Jack and Jill went up a hill,
And there did witness a slaughter,
Jack took one to the crown,
And Jill kissed the man that bought her,
A squad of White Fang grunts were deployed to recover their dead after the failed ambush on the passing Atlasian squads. They were lead by Sergeant Elizabeth Finn, a shout woman with black eyes, dusky skin, and salt and pepper hair like her faunas heritage, that being the honey badger. She was highly respected since she not only was a veteran of the cause but apart of the old guard as well. About half way through counting the dead and scavenging anything that wasn't nailed down, so to speak, one of the new recruits called out to her.
"Sergeant!"
"What!?"
"There's a body here!"
"There's bodies everywhere! Why is this one important?"
"It's not dressed like any of the others!"
Finn, being the one in charge, was forced to go check out what was probably a waste of time. And so the honey badger Sergeant made her way over to the recruit, and once she was there she inspected the body. He wasn't Atlas military that was for sure, even the reservist got better gear than what he was wearing, and he wasn't wearing the Fang's fatigues, but that didn't mean he wasn't a Fang.
"Search him, see if he's either got a hidden or removed trait." Finn ordered.
"M-ma'am?"
"He could be the spy that warned us about last nights squads, we lost contact with 'em."
"O-okay…"
And so the poor recruit was stuck doing bitch work, not that he wouldn't have been stuck doing it anyway, and removed the mans clothes to try and find an animal trait. After peeling back multiple layers, poor bastard was prepared to the cold at least, and his balaclava the recruit didn't find any obvious signs of an animal trait, until he turned him over and found an SDC brand across his shoulder blades. Knowing from some of the stories about the more brutal mines the recruit checked for the most common traits, ears and tails. He pulled the waistband of his pants down just enough to look for a tail, and failing to see any indication of one he switched to combing blonde hair. And there he found it, two extra ear canals, there was no way of knowing what his ears were before they were cut off, but he knew from other SDC mine survivors that this was a common punishment, either for trying to escape or preventing one of the guards from having… "fun", and that it was done while the recipient was awake.
"You poor bastard, suffered through all that just to die in the same snow you escaped." The recruit stood. "Serge! He's one of us!"
Finn marched back over, just to pause in her tracks at the sight of the unmasked faunas. He was young, twenty at most, young enough to be her son if his hair were different or he wasn't so big. Then as she noticed the brand across his shoulder blades her sadness turned to righteous anger. Finn knelt down and traced the brand scar, it was around ten years old.
"This was done to him as a child." Finn spat out angrily, before turning to the recruit. "They took his trait, didn't they."
The recruit nodded sullenly. "Yes ma'am, they took his ears."
Finn brushed the young faunas' hair from his face. "They just keep getting younger and younger." She stood back up. "Was there any forms of identification?" The recruit shakes his head. "(sigh) We have to take him with us, even if we don't know his name no one deserves to be left out for the nevermore to feast on."
And so the young faunas was redressed and buried under the name John "Jack" White, so that he may pass on and greet his ancestors and feast upon roast beast in their great halls. While the rest were taken with them to be buried in a clearing a little ways away from the Fang's base. Close enough for those wanting to visit the fallen could do do but far enough away as to not compromise the base. The squads Chaplin gave them the rights of the fallen, as they were do, before the were entombed back into the earth, unfortunately without the proper caskets as they could not afford such luxuries. And just after the Fang had left, Jack White's grave has desecrated, by it's inhabitant.
Bursting through his shallow grave, a revived Jack looked around in a manic panic, not knowing where he was.
"Where am I? Why can't I remember anything?" Jack looked around in a frenzy, finally spotting his grave. "John "Jack" White, that's my name?" Jack took a steadying breath. "Okay, okay, I know my name, and now I just need to find out why I was buried and where the hell I am… easier said than done."
And with nothing else to do but walk the ghost of Jaune Arc, given new life as Jack White, wondered until he found a sign of life and civilization.
One week later,
Kingdom of Vale, Beacon
Ren was tired, emotionally, physically, mentally, and it had only been his first week as a leader. But that wasn't the reason why he was tired, in truth it was the fate of his actual team leader, Ren grieved just like his two sisters did but he did so on the inside, as his Semblance made being able to show emotion difficult. But at least he wasn't team RWBY, who were scheduled to make their first appearance in court today, but his life was far from trouble free. Nora, his childhood friend and only living reminder of Kuroyuri and his family, was far, far from her normal energetic self, since she learned about Jaune's death she'd been… muted, she'd gone to classes and ate regularly, but her energy and electric personality had been replaced by a solemn and focused one. But it was Pyrrha's transformation that truly scared him, where Nora was herself just muted, Pyrrha was… something else entirely.
In the aftermath of Jaune's death she acted just like Nora, serious, focused, driven. That changed when she found Jaune's spare Pumpkin Pete hoodie, after that she refused to budge from his bed, not for anything other that to wash herself, because it "Preserved his smell." Then one day she suddenly went down to Vale, and when she returned Ren called Professor Goodwitch. Because Pyrrha had dyed her hair blonde, gotten blue contact lenses, and made herself an altered outfit of the one Jaune use to wear.
She'd had the hoodie tailored to fit her better alongside the same style of pants and shoes Jaune once wore, down to the color and manufacture, she had also changed her armor and weapons. Now instead of her old High Mistralian style armor she wore a feminine Cuirass with pauldrons and full leg armor, while she had completely destroyed Miló and Akoúo, and now wielded a regular sword and shield-scabbard like Crocea Mors. She even made herself a small Jaune doll that she took with her everywhere, she even almost killed CRDL when they insulted the Jaune doll and said Beacon was better off with out it or it's muse.
Pyrrha did get into trouble for her stunt, but in truth it didn't do much to dissuade her of the notion. Instead it became an unwritten rule to never talk about Jaune in her presence, as anything negative or any reminder or notion that Jaune was dead could and would set her off. In some sort of fucked up silver lining, both her grades and combat prowess had improved leaps and bounds, to the point where even higher years were afraid to fight her four on one, let alone one on one. Team RWBY seemed to be on a downward spiral, as any leeway they found or made had crashed and burned with Jaune's death. Unsurprisingly it was mostly Blake and Weiss driving the wedges and burning bridges.
It turned out that not only was Blake a faunas, but that Jaune was too. That coupled with Blakes history with the White Fang apparently made Weiss' views about both Jaune and the Fang feel justified, feelings about a certain blonde she wisely kept hidden from Pyrrha. This lead to many shouting matches, so much so they were not only separated from each other but their team as well. It eventually got to the point where Ruby and Yang were a two woman team with occasional, and often unwanted, help from the prissy heiress and moody cat. It unfortunately seemed this would prove to be a reoccurring trend within the team, threatening further dismay admits the already shaky "team".
Ren didn't know what to do, or what was going to happen to his and team RWBY. But what he did know was that the Huntsman Academies, maybe even Remnant itself wouldn't be the same.
Sorry for the short chapter, but I didn't want to drag this out any more than I needed to. But here we are, the beginning of a new life for Jaune, or rather Jack, and the repercussions for team RWBY and to a lesser extent RVN. Oh, and to everyone who's read my other attempts of this concept, I didn't stop writing them because I thought they were bad, if I did that I wouldn't have any stories, I stopped because they either never clearly got the point across or I was writing myself into a corner. Anyway I hoped you all enjoyed and thank you for all the favorites, reviews, and follows.