Resuscitation
Jaune was enjoying the view of Vale from his spot on the roof as the sun was setting. Classes just ended for the day and he was still in his school uniform. This roof happened to be the same one where he confessed to Pyrrha that he did not go to combat school and the one where Cardin found out about his secret, submitting forged transcripts to get into Beacon. Only a few months have passed since then and the Forever Fall incident. Juane had hope that Cardin and his team would have a new outlook on life and start improving themselves morally as they trained to become Huntsman. Boy was he wrong when he saw them digress to their usual habits only weeks later.
Speaking of Cardin, he should be up there to meet him any minute now.
Jaune looked over the edge to see if anyone was down below to make sure everything was ready for when he arrived. All was clear since most, if not all, of the students were in the cafeteria for dinner. It took some time to convince the rest of team JNPR to head off to dinner without him, mainly Pyrrha since she seemed to never want to leave his side. He then looked straight down at the patch of grass at the bottom of the building, making sure that it was cleared of anything that might interfere with his prank.
'All is going according to plan.' thought Jaune.
"Jaune-boy," said a familiar voice from behind him, "To what do I owe the pleasure of you inviting me up here for a chat?"
Jaune turned around to see Cardin with the rest of team CRDL behind him, blocking the only entrance to and from the rooftop.
'This is better than what I have planned before.' Jaune thought to himself with a mischievous grin.
"I just wanted a word with you," Jaune spoke with confidence, "but since you brought the rest of your posse up here, I might as well give them a piece of my mind."
Team CRDL chuckled amongst themselves, only to then be silenced by the snickering coming from Jaune.
"You think I am being funny?" Jaune asked the group as he took a few steps towards them. "I only wanted to know why you all have decide to fall back to your former….disposition. I thought you guys learned a lesson back in Forever Fall when I had to dispose of that Ursa after you all ran and almost killed Cardin. Seems that I am wrong."
"It's going to take more than saving me from an Ursa before I take any lesson from you", Cardin huffed as Jaune was still walking towards him.
"Then what about this?"Jaune asked as he stood a few feet from Cardin while holding up his scroll. On his scroll was a video playing of Team CRDL cornering Velvet while Cardin was pulling on her bunny ears before switching to another video of Team CRDL throwing unknown substance at a pair of Faunus while laughing at them. Jaune proceeded to switch to a few more videos where they were doing humiliating things to the Faunus population at Beacon. The stiffness that Team CRDL displayed was enough for Jaune to know that he had the upper hand.
"What do you think will happen if I sent this to Ozpin?" Jaune inquired as he put his scroll away. "Better yet, what would happen if I sent this to all the news outlets in Vale? Would it ruin your father's reputation on the Vale Council?"
Cardin shifted uneasily at Jaune's questions and the presentation of the videos. Jaune caught this and he began to grin at the sight of it.
"I assume that this will somewhat confirm the rumor about your family discriminating against those of Faunus heritage?" Jaune continued with a smug look on his face while bringing the scroll to his side, "I know that there is a rumor going around in Vale about your father trying to limit the movement of the Faunus in the Kingdom of Vale and imposing a curfew to keep them off the streets even during the day time. Not to mention what he does to business that are run or employ Faunus in the Kingdom."
"What do you want Jaune?" Cardin growled between his teeth. Jaune knew that Cardin held his family name above anything else and would do anything to protect it.
"Simple", said Jaune, "I want you and your team to start acting like actual Huntsman, leave me and my friends alone, and not mess with any Faunus during your training here at Beacon."
Cardin stood there as his eyes moved back and forth, weighing the current situation and how to move forward. Jaune could tell that Cardin was thinking of any way out of the current situation that he was put it.
He was scared.
'Good,' Jaune thought, 'People who are scared will turn to anger. Just what I need for the next part.'
"Otherwise," Jaune continued, "I'm sure that the White Fang will use it for their propaganda to recruit new members. Some might even take it upon themselves to pay your family a visit to teach them a…."
Jaune's sentence was cut short by a fist to his face. He stumbled back a little before falling backwards to the rooftop pavement. Thankfully his aura took most of the blow so that there would not be any bruise to hide from Pyrrha and his team, but it still hurt regardless. He then brought his scroll up to his face to make sure that it wasn't sending his aura readings to his team, only for it to be snatched out of his hand by Russel Thrush who then started deleting the videos.
"Wouldn't you think I would have backups? I may not be the strongest fighter in Beacon, but I am not stupid." quipped Jaune as he tried to get up, only to be kicked back down by Cardin.
Jaune looked back up to Cardin, "Really?"
This time Jaune got up before Cardin had another chance to kick him and took a few steps away from him. Knowing now that he was not that far from the edge of the roof, he decide to continue provoking Cardin.
"Is that the best that you can do?" asked Jaune, "Punch and kick me until I submit and cower to you? You are going to have to do better than that, Cardin. That method didn't work before and it won't work this time."
Cardin immediately grabbed Jaune by his suit's lapel and pushed him back towards the edge of the roof. With a few steps backwards, Jaune almost felled off the roof when his foot slipped over the edge. Now the only thing that stopped him from going over was Cardin holding onto him. Unbeknownst to Cardin, Jaune felt a few of the strings of fiber that he carefully left intact in his school uniform break. Jaune was trying his best to keep up his poker face as to not reveal what he had in store for Cardin.
'And people laughed at me for knowing how to sew." Jaune thought to himself as he was smirking internally, 'Just a few more to go then my whole uniform will come undone and let me fall to the grass down below. Hopefully that will contain the blood. Now for the final push.'
"You don't have the balls to do it Cardin." provoked Jaune.
With a smile on Cardin's face, he briefly let go of Jaune before catching his school uniform again. The sudden shift in weight against the back of the uniform caused the last of the strings to break, leaving nothing to hold it together. The last thing Jaune could have sworn he saw before descending to the ground below was the look of shock on Team CRDL pale faces. Jaune wished that he had his scroll to take a picture of them in their current state.
Now as to why Jaune wanted all of this to happen, well he wanted to teach Cardin a lesson about how his bullying and intimidation of the students might lead to their death. As to why he wanted to be the one who 'died' to get the point across to him, Jaune was counting on his semblance to do the job. At least believed to be his semblance. He had no idea how a semblance was able to bring some one back from the dead.
From what he understood about semblances, they were powered by ones aura and he was very sure no one had aura once they died. He could have gone to one of the professors for a better explanation as to why this is able to happen but chances are that this discovery would make its way to the ears of Ozpin, who was the last person he want to know about this. There was already a rumor going around how when Ozpin sends students out on missions, he has invisible drones follow them just to captor the moment of a Grimm ending their life just to fulfill some kink or fetish that he has. Jaune did not feel like becoming the Headmaster's new favorite toy during his time at Beacon.
As Jaune felt the air rushing past the back of his head he could not help but find it ironic that he was using his semblance to get back at Cardin, since it was Cardin who was partially responsible for activating it. It all started a month ago when Cardin decided to shove Jaune into one of the rocket propelled lockers and send him flying to the Emerald Forest, which resulted in his first death upon it landing top first into the ground.
At first it felt weird waking up to experience the sensation of having his whole body numb and the process of slowly regaining all of his bodily functions. It took a while before he was able to move and open the locker so that he could get out. Once he got out of the metal death box, he was promptly picked up by a rather large Nevermore with its claws and flew him around the forest for a few minutes before letting him go. His second death was less painful than the first. When he came to, he realized that he was at the cliffside where they had their initiation. To this day, he still wonders how he was able to get back to his dorm while wearing his torn, bloody clothes without being noticed by anyone.
That afternoon, the atmosphere was rather tense in Team JNPR's dorm when Pyrrha returned and started interrogating him on his whereabouts for that day. She went off on how his aura levels kept on zeroing out for most of the morning on her scroll and that he was not answering her calls all day. Jaune thanked his quick thinking by claiming that his scroll had been malfunctioning and that he needed to get a new one, as well as he was not feeling well and decided to return to their dorm. He was even more thankful when she did not question why he was showering at three-o-clock in the afternoon and why he was now one uniform short.
'Now I am going to have to explain why I am now missing another uniform.' Jaune mused to himself as he started slowly spinning sideways on his trip down. 'I really need to see about getting more uniforms if I am going to continue doing these…pranks in the near future. Hopefully my semblance will revive me fast enough so that I can run back to the dorm before anyone notices me. I would hate to run into anyone and explain the blood on my uniform. I just hope Russel did not stop that program that loops my aura readings. Knowing Pyrrah, she will be keeping an eye on it.'
He caught a glimpse of the ground below. The spot of grass that he was aiming for was rapidly approaching. No one was in sight expect for Pyrrha standing on the walkway next to the grass in her school uniform.
'Wait….Pyrrha?'
As his body spun around again he could see Pyrrha with a worried face, as well as Nora and Ren standing next to her with a similar expression.
'This is not going according to plan!' Jaune yelled internally.
"Son of a…" Jaune managed to say before his vision went black.
"What a shame," said a voice as his hearing was returning, "for a life to end soon."
Jaune recognized that voice, it was the voice of Sun Wukong.
'Oum damnit.' Jaune swore internally to himself, 'He is the last person who I need here right now.'
Jaune slowly opened his eyes and saw white. As his eyes managed to focus, he realized that he was being covered by a white sheet.
"It's ok Junior Detective Wukong" came another voice to comfort Sun, "I'm sure that he is in a better place now."
"Thank you Junior Detective Vasilias."
Jaune could only groan in his head.
"Now then," continued Neptune, "I'll let you finish documenting the crime scene while I go 'comfort' Pyrrha. I'm sure she needs a stong man in a time like this."
Rage seeped through Jaune's blood when he hear that last part. If it was not for that fact that he only had control of his head, he would have given Neptune a beat down that he would never forget. No one was going to treat his partner like that. Right when he was about to make a sound, a loud voice caught his attention.
"Let me finish what I started!" roared the voice of Pyrrha Nikos. Just hearing the sound of her voice made his raging blood go cold, along with a pain of guilt in his chest. He did not want to have Pyrrha experience this. Which is why he spent a whole month planning this just so that he could avoid causing any emotional harm to her. It's not his fault that she had an unhealthy obsession on making sure that he was ok. Jaune knew for a fact that she kept a close eye on his aura levels whenever he was not in her sight and tried to be by his side at all times if it was possible. Sometimes he wonders if she was going to put a tracking device on him.
"Let me break their legs! They killed Jaune!" Nora hollered.
"You bastards!" yelled the normally calm Ren.
'I can only imagine who is brave enough to hold all three of them back.' Jaune pondered as he laid there under the sheet.
"That is enough!" barked the commanding voice of the school's headmistress, Glynda Goodwitch. Jaune imagined the rest of his team being held in midair with her semblance. "I understand that you three are angry at Team CRDL but you have done enough already. As for you two, what are you doing here?"
"Handling the crime scene ma'am." piped Sun.
"What?!"
"That's right. Vale Junior Detectives will take care of this." Chirped Neptune.
Jaune sworn that he could actually hear the headache in Goodwitch's head grow after the comments from the two members of Team SSSN. That was a guarantee once the rest of Team JNPR was done punishing him for putting them through this, Glynda Goodwitch was going to beat his ass fifty shades of black and blue with her Riding Crop on top of whatever physical punishment she will give him. Since he was unable to move the rest of his body except for his head, he started to open his mouth to get their attention until a loud cry distracted him.
"Jaune!" cried Ruby as she continue to sob.
"Calm down Ruby, I am here for you." Yang said as she tried to calm her little sister down. At the moment, Jaune knew that he screwed up big time. There were two things that Yang treasured in her life that he was aware of, her hair and her family. He was pretty sure that making Ruby cry was going to put him on Yang's Shit List.
'Oh shit' Jaune sweated under the sheet. He could not decide what was worse; an emotional unstable Team JNPR, the school enforcer Glynda Goodwitch, or a very pissed of Yang. 'This could not get any worse.'
All of a sudden, the usually white sheet that he was looking at for the past few minutes slowly turned grey. This could have meant that someone was now standing in front of him. The sound of sip from a coffee mug gave a hint to who it may have been.
'I spoke too soon.'
"Ozpin," Glynda spoke, "I have everything under control. I will be send you a report of what has happened once I have concluded my investigation."
"That won't be necessary." Ozpin calmly said before taking another sip of his coffee, at least what Jaune assumed to be coffee. "Students, please return to your dorms. Except for you nine."
'Nine?' Jaune questioned himself, 'I only heard seven student. Don't tell me Weiss and Blake are here. I'm positive Weiss is going to use me as a pin cushion for Myrtenaster once she finds out about my new gift. Should have stopped calling her 'Snow Angle' months ago.'
Jaune heard a commotion in the distance. He could only conclude that a crowd had formed while he was laying there and he did not pick them up with his hearing. Perhaps he had not fully regained his hearing yet.
After a few minutes once all the students were gone except for those that Ozpin told to stay. A million scenarios were going through Jaune's head as to what he could do once he had to reveal that he was still alive. None of them were good.
"Mr. Arc, will you please get up" Ozpin commanded.
"Ozpin," Glynda growled, "Mr. Arc is-"
What Jaune felt next was a kick to his stomach, causing him to yell. Jaune immediately got up and yanked the white sheet off of him. The scene before him made him wish that he had his scroll with him.
All of Team RWBY looked like all the blood drained from their faces, giving them a pale look. Neptune jumped into Sun's arms while screaming like a little girl. Glynda, trying to process what just happened, lost focus and dropped all of Team JNPR. Pyrrha got up to reveal her face with tears flowing down it. Both Ren and Nora had a dumbstruck look. Out of the corner of Jaune's eye he could see Team CRDL leaned up against the building that they threw him off of, with bruises on their faces and their uniforms torn. They seem to be knocked out from the wrath that they experienced from Team JNPR.
"Mr. Arc." Ozpin spoke again, catching Jaune's attention. "Do you mind explaining why you are alive after falling from a twenty story building?"
"Uh…." Jaune gulped, "It's a…..my semblance….I think."
"How long have you been aware of this?"
"About a month now." Jaune responded. "When Cardin shoved me into one of the school lockers and launched me into the Emerald Forest again."
"Why did you not tell us that he did it again?" Pyrrha yelled.
Jaune's only response was pointing to the motionless bodies of Team CRDL.
"What was the pourpose of having them throw you off the roof?" Ozpin questioned.
"That was actually my doing. I cut a few dozen strings holding my uniform together so that it would fall apart if too much weight was applied to certain areas." Jaune explained. "I only wanted to teach them a lesson about how their bullying and intimidation of other student might lead to their death. Not have them end up in their current state."
"Disciplinary actions are handled by me, Mr. Arc." scolded Glynda with her arms crossed.
"And you seem to be failing at getting the point across." Jaune retaliated, causing Glynda to recoil at his response. "Despite be disciplined by you three times in the past month all four of them have continued tormenting other students, especially the Faunus population."
Glynda was going to respond, only to be cut off by Ozpin.
"Enough" Ozpin ordered before taking another sip of his coffee. "Glynda, would you please take Mr. Winchester and his team mates to the infirmary. I will take over from here."
Glynda simply huffed, glaring at Jaune, before turning around and levitating Team CRDL with a flick of her crop. She then marched away with the four unconscious students floating behind her.
"As for you Mr. Arc." Ozpin said as he leaned towards Jaune.
"I take full responsibility for what has happened" Jaune immediately spoke up.
Ozpin continued to stare at him, "Indeed you will. You will be serving detention with me for a month."
"And my teammates?"
"You will be serving their punishment during your detention with me. Starting tomorrow night.", was all the Ozpin said before starting to walk past Jaune.
Jaune sighed, relieved that none of his teammates were going to be punished for what he did today. That feeling quickly disappeared when he caught the slight grin on Ozpin's face as he passed him and that look in his eyes, as if he was looking forward to the detention tomorrow night. Fear started to take over his body.
"The rumors," Jaune whimpered in a low voice, "they are true."
"Jaune." said Pyrrha as she placed a hand on his shoulder, snapping him back to reality. He looked at her and saw that she was smiling, her classic smile. The same one the she wore when she had to give photoshoots and when she was with fans. Her true emotions were being displayed in her eyes. Jaune looked into them and saw anger. He knew that he was in for a rough time when they had their next training session.
"Oum, I messed up big this time." Jaune squealed as his legs started to shake.
"Damn right you did" snarled Yang as she stared at him with her red eyes.
Jaune only gulped.
A/N: It's been a while since I have posted any fanfic, close to 7 years. I hope that you all enjoyed it and I am willing to listen to any feedback. I am currently working on another fanfic for the RWBY community and only wanted this to be a one shot. If I were to continue, it will only be Jaune dealing with the shenanigans of Remnant as he is being used as a chew toy for Ozpin. Thank you for reading.