Taking it from the top
As they stepped through the portal, Team RWBY and Jaune immediately felt themselves being pulled with a force they could only really imagine as what it was like to be sucked down to the lowest depths of the sea.
Despite their best efforts to keep in direct touch with each other, the strange orange-filtered void they were being pulled deeper into wound up forcing them apart and before they knew it everything was black…
Ruby's vision corrected itself suddenly as she rubbed her head and dropped something out of her hand that loosely hung from her neck. Looking down, she would see that it was a whistle.
"My whistle?" Ruby was confused as she felt her vision completely come to her, seeing that she was back in her team's dorm room from Beacon.
Looking around in confusion, she then took hold of her whistle and a slight smirk formed on her face before she blew on it.
The result was 3 subsequent screams from her teammates who fell out of their beds at the same time and grunted. "C'mon, get up." Ruby put a hand on her hip as everyone else in the room pulled themselves up and they all seemed a bit dazed and out of it like they just woke up, which was fitting, considering the fact they were all just in bed moments ago.
"What's going on?" Weiss spoke up first. "Are we back on Remnant?"
"I'm pretty certain we are, but isn't this Beacon?" Blake asked while rubbing the top of her head, noticing that she had her bow on again.
"Beacon? But isn't Beacon supposed to be in ruins?" Yang walked over to the window and parted the curtains.
What she saw made her gasp.
"What is it Yang?" Ruby walked over and her eyes widened.
"Oh come now, I don't think it's that impress-" Weiss was next to speak up as she and Blake both walked over at the same time. There they saw Beacon Academy, but not a thing was amiss with the campus.
Students were out in the courtyard, either lingering around, or going to class. Beacon didn't have a giant Wyvern perched atop it. This immediately made Weiss look around for her scroll, finding it right next to her night stand, it was the older model of scroll she had when she was in Beacon.
Turning it on, she would see that global communications were still very much active. "I don't believe this." looking at the date on her scroll, she dropped it, but thankfully Ruby caught it before it hit the ground.
"What is it?" she asked in confusion while looking at the scroll. "Wait, what?!"
"What's wrong sis?"
"Y-Yang the date! It's…"
"Right after we became a team." Blake spoke up now, looking at her scroll. "Meaning that we have returned to Remnant…"
"But we're behind in time." Weiss added with her arms crossed, now furrowing her eyebrows.
"Wait… This is our first day of class…" Ruby noted, remembering how they were almost late. "That means you all should get ready!"
"On it." Yang began digging into her bag for her Beacon uniform with her right arm when she suddenly lifted it up and gasped.
"What is it, Yang?" Blake was immediately at her side.
"My arm. I haven't lost it yet." she moved her fingers and pinched it with her left hand.
"Come to think of it, if we're this far back, I'm still the heiress to the SDC…" Weiss noted as she finished buttoning up her uniform top and began adjusting her hair.
"Cinder hasn't arrived at the academy yet." Ruby added when she spoke up.
"Ruby?" Yang asked while walking over to her after getting her uniform on.
Ruby turned to face Yang and the rest of her teammates. "Cinder hasn't shown up yet, in fact… Nothing bad has happened here yet. We can change things for the better."
"Shouldn't we try to get back to the present?" Weiss brought up while walking over.
"We probably can't." Blake shook her head. "Not without the same means we used to get here. And I don't think we'll just be able to walk into the Atlas vault for the staff for a second trip back to our proper present. If it even exists now."
"She has a point." Yang looked down as a chill went down her spine at the other realization that came with her arm being back.
"Say what time is it?" Weiss asked Ruby now.
"Um… 8:55." Ruby pointed out as her eyes widened in realization before she was first out the door with her semblance. Talking more about their situation would have to wait until after class.
Jaune woke up in Team JNPR's dorm room in Beacon, looking very puzzled at his current circumstances before noticing the shifting figure in the bed adjacent to his bed.
Sitting up, he leaned over with narrowed eyes before suddenly, the figure of Pyrrha Nikos shot up and tossed him to the ground, resulting in a pained groan from the blonde.
"Oh my gosh! I'm so sorry Jaune!" she gasped, covering her mouth. She wore fairly basic pajamas consisting of a button up shirt and matching pants.
"It's okay, Pyrrha." the blonde grunted as he pulled himself up and held his head while Ren and Nora both were already dressed for class.
"So you two are heavier sleepers?" Ren asked while holding a couple of cups of coffee. One of which Pyrrha took.
"I'm a pretty light sleeper." Jaune admitted while sitting up and looking around the room. It definitely looked as though they had just moved in. "Say, what day is it, Ren?"
"You know, you could check your scroll for that." Ren pulled it up on his. "It's August 27th, why?"
"And the year?" Jaune added before noticing the calendar Nora just put up on the wall that was crooked. "Wait, nevermind." he rubbed his head and saw Pyrrha stepping out of the bathroom already looking refreshed and clad in her uniform.
"Thanks for the coffee, Ren." she smiled and checked her scroll in front of the door now.
Jaune paused and stared at Pyrrha for the longest time now watching as Nora began talking with her and laughing.
One clear memory was playing on repeat in his head that made his eyes well up with tears as he watched them while Ren walked over and pulled Nora back.
He cleared his throat. "Uh, hey guys, shouldn't we get going? Class starts in like 10 minutes!" Jaune spoke up.
"Oh! Very apt for you to keep track of the time, Jaune, but shouldn't you get dressed?" Pyrrha pointed out to him.
He realized he was still clad in his Pumpkin Pete's Onesie and immediately went to change clothes.
By the time he stumbled out, Pyrrha was already holding the door for him and soon enough the whole team left for class.
Professor Port's first lecture was exactly the same, word for word as Weiss noted in her head. She was noticing Ruby actually looking like she was paying attention while Blake silently took some notes and Yang let out a yawn of boredom.
Jaune on the other side of the room was actually focused on the lecture and was mentally going over in his head if he ever had an encounter with a Boarbatusk himself.
Professor Port spoke up suddenly. "So, who among you believes themselves to be the embodiment of these traits?"
Almost on instinct, Weiss raised her hand, it wasn't out of rage this time like she originally did. "I do, sir."
"Well, then, let's find out!" Professor Port declared. "Step forward and face your opponent!"
Weiss stood up and was dismissed to put on her combat gear.
Seeing her reflection in the mirror wearing this old outfit definitely brought back nostalgic memories to her as she remembered how many fights she had seen while looking like this, but now wasn't the time for reflection. Now was the time to show growth.
Stepping back into Professor Port's class, Weiss shot a smile toward Ruby who nodded to her.
"Alright!" Professor Port's booming voice spoke up. "Let the match, begin!" he declared slashing the lock off the cage that the boarbatusk was trapped in, it ran out and directly for Weiss who rolled to the side of it's attack and shot out some icicles at the creature that it dodged around.
"Ho ho! Looks like your opponent's faster than you might give it credit for!" Professor Port laughed.
"Thinking back, or ahead(?) to the Vytal festival, it made sense that Port was chosen to be one of the hosts for it." Ruby mentally noted while watching Weiss's fight intently.
"Let's give this a try." Weiss focused herself for a moment while the boarbatusk started moving for her, only to slam into a glyph that made it fall onto its back.
"What're you waiting for Miss Schnee?! It's open for the kill!" Professor Port declared. "Go forth and claim your glory!"
Weiss held a focused stance now as another glyph appeared behind her, sure enough, a summoned version of the very same boarbatusk launched right out of it just as the other one rolled back up.
The two boarbatusks began walking around each other, almost as if to size each other up while everyone was watching intently.
"What an unexpected development! It seems Miss Schnee's been honing her semblance's abilities more than we previously thought!" Professor Port exclaimed now.
The two boarbatusks began wrestling one another before finally the real one was knocked on its back yet again. The summoned one rolled up as fast as it could, slamming right through the real boarbatusk and killing it.
"Very impressive work Miss Schnee! But do remember that your opponents won't always give you an opening to get away with pulling a trick like that off!" Professor Port stated as Weiss nodded, putting Myrtenaster away, just as class time was up and everyone was dismissed.
Outside of the classroom, Weiss was about to walk up to her teammates when Jaune approached her. "Weiss-"
"Don't tell me…" Weiss grunted in annoyance, her immediate thoughts going to all of Jaune's hair brained schemes to get with her.
"Relax, I'm not going to ask you out or anything." Jaune assured, which made her raise an eyebrow. "You… Remember everything, don't you?"
Sighing in relief, Weiss gestured over to the rest of her teammate who had stopped and waited for her. They walked over now.
"Wait, do you all remember what happened?" Jaune asked.
"Yep." Yang yawned again. "Forgot how simple things were when my biggest stresses were staying awake in class."
"Tell me about it." Jaune laughed a little. "Look um.. Can we talk? Maybe somewhere a little more discreet than out here?"
"Sure. I was thinking the same thing." Ruby nodded.
"Great!" Jaune nodded.
"Jaune, you're gonna be late for our next class!" Pyrrha spoke up.
"Oh right. Later you guys!" Jaune ran over to catch up with Pyrrha.
"So, you saw that didn't you?" Weiss asked, looking at her hand.
"You can still summon." Ruby noted. "Meaning any developments our semblances had before…"
"Are still there. Guess at least Jaune already has his semblance." Yang mused. "I mean do any of us really have any notable upgrades besides those two?"
"No, but that might mean we have more time to make that progress." Blake recommended. "I mean I can make my clones work over a longer distance. By the way, Weiss… Since you do have access to your father's funds again… Do you think we could maybe…"
"Upgrade our equipment?" Weiss asked. "Sure. I'll even invite Team JNPR for upgrades as well."
"Great. Because it feels weird thinking that Crescent Rose can't do the 360 turn right now." Ruby pouted.
"And it'd definitely help out to have those bombs I had before." Yang admitted as the team began walking through the halls and past Professor Ozpin.
"Hmm…" the man sipped from his mug while watching the four girls.
Commentary: In RPG terms, it seems like our protagonists at least got to keep their EXP in their jump backwards in time.
And yep! Here we are! Admittedly, I didn't want another word starting with "RE" for the title of this story, but no other word came to mind that didn't start with that.
Down to the general premise for this story. I'll admit, I'm a sucker for those "Reaction" style fics that never last long on this website, or just never update again. Taking the idea to its core, I thought about why I liked those stories, and I've realized that I like them so much because the idea about characters knowing their future and trying to prevent it from happening is just one I like.
It's also a topic I'm sure a lot of us can empathize with. Whether we'd go back in time to invest in coin, or just to prevent an embarrassing memory from happening. I'm sure if you were given that chance, you'd probably try to change things for the better, if not for yourself, then for the world.
That idea is very much a theme I do wanna have present as I progress this story. Also the idea of whether fate/destiny is something set in stone. I'm sure you're probably familiar with that kind of stuff.
I will add that while RWBY and Jaune are aware of the future, they don't know all the details of the future. Like for instance, they're unaware of the severity of the CCT hack in Volume 2. They're also unaware of anything the bad guys have planned apart from just the stuff they were directly involved with. So don't expect omnipotent knowledge from our protagonists on every future event. Frankly, I do find it more interesting that way. It adds a chaotic factor to the mix of them trying to fix things but not knowing about other things. That's not to say there aren't any other chaotic factors at play that I'm sure you can probably guess given the prologue's ending.
Anyways, I've more or less uploaded these first 2 chapters at the same time as a way to test for interest in this story. I'll probably feel more inclined to update this story with a little more frequency if there is a more interest.
I'll just say, in my outline for this story I've currently got 80+ planned chapters, but I'm open to ideas on how to direct things plotwise. And I do plan to work some form of ships into this story, although since I'm not too good at that type of thing, don't expect it to take center stage unless I somehow feel emboldened to do that. In which case, I'll apologize in advance if it's not good.