"Oh, you are just brilliant, aren't you… My God of Creation?" A cloaked figure laughed, a cruel gesture as he caressed the face of a young man, chained up and petrified. Another chuckle escaped from the masked individual, knowing his success would be assured for eternity.

"Master Suel, you summoned me?" The Game Master asked, walking up to the statue within the Chamber of Creation.

"Ah, so you've arrived..." Suel responded, turning around to face the masked man standing before him. "Please have a look, won't you?"

The Game Master nodded, compulsion ruling over him by the sound of Suel's voice, slowly walking up to the statue of the chained God of Creation, an expression of pain stretched upon his face for eternity.

"A beautiful piece, isn't he? A testament to the grand nature of our organization. We have much to discuss about the upcoming season of the Desire Grand Prix." Suel clasped his hands together. "First thing's first. Win Hareruya. You have returned him from the grave. For what reason?"

"I believe the term is fan service, Master Suel." The Game Master responded, his tone mesmerized and unable to resist the voice before him. "In many entertainment programs, fans enjoy when old characters return amongst a new cast. He seemed… the least able to cause any real problems when compared to the others."

"Do not underestimate Punkjack." Suel turned around, his gloved hands clasping at his back. "Keep a close eye on him. He and his Cult of Creation… Well, you get the picture. How did the first game proceed?"

"The Duos Game will proceed to the second round with ten pairs, or twenty players." With a snap of his fingers, a listing of the Riders who succeeded to the second round appeared before Suel. "The Jyamagrim, known as Beowulf, has been successfully cultivated. The beast is powerful and will allow our game to proceed as planned. The Hunting Game will require the pairs to work together to stop the Beowulf from running rampant in the downtown area of Vale."

"It seems you are taking a page from Girori's book, hmm?" Suel noted, sounding interested in the reason why.

"Correct. All Game Masters bring their own unique twist to the Desire Grand Prix. Colus brought the Desire Royale, focused on Riders fighting each other directly. Girori focused on the heroism of Riders and eliminated the live entertainment facet of the game for its realistic nature. Chirami focused too much on the reality entertainment of the game. I will bring a variety of games that test this world's heroes in ways they never have before."

"The wish our God of Creation granted eliminated the primary opposition of this world, did it not?" Suel asked, the Desire Card containing the wish of James Ironwood appearing in his hand.

"The great evil known as Salem no longer exists in this world, correct. She has been removed, while keeping the world's timeline primarily in check so that such things Ironwood is familiar with remain. The Grimm, for starters, rampantly attack humans and Faunus still, meaning he is still required in his position." The Game Master nodded.

"Thank you for your time, Game Master. I am sure you will make us all proud. You are fully informed of this world, and it's ongoing, so the games you will create for our audience… Will be spectacular, no doubt."


"Everyone. Welcome back to the Desire Grim Prix." The Game Master announced, standing slightly above the gathered players. "It seems the time has finally come for your battle to begin."

Ashe, the game navigator, raised her arms to reveal a live feed from downtown Vale, showing a monstrous-sized Beowolf, far bigger than normal, ravaging downtown. The only major difference to its appearance were the beats of dark green covering its fur with what looked like plant matter on them.

"So what's what we have to… to fight?" Ruby asked, looking at the monster with tired eyes. "Where does something like that even come from?"

"It doesn't." Win whispered, his eyes narrowed. "Trust me, something like that is… unnatural. It can't be born, only created by the minds of the twisted."

Ruby hadn't been ready for her confrontation with her older sister, who now did not appear as old as she once was. It made sense, the clock had been rewound two years for everyone else in the world except her. Why her? What made her different from everyone else? A part of her envied them, able to forget the trauma that life had inflicted upon them. But she remembered every minute of it. Every single horrific moment was deeply etched into Ruby's mind like an ancient painting left on the wall of a cavern.

Having run, Ruby simply wandered alone until her Spider Phone had suddenly rung with:

"Gather Round."

"So Game Master?" Win threw his hand up, raising it like a student with a question. "How exactly are we scored on this? There's one monster out there, only one. What's the elimination criteria?"

"The criteria for moving onto the next round is simple. The Beowolf Jyamagrim-strain is durable, with hide so thick it is nearly impossible to penetrate." The Game Master responded, his hands behind his back.

"Seems like a boring game to me, if we're all just whacking a single Grimm." Torchwick said, rolling his eyes in annoyance.

"For every successful strike you make to the Jyamagrim, you will be offered points. Slowly, but surely, as a group you will do damage to the monster. This game will be scored as such." The Game Master raised his hand:

Defeat the Jyamagrim: 1000 Points
Perform a Chained Combo: 100 x Chain Combo Points
Land a damaging strike: 200 Points

Harm a Fellow Rider: -500 Points

"These rules will only apply to today's game: The Monster Hunting Game!" The Game Master raised his hands. "To move onto the next round you will need to be in the top three pairs. If you are within the top, you will move on. If you fail, you will be retired and stripped of your memories of the Desire Grim Prix as well as your deepest desires. So… Do your best not to lose either now or later."

"Up front this time about that, huh?" Win rolled his eyes to himself, leaving Ruby with more questions. The man definitely knew more than he let on. "Let's get the game over with."

"Of course. Everyone attach your Desire Drivers and transform!"

There was some slightly murmuring amongst the people, before Win rolled his eyes and put his Desire Driver on.

"Transform." He said with bated breath, becoming clad in a black undersuit with a large organ bear helmet atop.

Entry.

"Yo, GM, give me something I can work with here. They'll need to get it, you know?"

"Very well, I expect good things from you, Punkjack." The Game Master nodded, throwing a buckle that looked like a keyboard to the Kamen Rider.

"Alright, kids, let uncle Punkjack show you how you're supposed to do this, okay?" The orange-headed Rider said, tapping the keys on the buckle, causing music to play.

He then slid the buckle onto the belt, tapping the keys a few more times, causing more music to erupt. Finally, he ran his hand over the small record on it, causing a scratch noise.

Beat! Ready, Fight!

Neon colors decorated the orange-bear Rider, who was suddenly equipped with a neon-colored guitar.

"Come on, daylight is burning! And so is the city!"

"Oh right, so just like this, huh?"

Ruby attached the belt to her waist and pulled out the Reaper Buckle. The ominous energy emanating from it continued to flow, but she wanted to get this done and over with. That's when she placed the large buckle onto her belt, causing it to announce something out.

Set!

Everyone else in the circle seemed to follow in suit, doing much of the same, with many belts announcing out the word, while everyone followed suit with what Win had said earlier.

"Transform!"

Zombie! Ready, Fight!

Ninja! Ready, Fight!

Armed Hammer! Ready, Fight!

Armed Bomber! Ready, Fight!

Reaperrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! Ready… Fight!

As the Riders fell back into the world, as though they were being dropped directly on top of the monster, Ruby could feel the armor being attached to her. She wished she had been able to see what her suit looked like, but no mirror kept her from seeing as such.

To her bemusement, if she had been able to see herself, the crimson colored wolf Rider had been equipped with a flowing cape and hood to pull over her helmet, hiding some of the red wolf's design. Bone-like armor decorated her torso, a rib-cage like design on her chest, giving her the appearance of the old story of the Grim Reaper, armed to the teeth with her trusty scythe. Upon landing, Ruby twirled the weapon around to get a proper balance with it. It seemed pretty light weight, easy to swing around with ease, while the weapon was equipped with several buttons on it.

The newly transformed Kamen Rider Hood was sure she would find out everything in time. First off, however, was to gauge the situation. Many of the other Riders had fallen and already began trying to engage the monstrous Beowolf. As expected, it had patches of green-colored plants covering its hide, with grotesque vines whipping to and fro. The size of it was also quite unimaginable. Beowolves were big to begin with, sure, but this one was nearly the size of a bus. However this thing came to be… it screamed even more unnatural up close. It had been rampaging for sometime it seemed, the street already abandoned, and property damage that would make the city of Vale and its taxpayers cry.

The smaller attacks of some of the civilian Riders only seemed to agitate it, and Hood knew that she would need to join in too. Normally, she might take pot shots at the Grimm to gauge its defenses. Sniper rifle rounds were perfect for that, but unfortunately, this simplistic scythe in her hands was all she had. So all she could do for the moment was case it out. One of the Riders used a large chainsaw, and attempted to break through to its back immediately, only to not even make a dent.

Another Rider fired wild shots, small explosives lining the monster's back, also failing to make it stop. Of course, it did seem to get more agitated when the explosive hit one of its green-grassy patches. The vine fell off, before immediately regrowing and flailing more wildly. The weak points must have been the grassy pieces. Falling forward, she broke through and found a spot to attack the beast, using her scythe to land a slashing strike onto the first plant she could find. The HUD on her helmet showed that her team got two-hundred points for that, meaning her assumption was correct. She was being distracted, unable to pull a combo. Though, on that thought, where the hell was…?

Punkjack had seemingly stayed behind for a brief moment, only to drop in hot, on top of the monster's back. It roared out as the Rider landed, and he whooped loudly as he struck down with the weapon's sharp ends.

Rock Fire

"Come on, come on! You call that a combo, Hood?!" Punkjack began to strum the neon-colored guitar, utilizing the buttons and strum lever to play a series of notes, followed by a blazing fire that erupted out of the monster's hide. The combo continued with each continuous note played, quickly noting that there was a song being played within them.

It was clear that many of the Riders were not remotely trained for this sort of thing. They attempted to inflict damage to the boss monster, only for it to be less than annoyed with them. Several vines erupted from the Beowolf's body and wrapped themselves around several of the Riders with lesser ranked Armed Buckles. Despite how tired she was, Ruby felt the urge to save them. So… she did.

With the Reaper Scythe in hand, she leapt forward to save them from the Grimm. She was a Huntress, fully licensed, and she had a duty to protect innocents. As she flew forward, she felt a strike to the side, sending her tumbling to the ground. To her side she saw a Rider with, what appeared to be, a scorpion-like helmet design. It did not require one to be a detective to figure out who this was: Tyrian, the psychotic member of Salem's inner-circle. She almost forgot that he was Kamen Rider Toxin now.

"I think this is more fun than fighting the monster! Haha!" Even with no sign of Salem in Remnant, it looked like Tyrian was still himself. He seemed to be equipped with a pink-colored Armed Buckle, giving him a hammer weapon. Even without a stronger buckle like Ruby's he still served a problem.

PENALTY: Minus Five Hundred Points. Attacking other players is prohibited.

"You fool! Are you trying to get us eliminated?" The voice of Torchwick, now Kamen Rider Crook, called out from behind a mask that looked like some sort of bird. A raven maybe? Ironic, Ruby thought, considering his cause of death. "We got more to do than fight with Red!" He seemed to be armed with his own armed buckle, which equipped him with… what looked like a shotgun.

"Hehehehehhe, who cares about that?!"

"If we want our wishes granted, you do!" Crook pressed his index finger, and took a penalty by shooting his partner into the Jyamagrim. "Fight this! And then deal with your other shit after!"

Ruby took her mind off of the quarreling pair, looking to see her points were still going up. It seemed the continuous combo that Punkjack was inflicting was still ongoing. The flames of his song protected him, and none of the other Riders seemingly wanted to risk a penalty by ruining the combo. Turning her attention to some of the civilian-turned-Riders, Kamen Rider Hood wrapped herself in the cloak her Reaper Buckle offered her, and flew at the vines.

With an expert strike, the vines ripped apart easily, despite how thick they were. The Riders fell to the ground and looked up at Hood, nodding their heads and thanking her. Ruby could only offer them a nod of her head, as she turned to the battle. It seemed that the only ones doing any real damage were Java and Lucky at the moment, equipped with, if memory serves her from their transformations earlier, Zombie and Ninja Buckles respectively.

Now was the time for her to join once more…

Secret Mission: Cleared!

"W-What?" Hood watched as a small box, similar to the ones she had seen earlier, dropped onto the ground in front of her. She knelt over and picked it up, sliding the cover over to reveal a red-colored buckle that resembled a motorcycle's handle. "Where did this come from? It's pretty…"

Her Spider-Phone, attached to her belt's side buzzed and she picked it up and looked at it. Simply read, a message appeared:

Save a Fellow Rider from the Jyamagrim's Snares!
Prize: Boost Buckle

"That's right sis~! The Boost Buckle is about to turn this up to eleven!" Punkjack finished off his song, leaping into the air, and turning the Desire Driver clockwise in motion before sliding the Monster Buckle onto it.

Revolve On!

Dual On! Monster! Beat! Ready, Fight!

The blue-and-yellow starred armored Rider landed onto the ground, equipped with two large fists. Under her helmet, Ruby couldn't help but smile. They reminded her of Yang in their design, albeit much bigger. Appropriate paws for a "monster."

"Do it like me, sis!" Punkjack landed several powerful hits onto the Jyamagrim, causing it to roar out in pain. Ruby noticed that the combined power of the Beat Buckle laced the Monster's fists with the flames of the music that was pouring out of the speaker-like pieces of his armor.

"You know, you look gaudy as all hell, right?" Java asked, leaping into the air with the Zombie Breaker to begin using the chainsaw blade to dig into the monster's back.

"Whatever works, sis!" Punkjack smashes his fists together.

"I appreciate the creativity of such an attack!" Lucky said, still trying to get a hold on his new powers. "Flames burn away the plant parts of the Grimm! Genius!"

"Hey Clover, stop being impressed with the competition!" The annoyed voice of the Beacon student responded.

Punkjack spun back towards Ruby, their eye pieces catching one another in a stare.

"Stop overthinking it for now. Just do what you were born to do."

"R-Right… With all of this stuff happening… It's too much right now, but… I gotta stop the Grimm right now." Ruby took a deep breath, trying to recapture some of the energy she had prior to the Fall of Atlas. Looking deep into the reflective crimson metal of the Boost Buckle, she decided to not overthink it for the moment. "So, just like this, huh?"

With a quick movement, Ruby slid the Boost Buckle onto the empty side of her belt. Taking a few deep breaths to center herself, she gripped onto the handle of the buckle and revved it up as though it were a real motorbike, like Yang's Bumblebee.

Dual On! Get Ready For: Boost & Reaper! Ready? Fight!

A secondary piece of red leg armor suddenly appeared and attached itself to Ruby's legs, weighing her down a bit more, yet… she felt like this would turn the tides of what seemed like an endless battle against the Jyamagrim. With her Reaper's Scythe in hand, she tapped it onto the ground, before letting the thrusters on the back of her legs send her flying forward. The speed was incredible, even surpassing her natural Semblance's speed for a brief moment. She wondered how fast she would be able to go if she utilized both?

Revving her Semblance to its full power, Ruby found herself moving faster than everyone else on the battlefield. It was almost like they were moving in slow motion. It was pretty incredible, to see herself moving so fast, the flames burning out of her legs. Leaping into the air, she moved her arms with incredible speed, landing expertly placed strikes into the vulnerable green patches where the vines were growing.

The monster roared loudly, but could do nothing as Hood moved too fast for its newly grown vine-like whips to grab onto her. Each hit of the curved steel, made it lose ground, falling down and beginning to lose hope. Hood entered back into real time, facing forward to the head of the monster, using the boosters on her legs to send herself into the air. This? This was comfortable. It was familiar. She grabbed onto the handle of the Reaper Buckle and pulled it, after which she revved up the Boost Buckle one last time.

Reaper, Boost. Grand Victory!

The scythe's blade seemed to sharpen as finely as it could, with the boost thrusters on her leg sending her downwards like a heat seeking missile towards the Jyamagrim's head. One last blow was all it would fell the beast, properly, like a death-seeking reaper.

"Okay! Here comes… the highlight!" Ruby wasn't sure why she said those words. They just popped in there, as though someone whispered them to her. As if to say: "Hey, this makes for a pretty badass catchphrase." Without any doubt or hesitation, she swung the bladed weapon with mastery, forged in the fires of battle for the past years of her life, resulting in the obvious. The Jymagrim could not even roar out any further, as its head fell from the severed stump before melting away into nothingness.

Mission Cleared!

"Wow, the new girl really had it in her." Java said, hauling her gigantic chainsaw sword over her shoulder. "Pretty impressive."

"A good showing all around. She'll make a fine huntress when she's older, no?" Lucky said, a smile probably already on his face. Someone might misconstrue the man's commentary for sarcasm, those who might know him less.

"Well, well, Red… Not quite the same as you were, now are you?" Crook put his hand to his helmet in thought. "I'm sure this information will be quite useful to me."

"The highlight… huh…" Punkjack narrowed his eyes, hidden beneath his helmet. Taking the two buckles off of his belt, he returned to being Win Hareruya. The man quickly peered at his Spider Phone. To no one's surprise, the top pair consisted of Hood and Punkjack, amassing a score of 3800 points between the two of them. In second were Java and Lucky, coming far in second at 2100 points. In third, Toxin and Crook only amassed 800 points, but was more than the untrained civilian Riders.

Taking from his cue, many of the other Riders took off their buckles, excluding Ruby, who stood where the Jyamagrim once had. She was breathing loudly, looking down at the Boost Buckle. She was lucky to obtain such an item when she had. It was quick and to the point, just as she had hoped out of this game. But before she could remove it, it began to rumble before bursting off like a rocket. It zoomed in a circle around her before looking at her in the eyes for a moment, prior to blasting off.

"Guess it's just… here that once, huh?" Ruby couldn't help but feel a little abandoned, even though it was nothing more than an object. Still… something felt off about the buckle. She couldn't place her finger on it, but if she ran into the buckle again, it was fully possible the odd feeling would return.

Ruby felt a sense of calm for a brief moment, the battle had overtaken most of her worries, and the fallout of the monster's death had just begun. The odd woman, the game navigator, suddenly appeared out of nowhere, though teleporting just like the rest.

"Congratulations on completing the Monster Hunting game everyone!" Ashe smiled brightly, clapping her hands to the group of Riders. "Unfortunately, for many of you, you failed to make it into the top three. I'm so sorry, but it's time for you to go back home now!"

The red-haired girl was about to speak up, hoping to gain more information, only to be tapped on the shoulder by the older man. With a single gesture, her attention was pointed at the many civilian Riders who began to taper in and out of existence before vanishing. The many individuals who were there before were now gone, a loud voice ringing out from each of their Desire Drivers.

Retired.

"And with that, the round is over! Until the next game, you will remain on standby! Live out your days as normal until then!" Ashe said, twirling around and vanishing into the air like a ghost.

"After all that… that's it?" Ruby asked, confused. "We did all of that just…"

"That's how the DGP operates, sis." Win said, taking a deep breath. "Come on, let's head out. Got things I need to talk to you about."

Before Ruby could say anything more, she made brief eye contact with Tyrian, who was being dragged off by Torchwick, who was saying some less than pleasant things about the Faunus' performance. Coco was giving her a good staredown too, probably one that would alert her older appearance at some point. If there was one person who wasn't on her team who would notice such a drastic change in appearance, down to the stress induced wrinkles, Coco Adel would be the sole human.

It only took a few brief button presses on her Spider Phone to return to her normal outfit, with Win doing much of the same. A solemn look was plastered on his face, one that Ruby knew had a sordid past with the Desire Grim Prix, or as he had called it prior, the Desire Grand Prix. And it was about time that she got some sort of answer. The duo held off into a small cafe, mostly dead, giving them as much privacy as one could get in public.

Neither actually ordered anything, sitting down under the guise of thinking about their orders.

"You know more about this than you're telling me, aren't you?" Ruby broke the silence.

"You got me pegged that easily, huh?" Win gave a semi-forced smirk, as she crossed his arms across his chest. "Yeah, I know just about everything you wanna know. Luckily for us, our lives are off limits to them. Some stuff, you'll need to trust me on, sis, but I can give you some basics."

"Alright, fine, tell me, who are you really?" Ruby leaned forward a bit, squinting one of her eyes.

"My name is real. I'm Win Hareruya. I was the lead singer of a band called Weather Hearts. When my career went nowhere… My grandpa got me a job. A job working for the Desire Grand Prix." Win explained, staying as on topic as he could. "Of course, where we are now, it's gotten a new name: The Desire Grim Prix."

"You worked for these people? How'd you end up, you know… Playing the game as a normal person?" Ruby wondered.

"A lot of things happened. A lot of not so good things happened. There was a lot of back and forth between the Desire Grand Prix as it was originally envisioned and the Desire Grand Prix as run by an old friend of mine. Things went south though. I died. Then I was brought back to fight here."

"Woah, woah, woah slow down there." Ruby's eyes widened at the things he just casually admitted to. "Did you just say you… died?"

"Yep. Died. Very dead. Was not pretty." Win responded, wincing a bit at the memory of it. "Not the first time though. Either way, I'm trying to win the Desire Grim Prix to get back to where we were before Remnant."

"Looks like we're in the same boat." Ruby admitted, thinking about her wish. "This world is everything anyone could have ever wanted but… How come I'm the only one who remembers Remnant before this?"

"Honestly, I don't know." Win pulled out his Desire Driver, and pointed his finger at the ID Core within it. "Typically, an ID Core will restore the memories of anyone involved with the DGP."

"But all the people here would have remembered Remnant as it was before all of this." Ruby countered.

"It must be because of whatever wish reset this world." Win responded. "The DGP wasn't technically involved in this world prior to the wish that occurred a couple days ago. So even though there's a world in the past… it doesn't exactly line up."

"So I'll just be trapped here? Alone with my memories?" Ruby grabbed at her hair. Anxiety was welling up in her chest. "Unless I win. Of course, I need to win. When don't I have to be the sole person that Remnant seems to revolve around?"

"We all have our roles to play, especially right now, sis." Win said, his voice calm and collected. "Right now, you need to focus on settling into life here as it is."

"But I can't! My sister, my friends… They're not the same…"

"Then you'll have to try and get them to remember, yeah?" Win stood up, sighing a bit. "Look, despite playing for the good guys, I'm pretty well respected at the DGP headquarters. I'm going to poke around and see what I can glean from their intentions. You are gonna go back to wherever it is you live, and you're gonna figure out how to settle in."

"Settle in, huh?"

"Investigate, sis. Figure out what's different."

"I can do that." Ruby had once heard of a thing called compartmentalizing, and to put everything away into neat little boxes sounded great in the moment. Investigate the difference of the world. "I guess I'll head back to Beacon and have a little talk with Professor Ozpin."

"Good to hear. I'll be heading back to the HQ and see what my former coworkers are willing to dish out." Win pulled out his Desire Driver, giving Ruby a nod as he walked out of the cafe and vanished into nothingness after placing it on his waist. Ruby looked down at the empty table, before withdrawing her own belt. She looked at the red wolf ID Core in the center, gently touching it.

"I wonder if I can get their memories back somehow…" She felt a small resolve in her chest. "First, time to go talk to Professor Ozpin… Ozpin, huh?"

It had been years since she last saw him as… Well, him. If everything was as it was prior to the Vytal Festival, then it went to reason that he hadn't reincarnated into Oscar yet. Time has certainly gone by… hasn't it? A pang of loss hit her body once more, of the world she lost including everyone in it.

No. No more thinking like that. She would get that old world back, the one that was real. All Ruby needed to do was win this stupid game, and it would be over. First things first, however, and the huntress began making her way back to Beacon.


"So… You need me to work for you?" A weak and tired voice said, as though the owner were ill. "Can't I just die in peace?"

"I need the assistance of a Rider willing to break the rules for the greater good. Someone who walked the lines of kindness and selfishness. One who knows the value of life. One who is intelligent and well spoken." The Game Master responded, crossing his arms. "I will return you to your eternal slumber afterwards. Your illness will be abated and you will live once more, your body returned to the moment you first became a Rider."

"That only gives me a year…" The weak voice groaned, realizing they would be held hostage until they agreed. This was the speech of someone articulated enough to know how much power they held in the moment. "Fine. I'll work for you. But let me ask, why me? I'm sure there are tons of others who fit the bill."

"As I said, I need someone who truly knows the value of life. And one who isn't… shackled by the rules here. Everything is already broken, another shattered piece won't change things. However, I'm sure you'll do well to remember that failure is not an option." The Game Master reached into his pocket, withdrawing a small green rectangular item and handing it to the weakened man.

"Of course I know that… After all, those who don't fight…" A sigh. "Don't survive."