Two small hands were holding onto the metal pole. Her arms were hurting, but she was not allowed to stop. She kept placing one hand in front of the other. It was the only way to get to the end of the pole.

She stopped, wanting to know how far she had come. It felt like she had been doing this forever and there was so far to the other side. She tried to turn her head, but she couldn't get far enough to see. In the attempt, she forgot to focus on her hands, which caused her to loosen her grip, and her right hand started to slide from the metal pole!

It wasn't before now, that she realized that the floor under her was gone and she screamed as she was only hanging in one arm.

She couldn't see the ground! She had no idea how far down it was, but she would guess about a million feet. Or maybe there was no floor at all? That meant that she would just keep falling and falling and falling!

"HELP!" she cried, tears running down her cheeks. Her fingers were slipping…

"X-23. Don't panic. Just reach up and grab the pole with your other hand again," a woman's voice said.

X-23 looked around but she couldn't see anyone. She reached her right hand towards the pole, but it was too far away and her arm fell back down to her side. Another tear fell from her cheek and down to the buttonless hole. "I'm gonna fall! I'm gonna fall! I'm gonna fall!" She kept thinking. "No!" She tried again, now swinging her body to the side. This time, her small hand was wrapped around the cold metal.

The girl still hung there, crying, scared, wanting to get to safety.

"Do not look down. Keep looking at where you're going," the voice instructed.

The girl removed her eyes from the endless hole she was hanging above, and focused on her target, placing one hand in front of the other.

o*o*o*

In the control room, Dr. Deborah Risman, let go of the button to the microphone. She looked at the man beside her and was met by a scolding look.

"Do I really need to keep reminding you of your position, Dr. Risman?" Stryker asked.

"I'm sorry," she answered quietly.

"Are you now? I believe that I've had to tell you plenty of times, not to interfere with the training."

"I know but…" Dr. Risman looked back to the screen, where the girl still was struggling to get to the other side. "I don't understand why you are pressuring her so hard."

"I want her to reach her full potential."

"She is only five!"

"You need to stop letting your maternal instincts overrule your better judgment, Dr. Risman," Stryker said. "She is not a regular child. She is made to be the ultimate weapon."

"I know. I was the one who manipulated the genetics after your instructions."

Stryker nodded with a smile. "More than twenty failures. Let's hope that this one will actually survive."

"I believe the key is in the DNA from Weapon X," Dr. Risman explained.

"I hope for your sake, that you're right," Stryker said and turned to her. "I had thought that her claws would come sooner."

"She has already got the healing factor and enhanced senses. Having those two alone is very rare for a mutant her age. Even Weapon X didn't have any mutations before he was about ten years old. Her claws will come eventually. We'll just have to be patient."

"I'm aware of that, Doctor. But as I remember, then I asked you to make sure that her powers would come as fast as possible."

"I did what I could. You have to remember that mutations often are triggered by something traumatic or exciting," Dr. Risman said. As she spoke, she suddenly realized: "So that's why you keep giving her more and more difficult tasks."

"Very clever, Doctor," Stryker chuckled. "But that is not the only explanation. I have reasons to believe X-23 has more than just Wolverine's powers."

"Why would you…?" Deborah's heart skipped a beat when she realized what the major was talking about. "You manipulated the genes additionally after I left Alikai Lake, didn't you?!"

"Don't be so surprised, Doctor. You knew that I wanted the weapon as strong as possible."

"But don't you realize that the slightest change in the structure could make her extremely unstable!?" Dr. Risman exclaimed. She held a hand to her chest where she could feel her heart beating fast. She didn't even dare to think about the consequences this could have. How could Stryker even think of such an irresponsible act? They had lost the ingredients to make the chemical that made the mutants controllable.

He gave her a cold look. "Do you take me for a moron, Doctor? Of course, I'm aware of the consequences of my actions and they are the reasons that we have to focus on her training and not cuddle her. She is not a child. She is a weapon!"

Dr. Risman just stared at him. Wondering... Why hadn't he asked her to do it when she had been making the genetic modifications? And what kind of powers could he possibly expect her to have besides the ones she had inherited from Weapon X?

But before she managed to ask any of her questions, the sound of the alarm that meant the X-23 had completed her task sounded.

She was waiting, when the large door opened.

"Stand at attention!" Stryker barked.

X-23 instantly strained her back and pressed her heels together.

"Do you know how long it took you to complete this simple task?"

"N..no," she began.

"Speak up!"

"No, sir!" the girl yelled.

"Well, I know," Stryker said calmly and looked at his wristwatch. "It took you exactly 20 minutes and 43 seconds. Now, do you think that that is a good time?"

"Uh… Yes, sir!"

"Wrong answer!" Stryker growled and pressed a button on his the wristwatch.

X-23 screamed as the collar around her neck, sent a strong static shock through her head and body, paralyzing her.

When Stryker finally decided that she had been punished enough, she collapsed on the floor, crying. "Your time was so bad because you let yourself get distracted. Do not let that happen again. Tomorrow I expect you to do the same task, in half the time, understand?!"

X-23 didn't answer. She just kept crying on the floor from the pain and shock.

Stryker knelt down in front of her and lifted her chin with his index finger, so she looked him into the eyes. "Listen to me," he hissed. "Those tears are not gonna help you, so you might just as well knock off that shit show. If you don't, I'm not gonna double the pain from your little collar. You don't want that now, do you?"

She shook her head fast.

"Then stop it!"

The girl sniffled and rubbed her eyes. She held her breath trying to prevent the small sobs to be heard.

Stryker stood up and turned his back to her. "Bring her to the isolation cell."

The door opened and two men in black walked past him. They grabbed the girl in one arm each and lifted her so her feet didn't touch the ground. They then brought her towards the door.

"Oh, and X-23," Stryker called behind her. The men holding her stopped but didn't turn around so she couldn't see his face, only hear his cold voice: "I'm watching you. If you shed another tear, I'm gonna make the pain ten times stronger."

o*o*o*

They literally threw her into the small, white room and slammed the door behind her, before she could get up. She turned around, but the door was gone. That happened almost every time. Sometimes times she had managed to see them close the door and make it disappear, but most times it would just be gone. A few times she had even tried to look for it, by touching the walls, but she could never find it.

X-23 didn't try to look for it today, though. Instead, she curled herself up in the corner, where she would always end up.

Even though the room was empty, she had panicked the first many times Stryker had sent her in here. She would smack on the walls, scream cry, beg, anything to get out of here. But no one came and she had ended up crying in the corner.

As she sat, here again, the familiar feeling of the walls getting closer, rose. She wanted to close her eyes but she was afraid that the room would crush her if she did. Instead, she began to hum. She didn't understand why, but making that sound, always made her feel safe. Like everything would be okay. She didn't know where she had learned that melody. Dr. Risman would sometimes play music for her but none of the melodies, the machine she brought, was like this one...

She had tried very hard, but she couldn't remember where she had heard it. She didn't have many memories though, and most of them included Stryker or Dr. Risman or a few soldiers. Dr. Risman said that there were other people outside the base. X-23 remembered that Dr. Risman had said that she couldn't go out there yet because she wasn't strong enough and that was why Sir Stryker made her train so much. Many of the people out there were mean and dangerous. When she got older, she would help Sir Stryker fight the evil people.

Dr. Risman had also said that Sir Stryker only was so harsh on her because he cared about her. Somehow X-23 knew that that wasn't true, but she didn't know why… No matter what, she had to do her best, or Stryker would punish her. Sometime he would make her collar hurt her, other times he would beat her until she was bleeding if he was very angry. A few times he had even taken her food away for days.

X-23 kept humming the same melody again and again, as she held her knees close to her chin and leaned against the wall. That was all she could do until Sir Stryker or Dr. Risman made the door come back and let her out. It always took so long time and she would start to think that they had forgotten all about her. That she would be left in here forever.

o*o*o*

Dr. Risman found the key in her pocket for X-23's room.

"I'm not crying!" the girl exclaimed, standing at attention beside her bed.

"I know," Dr. Risman answered as she and closed the door behind her. The girl seemed more relaxed when she realized who it was and sat back down on her bed. Dr. Risman sat down beside her and laid the books on the table beside her. There really wasn't much space in here. The only furniture the girl had, was the bed, the table and a very small closet for her close and linnet. That was all Stryker claimed that she needed.

"Are you ready to learn some more?"

"Yes!" X-23 answered.

"Good." She took one of the books and opened it. X-23 listened carefully as the doctor told her how to pronounce the words and repeated them as well as she could. She seemed so happy when she was taught something new. Something that didn't hurt if you got it wrong or didn't know how to do it.

She had managed to convince Stryker that the girl needed at least some education and he had granted this. She was now allowed to teach X-23 to read, do math and biology (mostly about the body which could come in handy when she would go on missions), as long as the girl didn't get any ideas about what things family, love, and childhood was. They had to make sure that she wouldn't understand what they had taken from her.

They continued reading the story together for about an hour until Dr. Risman had to leave.

"I'll see you tomorrow," she said when the smile on the girl's face faded. "Then we'll continue the story, alright?"

The girl nodded. She was such a sweet child… It was always with a heavy heart that Deborah would close and lock the door behind her. She felt so guilty every time. Not only because she would lock the girl up, but because of the whole situation. It was not right what they were doing to her. She was supposed to be with her family, not struggle every day in her life to become a super weapon! Stryker had - after she had made the genetic enhancements of course - made it very clear that she was free to go whenever she wanted. But she had stayed for X-23's sake. She had lost count of how many times she had thought about the parents and how awful this probably was for them, and in the past, she had often wondered why Stryker had wanted to subject them to this kind of pain. He didn't have to impregnate the mutant named Rogue. All they had needed was some of their DNA. After lots of consideration, she had finally asked him why.

"I want to create a weapon, doctor," he had answered. "Not breastfeed or change diapers."

Dr. Risman sighed as she walked down the hall. She had often considered telling Stryker that she was quitting, and then go to the mansion where she knew X-23's parents lived. But that would be pointless. There was no doubt that Stryker would move the girl to a different location, as soon as she had left. No, it was in X-23's best interest that she stayed, no matter how much she despised it. She knew it would only get worse when X-23 got her claws. Hopefully, it would be long before that day would come.