Chapter 7 : Coming Together

Sam

"So, are we ready?" I asked.

"I don't know, do that fancy stepped analysis shit," Cliff half-joked.

"Fine," I agreed. "Okay, Ruby's recording?"

"Yep."

I nodded. "Money?"

"Ten coins from Monty," Isaac said. "Well, I mean, they just came into my wallet, but I'm

assuming they're from Monty."

"Plus some money from Ben and Jen, and my goddamn savings," Cliff added.

"Right, and most of it went into the airline tickets," I said.

"That was like three grand," Ben informed. "Lufthansa's fucking expensive."

"Anyone's expensive on this kind of short notice," Cliff countered.

"And how much do we have still have?" Isaac asked.

"One hundred Euros each, two hundred zloty each, plus another hundred US dollars and

however much Canadian money we have in our wallets," Jen replied.

"And we have some more reserves in the bank," I added. "We'll need that to get Weiss her

passport and ticket."

I turned to Cliff. "Speaking of which..."

"You have a list of potential contacts on your phone and another physical copy. Ordered by

most likely to work to least likely to work. It'll cost between one and two thousand. You'll

want to make that cash, US dollars or Euros. And you better be fucking thankful because I

trawled the darknet for that shit. Some things you just cannot unsee."

"Okay, that money-"

"Hidden in our suitcases," Jen explained.

"Good." I paused. "Okay, let's go over the plan one more time."

"We fly out of YVR tonight," Jen explained. "It's a Lufthansa flight, with a stopover in

Frankfurt. We'll arrive in Warsaw late tomorrow- that's Wednesday- and check into the

Holiday Inn near the airport. The next day, we check out and board the train to Kyiv."

She paused. "Shouldn't you be explaining this?"

I shrugged. "Nah. Keep going."

"In Kyiv, we meet Katya, get Weiss, get a fake passport, and head back over the border into

Poland. Then we book our return flights and fly home."

I chuckled. "Easy, right?"

"The only easy day was yesterday," Cliff joked.

Ruby Rose

I'd never been to an airport before and it was really cool. Cliff explained in the car that they

didn't use airships on Earth, they used airplanes instead. We saw some from outside and

inside the terminal. They weren't very big, but had ridiculous wings and huge engines. It

drove along the ground speeding up before rising into the air.

The airport itself was neat too. It was a big building and there were lots of people. Some of

them looked different and spoke languages I had never heard before. In the front of the

airport there were check-in desks with lines and then there were stores and food and then

security.

When we got to security the mood was solemn and stoic. Sam, Jen, and Isaac acted like they

didn't want to go but they had to. Why weren't they excited for this mission? I knew I would

be! I told them that.

Sam replied, "It's not gonna be easy, Ruby. There's a lot that could go wrong."

I shrugged. "It's not like it's dangerous. There's no Grimm and no bad guys."

"That's not the only kind of danger, Ruby," he told me. "We have to cross several borders,

and on the way back we have to do it with a fake passport. We could get in a lot of trouble if

we get caught."

"Well, good luck!" I said after a pause, then hugged Sam, then Jen, then Isaac.

"Good luck, guys," Cliff repeated, embracing his friends.

"Yeah, good luck on your trip and stuff," Ben said, only waving.

"I wish I could go with you guys," I said one last time.

"I know, Ruby," Sam replied. "Don't worry. We'll get Weiss back safe. That's a promise."

Katya

The girl stared out the window. I don't think she was interested in the countryside- she

looked as if she was thinking.

And I was thinking as well. Who was this girl, really?

A RWBY cosplayer who lost her memory, probably hit in the head. That was the truth I had

once accepted.

Then she killed the soldiers. Then I got the message from those people in Canada. Then she

hit the man and broke his jaw. Then she showed me the Glyphs.

Any one you could say was fake. Just an elaborate staging. But all of it?

No. It must be an elaborate scheme. It could not be possible.

Or is it?

I guess I said that out loud. Her head snapped around. "What was that?"

"Or is it?" I asked again, in English this time.

"Or is what?"

"Or is possible?" I said rhetorically. "You could be really Weiss Schnee?"

"Why is this so hard for you to understand?"

"Look at from my view!" I insisted. "Favourite fictional character come to Donetsk.

Donetsk, all place, Donetsk! Come from different world, not exist, come here, why? Then

kill soldier, then we run. Make no sense!"

I took a deep breath, forcing myself to calm down. "Is easy for you to accept Earth, accept

Remnant away?"

"No," Weiss replied quietly. "No, it isn't. You know that. I keep thinking this is impossible, it

can't be real, yet I'm here. I don't believe it, but I have to."

"Then we share confusion," I said. "One way or other, we find out in Kiev."

Isaac

After the long flight to Frankfurt and the security we had to go through after, the arrival in

Warsaw was relaxing by comparison.

That was one thing we didn't think of. The EU is all one big passport zone, called the

Schengen Agreement. That meant that we had to go through customs in Frankfurt. Sam

thought that we'd have to do it in Warsaw, and that we wouldn't have to do it in Frankfurt

because it's just a connecting flight. But actually, it was the other way around.

That took a while but the lady at the counter was friendly and her English was really good,

even though she had an accent. We didn't have any problems, but it might be harder to get

Weiss through passport control at Frankfurt than it would be in Warsaw.

We made it onto the connecting flight easily, and the flight to Warsaw was really short. I

thought the name of the airport (Chopin) was weird before Jen explained the history of the

composer. That took most of the flight, actually. So we landed, breezed through security,

and stepped out into the lobby of the airport.

It's funny. I always thought of Poland as this kind of backwards, poor, not very nice country,

but Warsaw Chopin Airport was really modern and nice. I'd even say it was every bit as nice

as YVR. There weren't any weird junky old planes on the runways either, they were all

newish Boings and Airbusses.

"Did you just call them Boings?" Jen asked, snapping me out of my thoughts.

"I said that out loud?"

"Yeah, you did," she replied. "And it's Boeing. Boe-ing. Boeing. Not Boing."

"Guys, I think we missed the bus," Sam interrupted. That wasn't good.

"What a great start," I muttered.

Katya

"Uncle Vladimir!" I greeted as the door opened.

An older man with bright blue eyes and greying brown hair greeted back, loudly,

"Yekaterina? I was worried sick for you!"

"Where is your father?"

I said nothing.

"I am so sorry, child," he said gently, drawing me into a tight, comforting hug. It must have

been hard for him. After all, my father was his brother, too.

He let me go and asked, "Who is your friend?"

I motioned to Weiss. "Weiss?"

"Good evening, sir," she greeted formally. "I am Weiss Schnee."

"Do not be so formal, it is fine," my uncle said to her in English. "I am Vladimir. I am, how

you say, uncle of Katya."

He motioned us inside the apartment, muttering to me. "She's a German? That name sounds

familiar somehow."

"Weiss Schnee is from RWBY," I told him. "It's that web show I like."

"So she's using a fake name?" my uncle asked, suspicious.

"Not exactly, Uncle Vladimir."

"How so?"

"Uh... well, some people dress up as characters for events and stuff," I explained. "When I

found this girl, she was in costume. I think she hit her head, maybe because of a bomb. She

believes she is actually Weiss Schnee."

"We should take her to the hospital, then," Uncle Vladimir replied as we sat down in the

small living room.

"I don't know how to say this, but she might actually be the real Weiss Schnee."

"You can't be serious."

"I'm actually... well, not sure, but I think she might be telling the truth."

"Fuck your mother!" he exclaimed in response, then apologized. "Sorry. But that's

impossible!"

"That is exactly the same thing I thought, but she showed me some things that only Weiss

can do. It's like magic, almost," I explained, simplifying it for my uncle. "And then these

other people contacted me and said they found one of Weiss' teammates."

"Do you think they are telling the truth?"

"I'm hoping to meet them somewhere in the city tomorrow, hopefully," I explained,

shrugging.

"That could be dangerous," he cautioned. "You don't know who these people are or what

they want. They could be trying to take advantage of you."

"I just came from Donetsk, Uncle Vladimir," I said. "Besides, she'll be with me."

"Her?" Vladimir asked, motioning to Weiss, who was nervously examining her nails. "What

is this show about, anyway?"

He waved his arms. "Nevermind. Tatyana will be here in half an hour with dinner. I shall

play host to our guest in the meantime."

Sam

Fortunately, the hotel had free wi-fi, like virtually every hotel at home. I pulled IvyTosh out

of my bag, set it on the desk and plugged in the power cable. I booted it up, logged into the

wi-fi, and started Skype. It took a moment to log in, and I selected Katya from my list of

contacts.

"And we're in," I announced to nobody in particular, then typed out a message. I decided to

use proper sentences, hopefully leaving a good impression.

We're in Warsaw now. Hopefully we'll make the train to Kyiv tomorrow. Where and when

should we meet?

I waited about ten seconds before a reply popped up.

I am stay with family, not busy. Any time and place, can probably get. Your specify.

Immediately, I typed in a reply.

How about Euromaidan at about two in the afternoon, by the statue?

"Euromaidan?" Jen asked from behind me. "It's just called Maidan."

"I call bullshit." It was actually the only name I had remembered from Kyiv, even after all

the research we did for the trip.

It called Maidan Nezalezhnosti or just Maidan. Euromaidan is event. But meet there time

place okay.

"Okay, you're right," I muttered, embarrassed. Jen laughed as I typed out my response.

Good. See you there.

There was no reply for what felt like close to a minute, then finally:

I do have one question. Where is Ruby and what exactly is going on?

That's a bit different, like a different person different. I decided to take a risk and replied:

That's two questions, Weiss.

Almost instantly, I got a response that I could just imagine in her indignant voice.

How did you know it was me?

I typed in:

No offence to Katya, but your English is a lot better.

Her reply came quickly.

English?

As in, you know, the language we're using. Then again, I seemed to recall Ruby calling it

something else, though I couldn't remember what.

You probably know it as something else. It's the language we're using.

Of course.

Whatever that meant. I decided to proceed with more pressing matters.

So, how do we find you tomorrow? Are you going to be dressed up as Weiss?

"I don't know if that's a good idea," Isaac commented. "Dressing as Weiss, I mean."

I am Weiss.

Well, yeah. We know that.

You know what I mean.

There was a pause, about thirty seconds with no communication. Then, finally, a response

which I also imagined as indignant.

Old blue hoodie, jeans, sneakers. Not my choice. What are you going to look like?

I stifled a laugh at seeing the snow princess Weiss dressed like that. After a moment's

thought, I typed up a description.

Two guys, one girl, late teens, acting like loud tourists, taking a lot of pictures.

The response was quick.

Got it. See you tomorrow.