Author's note: If you haven't buckled up already, do so now. Volume 3 begins.
Ruby stood in front of the tombstone of her mother, Julius watching her from behind as she started talking to the grave, going over the things that had happened in the recent year. She and Yang decided to bring Julius to their home to meet their, and Julius's, father, Taiyang. While it had been years since he and Taiyang had seen each other, Taiyang recognized Julius almost immediately and the two shared a heartwarming reunion. Now, the two watched Ruby as she spoke to the gravestone.
"Does she always do this?" Julius asked.
"Mostly, yeah," Taiyang replied, "It helps her feel better. You can't really blame her either for doing it."
Julius shrugged; Taiyang had a point. Then, he looked at the time on his scroll and saw it was almost time to head back to Beacon for the tournament. He whistled to get Ruby's attention. Ruby turned back, said a few last words to the tombstone, and then walked back to join Julius and Taiyang.
"You ready?" Tai asked.
Ruby nodded: "I'm good. Let's go!"
The three turned to leave, but as they did, Julius heard a woman's voice whisper in his head.
"Julius…" it said. Julius whipped back around and saw the shimmering image of a woman in a white hood and cape, only for it to disappear almost as soon as he saw it.
"Everything okay, Julius?" Ruby asked, noticing him turn around. Julius turned back around after a few moments: "Yeah, it's all good. I just thought I saw something."
"Yeah, that happens to me too, sometimes."
"Hm." Julius replied, nodding, and they walked back to the house. Unknown to them, watching them from the trees was a large black python. It looked like a Grimm of some kind, except it glowed green, not red, and it watched them with interest. Once they left, he turned his attention to the tombstone.
"I hope you know what you are doing." He said.
"Trust me," the woman's voice said, "I am."
…
A day later, Team RWBY sat at one of the food stalls in the fields outside the school grounds with Team JNPR. They were all enjoying a nice lunch, after a good victory against Team ABRN in RWBY's case.
"So, what's Julius going to be doing since he doesn't have a team?" Pyrrha asked.
"He managed to get a makeshift one together from what I heard," Weiss replied, "It's him, Penny, Slayer, and that weird faunus guy from the city a few days ago that Julius managed to convince into coming back."
"With a combination like that," Yang said, "The other teams don't stand a chance."
"It'll be fun to watch, for sure!" Nora agreed.
"I already have a good idea of who will win," Blake said, "But sure."
"Awwww," Nora said, "Rooting for your boyfriend?"
Blake blushed: "Why wouldn't I?"
Nora gasped: "So, you finally admit it?!"
"It was obvious Julius and I were dating ever since the dance, so there's really no point in denying it anymore."
"Look!" Ruby shouted, "They're on right now!"
Everyone looked to the TV screen as Professor Port announced: "Now, let's return to the fight between Team CMSN(Crimson) of Vaccuo, and the makeshift Team RHPD (Rhapsody)"
Down in the arena, the terrain was half forest and half fire pit, where Julius was dueling the other team leader, a girl named Carissa, who had brown hair, a green tunic and pants, and wielding a cutlass. Julius was a tough fighter, pressing forward with heavy attacks, but Carissa could move faster. She just parried another blow when another of her teammates, a red haired fox faunus boy named Nathan slammed into her, sending them both sprawling. Penny ran up, her blades arrayed in a circle behind her.
"Thanks," Julius said, "She was getting annoying."
"Your welcome." Penny said. Then, they heard the sound of chainsaws colliding behind them and looked to see Slayer and a muscular black haired girl in knight armor and wielding a massive sword with a chainsaw blade squaring off, their saws emitting showers of sparks as they collided.
"Duck!" Penny cried, tackling Julius to the ground as a fireball whizzed over their heads.
"Where's Hector?" Penny asked.
"I don't know, but he's obviously not out yet. Let's focus on our own enemies though." Julius replied, standing up.
"Right," Penny said, doing the same. Facing their opponents, the two charged to continue facing them.
Meanwhile, in the forest half of the arena, Hector had singled out the fourth member of CMSN, a snake faunus girl named Sorina, and was now hunting her through the trees. Sorina carried an electro whip, and was constantly swinging it around, keeping Hector at bay.
"Come out and fight, coward!" she called out, getting impatient.
As if on que, Hector sprung out from a nearby tree, tackling her from behind. Then, grabbing her by the neck with his tail, he swung her into one of the trees. Sorina slowly got up as Hector lunged forward ready to pummel her in the face. However, Sorina caught his arm with her whip electrocuting him. With Hector stunned, she took this opportunity to drive her own fist into his face, knocking him down.
Chuckling, Sorina walked up, her whip raised.
"Mess with the snake," she said, "You get bit."
Hector looked up at her and smirked.
"Not if the snake can't see me." He said, turning invisible. Sorina jumped back in surprise and looked around, flicking her snake tongue out to see if she could sense anything. Suddenly, Hector materialized behind her, bringing both fists down on her head. Sorina stumbled around, stunned, as Hector unholstered both his guns and unloaded both clips on her. Once he emptied the clips, he threw the guns aside and crouched down.
"Good night." He said before springing forward and driving his fist into her face, sending her sprawling and shattering her aura.
"And Sorina goes down due to aura level," Port announced.
"Yes," Oobleck said, "She's definitely going to need an ice pack for her head after a hit like that."
Meanwhile, Julius was still fighting Carissa, but she was slowly getting the upper hand, getting more hits in and barely dodging most of his own attacks.
"Come on, Julius!" Ruby shouted, watching the screen tensely now.
"I believe in you!" Blake said.
"You can do it!" Pyrrha called.
"Kick her butt! Break her legs!" Nora yelled.
Meanwhile, Julius was desperately trying to figure out new options as he was being put on the defensive now. Looking behind him, he realized Carissa was pushing him toward the edge of a fire geyser; once he stepped on that, he would surely lose. However, this gave him an idea. Parrying another strike with his sword, he jumped back a few feet, drew his pistols and fired at Carissa, who parried a few bullets, but got pounded by most of them.
"What's the matter," he taunted, "Can't handle someone when they're far away?"
Carissa growled: "Oh, you think so, huh?" and raised her cutlass, preparing to charge. As she did, Julius holstered his pistols and drew his sword, getting into a ready stance. However, as she got within striking range of him, he teleported behind her, and her momentum kept her going right onto the geyser, which promptly erupted, sending her flying into the air and out of the arena.
"A double whammy for Julius Rose," Port announced, "as Carissa goes down by both ring out and aura level."
"Quite an explosive victory if I do say so myself," Oobleck said.
Julius chuckled: "Eat your heart out, pirate." He said, then ran off to help the others. The first one he saw was Penny, who was struggling to even get close to Nathan and his shotgun. However, Nathan didn't see Julius coming, so Julius took the opportunity, teleported behind Nathan, and fired a pistol shot into the back of his head, causing him to stumble around.
"Penny, now!" Julius yelled. Penny rushed up and threw her circle of swords spinning towards Nathan. Julius teleported away just as they hit, sending Nathan out of the arena.
"Now that is teamwork." Port said.
"Thank you for your help." Penny said.
"Don't mention it," Julius replied, "Now let's go help the others."
Penny nodded and the two ran off. They saw Slayer still battling the knight girl, Morgan, in the forest area; a lot of trees were cut down around them. The two seemed equal in strength, and it seemed that the fight would go into a stalemate, until Penny shot a few of her swords forward, jabbing Morgan in the side and distracting her, turning towards Penny and Julius, she growled in anger, a fierce determination in her eyes, only for that look to turn into surprise as she suddenly stumbled back, dropping her chainsword and clutching her neck. Slayer didn't take a second look, and swung his chainsaw into Morgan's torso, swinging her around with the momentum and slamming her into the ground, right where Julius had planted a mine. The second she hit the ground, the mine detonated, sending her flying through the air and right at the edge of the arena. She slowly managed to stand up, only to see Julius standing in front of her, a pistol pointed at her head.
"Sayonara," he said, pulling the trigger. The resulting shot sent her flying out of the arena.
"And with that," Port announced, "Team RHPD wins this duel."
"Quite the teamwork here, Port. I must say," Oobleck said.
"Indeed."
Slayer pumped his fist: "Hell yeah!"
Penny jumped for joy: "We did it!"
"Not bad guys," Julius said, "Now come on, let's get out of here and meet up with some friends before the next fight starts."
As the four walked out of the arena, they ran into Team JNPR.
"Hey guys," Julius said.
"Oh, hey Julius," Jaune said, clutching his stomach a bit.
"Are you okay?" Penny asked.
"He's fine," Ren said, "He probably ate a bit too much."
"That was some impressive fighting you guys did, Pyrrha said.
"Thanks, I guess." Hector said.
"You guess?" Nora asked.
"Don't ask," Slayer said, "He's still a bit introverted."
"So, where are you guys off to?" Julius asked.
"We're next up to fight," Pyrrha replied.
"Well, in that case, I don't want to keep you here," Julius said, "You guys go on ahead, we'll talk later."
"Alright," Jaune said woozily, "Come on guys." and Team JNPR walked past RHPD.
"Well, I guess we should head for the stands and watch them." Julius said.
"I agree," Penny said, "Let's go!"
It took a few minutes, but they finally made it to the spectating seats, where Team RWBY saw them and waved them over.
"Nice going, you guys!" Yang said.
"Thank you, Yang!" Penny said. Blake walked up to Julius, and the two embraced and exchanged kisses on the cheek.
"Good job, out there." She said.
"Thanks," Julius said, "You guys did pretty well too."
"Come on, we saved you some seats!" Ruby said.
"I call sitting next to Ruby!" Penny said, immediately getting onto the seat next to Ruby.
"Have you figure out who's going into the next round?" Weiss asked as the others sat down in their seats.
"Not yet," Julius said, "We're all pretty good fighters."
"I say you and Penny." Ruby said, "You two did pretty well together in the last fight."
"I say Julius and either Penny or Slayer."
"I'll let Penny go." Slayer said.
"Awww," Weiss said, "are you being a gentleman to your girlfriend?"
"No, I just got really worn out from that last fight," Slayer said, "That knight girl was no joke."
Julius stifled a laugh and whispered over to Weiss, "He's totally being a gentleman to her."
Weiss giggled a bit to herself.
Penny didn't seem to hear and smiled at Slayer, saying: "Thank you. I will do my best!"
Slayer nodded at Penny: "I'm sure you will."
"Guys, shut up!" Hector said, "They're starting."
As they looked down, the arena changed to half forest and half lightning mountain as JNPR began to face off with another team.
Meanwhile, in another part of the city, Roman Torchwick sat in his cell, watching the tournament on a screen that was moved to his cell.
"Well, it seems that Julius has recruited a new member of the team," he said, pointing to Hector, "Wouldn't you say?"
Sitting across from him was Dr. Samuel Hayden.
"It would certainly seem that way." Hayden replied.
"Then again," Roman said, "You're doing pretty good in the hiring department yourself, though from what I've heard, Julius has already formed the final leading team."
"Is that so?"
Roman nodded: "So, what now?"
"Now," Hayden said, "We wait."
Author's note: I have displayed a poll for this story in my profile page. I suggest you give it a look as it concerns the redemption of a RWBY villain, and you get to choose which one from the options.