Just a drabble that came to me while reading "Dollhouse" reviews. I am not Joss Whedon, so I do not own any of the characters here in.




It hadn't been easy, not even for a man like he had used to be, an Operative who knew where to look, but he had done it. Had found the trail of programs and experiments that traced back from River Tam.

He sorted through them all, looking for the one that could have been said to be the first – the one from which all others built on.

And he found it.

Before the physical conditioning programs that brought forth pure brute power super-soldiers.
Before the mental conditioning programs that brought forth human computers and semi-psychics.
Even before the exodus from Earth-that-was.

The word reverberated in the air of his room even as the blade of his katana pierced his heart, “Dollhouse.”