Note: A new chapter! At a reasonable length! What a miracle. So, here's an important warning. This is technically going to be the second and last therapy chapter, but there is one more chapter after this where we talk about some personal trauma. And fair warning: That chapter is going to be dark. Like, really heavy in a way this story usually isn't. In fact, I'm so worried about it that I am going to plaster that chapter with trigger warnings, and might even segregate off that particular section so people can skip over it if they want. Yeah, I know, but I legitimately went back and forth over whether I should even write it in the first place, and that's the conclusion I reached. So, that's my heads-up for next week's chapter. For now, let's do some less stressful therapy. Enjoy.

Yang spent the next half hour speaking of the events that transpired that awful night. She talked of hopelessness and regret while she was stuck in that disgusting basement, certain she was going to die. She discussed her guilt over not doing enough to stop it, and Dr. Noetal carefully talked her down from her emotional heights before she could erupt into hysteria. She talked about her frustrations with Penny, though she initially tried leaving the Atlasian prodigy out of her conversation. It was inevitable that she would get brought up, though Yang was careful to leave her true nature out of the conversation. She explained her frustrations with Penny for following them, for luring them into danger, her conflicted feelings about her supposed death, and their current, unstable alliance. All the while Dr. Noetal nodded and answered with reasoned yet expected assurances. It's understandable to be mad. Penny faced the consequences of her actions. You can heal on your own time.

Ruby didn't do much aside from watching the clock on Dr. Noetal's wrist.

The conversation took a notable turn when Yang mentioned her visions.

"Yes, what is that about?" Dr. Noetal inquired.

Yang leaned back on the couch. "The woman we were chasing… her Semblance caused us to relive traumatic memories whenever she looked at us. I got hit twice."

"Are you okay?"

"Now? Yeah, I mean… I guess."

"You guess? That's a way of saying it."

"I mean, it will be okay," Yang clarified. "Like, I'll get over it."

Dr. Noetal shook her head. "That's not how this works, Yang, and I think you know that. Now, I'm not going to make you trauma dump in front of your teammates. That's not what this is about. But I think it would be very helpful if you talked about what happened to you at some point."

Yang uncomfortably looked at her friends surrounding her and sturdied herself. "No. It's okay. I can talk."

"Are you sure? You don't have to."

"Yeah. Might as well," Yang explained. "I kept my problems to myself for too long, and look where that got us? I don't think keeping this buried is going to help anyone."

Dr. Noetal seemed surprised, but she wasn't here to argue. She looked for the other's approval, and while some of them seemed unwilling to look at Yang directly, they were all willing to hear her out. "The floor is yours. What did you see?"

Yang scratched the back of her head. "Well, that's the weird part. I saw two memories."

"Right, because you got affected by the Semblance twice. Go with the first one you saw."

"No, not like that," Yang clarified. "Both times I got hit, I saw the same memory. But I saw two different memories at the same time. Like, I was watching them side-by-side, but also they were fusing into each other. And I was, like, feeling two different sets of emotions for them, but at the same time. It wasn't so much traumatic, as it was… really weird."

"What were the memories?"

"One memory was from last semester. It was when I fought Ruby in the Challenge by the Honors. I had lost control, and Yin had taken over. I felt trapped. I couldn't breathe. I saw my body moving on its own, but I couldn't stop it. And…" Yang glanced over to her sister. "I was trying to hurt her."

"And the second?"

Yang hesitated. "It was my eighth birthday party."

"That doesn't sound traumatic."

"It wasn't. It was awesome," Yang recalled. "I had a ton of friends over to my house. I ate like nine pounds of cake. My dad took me for a joyride in the front seat of a convertible. Ruby, do you remember that?"

"I remember you eating all of the cake, and then Dad had to go buy more because I didn't get any. That's why he was driving—to the store," Ruby claimed. "Maybe I'm the one with the traumatic memory."

"Ok, but that's the thing," Yang noted. "I didn't feel any of those good feelings when I was rewatching it. I felt scared, and hated, and just—"

"Like you didn't exist?" Dr. Noetal suggested. Yang nodded carefully.

"Yeah."

"Well, I think it's obvious what was happening," Dr. Noetal theorized. "You saw two different memories because both of your personalities were reliving their respective traumas."

Some part of Yang was expecting the answer, but it was no less shocking to her that Noetal deduced it so quickly. "You really think so?"

"I mean, I have no idea," Dr. Noetal confessed. "I tried looking into your condition the best I could, but there really isn't anything on Branwen's disease I could find. But, I do think it makes internal sense. It's not like you lost your memories when the personalities merged together. If that other Semblance was trying to stir up traumatic memories and went searching around inside your head, it's possible it got confused and tried to pull up two simultaneously."

Yang guessed that made about as much sense as anything. She didn't know how a Semblance could get confused—actually, hell, she didn't know anything about Semblances—but she wasn't about to question the results directly in front of her. She understood why the first memory was traumatic; it was fresh enough in her mind she could still recall the sensation of stepping on a broken ankle. It was the other that caused some stir of unease within her. "So… the memory of my birthday… that was Yin's trauma I was feeling?"

"That's my hypothesis."

"Why would Yin be traumatized by that?"

"You tell me," Dr. Noetal shrugged. "Why were you traumatized by that?"

The challenge was so blunt that Yang didn't know how to respond. Yin was a complicated topic. She knew she was a part of her. She couldn't hide it or run from it. But while the past few months had been full of lessons on how to balance her former two lives, one of the things she had put off was just how many of Yin's experiences disturbed her. It wasn't surprising: Yin was the embodiment of all her negative emotions, aging like a poisoned wine inside of her skull. But she tried not to think of those parts of her. She needed to move on. It was always going to be impossible to forget just how awful Yin truly was—how awful they made her. And it was also surprising when, while Yang was still contemplating the question, she felt the answer flow freely from her lips as if pushed out by some unseen force.

"I was afraid I would always be alone."

Yang jumped, and Dr. Noetal, recovering from her own surprise, quickly jotted something down in her notes.

"O-Okay, and?"

"And…" Yang took a deep breath, and those strange words suddenly blended into her own, the phantom gone. "And it hurt knowing that… all of these strangers were around me, and none of them knew who I was. And if they did know me—that part of me—they could hate me. I was some dirty, little secret, and I… I hated that."

The memories came rushing back into her, crashing into her old perspective. She saw the same events in her mind, but new emotions screamed at her, begging to be let out. She recalled that deep hatred so vividly that it seared her even now, and somehow, words she thought but never said on that day resonated in her like a desperate scream.

"Somebody hear me!"

Yang quickly shook the horrible things away. "I'm sorry, can we change topics?"

"Are you all right?"

"I'm just…" Yang shuddered. "I'm disassociating right now, and I don't really want to do that."

"If you would like," Dr. Noetal said, some level of disappointment evident in her words. "I don't want you to retraumatize yourself. That's not what this is about. But I think something very interesting just happened in your head, and I do want to talk about that during our next session if you prefer."

"Sure. Maybe," Yang sighed.

"Wonderful," Dr. Noetal smiled. "In that case, I think we can move on—"

Weiss suddenly spoke up. "Actually, would you mind scheduling me for something, too?"

Her teammates were taken aback, but Dr. Noetal welcomed the interruption. "Absolutely. Is there something wrong?"

"I'm just trying to be proactive," Weiss explained. "All of us were affected by that Semblance. If we are dealing with traumatic events, talking about I might be useful."

"That's a very mature thought process, Weiss," Dr. Noetal said respectfully. "I didn't actually know that all of you had to relive trauma. I'm very sorry to hear that."

"It's all right," Weiss admitted. "Mine wasn't something too bad."

"We can schedule a meeting to discuss it. Unless you want to talk about it now."

"No. Although, actually…" Weiss considered the option for a moment. It wasn't as if her teammates weren't familiar with the memory, and Yang was willing to talk about her problems in front of the others, and honestly, she would rather not spend another hour in therapy when she didn't have to. She subtly clenched her fist in her lap. "My father once made me run a sort of… trial. It was rather violent."

"I think you might have told me about this."

"No, an earlier one," Weiss clarified. "It was my clearest moment of failure. He knew that I wasn't able to succeed, but he made me do it anyway. He said it was an alternate way to prove myself after I failed to get into Atlas Academy, but really, he just wanted to punish me. I know: rather ironic how things turned out, aren't they?"

"What did the trial entail?"

"I can't really talk about that," Weiss held back a sad smirk. "But the point is that I failed, and failing that trial cost me almost everything. I lost my dignity. I lost my left eye. And I…" She stumbled over her words. "I lost my sister. I'm still… I'm still trying to get her back."

"I'm very sorry to hear that, but you are in a good place now. Whatever awful expectations your father set for you, you have certainly exceeded them. You are a proud Huntress, a worldwide celebrity—"

"And I couldn't protect someone that I cared about," Weiss grimaced. "If I had just done better, maybe I wouldn't be here. Winter would be all right. Every time I see my father's face, I have to smile and act polite while knowing that he did this to us. If we wrong him, he could do worse. That's an expectation that I can't fail to live up to. It's infuriating."

Dr. Noetal nodded. "I'm not sure what advice I can give you. Obviously, you aren't in a situation to divorce yourself from your family problems. I can't help you there. But it sounds like you are still feeling some guilt over your failures. I'm going to recommend to you the same thing I told Yang: beating yourself up over something you had no control over is not going to help."

"I'm aware."

"Can you tell me this? You said that you weren't able to succeed in this trial. How likely is that, actually?"

Weiss scoffed. "No one beats the God's Arm. Only two people in history have completed it."

"Okay, and you were how old when you did this?"

"Sixteen."

"Were the other people who passed the trial sixteen?"

"Not even close."

"All right, then in my professional opinion, your father is an asshole," Dr. Noetal explained. "If you are put in a situation where it's impossible to win, you literally cannot be blamed for failure. That's absurd. You can be angry about it, I think that's reasonable. But you should not be beating yourself up over any of the consequences of that. Remember: when you had to act on your own, outside of his control, you literally saved hundreds of lives. You are a very talented Huntress, Weiss. Don't let him set the conditions for your pride."

"That's… a good point, actually," Weiss said thoughtfully. "It doesn't really resolve my current problems."

"And it's not meant to. It's meant to make you come to terms with your past. How you deal with your present is up to you."

"Fair."

"Since we are sharing… would anyone else like to talk about their experiences?" Dr. Noetal looked to the leader of the team, expecting her to take charge. "Ruby? Care to share?"

Ruby scrambled to come up with an excuse. Talk about Rosaline to a person who works under Ozpin? No, thank you. "I, uh… already shared mine with the team," she confessed. "Mine was kind of different than the others. It's not really affecting me."

Dr. Noetal narrowed her gaze. "Are you sure about that?"

"Yep. Positive," Ruby said quickly. "It wouldn't really make a lot of sense to you. Trust me, it was weird."

Yang jumped in, defending her sister's secrets. "Her vision really was different than the rest of ours. It wasn't even trauma-related. I don't think it's relevant to the conversation."

"If it doesn't fit the theme, that's all right. As long as you are upfront with your teammates, I think that's fine. No need to double dip on trauma." With that out of the way, all the eyes in the room turned to the Shadow Girl, who was leaning over the edge of the couch, hand on her chin, staring at some random spot on the wall. Her lips had been bound tightly together for the past twenty-five minutes. Dr. Noetal leaned forward, gently approaching a topic she knew would be difficult to pry.

"Blake? Would you be—"

"No."

Blake's answer came out like a bullet. Dr. Noetal dodged and swiftly moved on.

"We don't have to do it now—"

"No."

"Ok. Would you like to schedule—"

"No."

Dr. Noetal sighed. "All right. I can't force you to talk about it. If you would like to keep it to yourself, there's no judgment here."

Blake huffed. It was the most the doctor was going to get out of her. She wasn't expecting anything more, even if it would have been nice. Weiss and Ruby seemed to retreat from the point as well, casting Blake only brief, disappointed stares before moving on. However, Yang tensed up. She sneered, and the words came out as a mumble.

"Everyone else was willing to talk."

Blake's eyes snapped open, and she whipped her head around to stare Yang down. "You wanna speak the fuck up?"

Yang's sneer deepened. She talked louder. "Everyone else wanted to talk about their problems but you."

Blake nearly stood up on the spot, but Weiss managed to hold her back. The ex-heiress, sandwiched between the two ex-lovers, would rather be anywhere else.

"Why don't you mind your own business, Yang?" she snarled. Yang opened her mouth to argue, but the doctor intervened, smacking her pencil repeatedly against her notes.

"Whoa, whoa, everyone! Calm down! No fighting in here!" She pointed harshly at Yang. "Yang, I said she didn't have to talk if she didn't want to. No one is being forced to say anything here. Judgment free. Do you understand?"

Yang locked eyes with Blake, and it was the tensest things had been between the two in quite a while. Yang held back the urge to scream. The doctor was right. Now was not the time. Now was the time for healing. But the second that door opened… well, that would be a different time.

"Yes," Yang said, turning away. "I understand."

Blake glared her down for another few moments, then relaxed in her seat, returning her attention to the wall. Weiss breathed a sigh of relief, though it was impossible to find any comfort sandwiched between two pipe bombs. Dr. Noetal refocused on the task in front of her.

"Well, since we are all participating, I might as well discuss why I brought all of you here today."

"Oh yeah. You haven't explained that yet," Ruby observed—and she had been very careful to observe.

"Here's what's been happening," Dr. Noetal explained herself. "For the past several months, I have been monitoring Yang's progress and making determinations about whether she can resume Huntress training. It's been very important that we don't have a repeat of any incidents from last year. So far, as I'm sure you're aware, I've been refusing her out of an abundance of caution. Of course, I wasn't exactly anticipating her to go on a wild car chase across Vale. I originally came to the conclusion to tamp down on her further for that, but I had another thought. If she really is capable of going onto field missions, then there wouldn't be much of a reason for me to hold her back."

Yang felt a moment of relief come over her, but it was quickly replaced with dread. In all of the chaos of the past week, she had nearly forgotten that Noetal was here to judge her. She was supposed to be leaving a good impression on her, and two seconds ago, she just had a blow-up with Blake. Had she ruined her chance at freedom before it even began?

"No, I'm not going to judge you for getting mad at Blake," Dr. Noetal said, reading the panic on Yang's face. "That's not really what I'm worried about. But that's why I needed a more informed perspective. You young ladies are with her every day. You've seen her in action. You are, arguably, the most at risk of her losing control. So, I'm going to put the decision in your hands." Dr. Noetal's gaze narrowed. "Do you think that Yang should be allowed to resume her Huntress training?"

Her teammates remained quiet, taking in the weight of their decision. Yang was unable to say anything, stuck between those who would choose her fate. Since no one immediately spoke up, Dr. Noetal clarified her terms.

"Here's the deal: I'm looking for a unanimous decision. None of you should be forced to feel in danger while on a team. If one of you objects, I'll delay her admission. Yang, I think it might be best for you to leave the room while they decide, in case any of them feel anxious about sharing their opinions in front of you."

Yang checked her teammates' expressions for any hints of their decisions, then reluctantly followed Dr. Noetal's orders. She quietly stepped out of the room, giving them one last longing glance before shutting the door behind her. Weiss, now suddenly given extra space, shimmied into the empty spot on the couch, stretching out her legs and arms. Dr. Noetal didn't have a specific order in mind, so she simply went down the length of the couch.

"Blake, what are your thoughts?" Dr. Noetal asked. "And please, don't let any personal grudges influence you. I'm looking for Yang's mental condition during field stress, and if you feel safe working with her."

Blake rolled her eyes. "I was barely there when Yang was in action last week. If she lost it at any point, I'd have no idea. If you are asking if I've seen any signs like I did before her disease took over… no. Not really."

"Are you confident about that?"

"I was with her every day last semester," Blake recalled. "I could tell she was slipping. There was a really obvious shift in her behavior when Yin was taking over. She's been frustrated lately, but I haven't seen anything in the vein of what I did before. So, I think she's fine."

"Would you trust her with your life?"

"I'd rather trust her than you."

"I'll take that as a yes," Dr. Noetal nodded. She turned her attention down the line. "Weiss?"

Weiss cleared her throat. "If you don't mind, I'd like to defer my opinion to Ruby."

"I don't want you to just regurgitate Ruby's answer. I want to know your own thoughts."

"Those are my own thoughts. I haven't seen enough of Yang in direct combat to make a judgment on her. Ruby has—she was the only one of us who was there with Yang when the fights broke out. She's the one whose experience you are interested in. Besides, Ruby is our team leader, and I've learned to trust her judgment. If she genuinely believes that Yang isn't a threat, then I have no reason to doubt her opinion."

"If that's what you really feel, then I will jot you down as a maybe. Now, Ruby, looks like it's up to you. You apparently were there during Yang's last battle. Tell me, and tell me honestly—what did you see in her?"

Ruby stayed quiet. Her hands were clasped together in her lap, eyes glued to the floor. Remembering that night was bound to resurrect terrible scars, but now she was forced to confront the reality of what she had seen. And what did she see? There was only one memory that truly stood out to her, shining like a light in the oppressive darkness. Yang, face bloody with self-inflicted wounds, throwing her head against a concrete wall repeatedly, cracking open her skull in a desperate attempt to free herself. She remembered her trembling with power, lusting for revenge against the twins. She remembered being very, very afraid.

But then Ruby remembered Sienna's threats to her. She remembered the world closing in on them. And so, she chose her words carefully.

"When I was looking to go after Emerald, Yang stopped me," she said clearly. "She was the only one responsible enough to try to avoid violence. When someone got hurt—or when she hurt someone—she was clearly remorseful. There was a moment when I was incapacitated in that building, and everyone was coming to kill me, and Yang was able to display a sufficient level of combat awareness to fight them all off. She defended an innocent target against an overwhelming force without any collateral damage. While we were captured, she tried to comfort me. She also…" Bashed her fucking skull against a wall. "…came up with an idea to free us when I wasn't able to. She showed an amazing amount of resourcefulness in really dire circumstances. She was also instrumental in capturing Emerald during the chase across Vale. All things considered, she was probably more useful on the mission than I was. I would be more than happy to work beside her again."

Dr. Noetal didn't answer immediately. She didn't seem to acknowledge most of Ruby's comments her pencil became still and her gaze narrowed in on Ruby's face, scanning it cautiously. She hummed and pointed toward the door. "Weiss. Blake. Can you give me and Ruby a moment to ourselves?"

Blake and Weiss, unwilling to argue, followed the therapist's instructions. Weiss gave Ruby a loving squeeze on her arm before they left, joining Yang in the lobby. Ruby, now with the couch to herself, refused to move from her spot in the corner. Dr. Noetal placed her clipboard and pencil off onto her desk, and leaned forward in her seat, her words growing tense.

"Ruby, are you hiding something from me?"

Goddammit, she was good.

"No, ma'am."

"Ruby, you just gave your sister an extremely glowing review, and yet you sounded like you were speaking at a wake. Plus, you literally haven't looked at me once. I'm no body language expert, but you look like you're hiding something."

"I haven't lied about anything," Ruby said passively.

"Okay, so lying about something and omitting something are two different things," Dr. Noetal pointed out. "Ruby, I'm concerned with your safety here. Don't think about if she's your sister—"

"It's not that at all."

"Then what is it?"

Ruby pursed her lips. "Doctor, I need people next to me that I can trust. Things are… things are scary right now, and if we are going to get through this, I need my team to be at full strength. I can't have any one of my team members waiting on the sidelines anymore, and I can't have more inter-team tension."

"This isn't supposed to be about your team, it's about Yang and keeping her from hurting others and herself," Dr. Noetal reminded her. "Ruby, I need you to make a rational decision."

"And I am," Ruby said more firmly, finally meeting the doctor's eyes. "I was there. I saw her. She was fine. Everything I said was true. She was a good, capable Huntress, and she kept me safe when I couldn't defend myself. I want—no, I need Yang to be by my side. You wanted to hear my opinion, and there it is. I'm not changing it."

Dr. Noetal scowled for a moment, but eventually, her features relaxed. She leaned back in her chair, letting Ruby's response wash over her. "I'm going to make one thing very clear, Ruby. I'm not your enemy. I'm not trying to make your life harder. I'm just trying to keep you safe, and if you don't believe me, that's fine. I try not to let my personal feelings on this subject take over. When you are dealing with something this important, you have to be objective. I try to do that, but I refuse to let an innocent person's death be on my conscience. Trust me—it's not worth whatever you think it is. I said I was going to trust your opinions, and unfortunately, I wasn't there to disprove anything you are saying. I can't let my personal suspicions contradict the evidence in front of me. If I let Yang go, based purely on your words… if I'm really going to let you make this choice, then I need you to make me a promise."

Ruby steadied herself. "What do you need?"

Dr. Noetal became deadly serious. "Whatever happens from here on out, you have to promise me… it's not my fault."

Yang waited impatiently outside the door. God, what the fuck was taking them so long? She considered eavesdropping, but that felt like it would ruin the purpose. When Weiss and Blake exited the room, Yang pounced on them like an eager puppy dog, but they explained that they were waiting on Ruby. Yang's heart sank somewhat. She had no idea what Ruby was thinking. A lot had happened that night, and while she was generally proud of surviving it, Ruby was under a lot of stress. Weiss and Blake refused to talk, so she had to wait for the inevitable heartbreak.

Dr. Noetal exited the room a few minutes later.

Ruby was followed shortly behind her.

She seemed sad. Yang's chest became tight. Dr. Noetal paused momentarily, then simply shrugged her shoulders.

"Okay. You're cleared."

Yang's cheers echoed down the hall. She threw her arms up in the air, then pulled Ruby in for the tightest hug she could. She thanked her over and over again, the weight of the world finally off her shoulders. Ruby smiled through it all. From how close they were, Yang couldn't tell it was forced.