Ruby stood with her arms outstretched as a man in a nice suit adjusted the mechanism around her chest. He buckled something in the back, seemingly content with his work. "All right, go ahead and sit down."

Ruby was shaking. She looked at the holo-monitor on the desk with wires connecting to a big, black box.

He picked up an external blood pressure monitor, opening it with the sound of Velcro ripping. "Give me your arm, please."

Ruby lifted her arm, and he wrapped the monitor around her arm as tightly as he could. He got to his feet and walked around the desk. With a glance at the screen, he nodded and left the room without another word.

Ruby looked at the chair she was on. She was sitting at a 90 degree angle to the desk, and the arm rests were made out of blocky cushions that seemed specially made for use with lie detectors. Ruby bit her lip.

The door opened again, and the man she met earlier, Detective Brown, walked in, studying something in a file folder before closing it with the flick of a wrist and taking a seat behind the desk. He pressed the record button on a small tape recorder.

"Miss Rose," he spoke. "I'm just going to ask you a few questions, and I want you to respond as honestly and as briefly as you can."

She nodded once in response.

"Okay. Is your name Ruby Rose?"

"Yes." Ruby shifted in her seat.

"Are you a first-year student at Beacon Academy?"

"Yes."

"Have you ever cheated on a test?"

Ruby remembered what her sister told her: Lie on one of the baseline questions. "Yes. I was younger, though."

Brown smirked. "Okay, now we can get on to the more important stuff."


Yang was waiting for Ruby in the reception area of the precinct. When she saw her sister return from her interrogation, Yang stood up. "Well?"

Ruby stepped over and answered quietly, "I've been classified as a witness."

"Did they ask you any pointed questions?"

"Just if I saw Roman Torchwick."

"What was your answer?"

"I said I saw the blood, but I didn't see him."

"What else?"

"I didn't see anybody, and I left when I heard shooting."

Yang nodded. "I think that's good. You ready?"

Ruby listed her head towards the floor and mumbled, "Mhmm."

"Let's go."


"Why do I have the feeling that everyone is avoiding me?" Ruby struck the ping-pong ball with her paddle, sending it to the far corner of the opposite side of the table. Yang returned it with ease, doubling the speed of the ball. Ruby missed by a small margin.

"Maybe because everyone is?" Yang offered.

Ruby scowled and went to pick up the ball. "Not helping."

"Well, it's one way of looking at it."

Ruby threw the ball to Yang.

She caught it with one hand and used the other hand to gesture. "Weiss has already expressed some concern with how you've been acting."

"What? How?"

"She called you 'Blake-y'. She thinks it just has to do with the bank, though."

Ruby threw her head back. "Crap, I'm a terrible liar."

Yang served the ball. "Are you sure that's a good idea?"

"What else can I do?"

Yang aimed for the edge of the table, but instead, the ball fell to the floor without touching the table. "I don't know. Tell the truth?"

"Yang," Ruby whined.

"Yeah, I get it sucks, but the truth is often the simplest way out."

Ruby fidgeted, picking the rubber off the edge of the paddle.

"And not too late, either. The truth has a funny way of getting out no matter what you do."

"What do you think I should do?"

Yang tilted her head to the side in thought. "Get her in a public place, unarmed, and come clean."

"Public? You mean where other people can hear me?"

"Yeah, never mind." Yang set the paddle down on the table. "But this is your decision. Tell her, don't tell her, wait for the perfect time, or wait too long."

"I just don't know what she's gonna say."

"I do." Yang raised her voice in an imitation of Weiss. "'I'm your partner! Why didn't you trust me?'"

Ruby rolled her eyes.

Yang threw up her arms. "If I did something bad, wouldn't you want to hear from me first?"

Ruby groaned. "You sound like Dad."

Yang chuckled. "Let's go eat or something. I'm starving."


"So what did you want to talk about?" Weiss asked. "It seemed urgent."

"A little," said Ruby. She followed a step behind Weiss in the halls of their dormitory.

"Is it about the ongoing police investigation with Torchwick? I have to say—this is why I didn't want to pursue him in the first place."

"Yeah, I think I'm starting to see your point." Ruby bit her lip.

After a long pause, Weiss sighed. "You just want to talk?"

Ruby nodded. "I'm still kind of shaken up." Weiss looked at her with a skeptical expression, but said nothing about what she was thinking.

"I just—this is so hard right now."

"Dealing with the police?"

"Mostly, yeah."

Weiss sat up and listened expectantly.

"I told the truth on the lie detector test, but I still feel like they're going to call me in and ask me more questions."

"I wouldn't worry. You're just a witness, and you didn't even see Torchwick."

Ruby shrugged.

"Unless," Weiss speculated, "that isn't the truth."

Ruby didn't answer, twiddling her thumbs.

"What happened?"

Ruby scratched the back of her neck. "I heard shooting and someone calling for help. When I went in, I found Torchwick bleeding out."

Weiss' eyes widened in realization. "You dragged him out." Weiss opened her mouth, but closed it immediately after. "Why?"

"He wouldn't have been able to make it out on his own." Ruby pressed her thumb down massaging in circles on the pad of her hand, wondering if Weiss could tell that there was more to it. "I don't know what happened."

Weiss looked at the floor, lost in thought. "Have you told Yang?"

Ruby paused. "Yes."

"Why would you lie to the police about that?"

She nearly blurted out the typical answer that she gave Yang so many times, but then she realized what Weiss was saying. "I felt like I was guilty of something by helping him."

"If I've learned anything, it's that feeling guilty and actually being guilty are two very different things." Weiss gave her a half-smile and stood up. "The police probably won't fault you for lying. People have a lot of reasons for lying."

"You're telling me I should go change my story?"

Weiss held out the palm of her hand. "If they find out that you did lie, what you told them will make it seem like you're protecting him."

Ruby stared quizzically at her.

"Tell them. You know, it might actually help them apprehend Torchwick."

Telling the truth is the simplest way out. That's definitely true.


Sorry, guys. But making you wait is all part of the plan.

Just kidding-it's killing me, too.