Shine was left alone for at least 3 hours, just standing stuck to the wall until her arms went numb and her legs cramped.

She tried and failed to summon her sword. Either it was the atmosphere, or she just wasn't meant to.

She was aware of guards outside. Sometimes she heard whispered conversation, or they would look at her through the slot in the door.

No cameras in here either.

Shine passed the time by singing, until her throat got too dry to do it anymore.

https://youtu.be/nHNPT_QPQ_U

"Look inside of me and see that I am not afraid
To walk inside the void, like a kid inside a cave
Discovering the patterns of my soul and where its placed
I've been mapping many caverns, but it still feels like a maze. I know I'm made of clay that's worn
Blighted by imperfect form
But I will trust the artist molding me

I am creation, both haunted and holy

Made in glory
Even the depths of the night cannot blind me
When You guide me
Creature only

Look inside my heart and find a perilous ravine
Carved within the beauty, the darkness in between
Standing in the balance of complete and incomplete
I identify the echo of what is and what will be. I know I'm made of clay that's worn
Blighted by imperfect form
But I will trust the artist molding me
In a room that's growing dim
Illuminated from within
The pull of tension's empathy
Creature only
Creature only
(Creature only)

Growing through the creature here
I'm trying to see when it's unclear
Hidden in the space between
Hero and the enemy
Early days and sleepless nights
Death and resurrection, life
My body is a sacred note
Sung between the flesh and hope
My dirt transformed within a breath
Before I took a single step
I'm looking forward to the day
When life can grow without decay
Humanity is not alone
When Jesus Christ sits on the throne
These hidden mirrors expose the mess
The selfish turns to selflessness
Haunted by a darker side
Transcends to walking in the light
And slowly I'm recovering
The beauty of discovery"

* * *

While she was being waited out, Commander Hantai had a conversation with Lethe and Silk about it. Kurogiri was too upset by the incident before to join them...and Hantai didn't entirely have confidence in him.

"She won't break just for threats," Hantai said, putting his hands together, "which is good. I like a real challenge. I think, with our combined efforts, we'll have her in a few days. A week, tops."

"And what makes you think her friends will let us have her that long?" Silk ran a string through her hands. "If I know one thing about those fools, it is that they are loyal to a fault. And reckless. They'll come for them. I'm sure of it."

"We've analyzed their patterns. They almost always retaliate within 24-48 hours," Commander Hantai said, "with the exception of the Canada rescue, which had special difficulties. If they don't attack soon, it's my guess they don't know where to find us, and how would they? This location is secret even in our own ranks, unless you need to know. Any tracking devices on them would have been interrupted by our electro field in this building and the underground also. On the street, this building isn't distinguishable from any other. They would spend days figuring out which one it is."

"If they don't have a ringer," Silk gestured, "What about that girl they recruited from Canada?"

"She's gone off the grid," Hantai said, "Changed her identity, no doubt. Why would she be stupid enough to help them? Her only hope from here on out is anonymity."

"They have way of inspiring loyalty," Silk muttered sullenly.

"Not from you," Lethe noted.

She shot him a warning look. "From your sister, though."

Lethe gritted his teeth. "Leave her out of it... I can still get her back?" He glanced at Commander Hantai.

Who smiled unpleasantly.

"Yes, young Lethe, you can...if you do this one last, little job for us."

Lethe stiffened. "But I can't... I couldn't get in before. What makes you think I can now? Her mind is different."

"Well, the man's didn't seem as impenetrable," Hantai remarked, "I think he could be worked on...but I paid close attention when Nemoto used his quirk, and while she resisted, I don't think she was entirely immune. It took some effort. Now, if it takes effort, all you have to do is weaken the subject first, and the effort goes out with it. You didn't think we didn't have any tricks before we hired you, did you?"

He reached into a box in front of him on the desk and pulled out a syringe.

Silk and Lethe eyed it warily.

"Drugs?" Silk spoke.

"I prefer to call them Suggestions," Hantai said, "We'll wait till she's tired, dehydrated, hungry, body at its weakest resistance point to chemicals, and inject this, and in a few minutes, ta-da! She'll be too loopy to resist anything."

Silk raised an eyebrow. "Which I'm sure you intend to take full advantage of," she said.

Lethe shot Silk a worried look.

"Oh, you wound me, Widow," Hantai said, "I know that's your area of expertise, but I assure you, I wouldn't dream of it. Not on a new subject anyway. Any shock to the nervous system could backfire on us. Better to keep it dull."

Lethe gave him a nervous look. "Dull?"

"Yes, at least for a few days," Hantai said, "After that, we'll see how she responds to the re-education. These DJs, as you call them, Widow, are not like us, perhaps, but they are still human, and any human can be broken. It's simple science."

Silk had on her poker face, so Lethe couldn't tell if she was as disgusted as he was.

But all I have to do is take her memories... he thought to himself, That's all... I don't have to do any of the other things...

* * *

Lethe was still telling himself that when Hantai took him to Shine's cell/room.

Lethe didn't watch the drugging part. He waited outside. He could swear the guards gave him slightly wary looks. He had fast gained a reputation in this group as someone not to mess with.

He did hear struggling.

Shine herself tried to kick Hantai away and break free when she realized what he was doing.

"You fiend," she said, "Do you think you'll just get away with this? You're going to pay in blood for all you've done in this wretched organization as it is, but the penalty for messing with a World Walker is a terrible curse."

"Your melodramatic threats won't do you much good chained to that wall." Hantai ignored her. He had someone with a gun ready just in case. "And for the record, Miss Likstar, you're the one who made this so much more difficult than it had to be. I really didn't want to go this far."

"Yes, you did," Shine said flatly.

"You are ever perceptive." Hantai dropped the act. "I do love a challenge, you're right. And you'll be quite the challenge, I have a feeling. I wonder which will go first--your mind...your spirit...your body."

Shine hissed at him.

"That's not very civil." Hantai picked up the vial. "If you're going to act like a feral animal, Miss Likstar, perhaps you should be sedated like one."

Shine tried to kick it out of his hand... Her legs were too stiff to do this well though, even had he let her get that close.

The other ninja came and pinned her down. Hantai stuck the syringe into her arm.

"It won't have too many side effects," he said, "Mostly just lowers your resistance to things. I've had years to perfect this art, Miss Likstar. Any tricks you have, I'm going to find a way to get past them...and at this point, it all takes such a shockingly small amount of time. I give you a week at most."

"That's...more than enough time," Shine managed, "Whatever you do to me from this point on, Hantai...you snake, just know...you're going to die."

"How quaint that you think I care what you say," Hantai said, "And who would kill me? You? The one who won't kill anyone?"

"No...it won't be me." Shine's eyes glowed faintly. "I won't...have to...you fool..."

Hantai scowled at her. "I cannot wait till that snarkiness is drilled out of her, personally, though I will miss the witty retorts. All right, Lethe, you may come in. I'll just watch from outside, give you room to work."

Lethe walked in sullenly. The others went out.

Shine was not out of it enough not to recognize him.

"Hello, Lethe," she said, "or should I say, Yuma?"

"Only my sister calls me that," Lethe said coldly, "Please, don't try to fight this. It'll just hurt more."

"What self respecting person would not fight this, Yuma?" Shine ignored his wishes. "Why are you still doing this? Medea is never going to come back to you...not in any way that would matter."

"Stop," Lethe said, reaching forward.

"No, you stop." Shine's eyes flared gold.

Lethe pulled his hand back. "Fine...I'll just wait till you stop doing that. Just a few minutes."

"A little thing like that scares you?" Shine laughed bitterly. "Why is a child like you being forced to do this... It's so messed up. I knew a girl a bit like you, once."

"Please stop talking to me."

"While I have the chance, I'm going to talk to you," Shine said. 

"Why don't you act afraid?" Lethe suddenly burst out, "You must know this is going to work. Everyone else acts afraid."

"Oh, I'm terrified." Shine's eyes wavered for a second. "But in all the years I've done this, I've had to learn that in the moment, I can either give in to fear, or I can give in to Love...and what good is fear? Tell me, Lethe...do you really think that Medea will accept you? This will only seal her rejection of you. Is that what you want? To lose the only family you have?"

"I'll deal with her once they take her back," Lethe said.

Shine's eyes started to glaze over, but then she shook herself. "There's something I wanted to say to you... It's hard to think right now... What was it...? Oh, yes, I remember... Aya, she still loves you right now, Yuma...despite the almost literal hell you've put her through."

Lethe's hands suddenly started to shake. "Shut up."

"She loves you right now, because she thinks you can be saved," Shine said, "and take it from me, once you give up thinking there's any hope, it's much harder to love...not impossible, but hard. Now abide, Faith, Hope, and Love... Faith that love will win, Hope that love will still be possible...but Love is the greatest."

Her mind was no doubt becoming confused, based on how she was talking, but why did it still sort of sound like she had a point to it?

Lethe wasn't used to people being this lucid before he worked on them. It was freaking him out.

"The drug should be kicking in now," he said nervously.

"Suppose you did get her back," Shine said, slowly, like it was hard, "and you get what you want... You can get that innocent love back... That's what you want? But it's not real, Yuma. If she can't love you, as you are, despite knowing what you did, than she cannot love you at all, because you have become unlovable...and if that is true, you are lying to yourself more than her if you put her back under your spell. That's not the real Medea, and she knows that, and she will never stop fighting you to get out, deep down."

"Shut up!" Lethe exploded, "Shut up! Shut up! What do you know about my sister, huh? You don't know the hell I went through and have been going through every day to get her back. So many memories! And I get them all! The pain of it! The horror of it! And I did all that for her! What can you understand about love, when you always get out of things so easily?"

Shine had her eyes half closed, but she somehow still spoke clearly, almost like she was far away and didn't remember who she was speaking to.

"You call this easy?" she said dreamily, "This is hell...not that I've not been here before... Why is it this way again? What are You doing?"

Lethe, had he not know Hantai was watching, really might have run the other way.

But he couldn't risk backing out now.

He timidly reached out.

Red squares of memory appeared.

But Shine didn't seem to lose consciousness like other people did. She just stared at him like she knew what he was doing, but she couldn't move enough to stop him.

Lethe might have been desensitized by now, but this was just a little too real...

He swallowed.

"Important stuff," he thought, "just look for the important stuff..."

It was always a little hard at first to find the memory he wanted. He'd sorted through them really fast, one memory tied to another, so that when he found one similar, he'd find more clustered around it. The squares would move and adjust like hanging mirrors.

He started with her memories of the group...

But that led to all sorts of memories, ones about people he didn't recognize, ones the group apparently reminded her of.

Situations too...a lot of things Lethe couldn't make head or tails of; some things that looked like shadow monsters, but real; things that looked like magic...

There was an entire land covered in snow and ice...there was a different land, full of pastel colors and talking animals. There was one with a moon that was broken in pieces. There were people, weapons drawn, or crying or screaming, or laughing. There was a great light flashing out of the sky like a laser beam.

Was all this real?

[If you've read the RWBY story you could guess at least one of those. The other two are references to solo adventures.]

He knew about the other world thing, but he hadn't fully grasped just what that meant... There was too much interconnection here...

He pulled back.

"Lethe?" Hantai said over the intercom from outside, "What's the matter?"

"Sir," Lethe said, "most people's minds are disarrayed, you know. They don't see how things connect to each other. It's easy to separate their experiences from the other. They won't even notice, but hers...I don't know if it's because of what she is, but she makes these connections, these really strong thought patterns... To put it simply, I'd have to tear it out by the roots, and there's so much...I'm not even sure. It could be 6 worlds or more...and there's something else too." He touched one square. "I can't access this at all."

"What?" Hantai's tone implied "You're dead if you don't give me a d--- good explanation."

"It's...unlike anything I've seen," Lethe said.

Shine's eyes focused on him like she was seeing him in a vision.

"You're looking at other worlds, son," she said in a strangely normal voice, "Do you think you can fit that into your head?"

Lethe freaked out. "Sir, she's still aware of what's happening."

"And?" Hantai's tone was immovable. Clearly he had no pity.

"So...that's not normal," Lethe said, "I'm not sure what will happen... What if she loses the memories completely?"

"I guess that will just solve our problem of worrying about them coming back, then, won't it?" Hantai said coldly.

"Also, these other worldly memories, I can't get into them," Lethe said, "When I steal memory, it becomes part of my memory. I don't know, but...it's almost like the experiences here aren't ones I can understand enough to steal. I mean, it's like something out of a movie. I could take the memory of watching the film, but the film can't become part of my memory like I saw it myself... I've tried it before. There's a difference there."

"Are you telling me that you have a weakness that you failed to mention before?" Hantai was livid. "You can't steal memories of films and stories? But these are her real memories."

"They're too much like that, sir. The rules there don't make sense," Lethe said, "I...wonder how she can fit all this into her head at all..."

Shine suddenly laughed at him--not even meanly, just an ironic, little laugh. "You don't have the gift, kiddo, the World Walking gift that lets you process these things... Even one more world is a stretch for someone who doesn't have it, but this many? You couldn't. You'd go mad..."

Lethe had a feeling she was right... Even if he could get in, he wasn't sure he'd get back out.

Hantai could hear what she said. "How is she still talking?"

"Sir, I'd almost say that the drug itself is making it easier for her to see what's happening," Lethe said, "If I'm getting this right, these memories aren't a part of her conscious mind all the time, just like most, but even when they are, they're not like regular memories. There's something in them that's different. And, remember, her physical ability to resist this isn't going to affect that--it might just make it clearer, since she's not trying to think of it herself. I'm seeing them in their purest form, and what I'm saying, sir, is that, as they are, I can't touch them."

"Try," Hantai said, "Try harder. I want to see what happens."

Lethe knew if he disobeyed he'd be punished...

Cautiously, he strained harder to touch one of the memories he could just tell was different.

Shine didn't react at all, as if she no longer could tell he was doing it.

For a second nothing unusual happened. Lethe began to see them appear in his own mind--

And then there was something like fire blazing around it, or maybe it was blinding light...sort of like the portals themselves, but in his own mind--

The shock of it almost made him pass out.

Suddenly he was on the floor, and he wasn't sure if he'd been knocked out or just thrown back.

The light was still burning the edges of his mind, but nothing was actually visible in the room itself.

"Lethe? What are you doing?" Hantai said, "What happened?"

Lethe put his finger to his temples. "Something just...burned me... I don't feel so good..."

The feeling passed.

Shine continued to stare at him blankly.

"Did you do that?" Lethe asked her.

Shine looked puzzled. "Do what?"

Lethe's hair stood on end on his neck and arms.

"All right, forget it," Hantai said, "Can you access the memories from our world?"

"Yeah, yeah, those weren't a problem," Lethe said shakily.

"Then start with that. Be thorough. Nevermind the others," Hantai said, "We'll find a way to deal with that later."

Lethe got back up and came closer.

A little voice in his head said, "You know this is a bad idea."

Another voice said, "You know, she really doesn't deserve this."

A third voice, a little, mean one, said, "But you know that you have no choice, so just suck it up and do it. Don't be a little pansy."

"Did you say before that you can feel the pain?" Shine said, distant, "I know what you mean, in a way. I can too... Funny how that works out."

"I don't remember what I said. I was just spouting off to shut you up," Lethe lied, reaching forward again.

"You know, I can sense your pain too," Shine said, "I can't show it," she smiled oddly, "or you'll use it against me, try to trick me. I'm not stupid...but I know you're hurting deeply. How could you carry all the weight of all those people's memories and not snap? Only Jesus could do that. And you're no savior, are you? Kid. I bet it's eating you up inside... I doubt you can take much more."

Lethe's hand shook. "I'm going to block you out now," he said tightly, "Maybe you'll finally shut up."

Shine did stop talking then... Whether it was him using his quirk, or the drug running its full course, he didn't know.

Lethe still had the uneasy feeling she knew what was in his mind though. Did she know that he'd almost stopped sleeping? That he spent half the day replaying various people's memories in his head, and that he almost didn't want to eat anymore because of all the stress they had with them?

That he hated the world even more for what it put people through, but hated the people for being so bothered for it. If only it would all just go away.

Sometimes he really thought he'd just have to snap and release all the memories again, but he didn't dare. The Originals would kill him for sure if he did that.

Would this strange, alien woman be able to tell that if he got too close?

It didn't matter. Lethe shook himself. Even if she knew, it didn't matter. He still had to do this.

Just try harder...

[Ummm...

RED LIGHTS FLASHING. SIRENS. HELP! ACH!

Talk about second hand trauma. It's a real thing. Therapists get it. Also people close to you who hear about something bad that happened to you can get it.

Lethe is just giving himself that, on steroids. I'm surprised he hasn't gone completely insane.

Also, if you're curious about the lore behind how Shine's memories work, I have a tidbit here for you:

So, World Walking does work through power of memory. Shine once had hers attacked before for that very reason (see the first arc of Worldcrossed). That time it was almost a total wash, not a partial one. Obviously Lethe is just not powerful enough for that.

While memory can be damaged, with World Walkers, there's another element in how they process things. They draw their power from One Source that gives them their gifts, and also their ability to understand and accept the difference between worlds.

Think of it as a safe guard against culture shock of the most intense degree.

Otherwise, the sheer weirdness of going to multiple worlds, especially so close together, would just make them snap from the strain.

This ability also gives them a resistance to brainwashing and other mind control, because it guards their minds from a lot of strain. It's partly why Shine and Wally stay calm most of the time.

It can be worn down, since World Walkers are human, but they also are likely to bounce back much faster than other people when it does.

This has some basis in real science, by the way. The way you wire your brain is interconnected, just like how Lethe was describing. That's how memory pathways work. And some people are more intertwined and connected. That's why they say puzzles are good for your brain. They help it get stronger.

A DJ has to put things together so often, their brain would be very used to doing this, so the connections Lethe noticed make perfect sense, but in real life, you'd get this effect from training your brain in problem solving a lot.

Also, memory does work like a tree or a very deeply ingrained pathway, especially core memories--think the ones from Inside Out. Depending on how often you revisit them, they are really hard to get rid of permanently, except by forces like dementia or brain damage.

What Lethe is doing would have to equate to one of those things to really be lasting.

So, if that doesn't make you nervous about the following chapters, I don't know what will.

See you later, when I'm smiling at your pain...and my own, honestly...]