Chapter Thirty-Two: Recovery.

Ruby paced back and forth nervously as they waited in the small room just outside of the medical wing of the outpost. Her stomach knotted and turned as she waited to hear whether her girlfriend was going to be alright or not. While she had been reassured by Velvet multiple times that the Heiress was going to be just fine and that they only needed to flush the wounds out and then stich her up the wolf couldn't help but feel totally helpless right now, and that was not a feeling she overly liked.

A small snore broke her train of thought momentarily, Yang and Blake were cuddled together on a cot in the corner of the room; they had fallen asleep nearly an hour ago finally giving in to the exhaustion they all felt. Ruby knew that they were worried about Weiss as well but they were both practically dead on their feet when they finally reached the outpost so the wolf didn't really blame them for checking out, once she knew Weiss was fine and was back by her side she would likely follow.

A small whine escaped Ruby's lips as she recalled the yell the Heiress had let out when the blow had landed. It had sent a white hot iron spike of fear into her spine and caused her world to turn red. When she had seen Weiss fall everything around the wolf stopped mattering and all she wanted to do was rip that beast apart limb by limb until nothing but a pile of goo remained. But that.. thing had taken everything she had thrown at it as if it was nothing, she even cut the damned creatures head off and that had only slowed it down for a few minutes.

"Relax Red." Coco said from her spot on the floor. The fashionista was sitting in at the room's coffee table with paperwork spread out on it. Once she had ordered Yatsuhashi and Fox to bed she had followed Team RWBY into the medical wing and started on the mission report. "Velvet's back with her and bunbun knows what she's doing." One thing that had shocked the younger team was the moment they landed the usually timid rabbit Faunus started barking out orders to the waiting medical staff taking command of them with not a word of argument from the staff. Coco had later explained that it was because Velvet was a Medical Huntress and the first attending physician, which meant she outranked everyone in the medical wing besides the Medical Chief but even she hadn't argued Velvet's orders.

"I know it's just…" Ruby muttered as she glanced at the door, her hands clenching into fists.

"You feel helpless and useless, right?" Coco questioned, Ruby nodded. The older girl nodded and motioned for the wolf to sit down across from her. "That's part of being a leader. We feel responsible for our team and when one of them is hurt we can't help but question our judgment and the decisions we made thinking maybe there was something different we could have done to prevent it or maybe if we had just been a second faster to react we could have stopped it. It's our job to keep them safe and to keep them from getting injured but you have to remember Ruby that we can't control everything that happens on a mission. This one is a great example of that.

"You can plan for every possibility, everything imaginable but there's an old saying that my grandfather loved to say, 'No plan ever survives first contact'." Coco shook her head and gave a rueful grin, "And he was right. Our plan was good, we had a good formation, we had a good search strategy and we even dealt with the inconsistencies the best way possible. We kept our cools and handled everything thrown at us. But we could have never counted on that creature showing up. Hell I still don't even know what I should classify it as in the report, it obviously was a Grimm but it matches none of the species I've ever run across and nothing in the data banks matches it. Our plan went to hell the moment that thing showed up."

"But still I could have done something," Ruby said in a small voice, "My semblance is speed, I'm faster than a bullet when I want to be so I could-"

"Have what?" Coco cut over the wolf, "Taken the blow for her? Gotten killed instead of having Weiss get a treatable injury? Ruby what happened is awful but we got lucky that she was the only one injured. It could have been much worse, that thing took everything we threw at it like it was nothing. Everyone of us could have been injured or killed by it."

Ruby pulled in on herself holding her knees to her chest, "I know. It's just… its Weiss." She looked up at the older girl; she could feel the tears building up in the corners of her eyes. "It hurts so much now, I feel like there's a weight sitting on my chest. It's worse than when she was with Neptune. I feel so helpless and I don't know what to do and I just feel…"

Coco sighed and shifted to sit beside the wolf, pulling her in close. "I know Ruby." She muttered as Ruby placed her head on the older girl's shoulders and let the tears fall, "You really care for Weiss don't you?" Ruby gave a small nod. Coco ran a soothing hand down the wolf's crimson hair and let her cry for a while.

When it seemed that she was finally calming down Coco decided to speak up again, "Ruby?" She kept her voice soft as the girl sniffed and wiped her eyes. "You love Weiss don't you?"

Ruby froze at the older girl's words before slowly pulling back, "Yeah." She replied in a soft voice, "I have for a while now."

"Have you told her?" Coco asked, the wolf shook her head, "Why not?"

Ruby looked away from the fashionista, "Because I don't know how she'd respond…" The wolf's ears dipped down as her eyes clouded over, "She tired to date Neptune just because she was afraid of me getting hurt. She pushed her feelings aside and tried to hide them, if I told her that I loved her and it was too soon…"

"You're afraid that she might try that again." Coco finished getting a nod from Ruby. With a sigh Coco shook her head and stroked the wolf's hair again, "Ruby, you know my semblance allows me to see into everyone's heart right?" Ruby nodded, "And you know because of that no one can lie to me." Again a nod, "Well because of this I make a point to never, and I mean never tell people what I see in someone else's heart because one, its not something I can help and two, if the wrong person gets a hold of the information in some one else's heart it can be very, very bad. But I can tell you right now, you need to tell her."

Before Ruby could respond the doors to the back area opened up and Velvet walked through in a pair of blue scrubs and pulling a blue hair net off the top of her head shaking her brow hair out and letting her ears stand again. The rabbit smiled when she spotted Ruby and Coco on the ground, "She's going to be just fine. Wounds are sealed up and should leave minimal scaring. Her Aura is still low but it will come back up in the next hour or so back to normal levels."

Ruby felt a large sigh escape her lips as the tension left her body, "Can I see her yet?"

Velvet shook her head, "She's in post-op so give it a half hour then I'll take you to her recovery room."

Ruby nodded in understanding and quickly got up and hugged the rabbit Faunus around her middle, "Thank you Velvet." Ruby muttered.

"Let's just hope this doesn't become a habit with your team." Velvet chuckled as she returned the hug. "You working on the mission report babe?"

Coco nodded, "I'm just about finished but I still need to classify that, thing. Gods I don't even know what to call it in the report."

"Well when you decide what you're going to call it add this to the report." Velvet said as she pulled out a small glass vial from her pocket. Inside the clear tube were three long slivers of what looked like bone. "We found these in Weiss' wounds when we flushed them out."

"What are they?" Ruby asked as she looked at the slivers. They looked like long narrow needles made of bone.

Velvet shrugged, "No clue. We've already sent off a few samples for testing to determine what they are made of but my guess is that they are from that Grimm we ran into. They must have been left in the wounds and that's what kept it open, once we flushed them out Weiss' wound started to heal up."

"Shouldn't they have dissolved when the Grimm was killed?" Coco furrowed her brow as she took the vial and looked at the slivers.

Velvet sighed as she sat down, "To be honest I'm not fully convinced it was dead. That thing took hits that would have fell a Goliath, it moved Yatsu and that's nearly impossible. It took two Inferno missiles and then nearly a hundred high caliber rounds from a bullhead just to put it on the ground."

Coco nodded along with her girlfriend, "Yeah it was a tough son of a bitch that's for sure. I didn't get time to try and use my full semblance on it but I'm not entirely sure it would have worked it I did." Ruby gave the older girl a questioning look prompting her to explain, "My full semblance requires eye direct, sustained eye contact in order to take full effect. That thing had four eyes and each moved independently of the other. I'd have to get all four eyes to directly look into mine which would have been very difficult."

"Yeah and mine doesn't work on anything that doesn't have an Aura." Velvet added, "So for Grimm, Coco and I actually have very poor semblances, but on people…"

"Effective as hell." Coco smirked and Velvet gave a little shudder.

"Right." Velvet shook her head, "Well Ruby let's get you to Weiss, she should be in her recovery room by now and I'm sure she'd like for you to be the first thing she saw."

Ruby's ears perked up and her tail stared to wag back and forth happily making both Velvet and Coco smile. "Do you think we should bring Yang and Blake?" the wolf asked as she stood up.

"Not just yet." Velvet shook her head, "Let's let Weiss recover a bit before we bombard her with people."

"I'll send them out in a bit, Red." Coco said as she got up and stretched. Ruby nodded and followed the rabbit Faunus out the door and down the hall.

"Don't expect her to be all with it right away." Velvet explained they drew near a room with a closed door, "She might be a bit groggy from the anesthesia so she might not understand what's going on." Ruby nodded again remembering what it was like coming back to the world of reality from the hazy fog. "I'll hang around in the back to make sure that everything is alright before leaving." Velvet gave her a smile as she pushed open the door and motioned for Ruby to enter.

Weiss was laying in the bed in the middle of the room, her white hair resting in a loose pony tail over her shoulder, a peaceful expression on her face. The blankets were pulled up to her waist and her arms rested on either side of her above them, the white garb she wore made the Heiress look like she was swimming in it and wires ran from her chest up to a monitor that was showing her heart rate, respiration and oxygen levels. Ruby watched as her chest rose and fell slowly trying to keep her emotions in check.

A small nudge from behind her made the wolf jump only for her to remember that Velvet was in the room. With a sheepish look Ruby moved forward and up to the side of the Heiress bed and sat down in the chair beside it. Reaching out Ruby took ahold of Weiss hand and gave it a slight squeeze sending a small pulse of her Aura into her hand. "Hey Weiss." Ruby said softly but loud enough for the Heiress' eyes to twitch and flutter open.

Weiss' gaze was unfocused and glazed over as her ice blue eyes blinked and roamed the room. After a few moments her eyes fell onto Ruby and her gaze sharpened slightly, "Ruby?" She asked, her voice slightly dry.

Ruby nodded and smile, "Hey Princess. How are you feeling?"

"Ugh," Weiss groaned as she closed her eyes and gave a grimace, "Like I just went ten rounds with Yang in the middle of a desert. My throat burns and my mouth is dry and I ache all over."

"Your throat is from having a tube shoved down it and the dryness is from that too." Velvet answered as she came forward and checked on a few of the instruments. "They'll go away shortly, well the dryness will the burning in your throat will take a few days. I'll get you a drink to help with that."

Weiss nodded as she grimaced again making Ruby's heart jump, "Weiss is everything okay?" The wolf asked quickly trying to keep the whine out of her voice.

"It's just my back burns." Weiss answered as she let out a breath, "I'm fine other than that." Ruby nodded as she squeezed the Heiress hand, Weiss smiled at her and squeezed back, "I'll be alright Ruby, I'm just a bit groggy but it's clearing and once I can move I'll feel better."

"It's going to take a bit more time than that Weiss." Velvet shook her head, "But yes, you are on the mend. Your Aura levels are already on the rise, heart rate and respiration are steady and O2 levels are great. Aside from the gashes on your back your in great health."

"Thank you." Weiss nodded, "I'm sure I'm in your debt so if there's anything you need just ask."

Velvet waved away the comment as she handed Weiss a drink, "No need for that Weiss. I'm a Medical Huntress in training helping people is what I do." With another nod the rabbit Faunus left the room leaving the wolf and the Heiress alone.

Once the door was close Ruby held up Weiss hand and nuzzled into it letting out a small whine as she felt the Heiress cool touch against her cheek, "Oh Ruby." Weiss sighed as she stroked her wolfs cheek.

"I was so scared." Ruby cried out as she let the tears leak out from her eyes. "I couldn't do anything to help you and I just felt so useless. Blake and Velvet did everything while I just sat there only getting in the way." The wolf's ears fell again as she looked down at the bed her tears dripping onto the white sheet. "I'm just so use-" The wolf was cut off by a sharp flick to her forehead making her jerk back and cover the spot that was hit with her hands. Weiss' hand was still extended as silver eyes looked at her widely.

"Don't you ever say that you are useless Ruby Rose." Weiss growl lowly as her blue eyes narrowed, "You are the leader of Team RWBY, you are the youngest Huntress to enter Beacon every, and you are one of the brightest souls I've ever known. You are not useless."

"W-Weiss." Ruby felt her eyes grow wider as she looked at the Heiress who was still glaring at her before finally breaking down and crying. She felt Weiss' hand slip up into her hair and stroke it lightly scratching her ears and scalp.

Weiss sighed as she smiled, "You, my little wolf, are such a handful." Moving her hand down to the redhead's chin she guided the girl forward and captured her lips once she was hovering over her.

As Ruby pulled away and wiped her eyes she looked into Weiss' icy blue ones. A warmth bubbled up from with in her chest and she couldn't help but smile, "I love you Weiss."

Weiss's eyes went wide as she head her wolf speak. Ruby had just told her that she loved her, Ruby Rose loved her, Weiss Schnee. Her heart started to pump faster, a fact that was echoed by the increased beats coming from the monitor. "R-Ruby." Weiss stuttered as she quickly pulled the wolf back into her and once again captured her lips. This kiss lasted much longer than the last one and by the time they parted Weiss' respiratory and heat rate were up both up and her O2 stats were down. "I love you too, Ruby."

"Ehem." Velvet coughed from the doorway making the wolf spring away from the Heiress and land with a loud thud on her chair pinching her tail in the process. "As touching as that is, please try and keep Weiss from getting to excited. I was worried something was wrong." The rabbit held up a large scroll that mirrored the Heiress monitor.

Blush erupted on both of the younger girl's cheeks as they looked down at their hands, "Sorry Velvet." Ruby muttered as she rubbed her tail tying to sooth the sore spot.

Velvet just shook her head good naturedly and left with a small laugh.

"So you two what to be debriefed?" Coco asked as she escorted Yang and Blake into a small cafeteria, they had decided to give Ruby and Weiss a bit more alone time before the brawler and the panther showed up.

"Might as well." Yang shrugged as she sat down with a tray of food, Blake nodded as well after a large stretch earning several large pops from her back.

"Okay." Coco nodded as she pulled out a paper and pen, "Yang, you and Yatsu were down pretty far in the facility looking for the power generators. You didn't see anything that would have indicated that that Grimm was there?"

Yang shook her head, "We didn't really do a through search but from what we saw we didn't see anything that could hold something that big. We also didn't go all the way down either." Coco cocked her head to the side and motioned for Yang to continued, "The power generators were only three floors down so we didn't have to go any further."

"So there were more flights below you?" Coco clarified as Yang nodded, "Okay, was anything odd about the generators?"

Yang gave a so-so gesture, "They were wreck up but like each one had enough working parts to fit one generator. Like if one part was broken on one it was fine on another. So I had enough to get one working."

Coco nodded, "Right. Blake did you see anything while you and Fox were outside?"

Blake shook her head, "Like I reported there were very few signs that there was anyone there besides us." Her amber eyes narrowed as she frowned, "That alone doesn't make sense to me at all. One of the first rules of survival is to make yourself as visible as possible and they didn't do any of that. It's like they minimized their visibility and forgot everything about basic survival."

"It is concerning." Coco nodded, "Velvet and I agree that we were being set up, but as to what we were being set up for I really don't know."

Yang frowned as she munched at her fries before speaking, "Could it have been a test?" Both Coco and Blake looked at the blonde with confused stares so she continued on. "That was not a normal Grimm, it seemed like it was mix of several types of Grimm smashed together, like someone had made it. So could it have been a test of a new type of created Grimm?"

"You can't make a Grimm." Blake said slowly, the idea however crazy sent chills up the panther's spine. "They're born of darkness so humans can't make them."

"Yeah I know that Kit Cat but is besides Grimm interbreeding and making that monstrosity what else could it be?" Yang frowned trying to shove that unwelcome picture out of her brain.

"A test…" Coco muttered as she looked through her report. Could Yang be right? Could someone have lured them out there knowing that that Grimm was there and wanted to see how they'd handle it? To see how well it would react against a group of Hunters? Who could have done something like that? It wasn't Ozpin, he'd never authorize that, Glynda would skin him alive if he did. Another question was if it had been created who could have created it? Was it even possible to create Grimm like that? As far as she knew it wasn't but if it was…

"Coco?" Yang asked bringing the older girl back from her thoughts. "You okay?"

Coco nodded, "Yeah just thinking about what you said. Let's say it's possible for someone to create a Grimm like that, what would that mean for Hunters?" Both of the younger girls paled slightly at her words. "If someone could create Grimm they could bring the Hunters Corps down with out much trouble. If they sold their custom Grimm to a hostile force? What army could stand against them? Menagerie doesn't have a standing army, Vacuo can't afford a large army, and Mistral has more naval power than an army. Dragnaire can't stop fighting itself long enough to have a military force to speak of. Vale and Mantel are the only two Kingdoms that have a standing army and right now neither are really in good enough shape to actually be effective." Coco shook her head; "If this was a test then we are in trouble if they decide it was a success."

Both Yang and Blake glanced at each other with concerned looks, they hadn't thought of that. With the recent White Fang attack in Vale and the revolution in Mantel the two strongest nations would not be able to really defend themselves if someone decided to attack, Huntsman and Huntress were trained to fight Grimm, not a war. "So what do we do?" Yang asked.

Coco shrugged, "I have no idea. I'm only a year a head of you guys, the only thing I can do is report our findings to Ozpin and hope for the best. Right now the students are the reserve Hunters if something like custom made Grimm were to break out I don't know how'd we'd handle them."

Each of the girls went silent as they each were lost in their own thoughts, when Velvet walked up to the group and sat down with a heavy sigh, "Hey bunbun." Coco greeted her with a light peck on the cheek. "How's Red and Snowcone?"

Velvet gave an annoyed groan as she placed her head in her hands. "I leave them alone for eight minutes and they cause Weiss' stats to go nuts. I swear its like they don't care she's recovering."

"Oh?" Yang asked raising her eyebrow, a mischievous glint shining in her eyes. "Anything I should be worried about with my little sister?"

"Doctor-patient privilege." Velvet smirked at the blonde making the brawler stick her tongue out at the Faunus.

"Very mature Yang." Blake sighed. "Is Weiss alright?"

Velvet nodded, "She's fine. Two weeks tops before she's back in full health though you may want to keep an eye on her back." Blake nodded but gave the other Faunus a confused look, "Preliminary analysis of the slivers just came back," Velvet explained, "There were trace amounts of Taijitu venom in them so there could be some residual pain." Blake nodded again as she took a bit of her food.

Coco gave a small grimace, "I've got a bad feeling that we may be right about custom made Grimm." Velvet gave her a questioning look. "I'll explain later babe."

"Well what ever it is it doesn't sound good so I hope your wrong." Velvet sighed as she pulled out her scroll to check on Weiss' stats, "Well it looks like our resident Ice Queen is asleep so I don't know if you two want to go see her now or wait till she's awake."

"We'll wait." Yang said with a smile, "Ruby's going to be very territorial right now with her so if we did go we'd have to deal with her trying to make sure we were quite and that we didn't wake her up." Blake nodded in agreement, she didn't need to add that dealing with a territorial wolf wasn't on her things to do today and honestly she really wanted to curl back up into the brawlers side and go back to sleep.

"Probably for the best then." Velvet nodded in agreement then turning to Coco, "So you want to catch some Z's or are you not done with your report?"

"It's mostly done." Coco waved away the question, "I just need Fox's and Yatsu's take on events then I can send it off. And I'm not waking Fox up after a mission, nope, not happening, never again." Velvet chuckled at the memory of her girlfriend trying to wake the boy only to be grabbed and pulled down into him then cuddled as he went back to sleep. Not many people knew Fox was a cuddlier and when someone woke him up before he wanted to get up his normal response was to pull that person into him and cuddle.

"Are you sure babe?" Velvet teased, "Cause I don't remember you putting up much of a fight from that." Which was mostly the truth, Coco had been so stunned she hadn't known how to react, for about ten seconds, then she had proceeded to beat her teammate until he let go.

"Yeah I'm sure." Coco deadpanned, "Besides I could uses some shut eye too." With a nod each of the girls stood and made their way towards their rooms for some much needed recovery sleep.

Ozpin sighed as he leaned back in his chair, he had gotten a preliminary report from Coco two hours ago and had read it enough to have the whole thing memorized. A chimera. That was the only explanation of what they had run into. A created Grimm. An abomination that should have never seen the light of day. Shaking his head the old man stood and looked out from office window into the night.

CHIMERA had been the first success of the Hunter Initiative projects. The proof that Grimm DNA could be manipulated and bent to the will of man. Proof that they could play God and create their own monsters, proof that they shouldn't. CHIMERA may have been a success in making a Grimm but they could not control it. Once the creature was awake it would act just like any other creature of Grimm, destroying everything and anyone in its path. A creature of pure destruction and death.

He had seen to the absolute destruction of any knowledge of project CHIMERA with the help of Summer. She had been ruthless in her destruction of that cursed project, destroying anything and anyone with knowledge of it, making sure that no one would ever resurrect the project. He had been sure they had gotten everything and everyone aside from the person who had led the project but they had fled and remained hidden. But now, now he wasn't so sure. He should have been the last person with any knowledge of CHIMERA. Summer died eight years ago and the only other person who knew had reportedly died three years after that and there wasn't a doubt in his mind that James would lie about that. So just who had missed?

Ozpin shook his head, too many sins of the past were coming back now. Raven looking for PROMETHEUS, Augustus controlling MARIONETTE, the White Fang hunting for LEVIATHAN and now CHIMERA. Before he could get too lost in his thoughts a beep on his desk brought him back, "Yes Qrow?" He asked as he pressed a button.

"I've located Raven." Qrow replied without preamble. "Permission to engage."

Ozpin took a steading breath, "Green light. Bring her in."

A/N: So a short chapter this week cause I just wanted a buffer between arcs, next week the girls will be back at Beacon and we get to see doting Ruby and flustered Weiss because Ruby's too cute for the Heiress. Also Weiss is going to be looking into the files, wonder what she'll find. What does Ozpin know that he's not sharing? And what is the bigger game?

With that: My continued thanks for all your support, drop by and say what you like, and may you have great week filled with smiles.