"I have a car outside. You know cars, don't you? You've seen them in people's minds." He was trying to catch on to how this worked. She was a telepath, at the very least, although he imagined that it had to be more than that. Perhaps telepathy to begin with. Like he had once upon a time simply been a bit more persuasive than the average person. Then the experiments started.
Barty held his hand out to her. "Come with me. We will walk out and then we will get in the car. Then we go home."
A temporary home of sorts, anyway. "Nice place. Good food. Warmth. Safe."
"I know." She knew a lot of things from people's minds. Cars, buildings, weapons, wars. All kinds of things. She came over and took Barty's hand, holding it in her own and not moving for a moment while she decided how it felt. His hands were nice and warm, so much bigger than her own. He felt powerful in that sense too. Bigger and stronger than her. Like he could actually protect her.
"Home?" She wondered what home was like. He said big windows. So she could look outside and see what the world was like. Big windows, warmth and food. It sounded a lot better than here. "The bad men will come."
She couldn't be entirely sure but she knew they would try to find them. "Dangerous."
"I ran away when I was young, Eleven. I'm old now." Comparatively speaking, anyway. "I can keep the bad men away. I'm more dangerous than they are. We are safe."
He started to walk, hoping that she could trust him enough for the moment. There were several corpses around, but no signs of forced entry. No violence. Of course not, Barty had no need for that. He had made sure there would be no footage either. "I can make the world listen to me, little sister. You can force the world to be the way you want it to. They've made us dangerous."
He turned his head to smile at her. "Together we are powerful."
Papa wanted her to be powerful too. That was what she had to be, dangerous and powerful. She wasn't sure if it's what she wanted but she couldn't get rid of it either.
What she really wanted was family, maybe to look pretty like some of the women she saw in her head sometimes and no more fighting. No more bad men, no more danger. If that was ever possible. She wasn't sure, just like she wasn't entirely sure about Barty, but she didn't have much choice.
It was here or Barty. And Barty called her little sister. Barty had a home. She stepped over the bodies carefully and looked around as they left, more interested than afraid. "Are you powerful?"
"Yes. I'm very powerful. They fear me." They still wanted him too, but they did fear him. As he was sure they feared Eleven too, given the way they were keeping her. He kept walking toward the exit. It was so long ago, he could barely remember it. His first steps in freedom. His worry for Giacomo, his fear. He remembered those emotions well. Uncertain and pretending to know what he was doing for his brother's sake.
"I can get us peace. Peace and happiness." That was all they wanted, wasn't it? All that they could never have until he was done with his revenge.
As they stepped out of the lab and into the world, Eleven inhaled deeply and felt the cold chill of the wind against her. She never really felt that before. The wind blowing or the wet ground beneath her feet. She had always been inside for as long as she knew. It was night time because it was dark, she knew that much. She tilted her head back and looked at the little white dots in the sky curiously.
"Pretty." She liked the dots. They sparkled almost. She wondered what they were and what they were like. Could someone get up there and touch them.
As they walked towards the car, Eleven stumbled a little as she stargazed, letting herself be led. She was powerful - if Barty was a bad man, she could hurt him too.
Barty opened the car door on the passenger side, holding it for her. He looked up at the sky and smiled. "The stars. They are really far away, but they are pretty." Those were his thoughts, at least. He remembered reading about stars before ever seeing them. Never did it justice. "You can see the stars from the windows. At home."
Where they were headed. "Get in. Then I'll show you how to fasten the seatbelt. Keeps you safe." That was what was important. As it had been with Giacomo, all that time ago. "I'm hungry."
He smiled, trying to break the tension down. "Are you?"
As she got into the car, she let the door shut behind her and flinched a little at the sound. She found it a little anxiety inducing, going somewhere new with no context or certainty. She didn't want Barty to suddenly turn on her now they were this far. She wanted a brother, not a test or a bad man.
At the question, she looked at Barty and then nodded. She was starving.
When Barty smiled, she weakly tried to mimic it. He was being nice. Papa was only nice when he wanted things. Did Barty want things? "Little sister..." Eleven mumbled to herself. "Are you... big brother?"
"Yes. I'm your big brother." He meant it and he wished he could make her certain of it. Have a bond the way he had with Giacomo. With a frown, Barty leaned back. He looked at her for a moment, then closed his eyes and tried to relax. Tried to force his mind to open. "You can look inside me."
Maybe she could, when he really made the effort. "I have nothing to hide." He was trying to focus on good things. On loving his brother and wanting him safe. On the house he had secured for them. On the many ways he had managed to keep the bad men off his tail over the years. On Sam, most likely. He always thought of Sam.
She tried her best to get inside of him but it was difficult. Even with him allowing it, it was like crashing against a wall. Then slowly, one brick slipped free and she got a glimpse in her head. A few pictures. Some images. Names.
She jerked back with her nose bleeding and her eyes wide as she looked at him. "It's hard. With you." She couldn't truly get in. "I saw..." She frowned. "There's two of you." Two identical Bartys. "And a man. He smiles."
It was a smile with love. It was a nice smile to see.
"Yes. My twin brother. Giacomo. He looks like me, but he's different." He handed her a tissue, much the way he would with Giacomo. Then he started the car. At least she knew that he wanted to open up to her. That was at least something. "The smiling man is Sam. He's--"
Barty wasn't sure how to explain any of that. "He's good. A good man." Not like the many bad men that they were both used to. "He always tries to help and to do the right thing." Even if that frequently didn't work out.
He slowed the car down when they approached the gate, looking at the guard he had left standing there. He spoke to him. "Go inside. Find the self-destroy button. Enter the code 3-5-7-1-2. Blow this place up with yourself inside."
The man turned to follow his order and Barty drove them away from the place. He glanced at Eleven, smirking. "I'm not sure I do the right thing a lot."
"Giacomo." More family? Giacomo looked like Barty but they had different smiles. Barty's were never quite as wide or as open as Giacomo's. She wondered if they were close, if she'd get to meet Giacomo too. He probably had powers too. Was he two? If Barty was one then he had to be two.
She watched the guard walk away to destroy the lab she had been in and wondered if that was bad to do. It didn't feel bad. It felt good. It was scary but good. "Right?" As in good? Huh.
"Bad men hurt good people. Good people don't hurt people. But if you hurt bad people, are you bad?" She wasn't entirely sure how it worked but it seemed confusing. Good, bad. They were just words to her in some ways.
"See, I've never been able to figure that one out either." Lacking morals, Sam said these days. Sam thought that he was lacking a lot. Sam thought he was a mess and a monster and maybe he was. But he could sense that Eleven was next to him, warming up in the car. Warming up a little to him. Who cared about good or bad? He chose what to care about. Who to care about.
"I will get us food at the drive-through." He was positive that she wouldn't make sense of that, so he explained. "It's a place that makes food and you pick it up with your car. Then you eat."
He wondered what food she had even had in her life. "Is there food you like? Did you get good food as a reward?"
Otherwise, he assumed it was still just goo. Whatever it was that he had always gotten. Supposed to increase focus.
She shook her head slowly. She didn't really get much special food and she didn't really like the food either. It was gritty and usually tasted a bit weird. She frowned as she tried to think of things that she liked but she couldn't think of much. "I don't have any I like." She once had a bit of an apple slice before they caught her, she had pulled it from a trash can. It tasted okay. Bit sticky.
She looked around the car with great interest, looking around the back of the car and in front of her. She reached out to ring her fingers along the glove box and it popped open suddenly, scaring her.
Flinching, she looked at Barty nervously and then back to the opened glove box. Inside was a map, gloves and some random trash. "Sorry."
"That's fine. You can look." He remembered it. Remembered being more like her. Remembered even more vividly how much Giacomo had been like her. Hell, he had seen Giacomo retreat to acting like this just a couple days ago when fucking Jack Harkness had used that tone of voice. Made his blood boil, the way they had all been groomed and trained. Reduced. "Just don't touch anything my side of the car. That could be dangerous, I need to drive."
Simple rule. "Food can be good. I will show you." He assumed that she would like sweet food. Fried food. Any kid would.
"I won't touch." She promised as she closed the glove box carefully. She watched him drive though. She watched him use the wheel, listened to the clicking on the turn signal and the way he looked in his mirrors and all around outside.
As they got off the country roads, the trip got more interesting to look at. The dark backroads were gone and suddenly, there were buildings lit up and street lights. Things were brighter now, she could make out things like other people. Other people moving in the streets. They weren't in lab coats and they didn't have guns either. They were just normal people.
"Scotland. It's part of the UK. We are close to Inverness now." He supposed the Scottish highlands made a better hiding place for secret labs than anything less remote. Maybe there was another lab near Loch Ness. The thought tickled him a little. He imagined Sam would think it was funny too.
He pulled up at a McDonald's Drive Through and started an order. "Two Big Mac menus with fries and cokes. One Happy Meal with the nuggets. Chocolate milkshake. And an apple pie."
There, that should do it. He drove around and waited for their order to be ready, looking at Eleven from the side. "There is a toy with it. In the Happy Meal. That's your toy."
There was no person there, it was just a box with a speaker. Did he also talk to the radio too? Did he hear them? How did they bring food? As she was pondering all of this, they pulled up at the side of the drive thru and inside the little window, she could see people working. They were assembling food and moving around, laughing and joking. Her eyes were wide as she watched them, fascinated. "People."
Lots of people. Well, four people but to her, that was a lot. A women hung out of the window and held the bag out to Barty. "Have a nice evening, guys."
Eleven stared at her. She was so pretty, she had a nice smile too. She took the bag as Barty moved it towards her and she held it steady for him. It was warm and it smelled good. "Happy meal?" What made her meal so happy and why was it so big?
Barty turned the car to park in the parking lot for just a few moments, simply so he could explain things to her. He put the biggest bag down in the middle between them and moved one coke each to their respective cupholders. Then he put the milkshake into Eleven's second cupholder and he put the pie by it, for later.
For now he gestured to her. "Open it. That's your Happy Meal. It has a toy, it has fries and nuggets." And whatever else Happy Meals came with, he wasn't sure. "When you have eaten that, I'll give you more. Don't eat too fast or you'll feel sick."
Eleven opened it up and inside was a yellow stuffed toy with long hair. It had a tag that said 'Little Miss Sunshine' and she looked at it with wide, curious eyes. She felt it for a while and then set it carefully on the dash so it didn't get hurt. Inside was also a small book but she couldn't read it so she just showed it to Barty.
It was all so mesmerising, she forgot she even had food to eat. "What is it?" It was a picture book but it had some letters on it. And she knew they were words.
"It's a book." Barty took the book to quickly leaf through it so he'd have an idea of its contents. "It's a book to make you worry less. Or to help you deal with your worries, anyway."
He glanced at her and realised that this was an important moment. "I will read it to you later. But it belongs to you. Little Miss Sunshine is in it." He gestured to the toy she'd gotten. "Her. She helps people feel happy."
He assumed that was the drill, anyway. Children's books weren't his forte. "Have some fries, eh? You look hungry." He opened the barbecue sauce they had gotten and took some of his own fries to dip and show her how it worked. "It's good."
He preferred better cuisine, but hey. It would do in a pinch.
She owned a book. A book and a toy. It was really weird but she liked it a lot. She smiled at Barty, happy to have something of her own.
She copied Barty and ate some fries, not taking long to demolish her bag of fries and the nuggets. She also drank some of the milkshake, which she definitely liked the best. The milkshake was chocolate and it was amazing. She looked at Barty curiously, wiping her hands on her gown and avoiding the jacket.
"When there is a thought that stays in your head that makes you feel bad. Scared or sad or mad or all of that." Barty supposed that explained it. He was back to driving by now, focused on the road but glancing at her every now and then. "You should eat the pie. It's nice. But be careful, the inside is hot."
He gestured to what he meant and made sure she actually opened the packaging right. Smart girl. "Worries aren't all bad. They can make you focus on what matters. But they can drag you down too."
"Like bad men." Thinking about them was worrying about them. She set her empty milkshake cup aside and opened her apple pie slowly, eating it carefully because it was apparently hot. It was warm to touch and the insides were too bad. They were sweet and nice, much better apples than the one she had before.
Worries were good for focus but bad if they -- if they dragged. Whatever that meant. "Drag you down?" She frowned and ate more of her apple pie, watching where they were going again. She did wonder if Barty had lots of worries.
"Distract you. Make your mood bad. Make you so upset you can't have any fun." Barty was trying to explain as best he could. He already had a feeling that Giacomo might be better suited for explaining to her how to have fun than she was. He had never quite figured out how to relax and he still didn't believe he ever would.
"You don't have to worry now. I'm keeping you safe. No bad men." He was leaving the more populated areas again, which he hoped might make it easier on her, given her powers. "Are you tired, Eleven? We will be there soon. But you can sleep a little. If you want."
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Barty held his hand out to her. "Come with me. We will walk out and then we will get in the car. Then we go home."
A temporary home of sorts, anyway. "Nice place. Good food. Warmth. Safe."
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"Home?" She wondered what home was like. He said big windows. So she could look outside and see what the world was like. Big windows, warmth and food. It sounded a lot better than here. "The bad men will come."
She couldn't be entirely sure but she knew they would try to find them. "Dangerous."
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He started to walk, hoping that she could trust him enough for the moment. There were several corpses around, but no signs of forced entry. No violence. Of course not, Barty had no need for that. He had made sure there would be no footage either. "I can make the world listen to me, little sister. You can force the world to be the way you want it to. They've made us dangerous."
He turned his head to smile at her. "Together we are powerful."
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What she really wanted was family, maybe to look pretty like some of the women she saw in her head sometimes and no more fighting. No more bad men, no more danger. If that was ever possible. She wasn't sure, just like she wasn't entirely sure about Barty, but she didn't have much choice.
It was here or Barty. And Barty called her little sister. Barty had a home. She stepped over the bodies carefully and looked around as they left, more interested than afraid. "Are you powerful?"
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"I can get us peace. Peace and happiness." That was all they wanted, wasn't it? All that they could never have until he was done with his revenge.
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"Pretty." She liked the dots. They sparkled almost. She wondered what they were and what they were like. Could someone get up there and touch them.
As they walked towards the car, Eleven stumbled a little as she stargazed, letting herself be led. She was powerful - if Barty was a bad man, she could hurt him too.
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Where they were headed. "Get in. Then I'll show you how to fasten the seatbelt. Keeps you safe." That was what was important. As it had been with Giacomo, all that time ago. "I'm hungry."
He smiled, trying to break the tension down. "Are you?"
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At the question, she looked at Barty and then nodded. She was starving.
When Barty smiled, she weakly tried to mimic it. He was being nice. Papa was only nice when he wanted things. Did Barty want things? "Little sister..." Eleven mumbled to herself. "Are you... big brother?"
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Maybe she could, when he really made the effort. "I have nothing to hide." He was trying to focus on good things. On loving his brother and wanting him safe. On the house he had secured for them. On the many ways he had managed to keep the bad men off his tail over the years. On Sam, most likely. He always thought of Sam.
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She jerked back with her nose bleeding and her eyes wide as she looked at him. "It's hard. With you." She couldn't truly get in. "I saw..." She frowned. "There's two of you." Two identical Bartys. "And a man. He smiles."
It was a smile with love. It was a nice smile to see.
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Barty wasn't sure how to explain any of that. "He's good. A good man." Not like the many bad men that they were both used to. "He always tries to help and to do the right thing." Even if that frequently didn't work out.
He slowed the car down when they approached the gate, looking at the guard he had left standing there. He spoke to him. "Go inside. Find the self-destroy button. Enter the code 3-5-7-1-2. Blow this place up with yourself inside."
The man turned to follow his order and Barty drove them away from the place. He glanced at Eleven, smirking. "I'm not sure I do the right thing a lot."
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She watched the guard walk away to destroy the lab she had been in and wondered if that was bad to do. It didn't feel bad. It felt good. It was scary but good. "Right?" As in good? Huh.
"Bad men hurt good people. Good people don't hurt people. But if you hurt bad people, are you bad?" She wasn't entirely sure how it worked but it seemed confusing. Good, bad. They were just words to her in some ways.
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"I will get us food at the drive-through." He was positive that she wouldn't make sense of that, so he explained. "It's a place that makes food and you pick it up with your car. Then you eat."
He wondered what food she had even had in her life. "Is there food you like? Did you get good food as a reward?"
Otherwise, he assumed it was still just goo. Whatever it was that he had always gotten. Supposed to increase focus.
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She looked around the car with great interest, looking around the back of the car and in front of her. She reached out to ring her fingers along the glove box and it popped open suddenly, scaring her.
Flinching, she looked at Barty nervously and then back to the opened glove box. Inside was a map, gloves and some random trash. "Sorry."
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Simple rule. "Food can be good. I will show you." He assumed that she would like sweet food. Fried food. Any kid would.
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As they got off the country roads, the trip got more interesting to look at. The dark backroads were gone and suddenly, there were buildings lit up and street lights. Things were brighter now, she could make out things like other people. Other people moving in the streets. They weren't in lab coats and they didn't have guns either. They were just normal people.
"Where are we?"
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He pulled up at a McDonald's Drive Through and started an order. "Two Big Mac menus with fries and cokes. One Happy Meal with the nuggets. Chocolate milkshake. And an apple pie."
There, that should do it. He drove around and waited for their order to be ready, looking at Eleven from the side. "There is a toy with it. In the Happy Meal. That's your toy."
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There was no person there, it was just a box with a speaker. Did he also talk to the radio too? Did he hear them? How did they bring food? As she was pondering all of this, they pulled up at the side of the drive thru and inside the little window, she could see people working. They were assembling food and moving around, laughing and joking. Her eyes were wide as she watched them, fascinated. "People."
Lots of people. Well, four people but to her, that was a lot. A women hung out of the window and held the bag out to Barty. "Have a nice evening, guys."
Eleven stared at her. She was so pretty, she had a nice smile too. She took the bag as Barty moved it towards her and she held it steady for him. It was warm and it smelled good. "Happy meal?" What made her meal so happy and why was it so big?
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For now he gestured to her. "Open it. That's your Happy Meal. It has a toy, it has fries and nuggets." And whatever else Happy Meals came with, he wasn't sure. "When you have eaten that, I'll give you more. Don't eat too fast or you'll feel sick."
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It was all so mesmerising, she forgot she even had food to eat. "What is it?" It was a picture book but it had some letters on it. And she knew they were words.
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He glanced at her and realised that this was an important moment. "I will read it to you later. But it belongs to you. Little Miss Sunshine is in it." He gestured to the toy she'd gotten. "Her. She helps people feel happy."
He assumed that was the drill, anyway. Children's books weren't his forte. "Have some fries, eh? You look hungry." He opened the barbecue sauce they had gotten and took some of his own fries to dip and show her how it worked. "It's good."
He preferred better cuisine, but hey. It would do in a pinch.
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She copied Barty and ate some fries, not taking long to demolish her bag of fries and the nuggets. She also drank some of the milkshake, which she definitely liked the best. The milkshake was chocolate and it was amazing. She looked at Barty curiously, wiping her hands on her gown and avoiding the jacket.
"What is a worry?"
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He gestured to what he meant and made sure she actually opened the packaging right. Smart girl. "Worries aren't all bad. They can make you focus on what matters. But they can drag you down too."
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Worries were good for focus but bad if they -- if they dragged. Whatever that meant. "Drag you down?" She frowned and ate more of her apple pie, watching where they were going again. She did wonder if Barty had lots of worries.
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"You don't have to worry now. I'm keeping you safe. No bad men." He was leaving the more populated areas again, which he hoped might make it easier on her, given her powers. "Are you tired, Eleven? We will be there soon. But you can sleep a little. If you want."
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