Winston quickly set out to put more distance between him and the bustling cafeteria where the uncomfortably noisy cadets had been pestering him with questions he couldn't answer. Without the fear of immediate and drastic punishment at the hands of an Inquisitor hanging over his head, the lone guardsman was able to finish off his ration bar in peace. The loneliness was a small price to pay for the serenity it provided, amongst other benefits.

One such perk of dining alone was how he no longer needed to worry about exposing what laid underneath his mask to his team. For the first time in months, long before he had arrived on Remnant, he was able to free part of his face instead of only untucking it from the rest of his uniform. It had been far too long since he had been able to enjoy the simple luxury of letting his skin feel a pleasant draft through the air or the light of the sun falling upon his skin. The well worn fabric of his gas mask peeled off of his face with only minor difficulty after having been kept on for so long without being washed, but the pain that came with removing the face all Korpsmen wore was well worth it to take his first breath of unfiltered air in months.

Despite what some guardsmen from other regiments claimed, the filtered air of a naval transport ship was almost identical to that of a standard issue gas mask. Both were tinged with the faint smell of sweat, possessed that same uniquely acrid taste of air that had been recycled for multiple centuries, and were almost unnoticeable after having endured the general unpleasantness for an hour or two. With that said, it was hard to forget exactly how nice a real, genuine breath of fresh air could feel compared to the best attempts the Mechanicus made to replicate it through artificial means.

Most people wouldn't have thought much about how good a mouthful of natural air could taste, but then again, most people did not live most of their lives in underground bunkers below an irradiated hellscape or traveling through deep space and the Warp in between combat zones. Winston was not like most people, so he enjoyed this little luxury most humans took for granted for everything it was worth until he heard the pattering of footsteps coming up from behind him.

Instinct and years of experience took hold of the guardsman's body before reason could prevail and Winston swiftly pulled down his mask to conceal his features and threw himself against a wall, tucking himself beside a display cabinet for cover to avoid standing out in the open where he would be exposed to danger from all angles. In one practiced motion, his left hand darted to the laspistol holstered at his waist while the other attempted to retrieve one of the bayonets strapped to the inside of his greatcoat, and would have retrieved one of them too had his right arm not been missing. Silently cursing himself for allowing himself to be left so vulnerable in an unsecured environment, he made the most of what he could do and flicked the safety off of his laspistol as he gripped it tightly and prepared to open fire on whatever was coming for him once it drew close enough. Laying in wait for the perfect moment to strike the unknown threat loudly charging towards his position, Winston would have easily ventilated their skull if they hadn't identified themself by calling out to him.

"Hey, Winston, wait up!" Ruby called out to him as loudly as she could, never suspecting she was mere moments away from being ambushed.

Not one to keep his direct superiors waiting and with the potential threat identified as one of his teammates, Winston quickly and quietly holstered his sidearm after flicking the safety back on and stepped out to reveal himself. All thoughts about what might have happened to his leader had the young girl not said anything were ignored as the guardsman stepped out of what little cover he was able to find and nearly caused Ruby to run straight into him. The little leader let out a surprised little yelp as she nearly tripped over herself in her attempt to stop, nearly collapsing to the floor face first but was saved from her fall by Winston grabbing onto her arm as she passed him.

"Commander Rose." He addressed his leader, showing her the respect her position deserved as he used her momentum to nonchalantly swing her back to her feet.

"Ehehe, thanks." She nervously laughed as she took a few steps back away from him in an attempt to give him some space, remembering his very vocal dislike of people touching him. "Sorry about that."

"For what?" He questioned, not seeing what there was to be sorry for.

"You're right, it's nothing." Ruby awkwardly agreed, lacking anything else to say after his smooth save. "Anyways, you're headed to the nurse's office, right?"

"Yes, Commander Rose." Winston monotonously replied.

"Do you mind if I come with you?" She asked.

Unsure of whether or not this was meant to be some sort of test, the guardsman picked his answer carefully. "If you insist, Commander Rose." He finally told her.

Seeing the smile the girl gave him, Winston felt confident he gave her the right answer and made sure to adjust his typically rushed marching pace to match her own as they made their way to the nurse's office. Neither of them said a word to each other, the huntress-in-training unsure of whether or not she should say anything more to her new teammate and the guardsman not seeing a reason to talk to her. After a few minutes of awkwardly walking through the halls beside one another in absolute silence, Ruby couldn't take it anymore.

"You know, it really is nice to see you are okay after everything that happened yesterday." She said, struggling to think of anything else to say.

"So you keep telling me." Winston responded, his delivery sounding almost irritated.

Ruby let out a little huff at his careless remark, but didn't let her annoyance get to her. "We were worried when you didn't come back to our room last night." She continued, hoping to get some sort of reaction out of him aside from his usual acceptance of whatever she said.

Winston stopped walking for a moment after hearing her answer, catching the little leader off guard. After how quickly he had been cast aside when he tried to re-enter their room, he was sure they hadn't cared he was missing. Well, not compared to how much they wanted to sleep given how they had nearly overslept once already.

"You were?" He asked her, unable to hide the genuine surprise from escaping the muffled confines of his mask.

"Of course we were." She replied teasingly, thinking she finally found a crack in his cold-hearted exterior.

"Why?" He asked, the simple answer leaving Ruby dumbstruck.

It wasn't the question itself that left her stunned, but the genuine confusion behind it. At first, she thought, she hoped he was joking. It became all too clear once he started walking away that he did not understand why they were worried about him. Not wanting to let their conversation end here when they were so close to reaching their destination, Ruby said the first thing that came to mind.

"Because you're our teammate." She said, cringing a little at how harsh her answer sounded out loud.

If Winston noticed or cared, he didn't show it.

"Oh." He muttered dispassionately.

"I mean, you're one of us. Of course we care about what happens to you." She frantically explained.

"Don't." He told her, stopping her from saying anything further.

"Don't what?" She inquired.

"Don't worry about me, Commander Rose." Winston droned on. "Your concerns should be reserved for someone who matters."

Before Ruby could ask what he meant, the duo arrived at the double doors to the nurse's Korpsman didn't waste time with needless goodbyes and entered the medicae's room before the girl could reply, leaving her alone with her thoughts as she returned to the rest of her team and with even more questions about her newest teammate than she had at the start of the day. Without anyone to distract him, Winston was able to focus on the far more pressing matter he walked on, namely the ongoing discussion between the incredibly nervous looking medicae and the all too calm Inquisitor beside him.

"-of course I trust your judgment. Believe me, I wouldn't agree to work on the 'special cases' you send me if I didn't, but that doesn't mean I will send one of them off when they clearly need more help than you allow me to provide! This wouldn't be the first time ignoring one of my recommendations would come back to haunt Remnant." Doctor Schwarzer frantically argued, barely stopping himself from saying anything more that could persuade the headmaster to start looking for his replacement in earnest.

"Sir." Winston saluted towards Ozpin, unaware he was missing enough of his chosen arm to do so.

"Guess we will have to save the rest of this talk for later, Oz." The faunus physician grumbled.

"Ah, Mr. Voytoski, you're early." The headmaster said, silently grateful for the interruption the guardsman provided him.

His eyes darted towards his student's raised stump at the same time as the guardsman's. "And I see you are still getting used to what happened yesterday." He added as Winston performed a proper salute with the correct arm this time.

The doctor, however, was far less tactful with his own words. "How the hell do you forget you are missing an arm?" He blurted in exasperation, his previous nervousness forgotten as exasperation overtook him.

"You get used to it." Winston answered.

"That…" Doctor Schwarzer wanted to say a missing arm wasn't something someone could simply 'get used to', but couldn't when standing in front of living proof it was possible. "Well, I guess you'd know better than I would." He sighed in defeat.

Winston ignored that final remark and turned his attention back to the headmaster. "Is there a reason you are here, sir?"

"Yes, there is." Ozpin smiled as he looked towards the doctor who tried to make himself look as small as possible underneath the older man's gaze. "I had originally instructed Dr. Schwarzer to refrain from performing any unnecessary examinations on you, but since he insisted on doing one anyways and after hearing his own reasoning behind it, I decided that it would be best if I were to supervise you given your 'unique' situation while he continues where he left off."

"Unique!" The doctor scoffed, offering an immediate apology for his mindless slip of the tongue. "Sorry, but calling your student here 'unique' doesn't even begin to cover why I wanted to perform a few of my own inspections on him."

"Oh, and what would you rather call him?" The headmaster asked.

"Well, if we were to ask the majority of non-Atlas trained medical professionals, I believe the term they would prefer to use is 'legally dead'." Schwarzer explained.

"Excuse me? Could you repeat what you just said?" The Inquisitor stammered in disbelief. "I think I might have misheard you."

"Oh no, you heard me right, Oz. No lungs, missing at least a tenth of his body without any recorded documentation of his injuries, and given what most of my former colleagues in Atlas would say of someone who had been unconscious without any visible aura activity for several hours, he is for all intents and purposes, a living corpse." The doctor explained as he rubbed the bridge of his nose. "And don't even get me started on what those a…bsolutely wonderful former associates of mine would say once they discover someone from outside the kingdoms can produce prosthetics that put everything currently on the market to shame."

"I personally would love to see those elitist Atlesian snobs brought back down to Remnant knowing someone who never set foot in one of their labs knows more about their jobs than they do, but I'm afraid they would be more interested in taking apart Winston here piece by piece so they can see how all of the technology inside him works and reverse engineer it. Ethics were never really one of their priorities." He added, doing his best not to shudder in disgust just thinking about the sickening lengths some of those vile monsters would go in the name of 'progress' or whatever justifications they had for their latest experiment.

Winston started to tremble slightly at the mention of this last part, and only a pointed look from Ozpin kept him from reaching for his laspistol. That didn't stop the guardsman from slipping one of his bayonets up his sleeve though.

"Ah, I see." The headmaster hummed thoughtfully. "I'm surprised you didn't mention any of this earlier."

"Really? I'm surprised you didn't mention the kid here had more metal in him than your precious percolator." The doctor fired back, wincing as he remembered who he was talking to.

Ozpin grimaced at the point the doctor brought up, setting down the mug of cocoa he had been nursing prior. "I didn't know either, at the time. The list of his known prosthetics I provided you was only brought to my attention this morning when I asked Mr. Voytoski himself about his past injuries this morning."

"I see, but by the look of it, even he doesn't know exactly what was done to him since a large portion of the skull around his left eye wasn't included, amongst other things. Then again, I wouldn't blame the kid for leaving something so important out after getting his arm ripped off." The doctor argued, repairing his image in the guardsman's eyes, if only barely.

"Speaking of which, how is your arm…" The doctor paused to clear his throat before correcting himself, "How is what's left of your arm feeling? No lingering or phantom pain, is there?"

"No, sir." Winston answered. "Not anymore."

"Not anymore? Da-ngnabbit, I knew I should have kept you in here until my aura recovered enough to continue reinforcing your own." The doctor muttered. "Well, at least you made it to the clock tower and back to your dorm without any incidents. Your aura has probably recovered to the point that any damage your body might have sustained will not cause you any discomfort, but I still want to perform a few more tests to be thorough, amongst other things."

Schwarzer gave Ozpin a questioning glance, to which he received a nod of approval.

"If you are ready to begin, I can check to see if there isn't any lingering damage to your arm or any other part of you that I might have missed before I managed to break my own aura trying to keep you stable." He gestured to both Ozpin and Winston, waiting for their answer.

"Is that why you were asleep while on duty?" Winston asked as Ozpin raised an eyebrow at the accusatory question.

"Yes, it is." The doctor answered without missing a beat. "Rest is the best method of recharging one's aura, and given how I was severely limited in my options treating you, I wanted to recover as quickly as possible in case you took a turn for the worst, Mr. Voytoski."

"Of course if you have a problem with that, Oz, I could have always made a call to one of the hospitals in Vale and let them handle your student for us." He said as he gave the headmaster an unamused look. "Hel…ck, I can do it right now if you want me to. I don't know how you would go about maintaining their discretion, but knowing you, you'd somehow find a way."

"No, no, you made the right decision. I put you in a difficult position and you… went above and beyond your duties." Ozpin sighed. "As always."

"As the one and only member of Beacon's medical staff should." Schwarzer smugly said as he basked in what little praise he had been offered. "Now, Winston, if you wouldn't mind taking off your clothes I would like to start off with a simple weight and height measurement before we go any further."

"That will not be possible." Winston informed the doctor, taking the man by surprise, if only for a brief moment.

"I take it you have a reason for this?" He asked, already familiar with this game.

"Yes." Winston answered, refraining from explaining why he would rather not remove any of his armor.

"Hmm… that will complicate things." The doctor hummed. "How much would you be able to remove?"

"Everything that isn't underneath my flak vest, pants, or headgear." The guardsman answered as he started to remove his greatcoat.

"I suppose that will have to do. While you are getting ready, I'll go ahead and…" The doctor found his voice failing him as he saw all the various weapons strapped onto his patient, especially the bayonet he caught as it fell out of his sleeve.

"Do I want to know why he felt the need to be armed for this?" Schwarzer groaned just loud enough for the headmaster to hear him.

"No, you don't." Ozpin lamented. "I know and I wish I didn't."

"I suppose I'll take your word for it this time. I can only imagine someone with as many scars as he has felt he needed to be armed when visiting me." Schwarzer glumly mused as he waited for his patient to finish removing as much of his equipment as he felt was necessary.

Without the bulk of his great coat or bag, the Korpsman's surprisingly gaunt frame was fully revealed to the two members of Beacon's staff, but that wasn't what initially caught their attention. Instead it was the heavily worn flak vest hanging loosely over the guardsman's thin torso, but an oversized piece of body armor wasn't what caught the two men's attention. No, it was the numerous gashes exposing small bundles of frayed plasfibre and traces of scorched ceramic alloy plates underneath them along with a few kinetic rounds still visibly embedded in hard to reach places which drew their eyes. Once they were able to look away from the worst of the damage, they were then able to see what little armor covering his legs and arms was somehow even more battered than the rest of him. There were numerous holes in the armor covering his extremities, with an equally plentiful amount of faded bandages hiding underneath them.

"Brothers above." Schwarzer gasped. "Seeing you with my aura is nothing compared to this."

"I'm ready." Winston announced, giving the doctor's comment no visible reaction.

"Uhh… yeah, right." The doctor muttered as he took a moment to regain his composure. "Just stand up straight on the scale in the corner of the room and stay there for a few moments while I jot down your measurements. Afterwards we'll move onto a few other basic tests and after I have a few words with Ozpin, should everything go well, you will be free to go back to your classes."

Winston obeyed his orders without complaint, moving to where the doctor directed him to in silence. The quiet way he moved unnerved the faunus, but then again, so had everything else about the Korpsman, so he didn't think about it that much. Schwarzer did his best not to let his nervousness or growing unease prevent him from doing his job however, and quickly wrote down the measurements he required.

"Alright, it looks like you are barely under five feet and two inches with a weight of one hundred and five pounds with your extra apparel." The doctor told Winston, pulling his scroll out of his pocket as he punched the numbers in.

"Hmm… even if I'm being generous your BMI is still too low." The doctor muttered to himself as the air of worry surrounding him faded as he became enthralled in his work. "Tell me, Winston, what has your regular diet looked like for the past several weeks?"

"Whatever rations I could scavenge that I could prove to be untainted." The guardsman answered.

"Scavenging for food? How long would you say you have been doing this for, exactly?" Schwarzer probed further.

"Since I left Krieg." Winston carefully responded, waiting for a small nod from Ozpin before continuing, "I would spend months at a time away from the rest of my people while out on deployment, making do with whatever I could find so I wouldn't starve after my initial rations were depleted."

"Your… people?" Schwarzer questioned.

"His kinsmen from Krieg, the settlement outside of the kingdoms he used to call home at one point before being sent out to fight the Grimm as part of an organized fighting force." Ozpin lied on Winston's behalf.

Schwarzer was tempted to ask whether or not they were human given how Winston seemed so insistent on hiding his face, but ultimately felt as if it wasn't his place to do so, not that it mattered to him anyways. Unlike those lunatics that hadn't left the White Fang after their previous leader stepped down, and a large part of Remnant, much to his disappointment, he didn't give a damn whether or not someone had a tail or some other faunus trait or not.

"Right, right… and this fighting force..." The doctor mused, wondering how he wanted to ask his next question seeing as how his patient wasn't the most mentally stable and the distinct lack of anyone else like him roaming Beacon making him jump to a few obvious conclusions.

"The Death Korps of Krieg." Winston interrupted, sounding almost defensive as he did so.

"The Death Korps? Well, that doesn't sound ominous at all!" The doctor grumbled at the absurdity of such a sinister sounding moniker. "Names aside, can you tell me what your regular diet looked like before you started scavenging for food."

"Two ration bars a day usually. Three bars when the stockpiles were overstocked or on days of worship." The guardsman dutifully answered.

"I see… and do you know what was in these ration bars?"

Winston gave the doctor a shrug. "No. All I know is that three per day were recommended for optimal performance while two-"

"Optimal performance?" The doctor interrupted in an indignant huff. "What the- do these people think you were a machine instead of a person?"

"The human body is but one of the Omnissiah's many great works, one that is no less inferior to those made of metal." The Korpsman replied, repeating one of the numerous lessons his regiment's tech priest ingrained in him.

"Well, I suppose that answers that question then." Schwarzer murmured to himself, not noticing Ozpin's shoulders sag with relief when he didn't inquire any further. "Anyways, what were you saying about only having two meals a day?"

"Two ration bars were the minimum necessary to ensure the continued function of bodily processes while out in the field." Winston continued from where he left off. "During training exercises and other excursions onto the surface, we would often go with only one bar per day and sometimes none at all depending on when we knew we could resupply next."

"Well, malnutrition would explain your weight problem…" Schwarzer hummed to himself, pulling out his scroll as he marked a few notes. "I'll try to come up with a plan by the end of the day to help you recover from whatever atrophy your desperate situation must have caused. I'll let you know when you can drop by so we can discuss it in detail, alongside anything else I might need to do."

"Anyways, next I'd like to use my semblance to see how you are recovering compared to yesterday." The doctor said as he spared a glance towards Ozpin. "If that is something I am able to do, of course."

"There shouldn't be any harm, considering this isn't the first time you have done so." Ozpin told him.

"Ah heh heh, right." Tod Schwarzer nervously laughed at the reminder. "So, as soon as you are ready, just come over here and I'll place a hand on your shoulder so I can get to work."

There was a long, awkward pause as the guardsman refused to move from where he was standing.

"Okay, or I can come to you. That works too." The doctor sighed as he started to make his way over to his patient.

Winston immediately backed away from the doctor as he approached. The Korpsman reached for one of the many loops sewn onto his flak vest, the remaining fingers failing to find anything to retrieve so he could defend himself. Had he not already relieved himself of his weapons, the doctor wouldn't have been in a position to do anything other than bleed out. It was only as he remembered that Beacon's resident Inquisitor was before him as he straightened himself and waited for the doctor to approach, setting aside any thoughts of possible retaliation for later.

"Are you sure you're feeling okay, kid?" The doctor asked as he paused mid stride, unsure whether or not drawing closer could evoke a hostile reaction from his patient.

"I'm fine." Winston replied almost instantly.

"Riiiight, so you won't mind coming over here to let me inspect you for any internal damage?" Schwarzer asked as he lowered his voice and himself, making eye contact with his patient in an attempt to seem as unthreatening as possible.

"Is that an order?" Winston inquired following an uncomfortably long wait.

"Y-yes? No? *Ahem.* No, no I suppose not." The doctor stuttered as he recalled one of his patient's odder behaviors and comments from the previous night. "If you don't want me to lay a hand on you to finish your check up, I do have other, slower methods of making sure you are not suffering from any major injuries or fractures aside from your missing arm."

"What I want doesn't matter." The guardsman replied, once again answering far too quickly and stiffly for the doctor's liking.

"Okay… that's… nice to know…" The doctor stammered as he gave Ozpin a pleading look to use his authority to step in.

"The sooner you do what the doctor asks of you, Mr. Voytoski, the sooner you will be able to serve once again." Ozpin called out.

"Yes, sir." Winston saluted, as he marched up to Schwarzer with a rigid gait to his step.

"Serve? What are you talking about, Oz? He's not… not some sort of servant or slave!" The faunus doctor shouted, losing his temper at the way the headmaster was treating his patient.

"I am whatever is needed of me. Be it slave, servant, or sacrifice, it matters not." The guardsman replied, fully aware of what value his life held in the eyes of the Imperium and the Emperor.

Ozpin grimaced at Winston's response, and only when the doctor noticed the older man's reaction did he calm down and refrain from tearing into the headmaster for his choice of words. It looked like he was going to have to add emotional abuse, or maybe abuse in general judging by the kid's numerous scars and what little he had heard about the Death Korps and Krieg so far, to the very long list of problems his patient was suffering from.

"Well, when you put it like that, what I need you is to stand still for only a few seconds while I check some areas of concern I spotted the previous night." The doctor said, attempting to play along with whatever charade "Is this something you can handle, Winston?"

The guardsman didn't answer and instead stood stiffly once he was close enough for the doctor to touch him. Schwarzer slowly reached towards his patient in case Winston had second thoughts and, once it became clear that the student wasn't going to try running away from him, as far as he could tell, he quickly got to work before the Korpsman could change his mind. Ignoring the way his patient tensed his whole body upon placing his hand on the kid's shoulder, the doctor quickly got to work using his semblance and aura to perform another in depth inspection of perhaps the most badly damaged individual he had ever come across.

Quickly glossing over the unsettling void where Winston's lungs should have been and the select few pieces of other organs missing in some capacity, Schwarzer focused the majority of his power in his patient's limbs to make sure there was no lasting damage in any of the areas of concern Ozpin had brought to his attention upon first walking into his office. Both arms were good as far as he could tell, the odd thin lines of nothingness running down the guardsman's arms likely aiding the functioning of the kid's prosthetics. Their unnatural, yet expertly placed, presence suggesting they were meant to be there was the only reason he did not feel that they were worth his concern. Whoever had installed Winston's prosthetics, an apparent mad genius whose lack of morals would make even Atlas' top scientists cry out in sympathy for the kid, definitely knew their craft better than anyone else within the four kingdoms.

Similar lines ran down Winston's left leg, ending in the prosthetic foot he had noticed earlier. They were far cruder and less neat than the ones in his patients' arms, but also meshed into the flesh in such a way that he wasn't sure he would be able to tell where the synthetic 'veins' or whatever was running through the Korpsman's body ended. Not without opening the kid up to see for himself, that is. The only thing he could tell from his aura alone, or rather assume, is that not every prosthetic in Winston's body was acquired from the same person. The small, faded fracture in his leg from what must have been an old wound suffered before he had his aura unlocked had also completely vanished too. Apparently the kid's aura was remarkably quick at repairing his body, something the rest of him no doubt had experience with already given his large number of scars.

Whatever was embedded in his back near his spine was similar to the guardsman's foot in appearance, if not their construction. Both were inexpertly installed, a thought that made Schwarzer shudder, when compared to the metal components running through his arms, but didn't appear to hinder his body in any way. Perhaps the device in his patient's back was meant to reinforce his spine? Given how Winston somehow didn't have an aura before arriving in Vale, an affliction the good doctor could only assume most people from Krieg suffered from, it made sense for some sort of protection to be granted to his people's fighters when their armor was little better than a t-shirt when compared to aura.

As for his skull and everything above his neck in general, the less about them the better. Teeth were bolted into his jaw, a concerning portion of his skull and one eye were missing similar to his lungs, and when it came to the scars, the doctor was almost glad Winston had refused to remove his mask. The smile he wore was one not even his mother could love. Cruel as it was to think, but if his patient ever decided the life of a huntsman wasn't for him, he wouldn't have any troubles starring as a monster in any cheap horror or sci-fi movies.

"Okay, it appears you are recovering quite well. Far quicker than you should have any right to be, if I were any judge." Schwarzer said. "Thankfully, even though you have only recently had your aura unlocked, it seems yours is quite powerful."

"It is?" Winston questioned, remembering how Glynda had told him the opposite.

"Yes, or at the very least, your aura is quite adept at mending your wounds as opposed to preventing you from suffering them in the first place." The doctor explained, adding, "That doesn't mean you should be relying on it too much. Just because it can save your life doesn't mean it will. Most of the people I treat here believed themselves to be invincible before they were shown how wrong they were."

Well, that wasn't entirely true. The most common reason any students or staff came to his office was for whatever prescriptions they required from him when they weren't treating him like a glorified birth control dispenser, but the doctor didn't feel as if his other patients would appreciate them revealing such sensitive information. Brothers, even he was embarrassed just thinking about it.

"The Emperor protects those who are willing to protect themselves." Winston prattled, repeating Krieg's variant of the common Imperial litany.

"Right." The doctor said, completely disregarding the guardsman's comment as inspirational nonsense as the headmaster shot his patient a reproachful look. "Anyways, the only thing I left to do now is a reflex and coordination test and then we'll-"

"That will not be necessary." Ozpin interrupted.

Schwarzer had to fight hard not to give his employer a condescending look. "I take it you have something in mind?"

"Yes." Ozpin replied. "A simple marksmanship test during today's combat classes should be just as effective as whatever you have planned, wouldn't you say?"

"It would, if I had a baseline to compare it to." The doctor retorted.

"Not that I have one for any of the other methods I have of making sure Winston isn't suffering from a concussion or any other lingering damage my semblance wouldn't be able to pick up on." He sighed, admitting defeat. "Fine, just be sure to have Glynda or someone from his team monitor him. If he passes out or anything else out of the ordinary occurs, make sure they report back to me."

"I'm glad to hear that the matter is settled." Ozpin said as he looked down at Winston as he patiently waited for instructions of what to do next.

"You're free to return to your classes, Mr. Voytoski. There won't be any point returning to Professor Oobleck's as his class will likely be over by the time you arrive, but you should have enough time to prepare for your other classes or spend some time with your team if you would like to instead."

"Sir, yes sir." Winston saluted as he quickly exited the doctor's office.

"So, what exactly did you mean ignoring one of your recommendations could come back to haunt me?" Ozpin asked a few moments after the guardsman's departure, picking up where his previous conversation with the doctor left off before Winston's early arrival interrupted him. "Something about the past coming back to haunt me, I believe?"

"Remnant." Schwarzer corrected. "I said your decision could come back to haunt Remnant, not just you. The last thing the world needs is another huntsman going rogue because no one was willing to make him see a therapist before deciding he would be better off killing people than Grimm."

Ozpin winced as he realized who the doctor was talking about. "Hazel Rainart was a special case." He defended.

"Which is exactly why I told you he needed to see a professional before being cleared to act as a huntsman again. Not everyone can keep it together after losing their last living relative, let alone after finding whatever pieces the Grimm didn't feel like eating." The doctor countered.

"As true as that may be, the blame does not fall solely on one bad decision." Ozpin argued.

"You're absolutely right. It takes a whole lot of fuck ups to turn one of the most respected huntsman in Vale into a mass murderer almost as infamous as Tyrian Callows." The faunus told him, refusing to relent against the headmaster's attempt to downplay his responsibility. "Sure, we could blame the idiot that approved a team of underprepared huntsmen-in-training on a mission they couldn't handle or the one who thought it would be a good idea to send a huntsman who's last living relative was one of those trainees, but that doesn't mean we're all free from blame for thinking one of the best of us couldn't fall from his pedestal."

"Yes, you're quite right. Whoever is responsible for those decisions surely deserves the most guilt for their actions." The headmaster lamented, silently thankful that Schwarzer didn't know exactly how responsible he was for the actions leading up to Hazel's fall from grace.

"Anyways, I already have a few recommendations that you might want to look into for the kid to avoid any unfortunate developments in the future." Schwarzer said as he passed Ozpin a crumpled up note.

"It's nice to see you're more prepared than you were last night." The headmaster hummed to himself as he pocketed the piece of paper for later.

"I already told you that I was only napping for the sake of restoring my aura!" The doctor reflexively fired back. "Over exhaustion is nothing to scoff at, especially when I'm the only medical staff on academy grounds and have been pulling sixteen hour shifts for over a week straight trying to get everything in order before the semester started. It still wasn't enough to get everything ready on time! Do you know how difficult it is to forward a request for year old medical records of a backwoods Vytalian medicine man, shaman, or whatever they call their little village's 'doctor'? Or how about when trying to look into the town a couple of orphans claim to have come from almost ten years after it has been wiped off of Remnant? And don't even get me started on all the paperwork I need to fill out just to request a single bottle of painkillers from those insufferable assholes in Atlas so none of our faunus students have an allergic reaction to anything found on the global market!

"I swear, if I ever get my hands on those fuckers' necks I am going to… GRRAAHHHH!" The doctor's ranting devolved into incoherent shouting as he started strangling whoever it was he happened to be thinking about.

"I… I see." Ozpin stammered after waiting for the doctor to finish having his moment. "You know, you could always request more staff as you are the head of our medical department."

"I have, Oz. Unfortunately, there are not nearly as many people who meet both of your high standards for professionalism and, ahem, 'discretion'. " Schwarzer grumpily explained after calming down. "Well, not unless you count all of those Atlesian pricks who refused to treat faunus"

"Right, I remember the colorful language you used to describe some of the candidates I sent to you quite vividly." Ozpin mused. "I must say, I appreciate your attempts to cut back on the swearing in front of the students like I asked."

"Please, I'd rather have you show your appreciation by following the recommendations I give you rather than being showered with whatever praise you feel I deserve." The doctor shrugged. "Now, if there isn't anything else, I still have the entire third year's medical records that I still need to finish updating. The only saving grace is that all I need to do is remember where the 'help' you provided me last year stored the damn things so I can make the necessary changes to the appropriate documents. And you wonder why I never approve of any of the people you send me for assistance…"

"Ah, of course. I'll leave you to it then." The headmaster guiltily said as he made his way towards the door.

"Don't forget to update me on Mr. Voytoski's condition when it improves or the other things we discussed." Schwarzer said as he started looking over his disheveled working quarters for a place to start and waved the older man out of his office.

"Oh, no need to worry about that. I am keeping a very close eye on him." Ozpin replied as he shut the door behind him.

As the headmaster returned to his own private office within the top of Beacon Academy's clock tower, the old man pulled out his scroll and pressed a few buttons on the hard light dust screen until he was presented with a feed of several dozen cameras. It took him a moment to find the one he wanted, but when he did, he clicked on it so he could have a better view of the student it was tracking. Ozpin was a little surprised to see that Winston had already made it outside of the building in the time it took for him to say his goodbyes, but then again, the guardsman did seem to be taking his arrangement seriously even if he forgot some of the more important parts far too easily. The headmaster could only hope he could teach the soldier a little more common sense before putting whatever talents he had acquired in the Imperial Guard to the test.


Special thanks to Doc43Souls and Tireless Traveler for beta reading this chapter!


Author's Corner:

You know, maybe it's just me, but Remnant's approach to medical care makes a drunk tech priest with a rusty hacksaw look pleasant by comparison. Not only are characters rarely at risk of bleeding out after losing a limb or getting impaled, unless it is more dramatic that way, but a kid can fake a broken leg on what is presumably national television in during what is presumably the biggest sports tournament on the planet without ever arriving at a hospital afterwards and no-one questions where they went. Therapists seem to be completely nonexistent in this world where child soldiers AND MORALS still exist, WH40K lacking the latter but not the former, incredibly enough. I think it is safe to say that the medical industry on Remnant is pretty far behind our own world's due to the existence of aura and healing semblances and light years behind the run of the mill stuff your average guardsman would have access to. Of course, that is disregarding when it is downright incompetent like several governing bodies which Ozpin appears to have heavily influenced.


Comments:

Manwithaplan113:It's always fun to see Winston nonchalantly hitting the RWBY cast with culture shock at how utterly blasé (usually) he is to what would be a horrifying experience to any normal human being

Considering the unimaginable horrors your average guardsman will fight against on a regular basis, is it any surprise Winston seems so desensitized to the world at large? Of course, that isn't to say he is nearly as stoic as he looks. Pay attention to some of his more innocent remarks and behaviors with some of his past and future encounters and you might find them to be much more tragic than they initially appear…

Rangda: (On Weiss' overreaction to her wound and attitude towards Winston)

Weiss and Winston aren't exactly on good terms at the moment, even if only one of them is aware of it. Our guardsman would absolutely agree with you if he cared about how Weiss felt about him. After being humiliated in two classes, her pride insulted, and general unease towards her new teammate, I imagine Weiss wouldn't need a reason to hate him. All she needs is an excuse. Getting shot in such a way that could potentially leave her with another permanent scar is a pretty damn good excuse if you ask me.

Maglad: (Noticing earlier/more conflicts between characters)

You make a good point. While I could have pretty much piggybacked off of canon and started everyone off as friends, I simply didn't want to do that. Conflict creates a lot of interesting storytelling opportunities, moments for character growth, and gives Winston a few chances to fulfill his Emperor given duty as a 'problem solver' in ways that don't require violence.

MRtruegnome: (On our relatively reasonable/docile Krieger)

logan36800: (On how Winston doesn't seem like a stereotypical Krieger)

There is a reason Winston is the last survivor of his regiment. You'd be surprised how far a little common sense and self-awareness can go in W40K, unless you have read a Ciaphas Cain novel. To reiterate a common point I bring up, Kriegers are neither Skitarii nor Servitors i.e. near mindless automata. They are still very much human, which if you ask me, makes their suicidal devotion and loyalty all the more tragic. Imagine it: Countless soldiers fighting and dying without ever knowing what peace is like or what the life of an average citizen is like which they are trying to protect with less than desirable results given 'current' events. And don't even get me started on those few who do have had a glimpse of what a normal life is like and continue to fight on anyways…


This story has officially hit 1000 followers. Emperor's Bowels, I never thought this story would hit that number! Thank you all for reading, following, commenting, and being lovely people in general. I hope to see you all again in the future!