of wolves, each with a bright pair of glowing eyes. With simultaneous howls, the summoned creatures charged the Hunters, and pandemonium broke loose.

A/N: I feel like RWBY and Exalted are a good match, was inspired by stories like Miracles of Ancient Wonder and I have some ideas for what an adventure for the girls (plus Jaune) would look like through Creation but... I don't know, something felt like it wasn't clicking here. Still, I wrote a chapter and a bit more, so let me know what you think. Am I just judging it too hard?