The trip back to Ozpin's office was unbearably slow, the mischievous machine spirit inhabiting the elevator doing little to lighten Winston's mood as he waited to reach his destination. In the few minutes he had to prepare himself for meeting with the Inquisitor once again, he tried his best to think of why the old man would want to see him so soon. He didn't think he did anything wrong, nor did he believe the 'headmaster' would have any tasks for him until he proved himself to be a reliable asset. When it came to the Inquisition, it was hard to tell whether or not you would be marching to certain death or meeting with a brainless noble, and although the headmaster apparent didn't appear to be incompetent, Winston didn't want to trust the old man any more than he had to.
Despite his apprehension towards Ozpin, when the elevator door opened and the Korpsman saw the Inquisitor waiting for him in the exact same spot the night before, Winston marched up to his direct superior and offered him a salute as protocol demanded. Regardless of his own opinions on the matter, there were some things a soldier of the Imperium had no choice but to do. Showing reverence to a noble as arrogant and detestable as an Inquisitor was one such annoyance Winston had to put up with.
"Inquisitor Ozpin, sir." He droned, shouldering his rifle in his free hand and awaiting Ozpin's orders.
The Inquisitor's face remained an impassive mask during this brief display, although the guardsman took careful notice of how the old man's gaze never strayed far from where his lasgun was pointed. It seemed their distrust towards one another was mutual.
"Ah, Mr Voytoski, I'm glad you were able to arrive so quickly." The Inquisitor greeted, casually gesturing towards the lasgun Winston was carrying. "I see Qrow already told you the password to your locker."
"No, the drunk didn't." Winston replied.
Ozpin seemed slightly surprised by his answer, and the guardsman decided whatever emotion was showing one the Inquisitor's face must have been faked in order to bait a reaction out of him. An amateurish tactic that worked against most people, not against a hardened guardsman. That was especially true for one whose face was hidden behind his standard issue gas mask.
"How were you able to get into your locker then? Did you break into it?" The Inquisitor questioned.
So, it wasn't a test after all. What a shame.
…or was this also a part of the same test? Bloody Inquisitors, always placing traps within traps within traps.
"No, but I was tempted to try. Thankfully the password was obvious enough that even someone uninitiated in the Mechanicus could figure it out." Winston answered truthfully.
"I… I see. I suppose it must have been obvious then, knowing Qrow." Ozpin muttered.
Winston nodded in agreement as it turned out the drunk had been responsible for 'securing' his gear. "The password was the numerical portion of my serial number."
"Ah, yes. That was a little obvious in hindsight." The Inquisitor sighed.
For some reason the old man sounded defeated, but that couldn't be the case, not with an Inquisitor. If that was true, then how much of what Ozpin said had been a test until now? All of it? None of it?
Winston figured this display was meant to fool him and made a note to not look too much into any more of the Inquisitor's theatrics in case this was some form of trickery. There were things people like him were not meant to know. Sometimes it was for their own safety, other times, for the sake of preserving a damnable noble's pride. To Winston, it hardly mattered so long as not thinking about it gave him less to be concerned with.
"Anyways, in addition to giving you access to your weapons, there were a few other things I wanted to talk to you about." Ozpin said once he had collected himself once again.
"Sir?"
"First of all, I must ask that you keep your weapons stored away in your locker while attending Beacon unless you absolutely need them, such as for combat classes." The Inquisitor said, adopting the headmaster persona surprisingly well in the guardsman's eyes.
Although that request went against both regulations and common sense in the event of a surprise attack, Winston was in no position to refuse a direct order from neither a superior nor a member of the Inquisition. "As you wish, Inquisitor Ozpin. I will be sure to keep all of my weapons where they belong."
Thankfully, only the lasgun he carried was truly his. The bayonets, laspistol, and most of his spare power packs all belonged to his allies. They technically weren't his weapons, and while the Inquisitor might take issue with this minor discrepancy, Winston had already decided that there would be some things people would be better off not knowing.
For both of their sakes, of course.
"Good, I'll also require you to wear one of Beacon's dress uniforms during classes once we manage to get one tailored for you." Ozpin continued.
"Will I be able to wear it underneath my outer uniform?" Winston inquired.
"Outer uniform? Why would you need to wear more than one uniform?" Ozpin asked, seemingly perplexed.
Winston did not give into his instincts and call-out the Inquisitor for the blatant attempt to make him violate standard Imperial Guard dress regulations and explained why he must wear his current outer uniform. "The Imperial Infantryman's Uplifting Primer clearly states in chapter two, section four, subsection one, page fifty-three, paragraph seven, line five: 'All Guardsmen are required to wear their regiment's standard uniform at all times under penalty of immediate flogging and additional punishments under the discretion of the regimental commissar'." He quoted from memory.
"Oh, I don't know how I could have forgotten that." Ozpin lamented, not that Winston believed a word of what the old man was saying.
"Even if it was not against regulations, I would not abandon my regiment's uniform." The guardsman added, defying the Inquisitor in the only way he knew how. "I am, however, willing to wear whatever you require of me underneath my flak armor."
He was the last member of the Death Korps of Krieg 483rd Siege Regiment after all, and it would be tantamount to heresy if he were to abandon his uniform and everything he and his allies had stood for just because he was asked to do so. Inquisitor or no, Winston would do everything he could to fight against the Ozpin's request to throw away what had essentially become a second skin to him.
"Ah, I guess I can make a concession since you will technically be in uniform…" The old man said, trailing off on a monologue the Korpsman couldn't quite make out.
"Well, in that case, there is only one last thing I need to do before letting you go." The Inquisitor said, rising from his desk.
"Sir?" Winston asked, unconsciously backing away from the older man as he approached.
"You never had your aura unlocked, correct?" The Inquisitor asked, donning a mournful frown as he looked at the faded bloodstains on the bandages dressed over the guardsman's wounds.
"You would be correct, Inquisitor Ozpin." Winston replied, unsure of what the old man was looking at him like that for.
"Tell me, do you know what aura is to a Huntsman?" The Inquisitor asked suddenly.
"Aura not only acts as an immaterial layer of armour, but can be used to reinforce a user's weapons so long as they have enough power to spare." Winston answered, having read up on this subject, among many others, instead of sleeping last night.
"That is… one way of explaining it." Ozpin begrudgingly conceded, as a more accurate explanation would raise questions he would prefer not to answer. "Knowing that, would you like me to unlock your aura?"
Winston was surprised to hear Ozpin's offer, but couldn't bring himself to accept it. "No, I can't."
"Why not? I promise you that it is properly sanctioned by the Ecclesiarchy." The Inquisitor argued.
The guardsman didn't assume it wasn't either. "I did not say that I would not have my aura unlocked, but I cannot." He tried to explain.
"Really?" Ozpin raised an eyebrow. "You sound convinced even though we haven't tried yet. I assume you have a reason behind this?"
"There has never been a psyker born into the ranks of Krieg. I do not believe I am an exception." Winston said, hoping he could get away without needing to go into why and exposing himself in the process.
"Perhaps there is a first time for everything, Mr Voytoski." Ozpin insisted. "It wouldn't hurt to try, would it?"
The Inquisitor raised a valid point. From what little he had been able to learn about aura so far, the power required only another psyker to be able to awaken it within him before he could use his own aura, if he had one. There wasn't any risk or cost to doing so aside from the potential danger from drawing strength from the Warp that all psykers flirted with regularly, nor was it any more dangerous than firing a lasgun as powerful as his, even if it had been properly upgraded by his regiment's tech priest.
"No, it wouldn't." Winston eventually admitted, finding no reason to refuse additional strength which could be wielded against the enemies of humanity.
"Excellent." Ozpin exclaimed. "Now hold still, this will only take a moment."
The guardsman remained motionless as the Inquisitor reached out a hand towards his chest and, as much as he was revolted by the thought of contacting the naked flesh of another human, he drew upon every ounce of bravery he had to hold himself still when he felt the old man's warmth sully his uniform. Immediately after Winston felt that initial, revolting contact, he noticed that warmth spread throughout his entire body. It happened slowly at first, coursing through his core as if struggling to find his soul, but soon flooded through the rest of his body and brought a feeling of relief he never knew he needed until it swept over him. The guardsman almost collapsed from the sensation that filled his limbs with newfound strength and eased the throbbing pain in his leg and other injuries, but the Inquisitor wrapped an arm around him to catch him before he could collapse.
Winston struggled to find his footing once more and, when he was confident enough to stand on his own, hurriedly brushed off the Inquisitor's arm and shivered at the lingering sensation at having been touched in such a way. He didn't bother to study the Inquisitor's worried expression as he fought back the urge to burn off the afflicted areas of his uniform and flesh underneath with a lasbolt, nor would he have cared for the look of concern Ozpin held towards him if he were in any state to notice it.
"Are you okay, Mr Voytoski?" The Inquisitor asked.
"I…I'm fine." Winston claimed, taking several steps away from him. "I don't… I hate…"
The guardsman paused for a few seconds, freezing up completely as he adopted his steady, monotonous tone once more. "Never touch me again."
"Are you sure you are fine? You don't look like it."
"I'm fine." The guardsman insisted. "Is there anything else you need from me?"
"No, not for now." Ozpin said, deciding it would be best not to press the Korpsman any further than he already had. "You are dismissed. Be sure to get some proper rest, Mr Voytoski. Classes start at 9 o'clock sharp tomorrow. Don't be late."
"Of course, Inquisitor Ozpin." Winston said, offering the Inquisitor one final salute as he made his way back to the elevator.
It was only when he had left the elevator after being taunted by the machine spirit residing within it yet again that he remembered he had no idea where the barracks were. Fortunately, there was a sign labeled 'Dormitories' that seemed to lead in the direction Ruby had gone when they left the weapons workshop. Winston hoped that he hadn't misread this planet's written Low Gothic dialect as he wandered the halls of Beacon in search of someone from Team RWBY.
Ruby's mind was buzzing with excitement as she wandered back to her team's room. She wasn't able to inspect other people's weapons up close often, and although her new teammate was quite insistent on keeping his distance from her, she still appreciated his attempt to show her his lasgun and laspistol. Although she didn't understand half of what Winston had told her about his guns, she was able to at least remember the role each part of his weapons played and how to reassemble them if he ever asked her for help. As a self-proclaimed 'gun nut', it was slightly embarrassing to admit she hardly had any idea how such a basic looking weapon functioned, but she hoped she could learn in time.
That wasn't the only reason the leader of Team RWBY was ecstatic. She was also gleeful at having, in her eyes, started making friends with the late arrival to Beacon. Sure, he was pretty cold and unsociable, but he seemed kind enough when he explained how his weapon worked and showed how to reassemble it. He was even kind enough to spare her a… questionable looking snack without a second thought too. Some people might not consider getting to know such an odd, and yes, fairly creepy person to be a good thing, but Ruby was not most people.
She was a little disappointed to have parted ways with Winston so soon after Ozpin called him to the headmaster's office, but Ruby wasn't one to let something small like that get her down. Besides, not only would there be plenty of time to finish showing her new teammate around Beacon Academy, but it had been a while since she had seen any of her other teammates too.
Hopefully they were all getting along while she was gone. The young team leader had her doubts as to whether or not she would be walking back to the other girls arguing amongst each other like they had been when they were organizing their shared room, but when she heard the laughter coming from their room from across the hall, she could only smile at how they seemed to be getting along in her absence.
Not wanting to be left out of whatever the rest of her team was up to, Ruby quickly used her semblance to fly into her room in a flurry of rose petals, much to the surprise of the other team inside her room. The high pitched, blood-curdling shriek that greeted her as she came to a stop in the middle of her room was enough proof of that.
"AAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEE!"
"Wow… you are really full of surprises, aren't you Jaune?" Yang said in between muffled snickers, before noticing the reason for the blonde boy's girlish scream.
"Oh, welcome back Rubes." She said once she noticed the reason for the not-so-stoic knight's outburst.
Jaune Arc, a bumbling blonde boy that somehow managed to look out of place the entirety of the time he had been at Beacon, made no attempt to salvage his already ruined image at that point as he ambled back to the rest of his friends in Team JNPR. He would have been able to mope behind the safety of his team too, if it hadn't been for the most energetic member, Nora Valkyrie, knocking him over to reach Ruby.
"Hey, where's the spaceman on your team?" The excitable redhead asked, completely oblivious to Jaune while his partner, Pyrrah Nikos, helped pick him off the floor.
"Uhh, what?"
Before Ruby could answer, or even figure out what Nora meant in the first place, Lie Ren, who had long accustomed himself to acting as her voice of reason, managed to pull Nora aside and tried to rephrase her question.
Noticing Ruby's confusion, Ren let out a sigh and rephrased Nora's question. "What she meant to ask is where the new teammate your friends were telling us about went."
"Yeah, where is the tough guy?" Yang asked.
"Oh, Ozpin wanted to see him, I guess." Ruby answered. "Winston should be back soon."
If he could find his way to their room, that is. Hopefully Ozpin could show him the way, or at the very least give him directions so he wouldn't get lost.
"Great, that means we have just enough time to hear what you think he is hiding underneath his mask." Yang said.
"Hiding underneath his mask?" The little redhead asked, unsure of what her sister meant by that.
Blake quickly stepped forwards to answer. "We talked to Weiss while you were gone and she thought that Winston was lying and trying to hide something. We were trying to convince her to start trusting everyone in our team a little more while you were gone, but we were interrupted." She gestured towards Team JNPR.
"Sorry." Pyrrah called out.
"And to make a long story short, we started making bets about what tough guy looks like underneath his mask." Yang finished for her partner.
"Oh, and just to let you know, I think he's related to some famous huntsman who is trying to hide who he is to avoid the attention." She continued.
Ruby was somewhat surprised to hear that she wasn't the only one a little curious about what her new teammate was hiding underneath his mask. "Okay, that's… I can see why he might do that."
"You wouldn't have happened to have seen him take off that ridiculous outfit he wore in Ozpin's office, did you?" Weiss said, unable to hide the hint of curiosity behind her disdain for him.
"No, I didn't." Ruby told everyone.
"Wait, you are betting on what Winston looks like?" She asked with a hint of concern.
"Yes, but not in a bad way!" Her sister tried to assure her
"Well, I for one think he is a faunus since I can't see any other reason he would have to try and hide his face from us." Weiss interrupted, completely oblivious to the glare Blake sent her way.
"I didn't make a bet, but I think he is actually a girl. It makes sense since we will now have to share a room with her- him." Blake said, quickly correcting herself.
"He isn't really a ghost soldier, is he? Jaune asked, trembling at the thought Nora had put in his head earlier. "I mean if he is, then I would be happy to win a date with Weiss, but I'm not sure if I really want to be right about this…"
"He sounds like he has a lot of experience fighting Grimm." Pyrrah said, unable to resist joining the discussion. "I thought it might be fun to participate too, so I guessed that he used to be a Huntsman's apprentice before coming to Beacon."
"And I think it's obvious that he is a cyborg from space." Nora triumphantly declared, instantly silencing both teams with the absurdity of her guess.
"Uhh… okay?" Ruby said, finally breaking the awkward silence after a few moments.
"She heard something about your new teammate owning a laser gun and I can't convince her that they don't exist." Ren explained.
"Oh yeah, he does have one of those." The little redhead remarked.
"I KNEW IT!" The bubbly girl exclaimed.
"Wait a moment Rubes, he has a gun… that can fire lasers?" Yang asked in disbelief.
"Well, he calls them lasbolts instead of lasers, but I think they're the same thing?" Ruby answered with uncertainty. "He tried explaining to me when he showed me how his weapons worked and how to reassemble them, but there were a lot of things I didn't understand so I'm not sure if I am right about that."
"Wow, my sister finally found a weapon she doesn't know anything about. I don't believe it." The blonde brawler teased.
"So you don't know for sure if it fires lasers?" Jaune asked nervously. "Because if it does-"
"That's impossible, don't be ridiculous. The SDC has never been able to create a weapon like that, so of course some faunus boy from nowhere could never build or find a gun that shoots lasers." Weiss interrupted with more passion than anyone had expected her to.
"Well, you would know..." Blake muttered.
"What's that supposed to mean?" The heiress asked accusingly.
As the two teams devolved once again into petty bickering and meager attempts to appease all parties involved, Ren took the chance to speak up as Nora threw herself into the growing argument. "I'm sorry about them. They really wanted to meet your new teammate."
"Oh, it's fine." Ruby sheepishly said. "Everyone's probably just excited after the initiation yesterday and with classes starting tomorrow that they needed something else to focus on."
"Maybe." Ren shrugged.
"Well, at least not everyone is making bets about our new teammate." She said with relief.
"I wouldn't be too sure about that…" Ren told her, glancing away from the little redhead in embarrassment.
"Not you too!"
"Nora said she would start listening to me more if I guessed right." Ren explained. "So I told her I thought your new teammate was a normal person and not from space."
Ruby was disappointed to hear another person joining in on this bet, but could at least see his reasoning behind it, especially after witnessing a little of what Nora was capable of during their initiation. "Oh, I guess that makes sense."
"What makes sense?"
The two students who hadn't been absorbed in the argument that had consumed the others' attention and noticed the eerily flat voice coming from behind them turned around to find the new arrival they had been talking about standing at attention in the doorway. Ren raised an eyebrow at the dull, battered guardsman's attire but didn't show any other reaction beyond that.
"Oh, Winston, that was quick." Ruby said. "I was wondering-"
"THERE HE IS! TAKE HIS MASK OFF!" A sudden, thunderous cry rang out that grabbed everyone's attention.
"Nora, wait!" Ren shouted as he saw Nora rush past him and towards the guardsman who had only just walked into the room.
None of the huntsmen or huntresses-in-training had time to react as the orange haired brawler leapt towards Winston, her hands already shooting towards his mask as she attempted to pounce on him and wrestle it off. Before anyone else could try to stop her, the guardsman was already moving with a speed that even Ruby was surprised by as he narrowly leaned back underneath the overly energetic girl's grasping arms and planted a boot on her stomach. Then with one swift, fluid motion, he rolled backwards as he clung onto her, using the girl's own momentum to throw her over himself and out of the room with ease.
As both teams stood there either trying to figure out what just happened or mildly impressed by the guardsman's quick reflexes, Winston simply rolled off of his back and rose to his feet as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened.
"Don't touch me." He called out towards Nora, his quiet voice barely audible over her own boisterous laughter.
"Hah hah! That was fun!"
"I'm going to go check on Nora." Ren announced as he and Winston walked past each other, both only sparing each other a momentary glance as they did so.
"Oh my Brothers, Nora wasn't kidding. He is terrifying." Jaune whimpered before being silenced with a quick elbow from Yang.
"Hey there tough guy, I didn't know you knew how to fight with your hands too." She said with a smile. "Maybe we could show each other a few things during some practice fights?"
Winston stared at her through the expressionless lenses of his gas mask, long enough to make the blonde brawler's smile falter, before walking past her and the rest of the gathered students and placing the kitbag on his back onto the ground beside one of the bunk beds. From there, he simply sat down by his gear, leaning his back and head against it, and went deathly still while everyone watched.
"Well, he seems very… interesting?" Pyrrah said, stumbling as she tried to find the right words in an attempt to lighten the mood.
"You know, you might have been onto something earlier, Ice Queen." Yang mumbled, the heiress huffing in triumph despite the use of her less than flattering nickname.
"Is he asleep?" Jaune asked nervously, attempting to prod the guardsman as he did so.
His attempt to stir the guardsman was met with a shovel to the wrist that earned a sharp cry of pain from the boy.
"Don't. Touch. Me." Winston reiterated as he laid his shovel onto his lap.
"Permission to rest early today, Commander Rose?" He asked as he turned his attention to Ruby.
"Oh, uh, sure." She said, caught off guard by his stiff manner of talking once again.
"We should probably leave him alone for a while." The little redhead then suggested, her teammates and the remaining members of Team JNPR following her lead.
"Is there something that you need to tell us, Rubes?" Her sister asked once they had finally joined Nora and Ren out in the hallway. "Maybe a little something about why our new teammate there seems to be acting so strange?"
"I don't know, but I think he might just want some time alone." She suggested.
"He was limping earlier." Blake added. "Maybe he wants to sleep while his aura heals his leg."
"Oh yeah, he was covered in a bunch of bandages. I guess we can let him get away with brushing us off this time." Yang said.
"Hey Rubes, did you and our tough guy already eat?" She then asked her sister, who shook her head. "Great, neither have we. Let's go down to the cafeteria and see what they are still serving. I'm starving."
Ruby considered saying that Winston had already given her something to eat and didn't need to go down to the cafeteria, but after remembering just how wrong the greenish-gray bar her new teammate handed her earlier looked, she thought it would be better to go with the others. It wasn't that she didn't trust what her new teammate gave her earlier, but that she wanted to spend as much time with both her team and Team JNPR in the hopes of getting along with them. That was definitely the reason behind her decision and had absolutely nothing to do with how she felt her stomach churn just by remembering how horrible the ration bar in her pocket looked.
Winston waited a few minutes after he heard the last few voices fade from outside, then a few longer just to be safe, before shifting his weight so he could open up his kitbag. Moving carefully so as not to mar any of the equipment or personal items he had collected since joining the 483rd, he first dug out the five bayonets he had acquired while serving with the regiment. The guardsman spared a glance at each one of them to ensure his earlier cleaning of them had been thorough, lingering on the serial number engraved on each one of them as his heart sank at the memories they stirred within him, and tucked them into the assorted holsters and pockets his flak armor sported underneath his trench coat.
Next, was the laspistol he carried with him. He adjusted the holster that had been sitting on his waist across the chest so its familiar presence would make him feel a little less alone and far safer than he would be with it at his side now that it had a full power pack to draw ammo from. After that, he reached down the collar of several pieces of clothing to retrieve a humble looking cogwheel necklace with a bloodstained strip of crimson cloth tied around it, whispering a mournful prayer as he did so, leaving the symbol of the Omnissiah exposed as he retrieved the final item his personal nightly ritual demanded.
The item in question was a dirty black hat, its ornate crimson lace and large golden aquila on its front still giving off the supreme sense of authority as the officer it had formerly belonged to. His hands were trembling as he inspected the hat despite having done so dozens of times already. Winston didn't allow his emotions to get the better of him this time, and quickly embraced the hat before he betrayed the unfeeling image all Death Korps guardsmen were trained to uphold since birth.
Instead, he simply held the hat as close to him as the rest of his practical memento moris and the memories they held as he tried to drift off into yet another night of restless sleep, muttering the solemn warcry of the most heroic figures he had ever encountered.
"For those we cherish…"
Special thanks to Tireless Traveler for beta reading this chapter!
Author's Note:
And there you have it, the final chapter leading up to the first day of classes at Beacon. Didn't think it would take so long to get to this point, but I hope that didn't scare too many of you away from sticking with this story.
Comments:
kalki Dharma'esa: interesting story, while the OC interacting with Ruby, his conflicted feeling as a kriegan (or not) is something i like to see like in the Death man Walking novel.
I've never read that particular W40K novel, funnily enough. Even so, I still want to show Winston's struggle with the conflicts that would arise from being trained to be an expendable resource now that he has a chance to lose that mentality.
tssseppanen: (Reasons not to modify the standard issue lasgun)
While this might be true of the average, completely incompetent conscript who is liable to break their weapon the moment they even consider modifying it, I doubt the same could be said of a Kriegsman whose culture is more militaristic than Cadia's is… or rather, was. There is also plenty of evidence that snipers and other individuals requiring special modifications to their weapons are given some leeway in making their equipment that much better at killing the enemy. Besides, when it is one of the regiment's tech priests who makes said changes to the standard issue lasgun, who in their right mind would argue against such a gift?
Cthulu-On-The-Moon:I gotta say, i'm very impressed with how this story has turned out so far. Meshing together the more lighthearted RWBY with 40K was always going to be a B and a half, but what you've made is flowing well with lots of room for conflict.
I honestly found this surprisingly easy and I am still amazed there are not more stories like this involving other grim characters. Sure, there might be a bit of a struggle meshing together grimdark characters with a MUCH less serious setting, but to me, that sounds like a huge source of opportunity more than anything.
Well, that's enough from me. As always, thank you for reading and I hope to see you all again in the future!