Gambol Shroud finally finished stitching the wound to Wilt's shoulder. He was currently unconscious and she was grateful for that, with gentle and elegant precision she tied off the last of the stitching and covered the wound.

The shot had thankfully gone through his shoulder and while the damage was extensive she had enough supplied on hand to replace the joint entirely with a prosthetic. All in all the surgery start to finish took sixteen hours and Gambol shroud worked alone. A part of her was thankful that the wound was to the shoulder and had not caused any real damage to his internal organs.

But there was another voice in her head that hoped, that it had been just a few inches inwards, puncturing his jugular or his chest. That same part of her wondered why she was even doing this surgery. There was no way he'd be able to force her but she performed the surgery on auto pilot.

She forced all other events of the day before out of her mind as she allowed herself to move autonomously through the surgery.

The facility they had moved too was small, staffed with only a skeleton crew and had no actual medical staff on hand. She was grateful for that. The few people that were there gave her a wide birth as she left the operating theatre.

Eventually she found herself in the small room she called her quarters while in the facility and finally took off her mask.

Blake allowed herself a moment of contemplation as she set Gambol Shroud down on the table across form her bed and sat down.

It was a long time before she was able to bring herself to look at that mask. A myriad of emotions raged through her as she looked at that mask; shock, sadness, guilt.

She thought back to the moment she'd tried to kill the Huntress that had shot Wilt, thought about her attempt to kill her, and remembered the look on Ruby's face, the anger, the aggression. She felt her whole body shake as she finally allowed herself to give up the façade of calm confidence and broke into tears.

Blake woke up to a knocking on her door. Wirily she forced her head up. Her pillow was still wet and she looked a mess. She quickly pulled her hair back and put on her face mask.

"Yes?" She said as she opened the door.

"Ma'am," the guards said as he saw her. "Agent, Wilt is conscious and is asking for you."

"How long have I' been asleep?" She asked him.

"five hours Ma'am." He said.

"Thank you. Tell Agent Wilt I will be there in a few minutes." She said as she closed the door. She heard the heavy foot falls of the guard walk away and she braced herself on the table in her room wondering what to do next.

She took her mask off again and walked into the small was room that had been attached to her quarters and quickly took a shower to clean herself up.

She was still tiered but her mind was clearer now than it had been. Medically Wilt would need approximately a month or so a physio therapy before he should be cleared for active duty, but knowing the man as she did, she knew it would be a week or so before he was out and about.

She was okay with that. She could buy herself a week.

One week where she was the only operative in the area. One week where she could stack the desk in her favour. She knew Wilt had seen Ruby's face as well. She knew he'd send her out to try to gather anything she could to try and force ruby's hand, friends, family, anything.

Blake thought about how best she could use that as she got dressed again and headed over to the med bay where she had left Wilt.

She guessed Yang was in some way involved in with the Hunter program same as Ruby, but she didn't know in what way. She felt much calmer then before as she entered the medical bay where Wilt was waiting. She had a plan. She had time.

She had what she needed.

The only thing left for her to do was confront Ruby.

The walk over was only a few minutes but to Blake it felt much longer as she wondered what she should do. She couldn't keep it a secret forever. One way or another Ruby would find out, Blake knew that.

She took a deep breath as she walked into Wilt's room, thinking of all the ways Ruby could find out about the real life she lived. Eventually she decided on what was both the best and worst option for her.

She would tell Ruby herself.

Ruby sat in her office as she waited for Ozpin to answer her call. She'd completed her initial report but standard procedure for an operation like this was to have the leading agent call in directly to HQ to deliver a full report directly to the CEO.

The screen flickered to life as Ozpin finally accepted her call.

"Agent Rose." He said as he answered.

"Hello Ozpin." Ruby replied politely. Ozpin already had her report open on the desk in front of him and without a word she began the debriefing. "Twenty-three hours ago a team consisting of four Huntresses, Magnhild, Ember Celica and Milό Akoύo lead by myself preformed a raid on a Grim Cult facility to retrieve Agent Stormflower who had been captured while on assignment. Secondary objectives included the assassination or capture of the suspected Cult leaders, Wilt and Blush, Melodic Cudgel and Gambol Shroud."

Ozpin nodded as he tuned a page on the report Ruby has submitted the day before. "And how would you rate the success of the mission?" Ozpin asked her.

"over all it was successful though this mission as a whole is far from over." Ruby told him. "Agents Magnhild and Ember Celica were able to retrieve agent Stormflower from the facility. As for the secondary objective, Melodic Cudgel was killed during the raid as well as another target. Wilt and Blush as well as Gambol Shroud escaped alive though Wilt was wounded during the fight."

Ozpin nodded. "What about this 'other target'?" He asked her.

Ruby shrugged. "We haven't been able to ID him." She replied. "From observations he was one of their lead scientists on their weapons project."

Ozpin looked up as he turned another page. "We believe him to be Atherton Wing." Ozpin said.

"Who?"

"A scientist from Atlas." Ozpin replied. "He was presumed dead nearly seven years ago. It appears that his death was faked."

"You think this could be an Atlas operation?" Ruby asked.

Ozpin shrugged. "It's within the realm of possibility." He replied. "However at this rate there are other just as likely possibilities."

"Such as?" Ruby asked.

"The group could actually be a grim Cult and Atherton had either been captured by or defected to the Grim cult." Ozpin proposed.

Ruby's body tensed for a moment at the suggestion. She hadn't even considered it.

Ozpin noticed the reaction and moved on trying not to dwell on unconfirmed possibilities. "In any event how is Agent Ren?" He asked.

"Recovering." Ruby replied getting back on track. "There was extensive damage to his left arm from what we believe to be the time of his capture however it had received medical treatment and is healing nicely. Fully body scans have revealed no tracers of bugs or any other signs of surgery on him. Toxicology report came back more or less clean, high levels of morphine in his blood stream, doctors speculate he was kept heavily sedated while captured. It's unlikely that there will be any lasting side effects from the long term exposure and after a few days it should all be out of his system."

"Very good," Ozpin said as he closed the folder in front of him. "That leaves only one other matter." He said as he brought his hands together on the table.

Ruby tensed at the topic came up. She knew it was going to happen and a part of her knew it wasn't going to be bad but a hunter being revealed on field work was always something that needed to be dealt with quickly.

"From both your report and the footage we recovered from both your own and Agent Nikos' armour I'm confident that the only one that got a good look at you was Gambol Shroud. For now I want you to complete the hunt as normal. I have operatives all over the four kingdoms and beyond, none of them have reported any of our Hunters being identified yet." He told her. "Though be careful and until we can confirm if they have any proof of your identity you could be targeted while in public.

"There is one other thing sir," Ruby said hesitantly. "Recently I've been seeing a civilian."

Ozpin raised an eyebrow at the comment as he rested his hands on the desk. "I see." He said calmly. "At this point if you have been identified we should move them into protective custody immediately."

"Very well sir." She'd hoped she would have to do this to Blake but at this point there wasn't much of an option. The two may not have been together long but she was a link to Ruby, a link people could exploit, and it was the thought of that more than anything else that sealed her resolve.

"Take care Ruby." Ozpin said breaking her out of her own mind. "I suspect this Hunt is yet to truly begin, tracking down Shroud and Wilt now that you've forced them to ground will make them desperate. They've already destroyed one city, we don't want another gone."

"Of course Sir," Ruby said as she disconnected the call.

She let out a deep breath as she buried her face in her hands, trying to stop herself from drowning.

A knock on her door brought Ruby out of the quagmire briefly as Yang walked in.

"Hello!" She said happily as she walked in.

"Hey," Ruby muttered back, mustering as much enthusiasm as she could.

Yang gave her a knowing smile as she sat down opposite her. "So what's the plan?" She asked.

There was a part of Ruby that had hoped that they could have held this off for a little longer but she knew they had to end this sooner rather than later.

"I've got our intel division scouring the four kingdoms for them now." Ruby replied as she slumped back into her chair. "As soon as we get the call we'll gear up and head out. In the mean time I need to talk to Blake."

"Protective custody?" Yang asked.

Ruby nodded. "It's likely they ID me when they took my helmet off. If they have it's only a matter of time before the find me, and once they do they probably try to user her as leverage." Her fist tightened as she spoke, afraid that voicing her concerns would suddenly validate them.

Realising that there was nothing else stopping her she opened her desk draw and pulled out her phone. No messages yet so she doubted anyone had found her yet.

"I'll leave you to it." Yang said realising that right now she needed to give Ruby a bit of breathing room.

Ruby nodded her thanks as Yang left. She didn't have to wait long as Blake answered her phone.

"Hey Ruby." Blake said.

A sense of relief passed over Ruby as she heard Blakes voice. "Hey Blake." Ruby said keeping her voice level. "Look I know it's out of the blue but there's some things I need to talk to you about. Don't supposed you'd be free tonight?" She asked.

"Oh-uh, yeah." Blake said.

As Ruby listened her instincts kicked in classes and events involving hostage negotiation entered her mind and her body tensed.

"Are you okay?" Ruby asked.

"Yeah, why?"

"You just seemed a bit…Spaced out…" Ruby said.

"Been a long 2 days." Blake told her. "Haven't had a lot of sleep."

Ruby felt another sense of relief pass through her. "Well if you can, take a nap," She said with a soft smile on her lips.

Blake laughed at the comment, "Will you join me?" She purred.

Ruby bit her lip as several memories floated to the for front of her mind at the comment. "I'd love to but that will have to wait to tonight if you're free." She replied.

"Hmmm, looking forwards to it." Blake replied. "What time?"

"I was thinking six thirty, seven-ish, at O'hallerens." Ruby answered.

"Sounds grate. I'll see you tonight."

"Bye." Ruby said as she hung up. She let out a deep breath as she set her phone down. No one had found Blake yet and that put her mind at ease. "You done eavesdropping?" Ruby asked Yang.

"Well your conversation ended so I think so." Yang replied as she walked back into the room. Ruby had half a mind to throw something at her but decided against it. Ever since Yang's promotion within the Hunters program the relationship between the two had been odd as there was this element of Authority Yang held that superseded their sister-hood while on the clock but even then, Yang had never stopped being Yang.

Ruby offered her a smile as Yang sat back down.

"Well she seemed fine." Yang said.

"Yeah I'll be talking with her later tonight about everything." Ruby told her.

"Might as well make a date out of it." Yang agreed.

"About that." Ruby began sounding a little nervous.

"What is it?"

"Well I've told Blake a lot about you and she knows you're in town obviously so I was wondering if you'd like to join us for tonight." Ruby offered.

Yang didn't answer at first. When she was dating Weiss, Ruby had tried to keep the two of them at a distance from each other as on a personal level the two annoyed each other a lot even if they tried to keep it civil for Ruby's sake.

She hastily offered Ruby an answer when she realised how long she'd been quiet.

"Oh, yeah, sure!" Yang said with her usual enthusiasm.

Ruby smiled. "Grate, well you already know the where and when."

You know I never intended this to become a three-part-er but there was a lot to walk though before all the Drama truly began again and I didn't have a good set up for it while also wrapping up the events of the Hunt.

So that's that. Rest assured I have a good way for things to get out of hand real fast and really violently next chapter so you have that to look forward to.

Until next time I wish you all the best.
Your's truly.
Nicolai Grey