Hey guys, had an idea for a fic. I know time travel fics are very common but I still wanted to give my own idea a shot. I don't think anyone has made one with two people jumping into the past, nor one where the antagonist also did it. So I hope this is something rather unique. Feel free to ask questions about the plot since time travel fics are nests for plot holes and paradoxes. I'll do what I can to answer your questions about anomalies as long as it doesn't reveal the plot line. The inner workings of something irrational like traveling through time are pretty difficult to rationally explain but I think I have a pretty decent explanation if anyone's interested in how I envisioned this to be possible. Anyway, this story will not have as much 'character development' in terms of the main characters but i'll try to add some side character...character development. This is going to be a Jaune x Weiss fic, tho it would focus more on active events, combat, action, storyline instead of romance. If you guys want, I can make flashback scenes, how the world changed in the 8 years they just jumped back from, how Weiss and Jaune got together, what happened to the rest of the cast, what happened to the initial war, to Cinder, Mercury and Emerald, what the next 3 years in Beacon was like for team JRRN.

I also don't have a beta since I'm really new to writing, that paired with the fact that I'm not a native English speaker means there could most definitely be spelling/grammar mistakes down the line. I apologize for those in advance.

Let me know your thoughts about this prologue/first chapter, any feedback would be much appreciated. So without further ado, Dusts of time (derived from Sands of time) Chapter 1! tada~

Standard disclaimer: I don't own RWBY, that right belongs to Rooster Teeth.

EDIT: the horizontal separation lines weren't showing, sorry if it confused a few people, put them in and edited the chapter now.

EDIT2: Math is hard... I'm so sorry but i made a mistake with the numbers, its 9 years, not 8. I'm new to this so pardon my mistakes. i was excited to post this so i was a little sloppy with my proofreading, i promise i will be much more thorough in the future.

Everything fell apart. Beacon Tower, once the highest structure for miles, was reduced to a jagged, cylindrical shaft less than half its original height. The vast open square in front of the auditorium was littered with craters and destruction. A few patches of fire were still nipping at the remaining woodwork. The normally fresh air was mixed with lingering smoke, grimm vapors and the distinct smell of burning flesh. Beacon has fallen… again, and this time, Vale is soon to follow.

Jaune tore down the splintered wooden remains of what once the large, dark oak double doors to the ballroom. The grimm invading the school have already left the area. The empty husk of what was once one of the greatest academies on Remnant no longer catching the interest of the creatures. A few stragglers here and there were still roaming the grounds, but they were not much of a threat to the twenty-six year old huntsman.

The young man was dressed in a black jacket stopping around mid thigh displaying a silver sigil right above his left shoulderblade, made up of a knight's helm, sword and shield. His arms were covered in metal gauntlets and his hands with black leather gloves. A black and blue checkered button up shirt was worn under the jacket and a gray t-shirt worn under that. His blue jeans held up by two crisscrossing belts and a pair of sneakers took up the lower half of the outfit. Two relatively large swords were strapped to his back in parallel with both hilts peeking out over his right shoulder.

The sound of the charred doors breaking of its brittle hinges preceded the loud crash caused by its impact with the ground as Jaune stepped into the large hall.

So far, his search had yielded no results, they didn't find him at the base of the tower, nor the lecture hall building. The fires that ate away at the tables and chairs had long since been extinguished and the black soot that covered most of the remaining surfaces now coated his equally black gloved hand as he pushed through debris and obstacles to move from one area to the next in search of their leader. 'Damn it old man, where are you?.. This doesn't look good' he thought as he let his eyes once again look about his surroundings.

Jaune sighed in frustration as he dragged his fingers through his blond hair, not caring in the slightest how the blackened ash dirtied his golden strands. He reached for the communication device strapped to his neck and pressed the button there.

"Find anything Weiss?" He asked his partner, not really optimistic about the odds of locating that man.

"Nothing… Jaune..." Came a soft reply.

"What is it?" He made his way back to the courtyard.

"This is a mess… The school, its..."

"I know." he sighed, eying the remaining half of the dorms still standing. Several rooms were broken open, revealing the yellow painted walls that acted as a home away from home to the students. It has been six years since he graduated, but Beacon will always be a very pivotal point of his life. Seeing it in this state was making his heart ache.

"We were so close… all it took was another small push and we would have won… how could this happen?..." Jaune didn't respond… he didn't understand how this came to pass either. None of it made sense. They infiltrated Salem's base in Mantle, they defeated her army, they won! So how?! They already had victory in their palms… but when they were upon Salem's castle up far north, when they were about to push the final blade through her plans, a bright white flash engulfed everything, Salem vanished and Vale was suddenly under attack, it just didn't make sense.

He made his way back to the ruined tower passing the fountain, now void of water having drained through the cracks on the ground. As he got closer, he once again passed the fallen chunks of metal and concrete that completely ruined the once even foot path. A fist sized pebble stood in the blond knight's path and was promptly kicked away as he took another step. The sound of the object bouncing off the uneven path thumped through the air as it finally collided with the larges block of the fallen tower. Jaune came to a sudden halt as he heard the rock making several clinks after it disappeared into the crack beneath the large chunk of debris, each sound more distant than the last. 'odd...' he mused. He eventually made a move over to it when a small echo made its way to his ears. His eyes widened as a thought struck him.

"Weiss, meet me at the tower!" he spoke through the com.

"Huh? Did you find something?"

"I don't know, maybe. Just get over here." he ordered as he quickened his pace, weaving through the debris and ducking through the hole on the side of the tower's base. A few seconds later, the young white haired woman came through the main doors across from the side he entered from.

"What did you find?" the former heiress asked as soon as she met up with Jaune in the center of the room. Her taste for clothes hasn't changed that much since her teens. She was donning a white combat skirt and white boots running up to right under her knees. Her top however was a relatively long, black jacket paired with a white corset underneath. The same stylized 'knight's shield, sword and helm' symbol was engraved on the back of her jacket and the two pairs of parallel buttons kept it on snug and hugging her form. Her left palm was hovering over Myrtenaster grip while the clearly synthetic material that made up her right hand peeked out of her jacket's cuff. Her usual tiara-like hair pin was ever present keeping her hair as it has always been, tied to a tight pony tail on the side of her head.

Jaune slowly made his way to the right of the circular space. The columns were chipped and cracked and the golden elevator was crooked in its shaft. The normally green hue brought on by the overhanging lights was replaced by a soft golden glow as the sunlight flitted through the cracks on the walls.

"Eight years ago, when Cinder first started her assault on Vale, Professor Ozpin brought..." He paused and let out a slow sigh, "He brought Pyrrha and me down into a chamber no one other than a few people knew existed. It completely slipped my mind, but there's a vault under the tower."

"A vault?" Weiss asked with a slight tilt of her head.

"It's where Amber was hidden." She didn't know all the details about the previous fall maiden, she did however know enough. Amber was ambushed while traveling, got half of her power stolen and was put in a comatose state, kept alive only by Atlas technology. She died during the initial attack on Beacon eight years ago. She never really bothered with the where and how.

Jaune turned his head to the ruined golden box.

"We just have to move the elevator and it should be a straight drop through the shaft." Jaune added as he walked over to the contraption in question. Only half of it was peeking above the ground, the roof was dented and digging into the shaft's walls and its doors we're long since lost.

"Why would he be in a vault under the school?"

"He probably isn't, but I remember him mentioning having had it rebuilt long after the tower was finished. That has to mean something right? He has to have something hidden down there." Jaune explained as he lifted his arm, a sudden white glow covered the black gloved limb as he widened his stance and slammed his gauntlet clad fist unto the already dented roof of the elevator. A loud, explosive sound traveled through the empty elevator shaft as the box of metal collapsed into itself and slid down the wide rectangular hole. A few seconds passed before the echo of another thud traveled back up the shaft.

"Come on." He said as he started glowing a bright white before jumping into the darkness. The former heiress followed suit.

The young knight sprung from side to side to slow his descent toward the vault, illuminating the space with his warmly glowing aura. Weiss was following along, her own white glyphs adding to Jaune's light in pulses as she landed on platform after platform following her blond partner deeper into the earth.

Weiss saw Jaune land on the now demolished elevator roof with a light thump and the white haired girl followed soon after. Jaune opened his hand with his palm up and channeled more of his aura. The glow previously covering his entire body moved and congregated on his hand, expanding and covering is with a soft glow of light, illuminating the area around them.

Even with the relatively bright source of light, Weiss still had trouble seeing down the wide corridor. Taking a look around, she noted the sheer size of the chamber they just dropped in to.

"This… was under the school the entire time?"

"Yeah." Jaune started walking forward orienting himself by keeping the huge pillars in view at either side of him. The quiet pats of his boots together with the clicks of her own heels were the only sound they could hear.

Weiss kept close to her partner being their only source of light in the vast vault. Looking down, she noticed thin cracks running along the lit up ground beneath their feet.

The pair walked for what felt like several minutes until they saw a small glow at the end of their path. Weiss squinted her eyes to make out just what it was that was giving off a synthetic looking blue glow just as Jaune rushed forward.

"Hey!" The former heiress yelped as the darkness quickly seeped in with her human torch running forward. She quickly upped her pace and followed.

As they closed in on the odd glow, Weiss noted a machine with two coffin like shaped pods, both were laying relatively low and tilted up ever so slightly with their glass covered hatches closed.

"It's the same machine..." She heard her young knight say, "No… its… its different..." She couldn't quite place his tone, it seemed distant. She hated it when he lapsed into internal musings. He'd been a part of the Brotherhood for quite a long time before she joined herself, even back when he returned as a student after Beacon got restored and she is well aware that he's been through a lot between that time and her involvement with their secret group. And that wasn't even counting Pyrrha's death from way back, which she knew shook him to the core.

After the initial assault on Vale, her father was adamant about keeping her in Atlas, so she finished her Huntress training over there. With Beacon's restoration taking longer, she graduated ahead of her peers from Atlas Academy, with the then formed team JRRN, lead by Jaune,a year after. The young knight apparently spent the first half of the extra year hunting down Cinder together with Ruby, Nora and Ren and unlocked his semblance in that time. After many life and death situations and still absolutely no clue as to where their target was however, Ruby's uncle, Qrow, lead the group back to Vale and convinced them that this war wasn't over, that they'll get their chance as who ever was responsible for the attack will most certainly strike again. All they had to do was wait and prepare. She heard from Ruby that the veteran huntsman took a liking to Jaune, apparently saw potential in him, and trained him himself, before taking on the role as Beacon's new Headmaster a few months later. The number of students in Beacon dropped significantly that year compared to before the attack, but all the known power players returned to the school, aside from herself, Blake and Yang that is. This actually increased the overall average in skill among the students albeit dropping the sample size considerably. The staff also remained mostly intact aside from Headmaster Qrow taking over from the missing Professor Ozpin.

From what she'd been told, Jaune joined the Brotherhood even before they resumed their education at Beacon, so did Ruby. Ren and Nora were initially kept in the dark, but they were eventually introduced to the secret group of huntsman and huntresses dedicated to protecting Remnant from the shadows. And the four of them took several missions tracking down clues about their enemy's plans. Whatever he went through in the years roaming Mistral, whatever he witnesed in his missions while at Beacon, what ever he did during the one year after his graduation, before she met him again, whatever exactly happened… it changed him. Gone was the happy go lucky 'dunce', the ignorant and lazy klutz, the weak and pathetic young boy who forged his way into Beacon. The day she met him again, the day he saved her life from Adam Taurus, she saw a Huntsman, strong, skilled, full of strength and resolve, a knight in shining armor, who eventually became her knight in shining armor. She shook her head to snap her out of her musings.

"You know what this is?"

"Not quite." he answered after a brief pause. "its like the machine Ozpin used to try and transfer Amber's aura to Pyrrha."

"Oh." now she understood his complicated expression earlier.

"But… its somehow different." he reached out and dragged his hand over one of the glass covered pods.

The between the machine's two coffin like hatches, it had a weird cylinder, around a meter and a half thick and a bit more than that high with weird ridges and what appears to be a small glass window emitting a very light blue hue. Taking a few steps forward, the young woman took a peek into the compartment. She narrowed her eyes at what she saw. In the middle of the cylindrical container, held up by several metallic arms, with wires attached to its top and bottom, was a fairly large, dust crystal. What was odd though was its shape and color. It was cleanly cut, like a prism, the shape one would get if they took two very tall pyramids and stuck them together base to base. But it also had cleanly drilled holes going from side to side. The color, or colors were also rather extraordinary, it somehow looked like an Aurora Borealis, the northern lights she saw in Atlas from time to time. A mix of blues and greens. She had never seen dust like this before. 'huh… weird' she furrowed her brows and tilted her head slightly trying to get a better angle when she noticed something even more out of place. Her eyes widened as she witnessed the colors flowing and blending together in the crystal, as if it were made out of liquid. The metal hands holding the object in place obviously suggest that it is indeed a solid object, but the slow swaying of the blend lines give off the illusion of fluidity.

"Jaune."

"Hm?"

"Come take a look at this." Weiss said, her eyes still glued to the small port hole as she called the knight over with a wave of her hand. She moved over slightly to let him peer into the glass window. Jaune's face twisted into a look of confusion. So he didn't know what this crystal was either. In all her time involved in the world of huntsmen and huntresses, she has never encountered dust like this before. And that's saying something coming from the former heiress of the Schnee Dust Company. She had been taught about dust from a very young age by expert scientists and researchers.

The constant blinking of a small light caught her attention. Grasping Jaune by the elbow, she pulled him over to the source which she noticed was a holographic display projector in standby mode. She pointed at it and game her partner a questioning look. He merely shrugged and reached out for the power button. A holographic page popped up prompting several modes of authentication, from retinal scans, to hand prints sensors, to voice recognition, all of which she had seen, and used, before but never all at once. Whatever this was, it must have been a closely protected secret. She met his eyes for a brief moment before the young huntsman placed his hand on a gray, rectangular platform. A blue line ran from the top of the tab down to the bottom before running back up again. A beeb, and the small green indicator lit up. Jaune paused. It seems he's been authorized access to… whatever this was. He leaned forward slightly to align his right eye with the now active retinal scanner. Another passage ob blue light, down and up and down again, followed by another beeb and another green light.

A few seconds ticked by before the holographic screen came to life displaying a single life of text: "State your Name and ID". Jaune looked slightly unsure and turned to her for some kind of confirmation. She just game him a firm nod.

"Jaune Arc, registration number: 205436546" Jaune said his personal identification number granted to him by the kingdom of Vale. The very same number printed on his license.

Red words flashed across the display: "Access Denied"

The knight once again furrowed his brows. Looking down in thought, he seemed to come to a conclusion as he once again raised his eyes to the screen.

"Jaune Arc, the 46th Valean knight." He spoke, a determined and confident edge to his voice.

The system came to life as it acknowledged the information. The generators at the back started thrumming, generating the much needed energy to power the machine. Several displays sprung up showing various charts and statistical data. Weiss and Jaune looked around in awe as the electronics sparked to life all around them.

"Jaune and Weiss..." The pairs heads whipped back to the display so quickly that Weiss' hair sailed against the young knights arm guards.

The face of Qrow, their missing leader was looking solemnly at them from the display.

"Listen carefully, I don't have much time to explain things thoroughly, I know you two are smart enough to fill in the blanks by your selves, so I'll make this quick." he paused as a tremor shook the recording device. "Salem has made her move." as if the scene up on the surface wasn't enough for them to figure that out. "She has acquired a crystal, one with spectacular properties, medicinal or destructive. More than that though, it had one particularly potent property, one that allowed her to rip a hole into the fabric of reality." His choice of words made the pair watching furrow their brows.

"With it, she tore through time and space itself and created a… tear… in the natural flow of the universe. She used it to jump back into the past."

"What..." Weiss could only whisper in confusion. She couldn't have heard correctly. That's not possible… right?

"I know it sounds impossible, but it's the truth." He added with conviction. "Changes she's making back there is having slow but steady effects on our present, the ambush of Vale… the people that attacked… some of them should have long since been dead. I saw people disappear, Glynda, just fading from existence. Only the small group of people who've been subjected to the same dust are safe from alterations. The death of their past selves would not affect their present."

'This is all too much information, no scratch that, this is just plain crazy! Qrow can't expect us to just believe this!'

"The two of you are the last ones of that group, Weiss when we saved you after you lost your arm back in the battle in Atlas. And Jaune, when we stitched up that massive hole in your chest back in the Second Battle of Vytal. You don't have much time before the alterations make it impossible for you to fix things. The crystal itself is impossible to alter through time so she most certainly has men out there right now looking for it. She already has all of the ones from Atlas, the one behind you, in that chamber, is the last one left. That dust is your only chance, you need to jump after her. The distance between the jumps are always constant. The machine behind you is primed and ready, just press the button on the inside of the pod, the use will consume the crystal, but its enough for two people. She doesn't know where the dust came from. She only got its use along with the samples, from the records she stole from Atlas after she attacked the research facilities. They were mined from the eastern deserts of Vacuo. You need to find it before her so go! Hurry! This is our one and final chance." with that the recording cut off.

Weiss and Jaune could only stare at the now dark wall where the projector previously lit up the display. Their minds were still not fully able to process what they just heard. Traveling through time? Jumping into the past? None of it made sense! Wess slowly tunred her head towards the blonde for confirmation that he'd indeed heard the very same thing she had just now. The wide eyes and completely overwhelmed look he wore told her all she needed to know. 'This… this is crazy...' she repeated in her mind.

She fully turned around to look at the machine behind her. Her mind just couldn't process all this. 'a time machine? Really?!' Her inner voice screamed in disbelief.

An echo snapped them both out of their shocked states. They turned to look into the darkness that filled the long passage from the elevator to the end where they currently were. A light sparked from the far end, voices, footsteps, several sounds made their way towards them, echoing off the high walls. The light haired pair hurriedly blended into the shadows behind the pods as the source of the disturbance got closer. Friend or foe? The sounds go closer and closer, the clicking of heals got prominent, two pairs it seemed. The voices ceased as the light got closer and closer.

Jaune suddenly went stiff as a board and Weiss' own eyes winded as far open as they could go.

"What do we have here?" a smooth, silky voice echoes through the room. The flame which lit up the area growing slightly in one of the newcomers palm.

Before Weiss and Jaune stood Cinder, the same Cinder that Jaune himself had slain in the battle of Vytal, the very same that tore open his chest cavity before he plunged his blade between her shoulder and her neck, digging his blade all the way down to her heart. But it wasn't the appearance of their previously downed enemy that caused Jaune to freeze up however. Slightly behind Cinder, was her. She was here.

"Hello Jaune" the second person spoke. The voice so familiar, yet lacking the warmth it once held. She looked different than how they remembered her all those years back. Black cracks running along her skin. Corneas the color of coal and irises a shade of red that could only be possessed by grimm. Behind Cinder, with an evil gleam in her eyes and a predatory grin on her lips, stood Pyrrha Nikos.

"P-pyrrha? I… I..." Weiss heard him gulp "I don't..."

"Did you miss me jaune?" the grimm infested spartan asked with a slight tilt of her head.

"This… this is impossible"

"Oh? Is it now?" Pyrrha took another step forward as she pulled a pitch black spear from her back. She vanished into a blurr. Weiss reacted on pure instinct as she cast a small wall of ice right in from of her partner. The spear being showed in the direction of the young knights abdomen was stopped a mere centimeter from his torso, the wall of ice locking the weapon in place. The redheaded girl grinned even wider over the top of the cold obstacle.

"Jaune snap out of it!" Weiss called to her partner. No reaction.

Pyrrha opened her palm and a black fluid like substance seemed to stretch within her hand. Slowly molding forming and shaping into another long black spear.

"Jaune!" She called out as pyrrha navigated around the small wall.

Weiss grit her teeth, her mind racing, what could she do? Cinder was content to just watch, and Jaune was still frozen with shock. She didn't know if she could beat this Pyrrha one on one and she was certain Cinder would step in if it got too close. "Shit."

She raced her rapier and slammed it down discharging her entire cartilage of ice dust to create a wall wide enough to block the entire.

"Jaune!" she shouted as she grabbed him by the elbow and dragged him over to the machine behind them.

He still wouldn't respond, even after she pushed him into the coffin like box.

"Wake up you dunce!" she screamed at him as she pushed her forehead against his. "She's not the Pyrrha you know, so snap out of it and let's go and save her, save everyone" that finally got his attention. She could hear the two women behind the wall trying to break past it, the sound of cracking ice could be heard. 'not much time left...'

Completely unsure about what they were about to do, she leaned her head slightly to meet his lips for a brief kiss. Before she pulled away and slammed the pod's cover shut. She slammed a small fist unto the glass to get his attention and pointed at the red button just beside his had. He nodded hesitantly before she ran over the other pod and jumped in. she could see the cracks forming on the ice now. She reached up to the latch on the cover and pulled it down. The pod sealed with a hiss. Both Weiss and Jaune slammed their fists againt the button on the inside of the compartment before the wall of ice finally shattered, Weiss saw cinder dash towards them, getting so very close, before everything went white.

The first thing Weiss noticed when she came to was that she had an overwhelming urge to puke her guts out. Eyes wide, stomach reeling and vision swimming. It took her a minute to get her bearing, for her mind to recover from the sudden lurch she experienced as well as the unbelievably bright flash of light. She lifted her hand to her mouth and squeezed her eyes shut. The urge to vomit was getting stronger but she managed to steel herself. The white haired girl finally managed to steel herself and get her beating heart under control. She leaned back in her seat and fought to steady her breathing. 'What the hell happened?' she dragged her hand over her face before freezing. Eyes wide, she slowly pulled her hand away and gazed at it. Gone was the synthetic material, no more translucent outer shell, no more motors and wires, no more gears and bolts. She gazed at flesh and bone.

Weiss jumped from her seat as the memories flooded back into her. She hurriedly whipped her head around, trying to figure out where she was. A Schnee Airship, the SDC logo printed on each seat. She looked out the window and her eyes grew even wider. 'Beacon...' her eyes went back to her hand. Standing up, she made her way over to the aircraft's bathroom. Locking the door behind her, she slowly lifted her gaze at the mirror. Looking back at her from the sheet of reflective glass, was a wide eyed, seventeen year old Weiss. She lifted her hands to her face, tracing her cheekbones. 'No way… '

The former heiress, or in this case, the former-former heiress, pulled out her scroll. The 26th, its the day she arrived at Beacon. That's over 9 years ago! She opened the call function of her scroll and typed in a number she memorized by heart. It rang.

"Weiss?" a strained voice answered her.

"Please tell me I'm not going crazy."

"That depends..." she heard a strained breath followed by a wretch and a groan. "Did you just travel over 9 years back into the past and find yourself in your 17 year old body?"

She didn't respond. That thing… actually worked.

"Where are you?"

"Urgh… transport airship to Beacon. You?"

"Same, an SDC one though."

"Of course princess." Weiss scowled slightly at the nickname. "I can't believe that thing worked… "

"Meet me when you front of the fountain."

"The place where you blew up Ruby?" he asked with a slight chuckle.

"Jaune..."

"Alright, alright… see you in a bit then..." the call ended 'well he took it well...' She pocketed her scroll and leaned forward, both of her hands on either side of the bathroom's sink.

It actually worked. The call with Weiss confirmed it. '9 Years… damn...' After puking his breakfast out into one of the ships trash bins, the young knight now leaned against the wall and slid down to the ground. He rechecked his scroll again. Yep, the date clearly shows it, the view out of the windows also show it, the young versions of Ruby and Yang right across from him also show it. '9 fucking years...' he leaned his head back unto the wall. And closed his eyes. He needed more time before he could think straight. He was pretty sure that the overwhelming shock will settle on him along with a whole myriad of emotions once he's able to actually think somewhat straighter. Right now, his mind feels numb and foggy.

He knew he should be thinking about more important stuff, stopping Salem, saving his friends, but for now, he still needed to wrap his mind around the reality of his situation. He's back in his teenage body, with memories eight years into the future. Yeah, this is going to take some time to accept. And when it does, it's gonna come crashing down. With that final thought, he waited for the Airship to dock, eyes remaining closed and head still firmly leaning against the back wall.

Chapter end.

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