Knox: Big day. Some changes happening in this Chapter. But more importantly, what the hell is with those two?!

King: They are Royal Guards.

Knox: Fair point. Any who, I don't want to hold things up.

King: Then let's go. See you in the Planning Room. As for you readers, we hope you enjoy.

Inspiration: N/A

/\

As is becoming a trend, team RWBY found themselves in the arena, accompanied by Coco, Velvet, Sun, and Neptune. Yang had wanted to challenge another version of someone in the multiverse thanks to the arena's solid hologram system. However, as Neptune was going through their options, he found something new added to the list.

"Raid Boss?" Yang was leaning over the side to see the screen in question.

Neptune opened the option and read things over, his natural reading speed making it an easy feat to explain it quickly. "According to this, it's a special arena mode allowing up to six people to challenge a single, powerful opponent. You can challenge them from levels 1 to 6, each level requiring a cohesive team at their minimum group size. Level 1 can reasonably be defeated by one person, Level 2 by a pair, and so on. However, it makes it clear that that will still be difficult."

Yang stood back up straight with a grin, "Then we should be able to handle a Level 4 no problem! Team RWBY's got this!"

Neptune shook his head, "I'd suggest, if you're going to challenge this, you pick a Level 1 and move up over time."

Blake shrugged, "If a Level 1 can be beaten by one person, that might not be good for training."

Coco chuckled a bit as she adjusted her sunglasses, "Then they can go in with two more. It's a minimum of four and up to six, right? So, why don't Vel and I go in with them."

Velvet turned to her partner, confused, "Wait a second…"

Yang, however, grinned wider, "Sounds good to me! Let's do this!"

Velvet looked between the two. Before coming here, she doubted she could speak up to two very loud, very blunt personalities. Now, however, "I don't want to go in right now!"

Coco slowly turned to Velvet, her glasses dropping a bit. After a moment, she fixed them back in place and nodded, "Alright." She was stoic on the outside, but internally, she was proud that Velvet was standing up for herself.

Sun laughed a bit, "Then I'll go in with you guys. If Neptune's up here, I've got nothing to do. So why not?"

Yang slapped an open hand against Neptune's shoulder, "There! We've got more than the minimum now. Send us in on Level 4!"

Neptune grumbled, but knew he was outnumbered. He could try to argue it, but nothing he said would get through all of them. Weiss was the only one that would bother to listen to reason at this point, but between them it was 2 against 5. "Fine. Don't say I didn't warn you." After a few taps on the screen he nodded, "There. It's ready when you are."

Team RWBY, Coco, and Sun all gathered their weapons and made their way to the arena. As they stood in the combat area, a section of the floor rose up to start the process to create their opponent. As the ball of light appeared between the sections, a ring started to pull off the whole. Then another, again and again. Soon, four spinning rings surrounded the ball of light. They pulsed out a second before slamming back into the whole. Unlike the restrictive summoning of the usual opponents, this ball burst with a bright flash of light. The six teens readied their weapons for anything.

As the light and smoke faded, they found two figures standing before them. A pair of twin brothers, identical down to their uniforms. However, they differentiated themselves with their colors. Where one was red, the other blue. Both dressed in military uniforms, solid red and blue. They both had dark blonde hair and their eyes seem to have traded colors with one another; the one with red eyes wore the blue uniform and the blue eyed twin wore red. Both wielded a pair of halberds that shared the identical nature of their wielders, both possessing appropriately colored crystals set in their center.

The red twin looked around, picking his canvas hat up slightly, "How odd. Isn't it brother?"

"Indeed, brother." The blue twin turned his head to the side before both twins' eyes set on the six before them. "We have company."

The red twin grinned and fixed his hat back onto his head, "I take it we are to spar, then."

Yang widened her stance with fists up, "Two of them, huh?"

Weiss nodded, "Likely a cohesive team. Probably more so than our partner attacks."

The red twin smirked toward the group, "I believe we have yet to introduce ourselves. Shall we brother?" He turned to his twin.

Said blue twin nodded, "Let's, brother."

The red twin rolled his shoulders before slamming the bottom tip of his halberd against the ground. "I am the Crimson Guardian! Romulus Kaiser!"

The blue twin did the same, showing the group that both twins held their weapons in opposing hands on sides toward each other, "I am the Azure Guardian. Remus Kaiser."

The two crossed their weapons between one another, speaking in unison, "We are members of the Arcadian First Legion Company 1! Twin Guards of the Royal House and members of the Kaiser Family! Between us, none shall pass!"

The six stared toward the twins, a little surprised at how… practiced it all seemed.

Both twins swung themselves around before giving each other a high-five.

"Excellent, brother!" Romulus beamed.

Remus laughed in kind, "We finally got the chance to do the chant~! Practice well spent!"

All six had the same thought in that moment, They're total dorks…

Romulus chuckled and returned his weapon to a resting state against his shoulder. "Well, with that out of the way, why don't we get started?" He swung his weapon around off his shoulder and into a ready position.

Remus laughed at his brother's actions and readied his weapon in a more subdued manner. "Let's~" Both brothers ran toward the group with weapons low to counter any incoming assaults.

Ruby was the first to jump into action with her weapon set in sniper mode, "Pin them down!" She fired a heavy shot toward the red brother, but he dipped aside in time to avoid it.

Coco leveled her minigun and unleashed a flurry of attacks, realizing that Ruby had already taken charge.

Remus jumped in front of his brother and swung his blade upward. The crystal at the center started to glow before creating a wall of ice thick enough and angled in a way to deflect the incoming fire.

Yang growled, "He has an ice lance?"

"Ice lance?" Remus grinned behind the ice and poked the frozen mass with the spike. "How unimaginative." The ice suddenly burst into a torrent of water flowing out over the floor.

As their shoes were soaked, Weiss's eyes widened in shock. "Everyone! Jump!"

Remus struck his weapon into the water and the liquid quickly froze over into a sheet of ice. Luckly, the six students were able to jump and avoid being frozen in place. "Nice reflexes. And recognizing my skill so quickly." He brought his weapon up again to a resting stance. "As recognition for your skill, I am willing to explain how it works."

The group of six all landed normally though the ice beneath them cracked on impact, revealing the layer of ice was rather thin. Weiss took up a position in front of the group, "I'm sure we would appreciate it. But are you really so willing to not only explain your skill, but also to give us this moment to regroup?"

Romulus laughed as he responded, "My brother can be quite cruel at times. If he's willing to explain the ability to you, it means he doesn't see you as a fight worth having unless he gives himself a handicap."

That did not sit well with Yang, "You want to put that by me again?!"

Weiss tried to stop her teammate before her temper exploded, "Yang! Wait a second."

Thankfully, Yang was held back by the, albeit thin, sheet of ice under her feet.

Remus smirked toward them as he explained, "My ability is fueled by the crystal in my weapon. Within is a special mixture of ice, water, wind, and gravity Dust." He struck his weapon against the ground again and pulled the ice up from the ground and created a banner of water that flew off the weapon like a flag. "This allows me to manipulate and control any and all water. Though the initial stream of water is formed by Dust, I can gather more through the ambient air around me. That said, I do admit that I have a limit to how much I can control at once."

"Be honest, brother. There's no need to make them completely hopeless," Romulus smirked and tapped his weapon against the ground and his weapon's crystal started to glow before unleashing a large flame around his weapon. Soon, the flame moved off the metal and created a flowing banner on his weapon like his brother's. He didn't overtly explain it like Remus had, but he implied what his skill set is by doing so. "We can only control a set amount of our respective element generated by our crystal."

Weiss let out a breath with a grin, "Is that right? But I think you'll find bigger problems for yourselves in a moment."

Sun and Blake had used the distraction to flank both of the brothers and leapt for a dual sneak attack. But the Twin Guardians were ready for such an outcome. Romulus suddenly spun around and swung his halberd in arch, creating a barrier of flames. Sun and Blake had to use their Semblances to escape the flame: Sun by using a copy to pull him away and Blake by jumping back with her ability. Though their plan failed, the Twins were now surrounded.

Remus kept his eyes on the four in front of him, "Did you really think you could just sneak up on us so easily? We're First Legion Royal Guards."

Romulus pointed his spike toward the two attackers, "We need to be prepared to defeat trained assassins that might try to harm the Royal Family. A common tactic like that could never work on us."

Sun sighed, but kept up his smile, "So much for that plan. What now?"

Blake looked back toward the Twins, finding that Romulus's weapon had lost its banner. Her eyes widened and she tackled Sun to the side, "Move!"

The ground suddenly erupted under where they were standing. Flames danced in place for a moment before flying back to become the banner of the red twin. Romulus smiled, clapping his hands as he held his weapon, "You're all very perceptive. You're all training to be huntsmen. Am I right?"

Remus spun his weapon, blocking incoming fire from Coco and Ruby with his banner turned to ice. "It's rather obvious, brother." With another swing, he tapped the bottom of his weapon against the ground. "I say we give them the honor of facing the wolves~"

They both swung their weapons in unison, adopting a similar stance between them. As they held their stance, their banners surrounded them in a whirlpool of water and flame. They both slid their stances wider before raising their weapons to the sky. They swung downward toward both parts of the group of six. Both swings created giant wolves of fire and water charging straight toward them. The impact was strong enough to rip the air apart, creating a vacuum before imploding back toward the twins.

The alarm suddenly rang out as the aura levels of all six were leveled almost instantly.

As the Twins disappeared, Neptune had to stifle a laugh and the urge to say I told you so.

\/

As team RWBY, Coco, and Sun got their butts handed to them, team JNPR were currently spending their intermission in the game room again. This time, they were playing a board game instead of the usual card game they'd gotten used to.

Nora moved her piece along the edge of the board, landing on a certain space with a red plastic house on one side. "Not again!"

Jaune found a bundle of play money thrown at his face in Nora's frustration. But he could only laugh nervously, "Sorry Nora, but that's the game."

Ren, the second to go bankrupt, sighed and shook his head. "Come on Nora, fair is fair."

Pyrrha, the first to lose, chuckled slightly, "Guess that means Jaune wins."

Nora roared, annoyed that her strategy had fallen apart so quickly. "Dang it! I had him!"

Jaune started to pack away the pieces, "Part of the game is luck. I just got lucky this time."

Nora jumped up with a finger pointed toward her leader, "You listen here! I'm going to avenge this loss! Do you hear me?!"

"Don't you think that's a little overboard?"

"No I do not!"

Ren sighed and shook his toward Jaune, telling him it wasn't worth it to try to argue with her. It didn't help that they agreed that whoever won the game would get to pick diner the night they got back.

"I'm not taking this lying down!" Nora started rooting through more games, trying to find something she could beat Jaune in. Most of them, however, were cooperative games so it took more than a cursory glance. After a while, she pulled a game out from the lower shelf. Thankfully, the other games didn't topple down on top of her. She ran back to the others and slammed the game onto the table. "Round 2! And this time, I'm going to win! Double or nothing!"

Jaune looked over the game's box, "Battleground?"

Nora threw open the box, showing a group of figurines and cards. "The box says it's a really short game, a couple minutes at most. We'll settle this here!"

Ren and Pyrrha glanced toward one another and scooted their chairs away. It was clear Nora's ire was focused squarely on Jaune.

Jaune looked over the rules. It was a simple game, meant to be played in multiple rounds as part of other games in its series to help decide battles. Of course, it could be played as a standalone game, but it was extremely quick when you did.

Ren and Pyrrha spared a glance again. This would be the part where Jaune would try to talk Nora down before things got out of…

"Fine," Jaune stood to match Nora and slammed his hands onto the table. "But how about this. Winner decides the menu for the next week."

Ren and Pyrrha's eyes went wide. This was completely out of the norm for Jaune. Not only was he rising to the challenge, he was pushing her further.

Nora grinned, "Deal! Pancakes for a whole week!"

"Not happening." Jaune grabbed a set of figurines and cards, "You can't just have pancakes every day and I'm going to make sure you can't."

The two glared toward one another as they set up their field. The standalone game of Battleground allowed them to use the full army on hand: 50 units of infantry, 20 cavalry, 10 siege engines, and 1 Hero unit they selected from a list. Nora set up her army with her Hero unit, Brunhilda the Warmaiden, set up in front. Jaune, meanwhile, took on a more methodical approach and set everything up in formation. His 'Hero' unit was a sword placed into an anvil of some kind.

Nora raised her eyebrow toward the trapped sword, "What's that thing supposed to be?"

Jaune placed a card next to the item as he explained it, "It's called the King's Trial. I can roll a die to see if I pull the weapon out of the anvil. Once I do, I get a new Hero unit in its place. But you don't have to worry about that unless I roll a 6 this turn. Any other number and nothing happens." He picked up the six sided die and rolled it onto the table, six dots looking up toward them both as a result. "Well… never mind then." Jaune took the trapped sword and replaced it with a man in armor with the same sword in his hands, held in place in front of him. "Meet the King of Legends."

Nora grinded her teeth as she grabbed the power card to read up on the stats of her new opposition. The Hero's stats were insane, but he was held back by the ridiculous summoning requirement. Nora shook, crumpling the paper slightly, "Damn you…"

Jaune and Nora both took a set of dice, each representing their units' combat ability. The four sided dice were their infantry, which Nora won 4 against 3. The six sided dice were their cavalry, which Jaune won 4 against 1. The Siege Engines were represented by their eight sided dice, which Nora won 8 against 6. This tied their units' strength at 13 to 13. Finally, their Hero units had their own dice to roll. The Heroes had different numbers on their dice, all so much higher than the base dice. Nora had hope rolling her highest number with 25. However, the King of Legend's die had the numbers 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, and 35. She needed him to get a lower number so she could win the round. Jaune rolled his die, and Nora watched as sweat fell down her brow. When the die finally landed, and the number 30 showed itself to the world, Nora fell backward to the floor in defeat.

Ren looked at the situation a little confused. "Is… is that it?"

Jaune nodded. "I mean… it is supposed to be a supplemental game instead of a game by itself."

Nora slowly brought her hand back up to drag herself up back to her chair, only to slump backward. "I needed that win!"

Jaune shook his head with a grin, "Sorry, Nora. But your menu is in my hands for the next week." He pulled out his scroll and started to jot things down.

Pyrrha looked over his shoulder as he typed, "Salmon, rice, tomatoes… What are you planning?"

Jaune continued his list as he spoke, "If I'm in charge of Nora's meals for the next seven days, I need to stock up on supplies."

Ren raised an eyebrow, "You can cook?"

"My dad taught me how. We needed all hands on deck with so many people to feed, after all. I've only memorized the recipes for Arcadian meals, but my grandmother also sent me to Beacon with a few more."

Ren nodded slightly, "This will certainly be an interesting week."

\/

King and Knox sat opposite one another, in their humanoid forms, in a secret room in the theater's library. Knox looked very similar to before with his gold vest and dark jeans. King, meanwhile, swapped his usual attire and now resembled a purple-colored Russian Tsar. The two sat with a map between them, points showing various worlds in a branching path. One, however, wasn't branching correctly.

Knox tapped his foot against the ground, "That's a problem… How do we fix it?"

King tapped the path and the world's information appeared in front of them, "We just need to fix some of these supposed constants." King said that last word with a metric ton of venom.

"You have an issue with constants?"

"I hate the term for what it represents. If everything is constant, unable to change, then what's the point? Constants give off the idea that there's some perfect timeline. Jaune falling for Pyrrha, Ren and Nora being an inseparable pair, the Fall of Beacon, Cinder's rise, Salem… I hate the idea that these are the only ends. As much as I hate the notion of perfection." He swiped his hand across the timeline and forced decisions to change by changing small things within. A rock here, a sign there, and suddenly the timeline branched out like a tree like it should have. "There. All fixed."

Knox looked toward his creator with a raised brow, "That's it?"

"Small differences can create big changes. More importantly, I think it's time we move on from the fire forms."

Knox looked to King, surprised to have heard those words come out of his mouth. "What? But what about keeping them from knowing? That we've basically replaced those brother gods?"

"We won't go so far as to let them in on that just yet. But there's no need to hide these forms anymore."

"You just want to show off the coat, don't you?"

"I could do that without appearing human." King stood, prompting Knox to do the same. King walked past his literal golden child, "I simply think we've held ourselves back long enough." King stood at the door, turning back to Knox. "If you don't agree, we can remain in our flame forms. I'm not going to press the issue now, in fact I'll give you final say in this. Knox, I will follow your decision."

Knox staired toward King, still taking in what he heard. There was silence in their secret room, a pin could echo through with ease. Knox looked into King's eyes, those golden eyes he'd inherited. Knox sighed and looked to King again, walking to join him at the door. A hand reached for the door knob and twisted, pushing forward to open their path to the main theater. As Knox stepped through, he retained his human form and turned back to King. "Here's my answer."

King couldn't help but let out a quick chuckle as he joined Knox outside the secret room. "Look at you, trying to be all dramatic." King ruffled Knox's golden hair and kept walking, knowing full well that he would follow. "Now, let's get back to the theater. Intermission is ending soon."

\/

With the message ringing out over the theater, everyone started to make their way back toward the viewing room. However, they found they had a new face among the seats.

"It looks rather impressive, and these seats are excellent for my back." One was a short, old woman in a dark blue dress. Her eyes were covered by a strange apparatus that seemed to emote for her in a way. Those from Atlas would recognize the device as a way to allow the blind to see in some small way. The woman heard them enter and turned to face the arrivals, "Now that's a sight." She hopped off the chair and walked toward the entering group.

Ironwood was the only one that recognized her as of the time they were plucked from, "Maria."

She glanced around and found Penny standing nearby, her 'eyes' widening, "Pietro actually pulled it off…"

Penny gasped and jumped toward the old woman, "You know my father?"

Maria chuckled and tapped the apparatus on her face, "He's an old friend and helps me keep these working every now and then."

"Maria?" Oscar leaned around the General, not sure if this was the Maria he knew in their future or if she was plucked from their present day unlike him.

But Maria seemed to recognize him, "Oscar, I suppose that means the others are here as well." She looked around and found team RWBY and JNPR making their way back into the room. "There you are!"

This got the teams to jump as an old woman they didn't recognize approached them as though she did.

"How strange." Maria pointed toward Yang, "I remember you not having that arm. How did you get it back?"

Yang looked toward her team, only to shrug and be shrugged back, "What?"

Maria ignored her, however, and turned to Pyrrha, "But I don't recognize you…" Her 'eyes' narrowed, as if to try to will the memory into existence.

Pyrrha let out a nervous laugh, not sure what to say.

Oscar placed a hand on the woman's shoulder to get her attention, "Maria… they haven't met you yet."

"What?" She turned to Oscar like he was crazy, "I may be old, but I'm not crazy! How could they not have met me yet?"

"Because we took you from their future." Everyone spun around to the entrance, expecting to see the purple fireball they knew. Instead, he stood before them as a human, leaving them all confused and silent. King walked through the group with Knox going the extra mile and jumped over off the seats. King reached the front of the theater and turned back toward everyone. "Now, allow me to explain a few things first."