AN: This idea came about from RWBY Chibi, where Jaune steals everyone's weapons and is suddenly able to take out Mercury and Emerald with a single blow. I get that it was exaggerated but it got me thinking, what if it was Crocea Mors itself that was hindering Jaune.

True Potential

Chapter 1

-Jaune-

"Alright students," Goodwitch looked down at her large clipboard sized scroll as Weiss and Dove left the arena, having just finished the first duel of the days combat class "next we'll have Jaune Arc and Cardin Winchester."

"Um, Ma'am," he spoke up nervously as he felt all eyes turn towards him "I wasn't able to get my locker to open earlier so I don't have a weapon." He had his armor but unlike Yang he wasn't a master at the ancient art of casting fist.

"Ah yes, a few of the lockers have shown that malfunction recently but it's being handled. You will simply have to use a stock weapon for the day then." The professor pointed to a wrack of weapons that were even more plain than Crocea Mors, the lot of them simply cast and showing no true durability of a real huntsman's weapon.

"Jaune can't use those!" Ruby looked aghast at that suggestion, the little Reaper always seeming offended at the stock cast weapons on that wrack, her inner weapon fanatic insulted at the lack of passion put into making them. She hands him Crescent Rose reverently "CR, take care of Jaune for me. Jaune, if she gets scratched you die." He had no idea how she still sounded innocent while saying that.

"What?!" Nora exclaimed, jumping up and trying to push the scythe away from him "No! If fearless leader uses another weapon it should be Magnhild!" she waved the grenade launcher hammer.

"Milo and Akouo are closer to what Jaune's used to." Pyrrah adds as well, the rest of his friends thankfully not joining into the three-way disagreement on who's weapon he should use. The argument was drawn to a close when Ruby did what the others would, rightly, insist was cheating.

She gave him the puppy eyes.

"Alright, alright!" he sighed and took the sniper scythe as Ruby gave a little cheer, his female teammates pouting at that "And don't worry, I'll use your weapons next time if you want." He promised them.

"You can't use your armor though." Ruby started undoing the straps to his armor before he could protest "You're too slow with this clunky stuff."

"Oi!" he tries to get away from her, but she kept using her semblance to take off more and more pieces of his metal defenses "I kind of need those Ruby, I'm not used to going without armor! Especially with a weapon I've never even touched before."

"Don't worry about it Jauney boy," Cardin grinned, the massive mace wielder removing his own armor "I'll go without too. Wouldn't want the fight to be too easy after all." Pinching the bridge of his nose Jaune gave in and let Ruby remove his armor, trying not to sigh at Cardin's comment. While the larger student had improved a great deal personality wise since Forever Fall he still had his moments.

"If you are both ready." The impatient teacher spoke up as Ruby finally removed the last of his armor "Then proceed to the arena." Knowing that testing Goodwitch's patience would be bad for the health of everyone involved, Jaune and Cardin hurried down to the arena.

"Ready Jauney Boy?" Cardin grinned, swinging his mace in an arc to get loose.

Jaune didn't answer in words, taking a deep breath he focused, pulling up the memory of every time he saw Ruby using her scythe and his body reacted, swinging it about in a circle pattern before slamming it into the ground as he had often seen Ruby do as a dramatic opening "Ready." Part of his mind noted that he had never been able to move that easily before when fighting but he pushed it aside, focusing on the fight itself.

There was a pause before Cardin charged, swinging the mace to try and catch Jaune in the rib cage. His mind running faster than it ever had in a fight before he pulled Crescent Rose from the ground and charged at his attacker, dropping to his knees and sliding under the mace when he got close. With a smirk he pulled the trigger on the scythe's handle, the recoil spinning him, the curved blade catching Cardin's legs and sending the orange haired fighter up into the air while Jaune was able to follow through on the spin to get back on his feet.

"Okay, that's new." Cardin grunted, using the mace to push himself up while Ruby could be heard in the background saying she had to remember that trick. Eyes narrowed, Cardin began to circle him, apparently taking their match far more seriously now, much to Jaune's chagrin. Seeing Cardin pull his arm back to slam the mace down, the sign that warned of a coming wave of dust explosion, Jaune fired a bullet at Cardin's shoulder the larger fighter finishing the attack but in having to dodge it went wide, giving Jaune a chance to charge.

What he hadn't expected was for Cardin to lash out with a foot, kicking Jaune in the chest with a massive boot as spit went flying and he was sent crashing back. "Looks like I'm not the only one with new tricks." Jaune wheezed, eyeing Cardin who was letting him get back on his feet like he had done earlier.

"Of course, now come on Jauney Boy! You're finally fun to fight!" Cardin crowed, charging once again. Focusing on dodging the swings of the heavy Weapon, Jaune tuned out the world around him and focused on making a plan. Noticing a pattern, he found his body moving before his brain could catch up.

Letting Cardin get a bit closer he saw the overhead strike coming and leapt up, avoiding the impact as the bladed mace dug into the ground. With a yell, Jaune brought the blade of Crescent Rose down between the open teeth of Cardin's weapon, pinning it down before using the Sniper riffle on the scythe to spin himself again, locking his legs as his feet slammed into a stunned Cardin's face and sent the taller fighter flying, now weaponless. Not giving up the momentum he pried Crescent Rose from the ground and charged at the still dazed Cardin and swung the flat back of the shaft against his opponent's chest like a baseball bat, hitting him hard enough to send Cardin out of the ring, signifying the end of the fight.

"The winner is Jaune Arc." Goodwitch announces, even her professionalism cracking to show her shock at that result.

"Nice job Jauney Boy," Cardin grunted, getting up and dusting himself off "good to see you're finally fighting like a huntsman. Who knew you just needed a different weapon."

"That was awesome!" a weight landed on his back as team RWBY and the rest of team JNPR walked down, Ruby having jumped onto his back "Crescent Rose makes anyone invincible!"

"Mr. Arc," The deputy headmistress approached, her eyes like steel as he fought back a gulp, desperately wondering what he had done wrong "let me see your armor." Now thoroughly confused he handed the pieces of metal Nora brought down over to the professor as she studied them intently. Nobody else spoke, the other first year teams in the arena all feeling the tension, all able to sense that something was very wrong. "That damn bastard." Hearing the always professional Glynda Goodwitch hiss out that profanity was almost as terrifying as her expression but far more shocking.

"Um…teach?" Yang asked warily before letting out a small 'meep' when the infamous riding crop got pointed in her face.

"Mr. Arc am I correct in assuming your father gave you your armor and weapons?" she asked, studying him intently.

"Y-yes ma'am." He nodded, still not sure where this was going "They were a gift when I got my Beacon acceptance letter." It had been one of the happiest moments of his life, having a sign that his father had finally accepted his dream of wanting to be a huntsman. The look of pity the woman was giving him gave him all kinds of bad feelings about that gift though.

"Class, pay attention." The professor slapped her riding crop against her palm as everyone sat up ramrod straight, all attention having already been locked onto her being "I'm about to explain a process to you that is normally not taught until your final year at Beacon due to the complexity of putting it into practice." Tapping her scroll she brought up a diagram on the screen.

"Each and every individual with an unlocked aura possesses a semblance, whether they've discovered said ability or not." She began to lecture, pulling up a silhouette of a human with an aura bar and that silhouette going from standing to shooting lightning as an example. "There is a difficult process that many huntsmen do to make their semblances easier to use for themselves or to aide their comrades. A skilled user of aura can infuse said energy into an object which gives it the effect of their semblance. My riding crop, for example, is one I am frequently infusing with my aura to aide in the use of my telekinetic semblance."

"What does this have to do with me?" he asked, a sinking feeling in his gut assuring him that he would not like the answer.

"Mr. Arc, your father's semblance is that he can make others stronger or weaker, affecting both mind and body. Your armor is saturated with his aura and just by picking it up I could feel it weakening my faculties. Each individual piece of armor, and likely your weapons too, were set up to make you weaker and unable to think as clearly while in contact with them."

"He…he wanted me to…to get killed?" he took a stunned step back, not wanting to believe it but having never known Goodwitch to lie about anything major, especially the safety of her students.

"It could be that he wanted to make you drop out, but this was still a sever endangerment to your health." He had never seen the woman as angry as she was now and the only relief he felt was that the anger wasn't directed at him. "I will be taking you armor and weapons, I need to document this, and I will bring this to Ozpin, I'm sure the headmaster will be having words with your father about all this. The school will provide a budged to help you in the construction of new equipment. Class is dismissed!" with that she took the armor and stormed out of the room, the session ending over an hour early as the other teams dispersed, processing what they heard.

"Jaune." Cardin looked serious "If I ever meet your dad, I'm smashing his face in with my mace."

"Hey, I get first crack at him!" Nora protested angrily, swinging Magnhild as if Jaune's father were already there.

"You can have his knees, I get the face." Cardin countered

"I will help as well." A for once angry Ren contributed, every member of teams RWBY, JNPR, and CDNL looking ready to commit murder.

"I'll help you make a new weapon Jaune!" Ruby promised earnestly, giving him a tight hug as his knees felt weak, the fact of what his father did taking his strength away "And you can show him what a big dummy he is!" he didn't answer, he just hugged his friend tighter as his shoulders began to silently shake.

AN: I'll be designing Jaune's weapon myself, but I haven't decided what type of weapon it will be yet. Here are the options I'm deciding from so let me know which one you would like to see Jaune use and why.

Twin scythes that can combine into one (think Darksiders 2)

Sword and shield

Sword and minor weapon (pistol, knife, etc)

Greatsword

Battleaxe (two handed)

Waraxe (one handed)

Chain blades (think Kratos, god of war)

Clawed gauntlets

Spear

Spear and shield

Chain whip

Staff

Dual wielding weapons

Club/hammer/mace

I'll also be including secondary back up weapons such as pistols and daggers so suggestions for those or armor you'd like will be considered. Anyone who gives me an idea I use will be credited.