River stood at attention in the center of the room, her arms held stiffly at her side, her feet pointed forward. She could not move, not even her eyes. The room was white and brightly lit. She was sure she had been here before but she was having trouble telling these days. Things had stopped making sense. The Fat Woman and the Sinister Man where staring at her. “This is River Tam” came an amplified voice for behind her. “She is one of our most promising students.” “Is that so?” the Fat Woman said mockingly, her voice was like thunder “she doesn’t look like much of anything to me”. She was mountainous, dressed from head to toe in white. Her red hair fell over her face like liquid silk. Her legs where like tree trunks, her neck like a garnet pillar. River honestly didn’t know if it was fat or muscle. Her eyes where sky blue and penetrating. “What’s she going to do? Pretty people to death?” She laughed uproariously, River imagined the sound could sake the building down. The Sinister Man had still not spoken. He scared her.

“I assure you ma’am River like all our students is capable of being quite deadly” the voice responded. The Fat Woman circled her. She moved like a predator. The Sinister Mans eyes followed. “Although River has excelled in both the combat and PSI portions of the program she has proven somewhat resistant to our control process. As such today we are using a combination of drugs and certain less sophisticated behavioral alteration techniques to temporarily emulate the kind of performance and obedience you can expect from her and all out students at the end of the program.” “Very good Doctor” the Fat Woman bellowed before turning to the Sinister Man. “Shall we begin?” The Sinister man gave a small nod. The Fat Woman placed her hands behind her back “Begin the demonstration doctor.”

“As this is a test River has been programmed to respond to simple straightforward verbal commands. I can assure you Sir that the permanent programming will meet with your specifications” The Sinister Man gave no respon