When Tawn's vision returned, the first thing he saw was Indigo wiping her eyes and swearing profusely. He looked around but Leech was nowhere to be seen. All that was left of him and his crew was a spot in the grass where they had all been previously.

"Argh, motherfu-. That bastard and his- what the hell semblance was that? Damn, that hurts." She blinked her eyes open, looking around with tears streaming down her face.

Tawn pushed himself to his feet and shook his head,hobbling over to Indigo and pulling on her sleeve to get her attention. "Can… can you tell me what this all just was now?"

The panic that was in her eyes faded away and she knelt down giving Tawn a hug. "Oh my god, you are the best friend ever."

She squeezed him a little too tight and he winced at the pain in his chest. "Easy, I think I broke something."

Instead of asking him about it, Indigo grabbed his shirt and pulled it up before gasping. "Oh, great. I see your rib sticking out."

"WHAT!?" Tawn said, trying to push his shirt down.

"Calm down, I'm kidding." She put his shirt down and then went up to his forehead. "Damn, that looks painful."

"How big is the gash?" He asked, imagining a cut going across his entire forehead.

"It's… it's big. Y-shaped, too. What did he do to you?" She pulled her hand down, revealing it to be covered in his blood. "Here, I got some wrap and gauze in my sleeve."

She pulled out the bandages and went to work. Tawn frowned as he felt the bandage wrap around his head; the sticky adhesive that kept it in place was a nightmare to remove, especially without pulling out any hair.

Police began to flood the grounds looking for anything of importance and the two from earlier were making a beeline right for Tawn. "That's the kid."

Indigo got in front of them and waved them off. "Hey, back off. Indigo Ocean, Huntress. He's been helping me with a job."

"Ma'am, we have footage and witnesses saying this kid vandalised two properties a couple of streets away," the fatter one said, keeping his eyes on Tawn.

"Really?" She asked, looking at him with a knowing smile. "Even if that's true, officers, I can't let him go that easily. He's part of my investigation, as is everything here. Process the scene and forward the evidence to Professor Ozpin, okay? Flick a copy to any Hunter that drops by, too."

"Of course, ma'am. We'll see to it." He waved the skinny one to follow him and started heading into the house. "Geez, you'd think the Hunters were the cops, not us."

The pup let out a sigh of relief until Indigo slipped her arm around his shoulder with a devilish smile on her face. "Well, now I guess I don't have to hide anything from you anymore. That, and don't think I didn't catch you blushing when I snapped back into my actual body shape."

Tawn looked away, coughing nervously as he realised he'd been caught. "Well, it's not really… I mean…"

"Ah, don't worry, I'm just giving you a hard time." She stood up and pointed over toward the gate. "Now, I get that you'd like to just go back home and pretend none of this happened, right? Unfortunately, there's a few more things for you before you can do that. Gotta take you to Ozpin, he's going to want to hear your side of all this."

"Who's Ozpin?" He asked while she started pushing him to the gate.

She smiled at him and grabbed his arm. "Ozpin's great. He's the head of Vale's Hunters and is pretty much the best teacher ever. If you were wondering how I got so awesome, he's the guy responsible-"

"Yeah, but why do I have to meet this guy?"

"I told you. He'll want to get every witness he can to talk to him. Besides, he's also going to want to hear about your semblance. Gotta say, it was an impressive show you put on back there, might make a good Huntsman."

Tawn pulled away from her and backed up to put a few feet between them. "Can we just… slow down for a second? I mean, I get tied up two by two badguys that I know from nowhere. Then they decide that I'm in need of a charge. Seriously, how lucky is is that I got two bum batteries. Oh, last but not least that Leech guy takes me and puts a palm to my forehead, somehow causing this?" He pointed to where the gash on his head was. "Can we just slow down and answer some of my questions, or at least let me take everything in and figure it out?"

She smiled and ran her fingers through her hair. "Yeah, I guess I have a bad habit of getting ahead of myself. Alright, what's on your mind kiddo?"

"Okay, first off: kiddo? How old are you, because you sure as hell aren't ten."

"I'm twenty. My birthday was three months ago, right before I had to go undercover."

He took a moment to process the information, but stopped when he found the news confusing. "Okay, let's talk about something else. What were you trying to do back in the house when you told me to close my eyes? How did you tell me to close my eyes?"

"That's an easy one. You see, my semblance is telepathy. I can exchange thoughts with someone. Anyway, I wanted you to close your eyes and clear your mind because I was going to try and unlock your aura. You know what that is right?"

"Leech said something about it when we were in the car. He said that he was absorbing it from me," he answered, fidgeting with one of his ears as he thought. "Is it like life force?"

"Kinda, it's like… Geez, Professor Ozpin can explain this a lot better than I can. Okay, I've answered some of your questions. Let's head over to the police station and I'll answer any more you have on the way, okay?"

He glanced down, well aware that police stations weren't bastions of safety for Faunus. However, Indigo was a Faunus as well, so he was probably in safe hands there.. "Okay."

"Great!" She took him by the hand and lead the pup over to one of the police cars. "Hop in. I'll get an officer to drive us."

She opened the door to the back passenger side and allowed Tawn, with slight hesitation, to get in before closing it. Proceeding that, he was left in the car as Indigo searched around for the officer to drive it. It was nice since it gave him a chance to assess himself. Just getting a second to really let his mind and body get on the same page was a godsend. He realized that there was a pounding in his skull from the wound on his head but it was subtle enough that ignoring it was easy. The pain on his side was nothing he could handle either. The only thing that worried him was how drained he felt.

After getting out of the car, he felt weightless, like there was nothing to him at all. However, the weightlessness wasn't pleasant or refreshing, rather it was the kind that made the slightest breeze an attack on his ability to stay centered.

"Alright, you ready to go, kid?" The fat officer asked, getting into the car with him.

"Wait, what!?" Tawn asked, preparing to break the window.

Indigo's hand shot to his shoulder from the passenger seat, settling him down. "Relax, Tawn. Officer Burnie is just taking us to the station to meet Ozpin."

"Hey, that's soon-to-be-inspector Burnie to you. Discovering this insurgency is going to get me a promotion for sure." He started driving down the road and a pit began to form in Tawn's stomach with each block passed.

"I wouldn't call this an insurgency. Most like breaking-and-entering, battery, assault, assaulting an officer, resisting arrest, refusal to cease-and-desist, and maybe a few charges double for doing it to a minor to start." Indigo started checking her sai. "So, any idea what happened to those guys?"

"They used a Bullhead to get away. We tried to follow their trail, but all the traffic up there messed with it. Chances are that they got away."

"Woo. Great job, Vale PD."

Indigo got a weird look from Officer Burnie. "What?"

"What?"

"No need to be snarky. We tried."

"Hey, I don't like to shout. Snarking at them gets the same message across without being as blunt."

"Shouting at a guy tells him he fucked up. Being all passive-aggressive like that just makes you sound whiny. Maybe next time, you Hunters can do your own damn work."

Tawn blocked out their constant bickering and just looked out the window to watch the city change. They were in uptown before but the farther down they descended, the more and more people he saw sitting on the curb. Each time, he would look them over as best he could to see if they were Faunus. It helped him keep his mind off all the questions he had but it also made a creeping heaviness come to his ears. Most of the poor that they drove past were Faunus, looking worse and worse.

The deeper into a sadness he drifted, the angrier he began to get. He felt like his life was wasted all this time since his parents died. Even before, that didn't seem good to him. They always taught him to live for the essentials and stay hidden. His entire life was one without want for a better life, and without anything to be proud of.

If he was going to live a better life, one that didn't inspire disgust from him, he needed to make a change. Tawn made himself a promise starting today and going until he died. He was never going to settle in life. Everything he strove for would be for the best and he'd hold everyone with him to that standard. If he at least tried to do it, then there was nothing to regret.

"Tawn, we're here." Indigo said, breaking him out of his thoughts.

He looked over to the left side of the car and noticed that the police station was right outside. Letting out a silent curse, he got out of the car, a bit angry he got so lost in thought as to miss the station. Then again, the fact that he'd just escaped a life-threatening situation had taken its toll on him.

Following Officer Burnie and Indigo, Tawn was led through the police station and into a small room with a single light overhead. Once there, he was instructed to sit down before they both left him without so much as an explanation. Neither of them had told him anything, which made him wonder if he really was in trouble for breaking the windows. What if Indigo had lied to him about that? What if he was going to be questioned and then shipped off to a correctional facility? That would be a great place to start his new ambitious lifestyle, in a prison cell.

These thoughts drove Tawn to start looking around the room for a vent or a loose panel. Something he could open and crawl through to freedom, but to no entire room was locked down to prevent anyone from leaving. It was a room that was created to hold criminals after all, so of course it would have been secured against escape.

Finally, the door to the room opened and Tawn could see the shape of a woman start to walk through the door. At first, he thought it was Indigo but that quickly faded when he saw that the woman had gold hair. Along with that, she also had a riding crop that made her look ready to hit Tawn the moment he did something wrong.

She stepped into the room and took a seat opposite of him, setting a file on the desk. "Tawny Tang. Fourteen years old. Child of Fern and Tulip Tang. You have run away from any attempt to relocate you to a children's home and have been sticking to odd jobs to merely survive the last two years. Other than that, multiple sightings and accounts of fighting with dog catchers. Is there anything I've missed?"

He looked down at his hands, twiddling his thumbs. "Can you call me Tawn?"

He didn't see her face but she answered softly. "Yes, I'll mark it right here under preferences. Now, you were seen throwing chairs through the windows of several shops. Would you care to elaborate on why?"

He looked up to meet her gaze but his eyes quickly shot back down. "Indigo told me she was gonna need help and that I needed to get the police. I thought that I didn't have enough time to run eight blocks to the nearest phone."

"So, you figured causing property damage to get the attention of the police would be better than trying to find an open store?"

"I… I was just… I'm sorry." He said, his mind unable to come up with reasoning for why he did it. "It seemed like the fastest way at the time."

"It was an expensive method of finding help. Several hundred lien of damage in total. Money I don't think you have the ability to pay off."

He bit his lip to keep from crying or breaking down. "I was just… I… I…"

"Just trying to draw attention. Attention you took away from other crimes in the area. I'm sure you could have thought of a better way, if you had taken the time to think it through." Her voice was getting harsh and Tawn's bottom lip began to quiver.

He hated being around adults that treated him like this. It made him feel small and weak to the world around him. Mostly, it made him miss his parents and how they would protect him. It was almost funny how he was almost to the point of swearing at them a moment ago only to flip back now and wish they were here to protect him.

"Further more, what you did, no matter the cause, is enough to get you put in a juvenile detention facility for at least a year. Maybe more. And-"

The door opened up again, this time it was a man with white hair and glasses. "That will be enough, Glynda. The boy isn't like last person you interviewed."

"Ozpin, I have this under control. Just-"

He waved 'Glynda' to silence as he took a drink of his coffee and sat it down on the table, right on Tawn's file. "Glynda, he's a child with no parents. I believe this is better handled by someone who understands him."

She grumbled and stood up from the chair, walking toward the door. "If you offer this one admission for the next semester too, I quit."

The door slammed behind her leaving Tawn alone with Ozpin. "I'm sorry about her. She can get a bit... overbearing." Tawn blinked the water from his eyes and met the man's gaze. "So, tell me Tawn, how did you get that bandage on your forehead?"

He reached up and ran his fingers over the bandage. "I got cut by one of those guys holding Mr. and Mrs. Ranger."

"Indigo has been on this man's trail for quite a while and we haven't had anyone survive his attacks inform us. If you don't mind, what happened when he grabbed your head?" He asked, eyebrows raised.

"He put his hand on my forehead and then… I don't know. It felt like I was being drained of everything. Not just my blood but who I was." Tawn's hand when up to his ear as he thought about it. "I tried doing this thing to him but he said it wouldn't work while he was draining me."

"Thing? What is it you tried to do?"

"Well, I don't know how I did it earlier but when one of the guys touched a knife to my neck, I kinda shocked him."

"You shocked him? That sounds interesting..." He looked down at Tawn's file. "Especially seeing as your file doesn't mention that you attended any combat school. You shouldn't have an unlocked aura, much less a semblance. Yet Indigo tells me that she couldn't unlock anything when she tried."

"Yeah, uh, what?"

"In other words, you have had your aura unlocked by someone without your knowing. My guess is that one of your parents did, when you were very young."

"My parents unlocked my aura? Does that mean they…" He looked down at his hands. "Why would they do that?" he asked.

Ozpin tapped his forehead, mimicking the spot over Tawn's right eye. "Check underneath your bandage."

He reached up and slipped a thumb under the bandage, expecting blood to come out. Nothing did and instead, he pulled the headband off to find that his wound had closed. Glancing over at the nearby mirror, he saw that it had closed up and scabbed over now. The weird thing was, it was almost like he expected this now.

"Have you ever noticed that your cuts heal a lot faster than your friends? How about that you don't really get hurt all too often?" Ozpin asked, taking a sip of his coffee.

"I think this is the biggest cut I have ever gotten." The pup answered, poking his wound.

"It's because your aura has been protecting you." He sat his cup down on the table and leaned forward. "In fact, I think I know how it got activated."

"Hm?" He questioned, leaning in close to meet the white haired man.

Ozpin pulled out a scroll from his pocket and sat it on the table across from Tawn. On it was a picture of his mother but a lot younger than he remembered seeing her. She had her hair in a ponytail on the side of her head allowing both her dog ears and human ears to be in full view. Admittedly, she looked a lot happier in the picture that he remembered seeing her. She was winking to the camera and just looking like she was having a good time.

"Your mother attended Signal Academy for a few years before dropping out for… mysterious reasons. While her grades weren't the best overall, she did have excellent scores in aura and semblance studies. In fact, her parents were medical personnel who would go into the field and use their unique gifts to repair and heal those that had fallen in battle."

"My… mom was going to be a huntress?" Tawn asked, reaching out for the scroll.

He was allowed to take it and look over the file that Ozpin had pulled up. "Yes, although, when her parents died during a Grimm raid, she took it the wrong way. I don't know much leading up to it, but I have a few guesses as to why she dropped out of school."

"... Well, I'm waiting." He said, enjoying the information on his parents and forgetting everything he had thought about them in the car.

Leaning forward and adjusting his glasses, Ozpin took on a heavier tone. "Tawn, what I am about to tell you… Are you sure you are ready?"

"Yeah, this is getting interesting." Scrolling down, he saw a picture of his mom wielding some sort of lance that was on fire.

"Tawn, your mother dropped out of school because of you…"

There was an uncomfortable pause as the scroll in his hand got too heavy to hold and he sat it down. "What?"

Ozpin stood up from his seat and moved it over so there was no table between them. "Your mother was sixteen when she dropped out of Signal. This year, she would be thirty years old. Unless circumstances were a lot more complex than I'm willing to believe, she dropped out when she found out that you would be on the way."

"I… I don't… Why are you telling me all this?" He asked, suddenly wishing that Glynda was in the room instead of Ozpin. At least she would have kept yelling instead of building him up to get knocked down.

"Because, you deserve to know the circumstances that led to your birth. You deserve a look into your family history and to know that you aren't just a vagrant, nor a beggar. Tawn, you have potential."

"Potential?" Tears were building again in his eyes but he wasn't going to cry.

"Yes, Tawn, your family used to be a long line of Huntsmen that accumulated for a long time. Maybe you aren't in the best shape now and behind those you would call your peers now but you have a lineage of potential. On top of that, you have a semblance relating to electricity which always makes for a potent huntsman weapon."

"How do you know that?"

"Well, Indigo told me what she saw when the man tried to cut your throat. While Glynda was talking to you, I decided to run a few tests. The most conclusive evidence, though, is the electromagnetic field you emit. It's not powerful enough to interfere with my scroll, but it's strong enough to be felt." He pulled his sleeve back, revealing that the hairs on his arm were standing on end.

"That lady said she was going to quit if you offered me a spot at your school."

"It's good that I'm not, then."

The confusion had gotten to a point that Tawn was about ready to just leave if he didn't start getting some sort of answered. "Then what was all this about?"

"Getting you out of your box in the back alley off Tenth Street. Tawn, you have potential and built in tools. There is a very good chance that if you applied yourself, you could get into any school in Remnant. Now, while I'd be happy to have someone of your personality at Beacon, I can't, in good conscience, let you in now. You don't have any formal training, nor do you have any knowledge of the subjects required."

"So, what would I have to do?"

"Well, one of Beacon's graduates and your friend has offered to sponsor you in this endeavor, should you choose to accept it."

He rolled his eyes, soaking the tears that hung in them up with it. "Of course this would be Indigo's idea. She was always building me up to knock me down."

"I wouldn't be so angry with her. She is offering to help you do something that many would deem impossible. Trust me, this is an amazing opportunity in front of you. Learn your strengths, weaknesses, and ability and she will have opened a door to a world that most dream of. Now, I think we got far enough off track. Tawn, back to Leech."

"Right, he absorbed me and said that I was the jackpot."

"No doubt he was talking about your power over electricity. Did he say anything else?"

"I couldn't electrocute him while he was absorbing me."

That last thing seemed to disturb Ozpin a bit as his face took on a very subtle grimace before he finally stood up and picked up the file and coffee. "Alright, that will be all Tawn. I'll fill out all the necessary paperwork and then you may go."

He looked down at the table and saw that the scroll was still there. "Aren't you going to take your scroll?"

"Keep it. This way you don't have to break any more windows for help." He commented, exiting the room.

The door closed behind him and that left Tawn alone in the room with a picture of his mom staring back at him. Part of him hoped that what Ozpin had told him wasn't true but another part knew that it was. His mom never held the same affection for him that his dad did. She seemed distant and always looking away from him instead of directly at him when they talked.

Before he could think too hard about it, the door opened up and Indigo stepped in. "Hey Tawny. Grab your scroll and let's hit the road."

He sighed and stood up, taking the device from the desk. "Please tell me that you aren't going to call me that all the time."

"I could, but then I'd be lying." She joked, holding to door open for him. The symbolism of the gesture wasn't lost on him, the door being the path to the rest of his life. Then again, did he really want the path they were shepherding him towards? Or could he find his own way, like he had all these years?

Hey guys, I gotta rush off to work in five minutes and since I almost forgot to put this up before going, I'm gonna address the reviews really quick.

Dairegh: Yeah, Tawn is a dog because I was originally gonna parody all the bad fan fics out there with wolf or part grimm faunus. I figured a puppy for a protagonist would be hilarious.

Toothless is best: Don't eat too much or you will get to pay a visit to the dentist.

thejoker122: Thanks, I'm working really hard on it.