The moment that the black arrow pierced his heart, he realized it.

He had come so far from his days at Beacon, when he was called Vomit Boy and all his problems had to do with bullies. He missed those days, but he hadn't let it stop him. He pushed on.

He started to think it not soon after the fall of Beacon. At first, he was unsure. The thought plagued him, an impure seed within his heart. How would his friends react if they heard it? Would they laugh and push him down, would they be disgusted by his self righteousness, would they, dare he think it, agree with him? Whatever the case, he made sure to never bring it up. And now he was glad he hadn't because looking like a fool right before his death would have been all too fitting.

To be fair, it wasn't like he was grasping at straws, the signs had been there, but so had Ruby's, though he didn't recognize it then. He was the underdog, his aura wasn't even unlocked yet! But so was Ruby, coming to Beacon two years early. The only difference between the two of them was that… She had earned it. He faked his way into Beacon.

He trained day and night to keep up with everyone else. But so did Ruby, in her own way. He trained to prove himself to his classmates, she trained to stop criminals from ravishing Vale. As he went down this line of thought, his trials and tribulations were looking less and less pure.

Still, there was one thing he had over Ruby. His first love, Pyrrha, had been killed by Cinder. If nothing else proved it, this was the one piece of evidence that held up. How could it not be true when he had a reason to fight, to avenge his love! Except… Everyone had a reason to fight. Ren and Nora for their hometown, Blake for her redemption, Yang for her family, Weiss for Neptune, and all of them, for their friends. Ignoring Weiss, none of them fought to avenge, until now. Because in this moment, Ruby was fighting to avenge. Avenge him, Jaune Rose Arc. He fought for a love that he had never forgotten, but had certainly moved past. She fought for the death of her husband, a death occurring right as he thought these words.

As he looked at her, laying on the floor, surrounded by an ever growing pool of his own blood, he realized yet another reason why it was her and not him. Her eyes. Her beautiful silver eyes were full of distress in this moment, but they still shone as bright as the moon, and now they were beginning to shine even more. He caressed her cheek, mutter an 'I love you' as everything started to go black. She was shouting something, but he couldn't hear it. He was too far gone.

His entire life had prepared him for this moment, but it wasn't in the way he expected. From Ruby to Ren, he had made so many friends in Beacon, all of them he was willing to die for. And honestly, he thought he would, but not like this. With the sheer amount of caring and loving his friends had shown him, any person who watched a movie could guess he would make the sacrifice. In his mind, he prepared himself, even envisioned how the scene would go. He and Ruby would be fighting Salem as she got more and more powerful, eventually getting near the point of no return, where she had almost absorbed enough aura to become unstoppable. Then Ruby would give him an opening, and seconds before it was too late, he would plunge Crocea Mors into Salem's chest, ending her for good. Of course, he wouldn't come out unscathed, as her manifested aura would be going straight through him. Hence, the 'sacrifice' part. Salem would explode in a glorious light, and he would collapse into Ruby's arms, wishing her a final goodbye before reuniting with Pyrrha in the afterlife. Everything pointed to that, but Ruby had been shown just as much love as he had, if not, then more. Not in the least part from him. This was her fight just as much as it was his, and now, it was all her's.

His final act sealed the fact in stone. The others were fighting Salem's pawns outside the throne room, as he and Ruby snuck past to confront the madwoman herself. As Ozpin had said, 'Take down the king, and nothing else matters.' Why him and Ruby? Well it was simple. Ruby for her eyes, and Jaune for his semblance. It took him years to realize, but when he did, he grew exponentially more powerful. He could give and drain aura to and from people. The reason why he such a large aura reserve going into Beacon was because he was subconsciously stealing aura from everyone around him, never using it because it was locked away. With the ability to focus his power, all his enemies crumbled before him. The idea was that he could stall for time by stealing Salem's aura while she grew more and more powerful. With this power, he had assumed that it was him, but he now understood why it was Ruby. His final act was to charge Ruby full of all the aura he had within him, making her explode with power. Now with her silver eyes and husband's aura, she was going to defeat the Empress of the Grimm.

All signs pointed to him, all signs pointed to her. Now he understood the truth. All he could do now was accept it. And feeling the cold embrace of death, that was exactly what he did.

His eyes shot open and he threw up into a trash can. Picking himself up from the mess, he looked around. He was on the airship to Beacon, for the first time ever. He saw Ruby and Yang talking and he had to know whether or not it was all a dream. Concentrating, and praying, he reached out to a nearby person and tugged. They stumbled a bit, feeling weak, and he felt cured of his motion sickness. Closing his eyes, he let out a shuddered sigh. It wasn't a dream. Which meant all of it was real, and had happened, and would happen again. The realization that had tormented the last few moments of his former life came back into his head. A single tear fell down his face.

"I'm not the hero."

Does anyone else get random one-shot ideas in the shower? Because that's how this came to be. If you liked it, or if you didn't, be sure to leave a review. It would greatly help my writing. And if you want this to be a series, leave a review for that too. Considering how starved for reviews I am on my other story, I'd probably continue this one for only five reviews.

If I was to continue, it'd be something like an angsty Jaune trying to solve problems but accidentally making them worse while dealing with loving both Pyrrha and Ruby. I don't actually know where I'd be going with it, but I'd figure something out.

Anyway, it's past eleven in my time zone and I'm not going to bed for another three hours, so let me get to it. Maybe this has all been a hallucination, and this entire one-shot is just a jumble of words I made while smashing my hands on my keyboard. Who knows at this point?

Until next time,

-AGR