The studio lighting shone brightly. The cameras rolled.

"Good evening, and welcome to HotLine, Vale's premier current events news broadcast. I'm your host, Lisa Lavender. Earlier this week, the Atlesian military unveiled new, state-of-the-art technology that, according to General James Ironwood, 'will be seen defending the borders of our kingdoms within the year.' However, this is not tonight's top story. The very evening of the military showcase at which this was unveiled, one of the new technologies, a Paladin mech piloted by notorious criminal Roman Torchwick, took to the streets of Vale, causing mass destruction and bloodshed. Fortunately, before the mech could do any irreparable damage, several students of Beacon and Haven Academies were on hand to stop this absolute juggernaut. I'm here today with one of those students, Ruby Rose. Welcome to the program, Ms. Rose."

"Thank you, Lisa. I'm very happy to be here."

The interview progressed for several minutes, addressing such topics as Ruby's past run-ins with Torchwick and her theories as to his plans, as well as a few personal queries (nothing too personal, of course). Naturally, when asked about what her other teammates were doing that allowed them to get there as fast as they did, all Ruby said was, "No comment." And things generally went quite smoothly.

Until…

"Now, we are almost out of time, but before we wrap up, do you have anything to say about this matter that I have not asked."

"Yeah, I, uh… I'm kinda surprised Torchwick was able to get his hands on a mech like that. I honestly thought the military had that locked down tighter."

"Do you mean to imply that our joint military is unprepared for-"

"No, not at all, but…" All at once, a fire lit behind Ruby's silver eyes. "They're not as prepared as they can be."

"I'm not sure I know what you mean, Ms. Rose."

"Then let me break it down for you. Yes, our border patrols have certainly helped to repel minor instances of Grimm, but who can really tell how many are out there, just… waiting? And for that matter, who can tell what the big game of organizations like the White Fang are? Vale, Atlas, Mistral, Vacuo, all four kingdoms are in no way unprepared. But we are underprepared. And unless we can buckle down and fix that… We will all pay the price."

Lisa sat there for a moment, stunned. "Thank you for your time, Ms. Rose."

Ruby seemed to have stepped down from this persona. "It was a pleasure to be here. And please, call me Ruby."

"I'll be sure to do that." Lisa turned to the camera. "Coming after the break: What is keeping the new Vytal Tournament arena afloat? The answer may surprise you."

The studio lights dimmed. A bell rang. "And we're clear!"

Ruby and Lisa stood back up. "Thanks for having me on the show, Lisa," Ruby said.

"You were a key witness to this event, Ruby."

"Well, sure, but…" She rubbed the back of her neck. "Thanks anyway."

Ruby looked behind her, where her sister was gesturing for her to "come on." "I better go, my sister's waiting." She turned, and took a few steps, before going right back to Lisa. "Oh, what the heck," she breezily intoned before pecking Lisa straight on the lips, then heading right back to her sister.

Lisa stood there a moment, before heading back to her desk, wondering the whole time what Cyril was going to say.

As the sisters stood in the elevator leading to the airship dock, Ruby pulled a small flip-notebook and pen out of her pocket. She flipped open to a specific page, putting checkmarks next to the lines that read "Kiss a celebrity" and "Appear on the news."

"You are just breezing through that bucket list," Yang said, folding her arms.

"Yeah, kinda crazy how many of these I've checked since I came to Beacon. Win a food fight, check. Save a life, check. Have a good excuse to yell, 'NOOOO!' ...Check."

"So what else is there?"

Ruby looked over the list. "Let's see… Throw someone off an airship… Go on a six-month backpacking trip… Have a dramatic reunion… Like those will ever happen."

"Yeah."

But as the two stepped onto the craft heading back to Beacon, Ruby looked over that one item that she had been agonizing over for… Dear Gav, it must have been months. It was too early to tell if she had really done it… Wasn't it? She knew all those songs, what they were talking about, and even she couldn't deny what ran through her mind when they met, and every second after, but even then, was she really sure that…

She'd leave it alone for now. At least, until she was absolutely certain she could, once and for all, check off her personal Holy Grail:

"Fall in love."

Author's Note: Yeah. I went there. But who's she thinking about…?

Hell if I know. I'm done with this timeline. Keep sending in those OCs, and I will see you in the next chapter! Working title: When Vomit Boy Met Crater Face