As her mother let go of her hand, X-23 looked at the man in front of her. He had broad shoulders and messy hair. He wore shorts beneath a blue medical gown, similar to her occasional pink one. "Weapon X," the men in white coats stoically called him; they told her she was his clone, a copy of him. "Monster" was what Dr. Rice of the white coats called him. But "James" was what Dr. Kinney called him when no one was around. He sniffed the air before losing interest.
X-23 was unsure of what to do. Outstretching her hand, she looked to her mother for guidance. Her face was unreadable, gazing at her calculatingly. X-23 slowly reached out and touched his hand, but he made no response. He simply looked at her hand and didn't move. She turned to look at her mother again, only to see her jotting something down in her clipboard and occasionally glancing at her. As X-23 waited, not knowing what to do, she felt a hand on her head; it felt heavy. She reached her hands over his, attempting to remove the hand. He pulled his hand away, leaving her confused by the interaction.
"Laura," a smile appeared on her face, "let's get you to your training. You should make your father proud."
Roughly an hour later, Sarah found herself in Martin's office, massaging her temples. The day's execution training hadn't gone well considering X-23 found the puppy she was assigned to kill fascinating enough to hug. Now she had another mess to clean up.
"—Nevertheless, we have to be careful with how we train X-23. We don't want to jeopardize her development with a trigger scent. As Zander put it, the puppy's life makes a great motivator."
"A trigger scent will guarantee 100% obedience. Don't tell me you're afraid for your pet project?"
"You aren't at all worried about using a scent that'll whip her into a frenzy like Weapon X? If a disciplined soldier like James Howlett was able to revert to such a state, imagine what'll happen to a child," her eyes narrowed, "Every time it's used, she'll grow prone to behaving like him. You won't be able to turn it off, and everyone here gets killed."
"Proceeding with caution is good, but we do need results."
Sarah internally breathed a sigh of relief that Martin had bought her bluff. The girl deserved to have control over herself.
"Which is why I'm also recommending we have a handler. In fact, I know a woman—"
"That's not necessary," she abruptly cut Zander off, "I can get X-23 to comply without excessive force."
"Can you now? And we haven't?"
"I've been able to approach Weapon X, so I think I'm more than capable of handling X-23."
"That is true," Martin agreed.
Zander scowled, "In any case, I think we should replace Tanaka."
"I wasn't aware you were an expert in martial arts."
"He's not suitable."
"He's well-renowned in his circles and X-23 seems to be making good progress with him."
Zander grit his teeth as Martin spoke up, "Our background check wasn't as extensive as we thought. One of his associates is raising a red flag."
'Once again, Martin is there to cover for him,' she thought to herself.
"That's why we should dispose of him as soon as possible. X-23 should prove herself," he sneered, "You can do it, right? Since you've tamed that monster?"
"Can this at least wait until she's mastered it?" Sarah stood up from the chair, "We can't just kill him based on speculation. Isn't he one of us?"
"Unfortunately, that's not possible. We'll need proof of whether you can get X-23 to comply without a trigger substance."
Sarah's brows furrowed as she stared at the door to X-23's cell. Another ploy at breaking the girl, most likely Zander's doing. The girl was timid after her claws came out despite her initial fascination with them. However, the martial arts instructor seemingly helped Laura gain some confidence. Sarah had been satisfied with the instructor since he seemingly shared her passion for enhancing her daughter's talents. He treated her with an appropriate amount of humanity. The two men in that office could learn something from him.
It was hardly fair when the girl failed to kill a tiny creature, and now having her kill someone she knew? It was a setup. They were testing Sarah, and they knew she wouldn't succeed. She bitterly laughed. Zander always had such impeccable timing. He'd make sure to discredit her before he and Martin moved onto their next phase. Clearly this failed test was being used as a pretense for her to accept X-23's fate. No, even worse than that. If she ever became a hindrance to their plans, they could easily use X-23 to take her out.
At the bench within the white cell, she quietly sat next to X-23. She had requested to talk to the girl alone, away from prying ears. The child observed her, saying nothing as they spent the next few minutes in silence.
"X-23, do you remember your puppy?"
Laura nodded.
"Do you remember how you've been training to kill others like the animals? I need you to use your claws to do the same to Sensei."
Laura's eyes widened before shaking her head.
"The other doctors are giving you a choice: your puppy or Sensei?"
She shook her head once more.
Sarah sighed, "Laura, do you remember the radiation?"
The girl curled up into a ball, "Yes."
"Well, something even worse is about to happen to you if you don't choose to kill Sensei," she held X-23's face and whispered under her breath, "From now on, I need you to tell me everything. I can protect you from as much as I can, but you have to do this; you have to listen to me."
She was crestfallen, "Why—?"
Sensei was nice to her like Dr. Kinney was. It was hard not to make mistakes, but he wasn't scary when she did. She was a quick learner, he said. And sometimes she'd look forward to his training.
"X-23, you know you're not allowed to ask that. But I'll tell you why," she whispered in her ear, "Dr. Rice will be ripping out your claws one by one every single day if you don't do this. There will be no second chances like with the puppy."
"So, Laura, what do you think you should do? Should you kill Sensei?"
She took in the girl's trembling figure, "Yes."
She wanted to reach out to the girl but knew it'd be counterproductive to do so now. 'Stay focused,' she just needed one final push.
"You know, there was a bad man like Dr. Rice who was… very mean to me. I was scared when I was little but when I got older, I thought of all the ways I could hurt that man," Sarah smiled, "I can tell you the quickest way to kill Sensei: First, you pretend to fall and can't get up, and when he leans over you with his neck exposed—"
The next day, X-23 buried her face in Dr. Kinney's lap as she read a book out loud. Sarah had a smile on her face as she flipped to the next page.
Another milestone was reached much earlier than anticipated, but things should get significantly easier from here on out. She's gained more authority for being able to get X-23 to kill first without any sort of punishment. Even killing someone her own age wouldn't pose a problem now that the girl understood torture was a possibility. The claw removal wasn't exactly true, but now knowing his cruelty, she speculated it was something Zander would do. Simply the threat of him served her purpose well enough that she didn't even need to lift a finger.
Unfortunately, she'd lost control of the timeline of X-23's development. Her smile turned into a thin line. It was too much to have all these changes occur at once. She may have halted their efforts, but there was still a chance those fools would attempt something again. It might require a great sacrifice, but she needed to regain control.