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The first time it happened was when he first saw Kakyoin plastered to the water tower. There was no visual cue really, no facial expression to show it, but something inside Jotaro broke- and then exploded. The next thing he knew he was back with Polenareff, about to start running back towards that horrible scene. It was too late to save Kakyoin even then, but that was just the beginning. That one jump was enough for Jotaro to start understanding more about Star Platinum's powers; and how he could use them.
From there he started to push it farther. A few more tries and soon he was able to jump back a full 24 hours. It was odd however. He could feel that his stand had enough power to go even farther, but it was as though some outside force was preventing it (1). That was okay though. 24 hours was all he needed. Well, it would be all he needed once he got everything worked out.
Three full leaps later and Jotaro had a good enough grasp of the layout of the mansion that he, along with his grandfather and Kakyoin, were able to make it to Polenareff and Iggy before the battle had even truly begun. Avdol though was already gone... But his arms were still lying on the floor. That was when Jotaro discovered the second part to his stand's abilities.
Star Platinum scooped up the appendages before Cream had the chance, saving them from being destroyed as well. This was Jotaro's first time seeing them; lonely, bloody stumps that were all that was left of a man he had grown to trust over the last 50 days. His fists clenched and suddenly the limbs began to glow, floating up and above Star's hands. Everyone in the room could only stare in varying states of shock, confusion, and awe as, for those mangled arms, time seemed to reverse. They moved through the air as they had before but backwards and without actually shifting away from where they floated above the stand that powered them. After a moment the light faded and Avdol stood before them, bemused but alive and well (2).
No one knew what to make of the sudden spectacle, but there was no time to worry about it, as the first one to recover from the shock was Vanilla Ice, who was quick to go on the offensive. It was a lost cause of course. With all of them together, the one, admittedly strong, stand user didn't stand a chance. Once the enemy was nothing more than a pile of ashes blown away on the wind, Jotaro found himself, not unexpectedly, swarmed by his companions. The conversation was short and sweet, partly because Jotaro was a man of few words and partly because the threat DIO posed still loomed over them heavily.
"What was that!?" Polenareff, always the most high strung of the group, started off the sudden flood of similar questions. Jotaro shrugged and tugged on the brim of his hat, hiding his sleeplessly bruised eyes, uncomfortable.
"Dunno. First time that's happened," he grumbled. Kakyoin was the one to step up and gently push the hat out of the way, looking into his fellow student's tired eyes. He was the first to realize, as it seemed he always was when it came to understanding Jotaro.
"How many times have you been through this mansion...?" Not for the first time, was Jotaro taken aback by just how well Kakyoin seemed to be able to read him. While the rest of the group reacted with varying levels of confusion to the seemingly out of place question, The boy with the cherry earrings waited earnestly for the answer he was sure he would get. It was almost frightening just how much the two of them connected. It also left Jotaro feeling oddly warm inside...
"A few" he responded, tugging his hat back down, brushing against the other's hand lightly with the motion. It wasn't a rejection, but a reflex, and that too was understood and responded to with a small smile.
"Wait, what!? Since when!?" Polenareff again. A great person for sure, fun and caring; but a little slow when it came to working through unexplained concepts. Avdol and Joseph were already starting to put it together from listening to the brief conversation before them. Iggy couldn't care less about the circumstances of his friend's return, already facing towards the stairs he knew they were going to have to climb. Kakyoin's smile faltered and he gripped Jotaro's shoulder in a way that felt like a promise.
"We'll talk more about this later. For now though..." he too turned towards the stairs, the others following suit as the true mission was about to begin.
"It's time to finish what we've started!" Joseph finished for him, posing.
Once more the sun had set, and the true battle against DIO was little easier even with Jotaro's newfound powers. The ability to 'stop time' -or perhaps he was simply speeding himself up?- was a different sort of power from the ones the young rebel had recently learned. And so the struggle against it continued. At least he was able to see it, even if he couldn't yet find a way to counter it, and was able to warn the others about it, keeping anyone else from dying again, at least so far.
Jotaro was flung back once again, crashing hard into a parked car. The rest of the crusaders were scattered around the street, broken, bleeding, and unable to fight against the powers of The World- but alive. Jotaro growled darkly as the injuries he was able to get in on DIO healed in the time it took for him to stand back up. Every time he managed to hit the vampire with a punch he just got thrown away again. There didn't seem to be a way to stay close for long enough to actually beat him. What Jotaro needed was for DIO to stay still and unable to use his stand for just a minute... and then a fairly dark idea came to him. It seemed almost too cruel, but there wasn't any other way.
This time when Star Platinum hit DIO with a punch the villain was taken by surprise as he suddenly floated up into the air against his will and began to glow a brilliant gold- bright enough that only his silhouette could be seen. Jotaro was going to reverse DIO's time until he simply ceased to exist. DIO however was over 100 years old, and despite his exhaustion the teen increased the power to his stand, speeding up the de-aging to skip over all those years spent on the bottom of the ocean.
Finally the shape of the silhouette changed, and flickered rapidly as time raced backwards- and then there were TWO golden glowing beings floating above Star Platinum that were shrinking far too fast. Jotaro was lucky to realize what had happened quickly enough to stop the process before the two children reversed out of existence completely. The glow faded and Star Platinum caught the two preteens before they could fall to the street below. The rest of the crusaders crowded around Jotaro as his stand set the children down gently in front of them.
One was clearly a young Dio, blond hair and sharp orange eyes that were already attempting to take in and understand the situation. The other however, who shifted to stand between Dio and the strange adults staring at them, who had navy hair and brilliant blue eyes and an innocent expression of confusion. There was no mistaking who he was...
"OH MY GOD!"
Both children (and Polenareff, though he would later deny it) flinched at the sudden shout from the oldest member of the party, Jonathan backing closer to his recently adopted brother, guarding him despite their past misgivings. Dio merely rolled his eyes at the boy's antics and pushed past him roughly, leveling the adults with a haughty glare.
"Who are you and where the hell are we?" His voice was level, but sharp despite how young it was. Clearly this Dio had already had his fair share of dealing with having to act older than he was.
No one was really sure how to respond. How do you go about telling two twelve year olds about the frankly unbelievable situation they found themselves in..?
"You were a 100 year old monster trying to kill us so I reversed your time back into a child. Welcome to 1987." Like that apparently, as Jotaro leveled his gaze to stare directly at Dio.
"Also, we already know what you're like, so don't bother trying to fool us." The boy took a moment to take in all that information, blinking owlishly, before his demeanor shifted into something more dark and cold. His smirk was sharp, but the expression didn't seem to reach his eyes.
"Then I supposed it wouldn't surprise you to know that by this time I had already killed my own father." It was a bold statement, meant to cause unease, and that small inhale of shock from the strange man with the tall hair proved it was workin-
"Why?" mostly. The question threw Dio off, now his turn to stare incredulously at the giant man with the hat and chain. It seemed he wasn't the only one taken aback, most of the others also stared at their companion.
"Why?" his voice cracked and he hated it, "What do you mean 'why' it's doesn't matter 'why'-"
"It does." The deep voice that interrupted him was firm, leaving no room for argument.
"We've all had to kill people in the last two months-"
"We were attacked-" Avdol tried to argue, but was cut off,
"So then? What's your reason?" Jotaro finished, watching Dio with an unreadable expression.
It would have been so easy to lie, to say there had been no reason, that he just wanted to, to play up that darkness and cause even more disquiet within the adults surrounding him (and his so-called brother who seemed to have truly gone into shock by that point), but... this was the first time any one had ever asked him a question like that- gave him a chance to try and explain himself...
"He killed my mother- tried to sell everything she'd left to buy more booze-" Just like that, he found himself unable to stop. As if the dam had broken, more and more horror stories from his past tumbled from him, every painful memory briefly relived. Eventually he found himself unable to continue, voice choked from the emotional strain. He wasn't crying, wasn't even sure he still knew how; but he shook violently, gaze lost in the past, not registering the present properly.
"Alright." The deep voice knocked him back into the real world, his head jerking up to look at the speaker properly.
"You got yourself out of a shitty situation. Good job." Dio was floored. This hulking stranger had just praised him for.. for freeing himself.. No one back in 1880 would have ever... All he could do was stare as the man turned and started walking away, speaking over his shoulder.
"I'm going to bed. I'll call mom when I wake up."
There was a moment of silence as everyone seemed to catch up with everything that had just happened. Clearly they all had a lot of thinking to do- they were dealing with children now, not some homicidal monster- but those thoughts would have to wait for later, it was late and they were all injured, hungry, and tired. Suddenly Kakyoin moved to crouch in front of Dio, making sure they were eye-to-eye. His voice was gentle and kind, but not belittling.
"Jotaro was right, and no one is going to blame you for what you did- but I need you to promise me something. If you ever feel threatened like that again, tell someone. An authority figure or someone you trust. There are systems in place now to deal with those kinds of situations(3), you don't have to fight alone." The child nodded after a moment, though maybe it was a bit too much for him to take in all at once, left still staring in wonder at the strange group of people he seemed to find himself with.
"I promise" a strangled half whisper, but voiced none the less. Kakyoin smiled, and it was genuine.
"Right!" The oldest man clapped his hands once, breaking whatever strange spell that had seemed to fall over everyone during the course of events that very early morning.
"I think it's about time we follow my grandson and head back to the hotel as well!" He shot Dio a grin then turned his attention to his own shrunken grandfather, who still seemed to be in a bit of a daze. Joseph took the boy's hand, and that seemed to help ground him a bit, those blue eyes moving to gaze up at him curiously.
"You gonna be alright kid?" he asked, not unkindly. Jonathan nodded and gripped the hand holding his tighter.
"Y-yes, I will be..." his voice was soft, still a bit lost, but aware enough to respond and that was good enough for the time being. Dio would normally have scoffed at his brother's weak display, but honestly he wasn't fairing that much better. He did snub the kind red-head with a raised eyebrow when he offered his own hand to the child while the group was walking; only to grab it on his own a few minutes later, without making eye contact. He didn't have to look to know the teen was smiling, and his hand was warm and solid.
Over the next hour introductions were made, meals were eaten, and stories were told. Soon the group began to divide up to go to sleep. Dio intended to follow Kakyoin, who was also rooming with Jotaro, and he expected Jonathan to go with Joseph, since he'd been staying closest to him most of the time. So it was a surprise when the other boy grabbed the back of Dio's shirt sleeve from behind, causing him to whip around defensively with a snarl. Jonathan was staring back at him with somewhat wild eyes, flinching from the sound without actually letting go, not seeming to be aware that he was even still holding on.
"U-um..!" It was fairly clear what he wanted and Dio rolled his eyes with a huff, turning back to Kakyoin who was waiting by the wall. He felt the grip on his sleeve fall away and he took a few steps forward before addressing the only other time-lost child in the world and only connection to prove that their history was real standing forlornly behind him.
"Well? Hurry up, Jojo."
Jonathan jumped at the words, then bounded after Dio like the puppy he was. Kakyoin lead them to their room, failing to hide his smile. There were going to be so many new things for these two boys to learn about the new world they found themselves in, but they wouldn't be dealing with it alone. It was an exciting prospect, and sure to be another bizarre adventure.