Julius and Pyrrha waited in the elevator, growing more anxious the closer it got to the exit.

"What were you doing in there?" Julius asked.

"It's hard to explain. Even for me." Pyrrha replied, her voice thick with worry and fear, "I hope Ozpin's okay."

"I'm sure he'll be fine. Right now, we just need to get you out of here."

Pyrrha turned and smiled at her old friend: "Thank you."

Julius simply nodded: "No probl…"

Suddenly the elevator stopped, jolting its two passengers.

"What was that?" Pyrrha asked.

"Not sure," Julius replied, and looked up to see that the elevator had started going up: "Not good."

Sure enough, the elevator stopped, and the doors opened to reveal a confident looking Cinder, a scroll in her hands.

"You really thought I wouldn't have suspected you would try to escape?" she crooned, "You're not as much of a problem as I thought."

Julius immediately teleported behind Cinder and drove his metal fist into the back of her head, knocking her flat on the ground.

"How's this for a problem?" he demanded, preparing to strike her again, but as his fist flew forward, Cinder caught it mid-swing.

"You certainly hit hard, but I can fix that." She taunted. Julius then noticed the metal of his hand glow orange as Cinder heated it up. Then, forming a sword of fiery glass with her other hand, Cinder swung down on Julius's metal arm, breaking it off and causing the student Huntsman to stumble back. Cinder then formed restraints from heated glass and shot them at Julius, most of them pinning him to the wall while a separate one covered his eyes.

Cinder stood back up, a smug grin on her face: "It's hard to teleport when you can't see where we go, isn't it." Then turning back to Pyrrha, who was in a ready stance: "Now, where were we."

Hector managed to get just outside of the building and looked in to see what was going on; what he saw almost terrified him. As he had suspected, Adam was there, and he stood over a defeated Blake. Yang was laying on the ground nearby, and it was clear she was in pain; who wouldn't be when they just had their arm cut off. Hector realized he needed to do something now, and quickly came up with a plan.

Meanwhile, Adam stood above Blake, his sword raised: "Sorry it had to end like this, Blake, but you left me no choice."

"No," Blake replied, "You gave yourself no choice."

Growling, Adam raised his sword to strike, but was suddenly yanked back as Hector dropped in behind him, grabbed his neck with his tail, and tossed him into a wall. He then faced the White Fang commander, his arm blades fully extended.

"Leave her alone." Hector growled. Adam stood back up, his expression turning into that of shock when he saw the new assailant.

"Amitola." Adam growled, "After all this time, you finally decide to show up? And now you help her?!"

"She actually has some sense about her now. Besides, she's still my friend, something you seem to have a shortage of."

Hector then turned to Blake: "Get out of here, and get Yang to safety!"

Blake nodded and began to stand up, and Adam rushed in to stop her, only to get caught once again by Hector's tail.

"Oh no, you don't." Hector shot, "This is between you and me only."

Adam glared at the super soldier, then raised his sword: "Fine then."

Hector raised his arm blades, and the last thing Blake saw as she carried Yang out of the building was the two charging at each other, preparing for a massive swordfight.

Adam brought his blade down on Hector's, causing a small shockwave. Pulling back, the continued to trade blows, but it was clear Hector was getting the upper hand; he immediately had Adam on the defensive and, thanks to his arm blades being able to retract, he could get a few punches in as well.

"Is it just me" Hector taunted, "Or did your skills get worse since I left."

Adam chuckled: "You wish."

Suddenly, the red markings on his outfit and mask began to glow as Adam activated his semblance, slicing his sword in an upward arc of pure energy and cutting through Hector's mask and aura, and slicing his eye. The enhanced faunus fell back, clutching his eye as he screamed in pain. Adam casually walked up with a devious grin; his sword raised.

"All your special gifts and you're still too predictable. I only had to use half of my semblance's power to take you down." He said as he readied another semblance charged strike, "Looks like I'll have to use the other half to finish you off."

Hector looked up as Adam began to glow red again, then the glow suddenly fizzled out.

A look of confusion crossed Adam's face: "What? What did you do?"

Hector shrugged, then, realizing who did, smirked at Adam through his blood stained face: "I did nothing. He did though."

Adam turned around just in time as a weapon that resembled a baseball bat slammed into his face, sending him sprawling. As he recovered, Adam looked up to see Romulus, his weapon in sniper mode again, pointing his weapon at him. The rest of Team DRMS appeared behind him.

"Two words" Darius threatened: "Get out."

Adam growled: "Fine. After I deal with this traitor."

He whipped around to finish Hector, but stopped short when he saw nothing there. Before he could question it, Hector materialized behind him, wrapping his tail around Adam's neck and driving and arm blade right into Adam's side, breaking through his aura in the process.

"Told you I had friends." Hector hissed in Adam's ear. Then he front flipped over Adam and launched him out of a window. With Adam gone, Hector stood and faced DRMS, his eye having stopped bleeding.

"Thanks for the assist." He told them.

"You have no idea how long I've waited to stick it to that little punk." Darius replied.

"Right. Well, we should go make sure everyone else outside is ok."

The members of DRMS agreed, and the five headed outside, wondering what had happened while they were busy.

Meanwhile, Julius struggled against Cinder's restraints. He could hear the sounds of her and Pyrrha's fighting, but he was unable to tell where they were; they were moving too fast. Suddenly, he felt a slight gust of air and figured out they had gone to a higher level; now was his chance. He calmed down a bit to figure out where each restraint was and then smiled to himself; Cinder had put a restraint over his now severed metal arm; and it slid out cleanly. Using what metal part of it was left, he shattered the glass on his other arm and face, then broke the ones on his legs with his pistol. Now that he was free, he needed to follow Cinder and Pyrrha and get into the fight, but how far up did they go?

Looking up, he saw a giant shadow as the wyvern descended on top of the tower, which then exploded, raining chunks of rubble to the ground.

"There you are." He said, and immediately teleported to the top, just in time to see Cinder fire an arrow right into Pyrrha's heel. As Pyrrha falls to the ground, Cinder calmly approaches her, unaware that Julius is right behind her.

"It's a shame you were given a power that wasn't rightfully yours" Cinder taunted, "But just know, that I will use it in ways you never could."

Pyrrha glared back up at Cinder: "Do you believe in destiny?"

Cinder narrowed her eyes: "Yes" and then prepared to fire an arrow right at Pyrrha's chest, only to reel back as Julius fired a shot into her face. Yelling in anger, Julius ran up, tacking Cinder to the ground.

"Pyrrha, get out of here, now!" he called back, then turned to face Cinder, whose fury was becoming more apparent on her face.

"How many times must you get in the way?!" she demanded.

"As many as necessary." Julius replied, "I'm trying to help you; this isn't who you are."

"You think so?"

"Yes. The Cinder I knew was more compassionate than you are. A bit unhinged, sure, but not all out murderous."

"And how would you know that?"

Julius took a deep breath; judgement time: "Cinder, don't you recognize me? It's me, Julius. Your brother."

Cinder narrowed her eyes. Pyrrha simply stared in shock; he couldn't be serious!

What seemed like a few moments passed by, then Cinder simply approached Julius calmly.

"I thought Ruby and Yang were your sisters." Pyrrha weakly said.

"On my dad's side, yes. It's really complicated." Julius replied.

"I know it's been a while" Julius said, "but…"

He was cut off as Cinder shattered his aura and drove her sword into his chest, again…and again…and again.

"My brother died a long time ago." Cinder hissed, "You are nothing compared to me, and you will not stop me. Ever again."

As Pyrrha watched in horror, Cinder grabbed Julius by the neck, dragged him over to the broken edge of the tower, and without saying a word, dropped him over the edge. Julius fell right off the edge, slamming against various rubble on the way down and finally landing on his back, getting impaled on a piece of steel rubble below.

The fall did not go unnoticed; Blake and Hector just so happened to be nearby. Blake, turning to see as she only heard the thud of his landing, widened her eyes in shock at what she saw and ran up to him.

"Julius!" she shouted.

"Oh my God." Hector whispered as he followed he over. Blake knelt down next to Julius and grabbed his hand.

"No, please." She softly said, tears welling up in her eyes.

Julius coughed and slowly looked up at her: "Blake…"

Blake nodded: "Yes, it's me."

Julius managed a weak smile: "I'm sorry. I thought I could…" he broke out into another fit of coughing.

Blake squeezed his hand tighter: "It's ok. You did what you could."

"Not all of it" Julius weakly replied, taking his hand out of Blake's and reaching into his coat pocket. Pulling his hand out, he brought out a small gold, heart-shaped locket on a chain and handed it to Blake.

"I was…going to give you this after the tournament. Guess that won't work anymore."

Blake only chuckled a bit at Julius's comment, then opened the locket to reveal the picture of her and Julius from when they were at the dance; Yang had insisted on getting one since the two looked like such a cute couple.

Blake put it around her neck and smiled at Julius: "It's beautiful. Thank you."

Julius managed a weak smile, blood trickling from his mouth: "I…knew it…would."

Blake could tell he didn't have much time left; she leaned in and kissed him full on the lips for a solid ten seconds. Pulling back she whispered: "I love you, Julius" in his ear.

Julius smiled, but only was able to get a small sigh out before going completely limp, his eyes closed. Blake began panicking, shaking Julius and shouting his name, though Hector could tell it was no use. After a few moments, he grabbed Blake by her shoulders and whipped her around to face him.

"Blake!" he shouted, "It's no use…He's gone. I'm sorry."

Blake looked back at Hector, tears spilling from her eyes, then she took off and ran. To where, she didn't know, or even care; she just had to get away. Hector looked off after her and sighed; he debated following her, but decided against it; she needed some time alone. Suddenly, he heard Ruby cry out and looked up to see a massive burst of silver light shone out from Beacon Tower, the wyvern on top of it shrieking in pain.

Some time later, Ruby is asleep in an unfamiliar bed, wearing gray pajamas. Birds are tweeting and sunlight is streaming onto the wall behind the bed's headboard. After a few seconds, she wakes up and looks over to see her father, Taiyang, asleep in a chair. She sits up and sighs quietly, causing Taiyang to stir awake.

"Ruby!" He gets up and runs to kneel by her bed "You're awake!".

"Ugh... what happened?" Ruby asked.

"Your uncle Qrow found you, unconscious. He got you out of there, though, and brought you home safe" Taiyang explained.

Ruby looks down in thought for a split second, then looks at Taiyang "Wait! Yang! Is she alright!?".

"Uh... She's uh... she's gonna be alright. I think she's just... I think it's just gonna take some time for her to get used to things. She's too strong to let this stop her" Taiyang covers his eyes for a moment, sniffling, then looks up, smiling "I'm just glad to have my girls back at home".

"And Julius? Is he here too?"

Taiyang looked solemn for a moment: "No one's seen him since the Beacon incident. I don't know if anything's happened to him, but I can only hope he'll be okay; he's survived more than you think."

Ruby looked down some more until what her dad just said clicked in her head "What happened to the school?! And Vale?! Were they able to clear out the Grimm?".

"Things at Vale are under control, but the school... It's... it's not that simple. That thing, whatever it is, doesn't seem to be dead. Don't get me wrong, you did a number on it. But it's not disappearing. It's... kind of... frozen. I know that doesn't sound too bad, but it keeps attracting more Grimm to the school" Taiyang explained.

Ruby tilts her head "I did... what?".

Her father looked at her "Hmm?"

"You said I did a number on it. What do you mean?" Ruby asked.

"I... Look that's not important right now. We can talk about it later. Things are just... kind of a mess" Taiyang said.

"It's always a mess" Ruby and Taiyang look to see Qrow suddenly standing in the room, near the door. He finishes off the contents of his flask before continuing "Mind if we have a minute?".

"What, I can't stay here?!" Taiyang demanded.

Qrow gave him a soft look "Tai. Please".

Taiyang stands up, sighs, and then leans in to kiss Ruby on the forehead: "I'm glad you're alright. I'll go make us some tea".

Taiyang glares at Qrow on the way out, but the latter doesn't appear to care. As Qrow approaches Ruby's bed, he grabs the chair and drags it with him. He then spins it around to face the bed and sits in it with a significant slouch, crossing one leg over the other.

"So, how you feeling?" Qrow asked.

"Um... I kind of hurt... all over" Ruby answered.

Qrow chuckles "That makes sense, after what you did".

"You guys keep saying that! That I did something! What are you talking about?!" Ruby asked, desperate for an answer.

Qrow uncrosses his arms and legs, leaning forward in the chair "What's the last thing you remember?".

"I ran up the side of the tower, and when I got to the top, I... " Ruby gasps, sadness in her eyes "Pyrrha! Is she...?".

Qrow looks down "She's gone".

"I..." Ruby began tears fill her eyes "I... I got to the top..." She begins crying "And I saw Pyrrha... and Cinder..." She grips her blanket, tears falling onto it "and then everything went white!".

"Anything else?" Qrow asked.

"I remember... my head hurting" Ruby said as she wiped her eyes.

"The night you met Ozpin, what was the first thing he said to you?" Qrow asked.

"I... I don't know. I think it was something about..." Ruby tried to remember, but it was so long ago so she didn't really remember what Ozpin said.

"Silver eyes. That's an extremely rare trait" Qrow said.

Ruby looked at him "So?".

"You're special, Ruby. And not in the "Daddy loves his special angel" kind of way. You're special the same way your mom was. Remnant's full of legends and stories, some of them true, some made up. But there's one Oz told me from a very long time ago. Back before Huntsmen, before Kingdoms, it was said that those born with silver eyes were destined to lead the life of a warrior. You see, the creatures of Grimm, the most fearsome monsters mankind had ever encountered, were afraid of those silver-eyed warriors. They were the best of the best. It was said that even a single look from one of these fighters could strike a Grimm down. Heh. It's a ridiculous story" Qrow explained.

"But... you think that I might be..." Ruby began but Qrow chuckles.

"Well, a giant monster is currently frozen on top of Beacon Tower. And you're here, safe in bed" He said with a smile. He gets to his feet and walks over to a window, leaning on the sill and staring outside.

"Wait, wait, how did you know what Ozpin said to me... the night we met?" Ruby asked.

"All those missions I go on... all the times I'm away in some far-off place... it's been for Ozpin. But he's missing now, as is your brother."

"Is he okay?" Ruby asked, still worried about Julius.

"Probably. I know him well enough to know what he's capable of, and while he's no silver eyed warrior like you, he's one of the toughest there is. Whatever the case is, something's been set in motion. With Oz gone, I'll have to pick up where he left off" Qrow answered.

"And what could I do? If I'm so special, then I can help, right?" Ruby asked with a small glimmer of hope.

"You really wanna help? Get some rest. You're in no condition to go anywhere right now. Besides, our enemy's trail leads all the way to Haven. That'd be quite a trip for a pipsqueak like you. Catch ya later, kiddo" Qrow said before he leaves.

Later that night. Ruby returned to her room. She had spoken to Yang, only to find out her sister had lost her spirit along with her arm and her teammates were gone. Weiss was forced back to Atlas by her father and Blake had just ran away.

Ruby sat on her bed thinking about what Qrow told her and praying that her brother was ok. She had just gotten him back and wasn't willing to lose him just as quickly.

Winter arrived and on an early morning, Ruby steps outside, wearing a backpack, and quietly shuts the front door.

"Hey" Jaune said as he along with his remaining teammates showed up.

"Hey, Jaune. Haven's a long way to go" Ruby said.

Jaune nods "I know. It's the only way we have".

"Are you sure you want to come along?" Ruby asked.

"The journey will be perilous, and whether we'll find answers at the end is entirely uncertain" Ren said.

"But we wouldn't be here if we weren't up for it" Nora declared.

Ruby smiled "Then let's get started".

The four of them begin their long trek, down the road leading away from Taiyang's home.

"A smaller, more honest soul... It's true that a simple spark can ignite hope, breathe fire into the hearts of the weary. The ability to derive strength from hope is undoubtedly mankind's greatest attribute. Which is why I will focus all of my power... to snuff it out".

As the voice speaks, Taiyang is seen bringing breakfast to Ruby's bedroom, but suddenly drops it when he sees she's not there. The concerned father then runs out of the room, unaware of the note Ruby left behind on her bed. As Taiyang runs past Yang's bedroom, she notices a crow perched on a branch, before watching it fly off

"How does it feel, knowing that all of your time and effort has been for nothing? That your guardians have failed you? That everything you've built will be torn down before your very eyes? Your faith in mankind was not misplaced. When banded together, unified by a common enemy, they are a noticeable threat. But divide them, place doubt into their minds, and any semblance of power they once had will wash away".

Grimm are marching toward the ruins of Beacon. In Vale, Glynda is trying to repair a shop with her telekinesis, but fails to hold it together. Elsewhere, Blake is running across rooftops. She stops to notice Beacon in the distance, tears still in her eyes as she clutches the gold locket before continuing onward. Weiss is sitting in a passenger plane with her father.

"Of course, they won't realize it at first. Like you, they'll cling to their fleeting hope, their aspirations. But this is merely the first move".

Ruby is visiting her mother's gravestone one more time, before turning to join her new team.

Hector is seen on a boat heading back towards Menagerie, a sorrowful look on his face as he leans over the railing, looking out towards the horizon.

Novus finally makes it to the arena and is seen running around, calling Penny's name before reaching the main coliseum and looking down, his eyes wide with shock. Running down to Penny's body, he kneels down and scoops up her torso, clutching it to his chest, tears in his eyes.

Neo lands near Beacon tower, her parasol cushioning the fall. As she stands up and dusts herself off, she sees Julius's body and immediately runs over, eyes wide in fear.

"So you send your guardians, your Huntsmen and Huntresses, and when they fail and you turn to your smaller soul, know that you send her to the same pitiful demise".

Then at an ominous-looking stone stairway lined with dark, purple crystals. A figure in black is overlooking a barren wasteland "This is the beginning of the end, Ozpin..." She turns her head, revealing her ghostly face "And I can't wait to watch you burn".

..

Back with Qrow, he is watching Ruby and her friends continuing on their journey. He then holds up Ozpin's cane, before jumping from the cliff. A crow takes his place and flies towards Ruby's group.

Meanwhile, Dr. Hayden sits in his desk at Atlas, his mood grim as he looks at a communication screen.

"Not enough energy to bring you here yet. We need more time." Hayden typed.

The response quickly came: "Sending one of my hunter allies now."

Hayden straightened up; the Slayer had gained a few hunter allies, each of them as powerful as the last. The question was, which one was he sending.

The portal in the floor beneath him begins to rumble and flare with a shining blue light.

Hayden immediately runs down and opens the door to the chamber and looks to see a figure exit the portal. He had chin-length white hair and was dressed in a black shirt, pants and boots, and wore a familiar red coat, a sword strapped to his back.

Hayden watched in amazement, and the figure returned his gaze and smirked.

"So" he asked in a casual tone, "Where's the fight?"

Author's note: And so, volume 3 comes to a close. As for the figure at the end, that is the third crossover I had thought of, and I think it will fit relatively well. As for his identity and his connection to the Doom Slayer as well as Remnant, that will be revealed in a future chapter. For now, I'll just let you have fun guessing.