chapter 4: Not a Peasant

Weiss Schnee

"It wasn't stolen," I muttered to myself.

I had taken it from what looked like a food bank or handout place. After running into that

soldier, I had decided that I needed food more than I needed answers. I disarmed him and

ran. It probably wasn't the best idea, but I couldn't think at the time. I saw several people

gravitating toward one spot, so I followed them. They were handing out food, but I didn't

want to wait.

I tore open the green plastic package. Inside were several packages made of foil or plastic.

Most of them were opaque and labelled with a mix of letters I recognized and letters I didn't.

A completely different language.

I groaned in frustration. I recognized the crackers, at least, so I pulled those out and tore one

open. vI nearly spat it out. The cracker was dry and tasted terrible. But it was food, and I

needed food. I tore open one of the smaller foil packets and took an experimental taste.

Jam. It made the crackers almost palatable.

I washed it down with some foul-tasting water that I had also... appropriated. Part of me

rebelled at drinking from someone else's bottle, but I needed water and the green plastic

bottle was the easiest to take.

Who was I trying to fool? I was stealing. Stealing food. A Schnee, stealing food. It wasn't

the fact that I had taken it, it was the indignity of having to take it that bothered me the

most.

After finishing the crackers, I put the remaining sealed packages into my pouch and tossed

the empty packaging away.

"You know, it's wrong to steal," a heavily accented voice told me.

In one smooth motion, I turned on my heels and drew Myrtenaster. A girl, perhaps my age,

dressed in a dirty green hoodie and torn jeans stood at the end of the alley. I kept my sword

raised as she stepped slowly toward me.

"My name is Katya." She raised her hands. "I am not enemy. I will not report."

Seeing that she wasn't a threat, I re-attached Myrtenaster. No need to be paranoid, even

though I had no idea where I was, who was friendly and who was the enemy. Okay, there

was a need to be paranoid.

She asked, "You say you are Weiss Schnee, correct?"

I beamed. "Finally, some recognition!"

"Before this war, before all this, I watch Ruby all the time," she said, motioning for me to

follow. "Yes, you may say I am recognize."

That's a bit creepy, I thought about saying. But that's probably not what she meant. The

people here didn't seem to speak Valic well, and I decided to assume that she was trying to

say something far more benign.

Maybe she watched our team? "You've been to Beacon?"

She laughed, a surprisingly bright laugh considering the circumstances. "No, is dream, but

impossible, yes? Would like to escape, but think about, and ask, is Vale better than Donetsk?

It look bright, but many problem."

She stopped herself. "I am sorry, I am rambling."

Donetsk... what was Donetsk? "I keep hearing about Donetsk, and sometimes Donbass or

Novorossiya. Is that where this is?"

Katya nodded. "This is Donetsk, part of Donbass region. Some people call it Novorossiya,

or New Russia. But we not part of Russia, we part of Ukraine- at least, for now."

I replied honestly, "I have no idea where any of those places are."

"You know where Russia is, at least?"

I assumed that was a place, but it wasn't one I had heard of before. "No."

Katya looked confused. "How do you get here? Why you come here? Strange to see

costume person here."

Costume person? What did that even mean? I answered the question I understood. "I don't

remember."

"Oh, I see," she said. "Do you remember where you come from, at least?"

"Vale. I mean, I'm from Atlas, but the last I remember was Vale."

She actually laughed at that. "My God, even with the city blow up around you, you no break

character. Maybe you hit head?"

Why does everyone seem to think I'm not the real Weiss?

I arched an eyebrow. "I know I've said this before, but I am actually Weiss Schnee."

She shrugged. "If you insist. World has gone crazy, you know?"

I asked, "What do you mean by that?"

"For long time, Ukraine and Russia are allies, yes, we feel, how you say, with both, but is

not problem. Now, brothers fight brothers for no reason, everything we build is destroyed,

and I am standing beside girl dressed as Weiss Schnee who insists she is."

"I told you already, I am Weiss Schnee," I said, exasperated. "Why is that so hard to

understand?"

"Because you are not real."

"If I wasn't real, would I be standing here?" I stopped and spread my arms for emphasis.

"Well, you are real, you are there, but you are not real, you are fiction. Yes?"

I glared at her. "No. Explain."

"You, uh, Weiss Schnee, from show call Ruby. Is style like Japanese anime, but made in

America. About girls who are hunter, fight monsters and criminals. Go to academy call

Beacon, live in place call Vale, on planet call Remnant."

"That sounds... right, actually." This was getting more and more confusing by the minute.

"Wait, so this isn't Remnant at all?"

"You actually think it Remnant?" Katya laughed heartily. "No, this Earth! No Grimm, no

Hunter, no Faunas, lot of conflict and war."

What? No, that couldn't be right. She must be crazy.

I was the one out of place? I had somehow ended on another world. One where I was a

character in some animated show. Apparently, this world didn't have Grimm or Faunas, and

there were no huntsmen or huntresses.

But what if I was crazy? What if I wasn't really Weiss Schnee? What if I was just some

obscessed fan that hit her head and woke up thinking she really was Weiss Schnee?

No. I am Weiss Schnee and I will focus. I forced myself to set it aside for the moment. I

couldn't waste time on wild speculation. I needed a plan, I needed to think. I needed to get

out of here. I needed to find my teammates if I could. I was tired. I was still hungry. I

couldn't think. Weiss, get your act together.

There was something else I wanted to know, which was admittedly a bit vain. "This Ruby

thing, is it popular?"

Katya shrugged. "Is popular in America and Japan, but not so popular here. Before war, I try

to introduce to others because I like, but I think not many like."

"This is a convenient coincidence, isn't it?" I muttered. Of course I had to meet the one fan

in the whole city.

Katya must have heard me. She laughed quietly. "It is not coincidence. I see princess, I

think, she look like Weiss! I say to father, who is fighter also, I want to meet her. He say he

not make video, but he see what he can do. When he not come back, and look safe, I say, I

try to find her myself. And I do."

This could be awkward. Dmitri mentioned that he had a daughter that loved the show I was

apparently in. "Your father is Dmitri?"

"Was," she corrected grimly. "I know already. He fight for what believe in, he is killed. Is

sad real."

"That must be hard for you," I said as sympathetically as possible. I had lost uncles, aunts,

cousins, and family friends to the White Fang. For a while, it was nearly constant. So-and-so

had been murdered, the investigation was ongoing (but we knew who it was), the funeral

would be next week (and heavily guarded). Sometimes I felt it more than others.

"I already lose uncle, brother to war. Death is constant for me, but life goes on." Her face

turned impassive again, and she shrugged. "You become numb. Such is war."

Such it is. But it shouldn't be.

"Well, this is home, at least, this is home now," Katya said, motioning me into what looked

like a dimly-lit basement. Several other people nodded at us as we entered. It was dark,

cramped, and smelled terrible.

"How long have you been living here?" I asked quietly.

"Since a few days after the shelling started," she explained soberly. "Our home was

destroyed, we lost mostly everything. It was peaceful, we doing well, but now."

She gestured around the dungeon. "Is probably best to stay here for now."

I found a place to sit down. The concrete floor was cold and hard. That wasn't something I

was used to, but I found it pleasant nonetheless.

Cold and hard like me. The Ice Princess.

I pulled out my scroll and opened it up, which garnered a few odd looks. I ignored them. I

opened up the notes app, swiped aside Ruby's ridiculous drawing (I knew I shouldn't have

let that dunce near my scroll) and started writing.

What did I know? Well, what had I been told. It could all be an elaborate scheme by

Torchwick or the White Fang. It didn't seem like it, though, and I decided to assume this

was all real.

I jotted that down. Assumptions: This is real, and I am Weiss Schnee.

Where was this place? I jotted down the words I had heard earlier. Russia, Ukraine,

Novorossiya, Donbass, Donetsk. A few more that came across as not as tightly related:

Earth, Europe, West, and East to go with it, America.

I connected the words. Russia and Ukraine, separate... kingdoms, I suppose. Novorossiya,

part of the Ukraine which wanted to be part of Russia. Donetsk inside Donbass inside

Novorossiya. Europe could be the continent, maybe. East and West were directions, Russia

presumably East and the other way must be West. America was... somewhere. A kingdom,

probably. I drew a big circle around the whole thing and labelled it Earth. It was a

fascinating map, probably accurate enough, and uselessly meaningless.

Next question. How did I get here? I searched my mind, and I couldn't remember. I

remembered the night at the docks, I remember going back to Beacon, I remembered some

scattered times at Beacon, and then I remembered waking up in a pile of rubble.

That was disturbingly close to supporting the "I'm not Weiss" theory. That was, however, a

line of thinking that could be explored later. I had decided to assume that I was Weiss

Schnee.

What am I thinking? Of course I'm Weiss Schnee.

Perhaps the event that had brought me here had damaged my memory. Travelling between

worlds could not be easy- I didn't even believe it was possible, but I had to assume it was.

Perhaps it had been a violent occurrence that had affected me physically or via my Aura. I

wrote all that down.

What about Dust? I had not seen any, but that didn't mean it wasn't there. I had seen plenty

of evidence of Dust, in any case. Large vehicles, technology only slightly behind our own.

So there had to be Dust, even if it was hidden.

No Faunas, no Grimm. No reason for racial tension, then. Unfortunately, there were plenty

of reasons for war and hate, and these people seem to have found them. No Grimm, no

huntsmen and huntresses. That made sense. Without the creatures of Grimm, they would

have only each other to fight.

Fighting. I hadn't seen much, but it seemed to be different than on Remnant. What were

Dmitri's last words? Stay down, or you will die? And then the wall exploded and there was

no more Dmitri. That was an explosive, a powerful one. So their weapons were well

developed. But these were rebels, probably amateurs. Not a good judge of capability of,

well, anything.

Last, Ruby, the animation. Apparently we were a work of fiction here. That didn't make any

sense, but I suppose it was no stranger than ending up here in the first place. Honestly, I

wasn't sure what to make of that. There were a lot of existential questions and some

practical ones. Maybe the creator would have some answers to-

"Vstavay! Vyyti!" a soldier shouted, entering the bomb shelter with his weapon raised. Four

more came in behind him, training their guns around the room. Their tactics were horrible,

but they seemed more professional than the others I met. "Up! Out!"

The soldiers began motioning for the people to leave, shouting at them in that strange

language. They grabbed what they could and cleared out quickly, some of them glaring

angrily at the soldiers. I tried to go with them, but one of the men held up his hand and

pointed his gun at me. I stepped back, moving my left hand toward Myrtenaster.

The lead soldier turned to me and asked in haltingly bad Valic. "Are you girl in video?"

"She match description," one of the other soldiers said, training his weapon on me. This was

giving me a bad feeling. "You are one they think Princess, you are Weiss Schnee."

"Why are you asking?" I replied icily, standing my ground. I had no idea how capable these

men were, but they didn't seem that impressive so far. With that being said, once a fight

started, they could be serious trouble. Then again, they were rough-looking soldiers with

very stodgy looking weapons.

"You must come with us, immediately," the leading soldier replied. "We take you to secure

place."

That didn't sound good. I tensed up. "You know, this is the third time this has happened in

the past two days. Who are you?"

"I am sorry. We are, uh," he searched for the right words. "We are, uh, spetsialny regiment.

But is legitimate of volunteer."

"Really?" I asked. I guess he was trying to say they were legitimate. "You'll forgive me if

I'm not so trusting. I don't know who you work for or who you want."

The soldiers shared brief glances of unease. "We, uh, we guarantee safety. Will explain

after."

"No," I snapped.

"Is not choice-"

"I'm not going with some men I don't know, with motives I don't know, working for who

knows, to some place I haven't even been informed of. You can explain it to me here, and

then I will decide if I want to come with you or not."

"I am sorry, but we have order," the soldier in the lead said apologetically. He moved toward

me, reaching for Myrtenaster. Disarm and arrest.

He was slow, far too slow. I ducked out of the way, drawing my rapier and driving it through

the man's gut. He gasped and choked as I pulled out my sword, once again covered in blood.

Did people on Earth bleed more than on Remnant?

One of the other men rushed at me with his gun in the air. I dove toward him, severing his

ankles with my blade. That shouldn't have happened. He screamed in agony, dropping the

gun and falling to the floor.

Three left. One of the men raised his rifle and fired two shots at my legs. It was totally

ineffective- these bullets weren't even very powerful. He started shooting again, but before

he could get his bullets on target I had rushed behind him and driven Mytenaster through his

back.

The other two opened fire, and I put a glyph between us. It wouldn't hold, but it did distract

them more than I expected. While they were confused, I switched Myrtenaster to blue dust,

and with a practised swing sent a wave of ice toward the remaining two soldiers. It didn't

just make them pause- they screamed in pain as they froze to death.

It wasn't the first time I had taken a life. But this felt... different. It was brutal. It was

confused. It was violent and bloody, literally. They were soldiers. They were pathetic. It felt

wrong. But necessary.

I didn't have a lot of time to think. Katya stepped into the doorway. "Yob tvoyu maht!"