The air ship carrying Pyrrha and their hunting gear touched down just after four that afternoon just as Ozpin had promised. After blowing off enough steam at several gym's and racking up a substantial property damage bill Ruby had managed to calm herself down quite a lot.

The crew moved busily about her and Yang as they quickly got everything on the ship off and took it to the armoury for proper maintenance and testing before field deployment.

The Hunt had been on since Ruby had made the call to Ozpin that morning and both Ruby and Yang were wearing their Hunting outfits there masks resting at their sides. Pyrrah was similarly dressed, wearing her standard hunting attire her long red hair hung about her shoulders in her standard pony tail as she walked off the ship too meet Yang and Ruby.

"Yang, Ruby, It's good to see you again." Pyrrha said as she exited the craft.

"Likewise," Ruby said, "I only wish it had been under better circumstances."

The conversation hit an awkward stall for a second as the three stood there and their equipment was off loaded.

"Anyone else on there?" Yang asked.

Pyrrha nodded. "Weiss is just gathering her briefing notes." She said.

"Wait, Wiess?!" Yang blurted out. "She's here too?"

Pyrrha nodded. "She was the only Alpha cleared Intel-officer to hand when the Hunt was called." Pyrrha explained as the two spared a quick glance at Ruby wondering how the other woman would take the news.

Outwardly it barely even registered. "Good to hear we'll have the beefing at 17:15." Ruby said.

Both Yang and Pyrrha decided against taking the topic further, Ruby seemed to be taking it all in stride.

Truthfully it didn't really register with Ruby when they said it. Her mind was only focused on the Hunt and finding Ren, she'd all but forgotten she was dating Weiss up until four months ago.

It didn't really hit until Weiss walked of the ship and met up with the three of them.

The two of them stared at each other for a moment, Ruby gave Weiss a polite nod. "Glad you could make it." She said as she joined them. "We'll have the briefing in 45 minutes." She said.

Weiss nodded taking things in the same matter of fact tone as Ruby.

"Okay." She said.

Without another word between them Weiss and Ruby began walking into the building, Pyrrha went to follow them but Yang stopped her.

"Pyrrha and I will run a double check of our equipment." Yang said. "I'll meet you two at the conference room." She said.

Ruby nodded. "Okay." She called out as the Air craft finished uploading and left.

Pyrrha glanced at Yang. "Are you sure about this?" She asked.

Yang shrugged. "Not really but Ruby needs to be able to take this all in step. Best thing is to give them a little time alone. After all it's not like they hate each other." She said. "So this will be a good change for them to talk, if only for a new minutes."

Pyrrha nodded as she began surveying the engineering teams as they took the Spartan gear down to the lab for one last check before field deployment.

Ruby and Weiss walked to the conference room in silence. To Ruby it was because she had nothing really to add to conversation, her mind was focused on tying up all the million and one loose ends of calling in a Hunt.

To Weiss it was a bit more of a cold shoulder treatment than she was expecting. She'd expected Ruby to be here usual shy self around her after four months apart but the other woman acted like she wasn't even there.

It irritated her but she forced herself not to focus on it. She was here for a job, they both were and this was a serious situation.

She knew that two agents were already out, but she didn't have Ruby's side of it. She didn't know how badly this entire event weighed on her mind. If she had it would have helped her stomach Ruby's cold attitude but without that knowledge it sat distastefully with Weiss that Ruby was being so blatantly distant.

"Here's the room." Ruby said as she keyed in the door code. "Codes the same as any other place in this building and your pass should get you everywhere else. If you need anything else let me know." Ruby said as she opened the door for Weiss and made to head off.

"Where are you going?" Weiss asked, try as she might she couldn't keep the slight tone of accusation out of her voice.

Ruby barely even noticed it. "I still have a few lose ends to tie up with the civic sector before the Hunt can be put in motion." She explained. "I'll be back in time for the briefing." She called over her shoulder leaving Weiss alone in the conference room.

Weiss didn't like the reason she gave even though she knew it was something Ruby had to do as the Huntress in charge of this mission a part of her was still looking at her like she Was Ruby Rose, her Ex-girlfriend and not Crescent Rose, the professional Huntress.

Weiss sighed to herself as she walked into the conference room and got everything sorted.

It took her about fifteen minutes to have everything set up for their briefing and she spent the next half an hour sitting by herself in a large empty room, making herself look busy when she heard Yang and Pyrrha approaching the room.

"Where's Ruby?" Yang asked as the two of them walked in.

"She'll be back shortly." Weiss said as she handed both of them their own reference sheets for the briefing.

Yang and Pyrrha both noticed the subtle ways in which Weiss hid her annoyance when Yang mentioned her sister however neither of them said anything about it.

Ruby arrived three minutes later, just in time for the briefing.

She nodded her hellos and took her seat at the table ready for Weiss to being.

Weiss watched her walk in her irritation growing. She wanted to say something but this wasn't the time or place for it.

Seeing that everyone was ready she began her briefing.

"I won't was time with semantics." Weiss began as she picked up a remote and started the briefing. "From what we've been able to gather Wilt and Blush has been operating out of the area for the last four weeks. Initially his movements were low key and can only be speculated at." She began. "However his movements picked up a few weeks ago when he hand his Grim Cult attacked the transport freighter AE909.

"For the last six months he has been working on experimental weapons tech. His true goal with the technology is unknown and he cannot sell any illegal or unregistered weapons to any of the four kingdoms without any of them breaking the peace agreement set in place after the last war.

"Three months ago in Ferren-Port Wilt and Blush was confronted by a Group of eight Hunters attempting to bring him in. Details on the Hunt itself are unknown as all eight of the Hunters were KIA during the explosion that followed.

"It was believed that Wilt and Blush was killed in the blast as well and how he escaped with his life is unknown. The same can be said for both of his key supporters." Weiss said as she tapped her remote and the image changed to a side by side picture of Gambol Shroud and Melodic Cudgel. "We have next to no information about the Grim known as Gambol Shroud. Earliest reports place her as active in operations outside the Kingdoms at least to years ago but never to an extent that attracted attention and has not acted inside the Kingdoms themselves since Wilt and Blush came to Baleworth a month ago. Since then she has been keeping a low profile and has only acted in the assault in AE909, outside that she's been keeping her nose clean and staying off grid."

"Do we have any info on her aside from that?" Yang asked as she flicked thorough her briefing folder.

Weiss shook her head. "Unfortunately not. The woman excels at both stealth work and covering her tracks. If it wasn't for eye witness reports from the incident on AE909 we would only be speculating her movement within the kingdoms." She explained. "Whoever she is she knows how to disappear."

"And Melodic Cudgel?" Pyrrha asked.

"He's in the same boat as Wilt and blush." Weiss continued. "We've been able to confirm his involvement in both acquiring certain materials for Wilt as well as his part in manufacturing whatever Wilt has planned."

"Can we confirm its weapons tech or is that still just speculation at this point?" Ruby asked bluntly as she read through the briefing.

Weiss paused for all of a fraction of a second as her mind immediately registered the question as some sort of back handed comment before she answered. "Not at this point." She replied. "We can confirm it uses large amounts of highly concentrated dust and given Wilt and Blush's actions over the last five years it is more than likely that he is creating something to that effect."

Ruby didn't comment further and Weiss moved on with her briefing.

All in all Wilt and Blush had a potential four hide outs both within and without the city of Baleworth, and as Weiss finished her report on both the cult's actions and strengths Ruby took charge.

"Okay then, now that we know what we're dealing with we need to move in and take out their hide outs." She began.

"You thinking about a symultaious strike?" Yang asked.

Ruby shook her head. "I'd like to but we don't have the people for it." She said. "There is only the three of us and all four outposts will have some sort of defences and we can't risk alerting them to our actions." She said.

"So what are you thinking?" Pyrrha asked.

"We need recon." Ruby said. "All four sites are in use but we don't know where Stormflower is being held and we're not sure which ones they have their key components at. So first the three of us need to survey each site as a unit." She said.

"Are you sure about that?" Yang asked.

"It's our only option." She said. "If we start launching all out attacks on the sites then Wilt may very well take only the bare minimum he needs to reach his goals and leg it before it comes to an all-out fight. Ideally I'd like to back him into a corner before we make our move. We go in. figure out what's where and then we strike when we have all three in the one place." Ruby said. "Wilt and Cudgel need to be taken down within the week."

"And Shroud?" Pyrrha asked.

"She hasn't done enough to warrant an execution order yet." Ruby said "So if she capitulates we follow the book and take her into custody. If not we take her out. Any other questions?" She asked.

Both women shook their heads.

Ruby nodded. "Good, prep your gear we'll head out to outpost 4 first outside the city at 18:30." She said.

With everything in order the three of them left to get ready for their mission. Ruby lingered for a few seconds as she put everything back in her briefing folder.

"Uh, Ruby," Weiss began.

"Yes?" Ruby asked looking up at her. Her eyes were still the same but there was none of the usual joy that they had to them. It un-nerved Weiss to see her like that. Realising that she was keeping her she shook her head. "It can wait." She said. "Best of luck."

It was just after ten when Ruby trudged through the door to her apartment. She was tired but not completely drained.

They had managed to pull usable recon on three of Wilts hide outs but the fourth had been a fake and none of them had contained anything about Ren. No records or nothing to hint at his location.

It only added to the frustration that she felt that she was the Leader of this hunt and that she was in charge of making sure that it was complete efficiently. If she failed now then she'd likely be recalled and another Hunter would be but in charge of Baleworth.

She just barely managed to change from her combat gear when there was a knock on the front door.

She stopped for a second as she began thinking of who could be stopping by at this time. She figured it would be Yang, she was expecting her to try something to calm her down and she probably figured now was as good a time as any.

She was more than a little surprised to see Weiss standing in the hallway.

"Weiss? What are you doing here?" She asked.

"I wanted to talk." Weiss said oddly nervous for someone who usually radiated confidence and control. "Can i come in?"

"Uh, yea sure." Ruby said as she stepped aside to let Weiss in.

She accepted with a polite nodded and stood in her main living room awkwardly as Ruby swung the door back and walked into her kitchen. "Do you want anything?" She asked.

"Some tea would be nice." She said.

Ruby nodded and made her a drink.

"So what did you want to talk about?" Ruby asked as she handed Weiss her drink.

"How are you doing?" Weiss asked, trying be a delicate as possible while still getting to the point of why she was here. Weiss never did like beating around the bush.

"I'm fine," Ruby said stiffly as she moved away from Weiss to grab her own drink.

"Well that's good." She said.

"Why are you here Weiss?" Ruby asked getting strait to the point.

"Well I haven't see you in four months." Weiss said awkwardly. Even when they had been together she had never been good at being open with her emotions, one of the man reasons it took the two of them as long as it did to finally get together in the first place. "And aside from the standard reports I haven't heard from you at all so I wanted to see how you were doing." She said.

"Like I said I'm fine." Ruby said.

"Really? Because you don't look it." Weiss said. "I know you're not exactly excited to see me but I can tell when you're upset Ruby." Her tone was gentle and Ruby knew that when she talked like that she was trying to be caring and considerate. Something Weiss wasn't overly good at the best of times.

"Weiss it's not that." Ruby said. "Sure I was surprised when I found out that you were the Intel agent assigned to the Hunt but I've got a lot on my plate right now."

"I know that Ruby." She said. "And I know you're working hard but I can see that somethings eating away at you."

"Stop that!" Ruby snapped suddenly.

"Stop what?" Weiss asked.

"Stop being so Condescending." Ruby said hotly. "I know I'm young and inexperienced but just because you're older than me doesn't mean you can give me that 'I know you trying' Bullshit. I'm not a kid anymore Weiss so stop treating me like one."

"Then stop acting like." Weiss countered just as hotly.

"Oh don't even start." Ruby said. "I've got enough to deal with already okay. I don't mind you working on the Hunt but I've already got Yang ghosting every step I take, ready to swoop in and save the day I don't need you to do it as well. Some people may look at me as a kid but if I can't keep it together now then they'll always look at me like that. I made this mess and I'm the one who has to get out of it. If I can't stand by myself as a Huntress then what do I have? Balewoth is my responsibility, and you and Yang won't be around forever to hold my hand every time I stumble. I understand you want to help me Weiss I really do, and I'm grateful that you care enough to talk to me about it but please, let me breathe."

Weiss was silent for a moment surprised by Ruby's outburst. She wondered how many times she had tried to tell Weiss that same thing when they were dating in more subtle ways and Weiss hand completely ignored it.

She hung her head for a moment and set the cut of tea down. "You're right, this is a big moment and I can understand you need your space and your time to think. I'm sorry for disturbing you." She mumbled in a low voice as she turned to leave.

Ruby was screaming at herself internally as she watched Weiss walk away. "Weiss wait." Ruby called out just as Weiss was about to leave. "I'm sorry about that." She said honestly. "I didn't mean to snap at you like that, I'm just stressed."

Weiss smiled at her. "It's okay. I know how the job can get to you." She was about to leave when Ruby stopped her.

"You know I don't really drink tea, and I know how you hate to waste things." Ruby said.

Weiss smiled as she looked back at Ruby. "If you insist." She said.

Ruby smiled as she took a seat on one of her chairs and Weiss sat down on the couch opposite here.

"Though speaking of stress I know of a few good ways of releasing it." Weiss said suggestively.

Ruby knew that look, and that tone and it brought back many fond memories of their time spent together. "Thanks for the offer Weiss, but I'm sort of seeing someone." She said.

"Sort of?" Weiss queried.

"Well we've only gone out a few times." Ruby said. "But I really do like her."

Weiss nodded. It hurt her knowing that potentially someone else could replace her in Ruby's heart and in truth a part of her had hoped that she'd be able to mend things with Ruby by coming here and maybe get back together with her when she came back to Vale.

But when she looked at Ruby and saw the slight glimmer in her silvers eyes, a glimmer that she hadn't seen since before they broke up, it made it easier to bare.

She still cared for Ruby and she wanted her to be happy and if someone else could do it then the last thing she wanted to do was ruin it for her again.

"So tell me about her." Weiss said. Deciding that the best way to lift Ruby's spirits would be to talk about her.

Blake was incredibly board as she walked through the streets of Baleworth. She had about a million and one books she could be reading as well as work she could be doing but she'd been distracted ever since she'd called Ruby that afternoon.

She'd seemed so distracted and tired when they had talked and the news that she was going to be busy for the whole week was something else that was eating at her.

When she next pulled her e eyes off the side walk she noticed Ruby's apartment building at the end of the street.

She also noticed the light on in Ruby's apartment.

Ruby's eyes seemed a little brighter as they talked about Blake and the relationship that they were forming and Weiss felt happy. She was a bit jealous of just how quickly Ruby's affections for the other woman had grown but she was glad that she'd been able to help Ruby relax, even for a little bit.

When she looked at the clock she realised it was nearly eleven.

"Well it's been nice." She said. "But it's late and we both need to sleep. I'll see you tomorrow." She said.

Ruby nodded as she stood up as well to see her to the door. "Yea." She said with a smile as she put the two cups on the Kitchen bench.

Ruby stopped her just inside the hallway and drew the other woman into a tight hug. "Thank you Weiss." She said as she held her close. "I really do appreciate you being there for me."

Weiss smiled as she returned the hug. "I'll always be here if you need someone to talk to Ruby. I promise you that. "

They stood there for a moment before Weiss gave Ruby one last goodbye kiss on the cheek.

"What the fuck!" Blake all but shouted from the door.

Ruby and Weiss froze for just a moment to long before they hurriedly stepped away from each other.

"Blake," Ruby said, startled. "What are you doing here?" She asked surprised to see her.

"Intruding apparently." She spat back as she glared at Ruby.

"What?! No!" Ruby began flustered. "Weiss and I were just."

"Weiss?" Blake cut in. "As in Your Ex-girlfriend Weiss?" She challenged.

"Y-yea," Ruby said guiltily. "L-look it's not-."

"What it looks like?" Blake questioned sarcastically. "Yea sure, it never is." She said venomously. "You know it's fine if you don't want to see me anymore Ruby but you could at least tell me to my face instead of fucking around with you Ex behind my back." She said before storming out the door forcing it to bounce violently as she left.

"No Blake wait!" Ruby cried out chasing after her.

"Oh just save it Bitch!" Blake shouted back as she left leaving Ruby standing in the doorway.

Weiss had never seen Ruby so distraught before. The look on her face broke her heart as she just stood there motionless.

"Ruby I-." she began but Ruby cut her off.

"Don't," She said just barely able to keep her voice from breaking. Weiss could already see the tears in her eyes and she knew Ruby would break any second now.

"Just go." She said.

Weiss tried to say something but Ruby would have it.

"Just go!" She shouted tears rolling down her face. Weiss hung her head like a guilty child as she left Ruby's apartment the door slamming shut behind her only a second later.

She could hear Ruby's sobs form inside as the young woman finally hit her breaking point.

Weiss forced herself to take a deep breath as she began to leave. Very few people could tell when Weiss was angry. It was clear when she was annoyed or irritated but when she was angry, truly angry, she tended to keep things more composed than usual.

She didn't like not being on control of the situation and as a result tended to force herself to be more reserved and composed when she was angry lest she let her emotions get the better of her.

She took a deep breath as she exited to the street looking left and right wondering which way Blake had gone.

She needed to speak with this woman.

Hello friendlies.

So yea when I give you a nice scene I just have to slap you in the face with it before the end don't I? But you can always comfort yourself in the knowledge that all will be well. you're only deluding yourself but you can still do it. :P

Until next time I wish you all the best.
Yours truly.
Nicolai Grey.