Disclaimer: Don't own RWBY.

"Hey… I'm Jaune."

Jaune had expected to see some crazy stuff at Beacon, he mused as he pulled the girl to her feet, but certainly not before he had even set foot in the school. The girl in question was red in hair, clothing, and current complexion, and kept her eyes cast downwards in embarrassment. He had seen the whole incident, wandering around in hopes of meeting someone, but had only approached when both the explosion and the scary (but oh-so-beautiful) girl in white had cleared away.

"Ruby," the red girl finally returned. She looked up at him then, a bemused expression on her face. "Aren't you the guy that threw up on the ship?" Taken rather aback, he sputtered,

"Well, um, that is… I, uh, kinda get motion sick." They started walking towards the towering building ahead, and he quickly added, "Not that it's a big deal or anything, I just ate too soon beforehand and I was nervous, well, not very nervous, or really nervous at all, but…" he trailed off awkwardly.

"But?" Ruby prompted, now stifling giggles. Desperately casting about for something to talk about other than his numerous failings ('Confidence, Jaune!' he thought with a mental eye-roll), he noticed a man towing what looked to be a hotel luggage cart filled to the brim with various briefcases.

"Uh, what's in all the cases?" he asked quickly. He'd been going for friendly, but judging by the dour look leveled his way, he hadn't succeeded.

"Miss Schnee's Dust supplies," the man grunted shortly.

"Oh, the girl in white?" Jaune said. "Why were you guys fighting, anyway?" he directed towards Ruby.

"I wasn't! Or we weren't. But Yang abandoned me and I was dizzy and confused and accidentally tripped into one of the cases and she just started yelling at me and," Ruby took a breath before continuing, "I tried to apologize but she shook Dust in my face and I just sneezed and everything exploded!"

Jaune and the man were, unbeknownst to each other, giving her very similar baffled expressions. Jaune was the first to recover, and laughed awkwardly, saying "Well, I guess you guys didn't make the best first impression. But I'm sure she'll realize it was all just an accident!"

The man started walking slightly faster, in a futile effort to escape the two. Ruby, who was looking toward him for confirmation of Jaune's statement, started slightly and called out, "Hey! That briefcase looks like it's about to fall off!" Indeed, one of the briefcases higher up was moving around with the vibration of the cart, slightly too close to the edge for comfort. Jaune perked up and jogged to catch the cart, giving an offhand "I'll get that!" to the man. As he reached for the loose case atop the stacks, the man tried to jerk the cart away, muttering obscenities under his breath. Jaune's fingertips brushed the case, caught it, and thanks to the opposing force the man provided yanked it clean off the stack. Jaune stumbled back and fell, and the case tumbled after him, opening seemingly in slow motion. He caught a glimpse of the case's contents as it opened: a row of Dust vials, colors flashing too quickly in the sunlight to identify, and with that, the case crashed down onto him, its volatile payload immediately erupting in a flash of searing white light.

When Jaune blearily opened his eyes, Ruby's face loomed over him with a worried expression, which quickly shifted to relieved as she noticed him awaken.

"What…" was all Jaune could get out before Ruby exclaimed "Oh my Oum, Jaune, you're alright! There was this huge explosion, even bigger than the earlier one, and you kinda looked like you might have been dead. But you're not! Thank goodness for Aura…" she trailed off.

"Aura?" Jaune asked, somewhat dazedly.

"Yeah, I think you could have been seriously hurt without it."

"Uh, yeah, glad it was there… Wait, where'd that one guy go?" Jaune asked. Ruby looked around briefly, then said, "He left; he was muttering something about ordering a new case before anyone noticed?"

"Oh," was all Jaune could say in reply. "Well, I'm pretty sure I'm alright (somehow, he thought to himself), so uh, why don't we just forget about that whole thing and get going to the welcoming or whatever?"

"Sounds good to me!" Ruby cheered, grabbing his extended hand and hauling him to his feet. Suddenly, Jaune's vision swam and he felt an odd pull in his gut, back towards where he had just been laying. Fearing he was on the verge of falling over again, he knelt down on the hard stone on the path, staring at the ground and trying to breathe normally.

"You OK?" Ruby asked, face shifting back to concerned in an instant. He took a moment to respond, focusing on the disconcerting sensation and willing it to fade. He slowly stood back up and said, "Yeah, I think so. I probably just need some rest or something." Giving his whole body a shake in an attempt to forget the odd feeling, he added, "we really should get to the welcoming speech, though."

The next weeks passed in an exhilarating and nerve-wracking blur. Jaune and Ruby did their best to forget their recent respective explosive incidents and continued to the school without further mentioning them. The headmaster gave a speech, if it could be called such, and Jaune spent a somewhat humiliating night sleeping in the auditorium, once he correctly interpreted all the strange looks he was getting. He met a lot of people in a blur, unsuccessfully attempted flirting with a few of them, and generally tried to show on the outside the confidence he lacked inside.

Initiation was a beast unto itself, and that's all he was willing to think about the subject even after it was all over.

But attending a school he had no business being at in the first place proved more difficult than he could- and perhaps should- have imagined. Even beyond trying to show his team (and wasn't that a wild thought; his team) that he belonged and had skills as a warrior and a person, schoolwork bewildered him and quickly suffered due to his lack of studying, current and previous. The effect only worsened when, in a misguided attempt at sincerity largely borne of frustration, he confessed his faked transcripts to Pyrrha, only to be overheard by Cardin, easily his least favorite person on the campus. The following days and weeks Jaune could only describe as "hellish". He felt stressed, overworked, underprepared despite that, and had to deal with Cardin & Co's constant coercion, called "friendship" by them. Not one of his friends and teammates bought it, but he felt he had to at least attempt to act as a good leader, despite his general shortcomings. And so Jaune pretended everything was fine and did his best to shoulder the burden he had largely forced upon himself.

Which brings us to today, in the forest of Forever Fall, friends and foes fleeing from the fearsome fiend of an Ursa. The creature had been lured inadvertently by spilled sweet sap, courtesy of Cardin, and now ran hot on the heels of a blonde-haired hunter. That hunter, unfortunately, was not Yang, or this story would have progressed quite differently. Let us then rejoin the action.

Jaune ran at a flat-out sprint, gasping desperately for breath, extremely aware of the crashing sounds and loud grunting behind him. His eyes darted madly, searching for something, anything, that could help him escape with his body intact, recognizing faintly that he would run out of breath very shortly. They seized upon something- a tree loomed just ahead, larger than most of the others he'd seen in the forest. He pushed himself just a bit further, and darted around the trunk, holding Crocea Mors and his shield aloft, heaving for the oxygen he had lost in his madcap run. Not seconds after he had reached the cover, he felt as much as heard a deafening crash, and the tree shuddered behind him. After several seconds of tense almost-silence, Jaune gathered the courage to peek around the trunk, only to see the Ursa slumped on the ground in front of the tree.

"Ha!" Jaune shouted, throwing a fist into the air, bursting into a coughing fit immediately after. "Got you," he rasped after catching his breath once more, moving forward with Crocea Mors pointed threateningly toward the Ursa. The Ursa shifted, huffed, and Jaune froze. Its massive head began to rise, and Jaune suddenly found his gaze met by two baleful red orbs. Unable to decide whether he should run forward and attempt to kill the Grimm before it could fully recover, or renew his dash in the opposite direction, Jaune simply remained frozen in place, hands shaking. The Ursa gave a great lurch upwards, and Jaune finally seized control of his muscles back, dashing forward and striking at the beast, scoring two thin wounds across its face. The Ursa gave a great roar in return, finally standing back at its full height, which towered over Jaune. Jaune raised his shield just in time to deflect a blow, even that slight impact shoving him back and sending pain shooting through his shield-arm. Ignoring the pain (more out of desperation than any actual determination), he stabbed forward, getting a smokey substance to spill out for his trouble. He ducked under another swipe, and then, eyes flicking up, he yelped and shifted his shield, taking the next hit directly to it and gasping as his arm really began to hurt. Striking out in turn once more, Jaune began to feel hope as the Ursa flinched back, and sank into a ready stance for its next strike.

"Jaune!" a voice called from somewhere off to the side, beyond where the Ursa sat.

"Here!" Jaune cried in return, deflecting another blow and managing another hit. He could do it! Just another hit or two and it'd be over; his aura should hopefully work to keep his now faintly deadened arm working alright until they got back to Beacon.

"We're coming, hold on!" Jaune looked to his left after bringing his shield back up and saw Pyrrha running at a sprint (not looking out of breath because of course not) toward him. His lapse in attention caused the shield to drift left with his vision, leaving an opening that the Grimm promptly took advantage of. With a mighty swipe, Jaune was pushed back- not, unfortunately, away from the Ursa but towards the ground. As he landed, he felt his breath leave him with a loud gasp. His arm started throbbing harder, and Jaune realized with a chill that his Aura had almost run out. Abruptly the Ursa's claws embedded themselves in Jaune's gut, and he cried out hoarsely in pain.

"Jaune!" he heard, somewhere off to the side, and became faintly aware of the Ursa dissolving into black mist above him. Pyrrha's face appeared above him, looking distraught, and he tried to smile reassuringly up at her. That smile, more ghastly than comforting, turned into a grimace as, even over the pain (which had begun to diminish, oddly enough), he felt a strong and unpleasant tugging behind what remained of his navel. Pyrrha started to shake him lightly, shouting something indistinct, and he mumbled "lemme… sleep". Black began to overtake his vision, and he gladly fell into it.

When Jaune blearily opened his eyes, Ruby's face loomed over him with a worried expression, which quickly shifted to relieved as she noticed him awaken.

"What…" was all Jaune could get out before Ruby exclaimed "Oh my Oum, Jaune, you're alright! There was this huge explosion, even bigger than the earlier one, and you kinda looked like you might have been dead. But you're not! Thank goodness for Aura…" she trailed off.

"Aura?" Jaune asked dazedly.

"Yeah, I think you could have been seriously hurt without it."

"I guess so... how did you guys get me out of there alright? I thought I was done for."

"Well, the other guy left, so it was kinda just me, but I couldn't really do anything! Luckily I don't think you've taken any damage, somehow." Jaune looked up at this.

"Wait, what other guy? And what do you mean, no damage? What happened to Pyrrha?" Ruby gave him a weird look.

"OK, maybe we should find the infirmary before the welcoming speech… you might have a concussion. Oh, why did Yang have to leave?" she said, half-muttering the last part. Jaune actually began to take in his surroundings; not inside a Bullhead, or the school, or the infirmary, but rather on the pavement a good distance in front of Beacon's main entrance.

"What the…" Jaune murmured. Ruby took the opportunity to pull him to his feet. Jaune immediately felt the same horrible tugging sensation in his gut, and a pain equal in magnitude blossomed in his head. He sank to a kneel, bowing his head, and tried to focus on breathing for a moment. Before he knew it, the sensation had passed, aside from some lingering head pain.

"Seriously, are you alright, uh, Jaune? Right? You sure you don't want to go to the infirmary?"

"I… just want to know what's going on," Jaune said, wheezing slightly.

"Right, we should probably go to the welcoming speech!" Ruby said.

"Wha…" was all Jaune could get out to that statement.

"Let's hurry up so we're not late! I'll take you to the infirmary right after, though," Ruby added. With that, they started walking toward the imposing structure of Beacon, Jaune filled with confusion and a vague sense of dread.

They entered the auditorium, most of the prospective students having already entered. Off to the side, Yang called, "Ruby! Over here! I saved you a spot!" Ruby looked up at Jaune and said, "That's my sister, Yang! You should stick with us though, I don't want you falling over again."

"H-hey…" was Jaune's only response, too busy taking in his surroundings. He ignored the subsequent squabble between Weiss, Ruby, and Yang, in favor of peering intently at the faces around him, searching for something resembling a conspiratorial grin or wink, something to tell him that this was just a horribly elaborate prank on an injured(?) man. But then, he realized, Ruby at the least would never play along with something in that vein. When Ozpin coughed lightly into the mic before launching into the exact same short, generally disappointing speech Jaune remembered receiving the last time before dismissing them, Jaune realized there were no other options. Either Ruby was not nearly as good a person as Jaune had thought, or he was in the past. Which meant Initiation would happen, again, tomorrow morning. Well, shit.

Greetings, fellow kids! This is my first fanfiction, for which I decided to write about time-travel because why wouldn't I do this thing? Any critique/advice would be appreciated, and I hope you enjoyed the first chapter. I skipped over Initiation and all that jazz because a) I'm writing about that next chapter, and b) why on earth would I want to write the exact events of the show when literally nothing has changed that's goddamn insane and I would like to think I am not that thing which I just said.