❯ to live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people just exist.
- Oscar Wilde
[FARREN]
"I mean; I didn't ever think those things could be deadly." Her accent was London and woven with heavy tears of shock. Almost dying had that affect on humans and aliens alike- Farren thought –it was a universal reaction basically, tears came to all apart from the odd species that lacked tear ducts or equivalents of.
Farren frowned, feeling every tiny particle of the new form with excruciating detail- it was like a really bad itch when she felt every cell rewrite itself to form the low dipped brows and downturned lips- morphing always was an uncomfortable process when it was new bodies and faces, awkward and scratchy.
The woman in front of her, with dry tear tracks cracking her makeup's perfection, had referred to the Daleks with prior knowledge but it didn't make sense how she would know them- she hadn't happened upon a parallel world where Dalek's overruled Earth- no. So how?
"You've seen them before?" Farren asked- though more like demanded, enjoying the authority in the tone of voice she'd stolen; she felt like she could do a lot and get away with most of it.
The woman, pulled a face. The shock seemed to melt away and confusion instead overtook whilst a tremulous hand came up to tug her hair away from her face. "Well- yeah . . . I already said that, don't you remember?"
"Oh, ah yes. Yeah 'course, just got a bit of a foggy memory. PC Goldfish, that's me." Farren bared unfamiliar teeth in a sheepish smile, chuckling awkwardly "Sorry, just for the report, where'd you see them? Before today I mean."
The woman was quick to dig around in the pockets of her sundress- an odd garment to don on a cold day but Farren paid it no mind. Six crumpled tickets were offered and Farren took them, unfolding them carefully so as to not tear them.
"I took my um- son and his friends to the Extra-terrestrial Zoo a few days ago. The um- Megatrons are part of the 'Cyber-Future Exhibit'."
Farren struggled to keep up, by that point she was just rendered completely perplexed- she eyed the woman wearily wondering honestly- if everything was just a massive set up. "Megatron is a transformer isn't it?" She didn't even know if she could laugh at the absurdity because it wasn't just that at that point- it was insane.
"Yeah, funny innit?" The woman seemed to have lost all forms of hysterics, the remnants only obvious by the dried tears on her cheeks as she then wore the smallest smile "Their unnamed apparently so everyone just calls them Megatrons,"
"S'not that funny. Bit stupid actually." Farren mumbled to the ground, then looked up and clasping her journal shut- she hadn't really written anything and she wouldn't until the day was done but it clearly proved useful to pretend. "Anyway, thanks ever so much for your time, I'll get out of your hair." She spun to leave though stopped as she remembered one more thing "This . . . zoo, where is it?"
==
With the Doctor's coat, sweeping up the gravelly floor behind her, she padded through the entrance of the zoo. Nerves to her gait as she braced herself for the worst of sights.
Handily, she had a map thrown at her that illustrated the entire place in quick lines. It was a winding maze- complicated and packed, exhibit after exhibit.
Steam greedily smothered the air as it wafted high from glass-looking cages- fish bowls almost and the first one to Farren's left shook as the creature inside wildly slammed itself against it. The creature trapped inside- held a human looking form all around, dressed in a long white dress and similarly coloured material wrapped around its head and feline face.
Farren's features unconsciously poised themselves into pity, a quick fire reaction to the painful sympathy as she held back a gasp. She looked down at the information slab, stony and carved with a single word.
Occisor
It glared at her with little significance in her mind, tugging only on light familiarity but Farren really couldn't put her finger on it- where had she heard it before? The teenager hid her hands into the deep, coat pockets and faced the humanoid feline.
"What did they do to you?"
"GET ME OUT!" It shrieked back, a piercing and strangled scream that had Farren jumping back a few steps out of shock. There was some form of the purist ferocity to the words, like a command rather than a cry for help. It was menacing and glaring in one, hatefully spat out.
"Who put you here? Listen- I can help if you just tell me." Her fingers curled into fists in the darkness of the hollow pockets, her plea was lowly whispered.
"GET ME OUT!" It screamed again and Farren frowned- she wondered, was it all it could say? The actions spoke louder than the shrieks as it almost tore the long dress it wore with horror laying under the beds of the scarlet nails, they couldn't be polish or a natural tint- no they looked more like blood.
Still, Farren looked around once- humans happily walked around and pointed probing fingers at each creature that was confined in glass barriers.
She then looked up at the Earth's sky, a grey mist hovered over the zoo, moodily reflecting the morbidity- Farren felt it was the appropriate term –of the situation. Truthfully, she felt uneasy in a zoo where everything non-human seemed to be caged away and ogled at, enduring the torture of unwilling display, she was hardly human herself- it could have been her.
Gulping back her fury, Farren stretched her fingers in the pockets- wary of how out of hand the situation would get if the purest form of her anger would surface. She took two gulps of air in, to will calmness and scanned the vicinity for workers- anyone with authority really.
As always the universe took, and it gave- in that situation it gave her sight of the closest member of staff who frankly, looked like he'd hopped right out of an IT department of a shitty secondary school.
His hair was dark and fell in precise tendrils over his forehead, a few shocks of silver wove through his dark locks and a light stubble swarmed his jaw. His name tag labelled him Jackson.
Forcing smiles came easily to her and she sort of embraced the familiarity of the tight-lipped smirk that quirked the corners of her lips with false friendliness. "Excuse me sir, um- Jackson?"
His gaze quickly fell on her as he toyed with his lanyard.
"Yes- that's me, how can I help?" He seemed to stumble over the polite words.
Farren racked her brain for some sort of clever lie- they came to her quickly, maybe too quickly as it slid off her tongue with ease. She held up a mask of youthful innocence, angling her leather cap in a way which hid the inhuman brightness of her eyes. "See, well- I'm doing this article for the school newspaper, I'm actually in charge of the front page which I mean- wow, anyway, I was wondering who owns the zoo? I'm not actually from around here and like- ironically enough –I'm super far back on the news so I don't know very much about it."
She gave a natural stumble as though she was illustrating her honest trail of thought- but really it was more to keep the tight act together.
"Ah," He smiled almost proudly "That'd be Mister Aapo Baal-Meon," His grin bared crooked teeh and Farren attempted to not cringe at how uneasy it made her feel. "Bit of a mouthful I know."
"When did he open it up for the public?"
"You really must be from a very far place." His laugh was tainted with suspicion, Farren could tell- his eyes squinted uneasily and a vein rippled on the skin of his neck. "Just a few months ago, the- Megatrons came in just last week though, delayed delivery I suppose."
She didn't have very good self-control and suddenly, a red rush of colour swam onto her pale skin, surfacing first at her slim neck and then riding upwards to her face. She could have screamed at the name, instead her bottom lip slightly jutted out with frustration.
"They're not transformers, they're Daleks and they're super dangerous like- so dangerous. You need to talk to your supervisor, close the zoo down, evacuate the surrou-" Her ramble of furious words occupied her, enough so that she didn't catch glimpse of the dark look that suddenly erupted on Jackson's face.
Quick as it surfaced, it was gone when she looked up.
"Da-what?" He forcefully chuckled, it was his turn to put up a mask of ignorance "Don't worry your little head kid, we had a malfunction with two this morning who escaped but the others are practically dead they're so compliant. Safe as can be."
"No-" Farren insisted, bristling with impatience and fearful at the mention of more than the two she'd encountered "You don't understand really- they're dangerous, they'll have everyone on this entire country dead in seconds, you don't-" Jackson cut her off with a raised palm, laughing still though that time snootily.
"Listen, we know what we're doing sweetheart, maybe you should go on over to the 'Mini's Exhibit' there's these cute aliens you'll probably love." He put a cold hand to her shoulder and made to push her right but she wasn't having any of it- she already hated people touching her without words of warning but she loathed it when it came from a man that looked down on her and treated her like an air-headed toddler.
"Get off, you cu-" She snarled, an animalistic snarl as her mask of sweetness cracked off to expose a face set in boiling anger, radiating just as much heat as her key emitted. Her fists pumped with intent to swing at Jackson's jaw but trying to hold back.
"She doesn't like it when you do that," A familiar voice halted her artfully worded insult behind her and stepped forward to stand to her left. The Doctor, tightly smiled at the worker- wary of instead of the new found anger spritely and alive within the teenager "I'm so, so sorry about my daughter, she does half ramble," He leaned in towards Jackson and brought his index in a circular motion at the side of his head- then, grabbed Farren's forearm quickly. "Let's go see that exhibit shall we petal?"
Farren didn't trust her words and bit her tongue as she was dragged away- waiting patiently until they were out of ear shot to explode.
"What the hell are you doing?" She ripped her arm out of his grasp and weirdly- stroked it protectively.
"It's not a zoo, it's a prison." He offered a half smile at the coat trailing on the ground behind her heels "Good to see you again by the way- petal."
"I've yet to decide if the feeling's mutual," Nevertheless- she followed him as he began walking in the direction of a large building "Prison?" It made a little more sense to be honest- the feline creature seemed to be completely rabid and out of control- and the glass bowl that confined it was the sort that screamed high-facility and not simply observatory.
"Occisor, killer in Latin and the rest of them have similar labels stuck to their great, big fish bowl- cell . . . things." He'd realised a minute to late that his ramble stretched a little far out of his reach and he snapped his jaw shut to forcefully stop himself talking.
"I'm guessing murder's the least of what they're responsible for?"
"Yup- Genocide, assassination of royalty, starting wars. You name it, they've probably done it." The pair in turn, grimaced at the thought of the horrors. But still- a slither of pity lingered in Farren.
"But it's two-thousand-and-seven not the fiftieth century. This shouldn't be here; this shouldn't be happening." Farren theorised aloud, more so to herself but loud enough so that the spikey-haired man beside her heard.
"Mhm, but time is in flux, this isn't a fixed point so really anything can happen. Bit like a scribble, the line could start straight but could go anywhere- wriggle around in any way."
"No- I know but it's a prison made to look like an Alien Zoo of all things- and humans are just embracing it, walking around like it's any other zoo with bloody zebra's and monkeys. They're staring at a thousand different species and just laughing, gawking- creature's who by the way, shouldn't even exist yet. Not in this time line." He watched her intently as she took her turn to ramble, unconsciously pulling at his arm when she spoke, flailing them dramatically. "Okay- right. The Catkind for one, from New Savannah originally but that's at the beginning of their time when they were completely primitive. The one in that case is probably from New Earth because of what it was wearing but that's thousands of years into the future isn't it? Why're they here and how? It's impossible." She struggled to keep up with his long-legged strides, lightly jogging to stay apace.
"Not impossible, just a bit unlikely." The Doctor distractedly maundered, hands clasped behind his back as he strode with rhythm to his step. It was entirely childlike. "You're clever. Clever is good." He smiled down at Farren and there had been a pause before he decided to speak again.
"I know what you are you know." And even though he uttered the words softly, with careful regard she still stiffened as hostility washed over her. She didn't really want to talk about anything regarding her origin- rightfully so too. The memories were far too sore, they weren't even scars yet, they were still too much like wide gashes. She turned her head away and stared up at the looming build of the structure they stood in front of- weird thing to be placed smack bang in the middle of a zoo- Farren thought.
"You're Fawlayten?" It was posed as a query though it was anything but- he knew in that instant he was right, mainly because of the momentary sad- no heartbroken –look that swallowed her features. Bit like a deep ache had suddenly surfaced and cracked her insides. Her young face contorted in such a way that made her seem completely vulnerable, though it was short-lasting and she looked stonily upwards.
He didn't know how he felt about the look in her eyes but still- he decently dropped the subject. It was better to focus on getting them through the carefully guarded doors rather than pry into her past until he hit a nerve.
Farren couldn't even speak, staring thinly at the red haired woman with a careful stare. She looked completely void of emotion- as Farren often wished she could be –with a pant suit that gave her a professional air. Her eyes were dark swirls of navy and ocean-greens as she alertly stared at the pair- something about her wasn't right. Make no mistake she was drop dead gorgeous as cliché secretaries often were- but she was dark too, menacing in all senses as she barely even blinked.
Unlike Farren, the Doctor seemed unfazed as he flashed a sheet of paper inside of a leather wallet, smiling all the way.
"I need to see your supervisor, preferably the big boss." He brought Farren into his side by sliding his arm along the back of her neck "It's um- bring your daughter to work day."
The red-head cautiously raised perfectly manicured hands to the black instrument in her ear, muttering a string of incoherent words then motioning for the pair to follow by curling her finger.
The corridor she led them down was eerily dark glimmering only with the brightness of silver lift doors at the furthest end.
"Bring your daughter to work day?" Farren hissed lowly as they began walking- shaking his arm off her "I couldn't have been an intern or something?"
"Don't be silly you don't look a day over ten," He challengingly grinned, looking ahead triumphantly as she stayed silent- maybe he'd met his match but she'd definitely met hers too.
The red haired woman, with immaculately applied dark lip stick, spun around to face the pair just as the lift doors slid to a looming open- Farren would have been the first to admit exactly how fucking creepy the entire ordeal was.
"Mister Baal-Meon is waiting for you on the fifth floor, sir." She pointed a palm to the inside of the lift- her voice was low and raspy yet somehow highly authoritative. It was a whirlwind of power yet submission too, she couldn't have been of great influence but she spoke as though she was, and honestly- Farren didn't feel like challenging her any time soon.
The Doctor stepped forward first, Farren preparing to be hot on his tail before she was held back by the woman. Her grip was alarmingly tight- the teenager was convinced the woman was some sort of steel artificial intelligence- Iron Lady, anything really but not human. Her grip was close to snapping the girl's bones and she took that furious grasp as warning enough. "Not you, you come with me" The red haired woman ordered Farren.
"Um- No, she's with me." The Doctor was quick to persist.
"I'm sorry sir," Her dark lips quirked gravely, it wasn't a happy smile, it was a menacing grin. Her hair waved softly as she held her nose a little higher- instating her authority in the situation.
Farren- didn't feel like anything she or the odd man could say would grant her freedom. Universe again- she thought, serving its short straws first. "It's alright" The teenager grinded her teeth to push her words through "Dad, you go ahead. I'm sure it's nothing big." She nodded to him with some form of reassurance.
He was wary as he made his way past the lift doors, sliding into the metal contraption- but still, he mockingly waved his fingers at Farren as the doors came to a close.
However, as his figure was swallowed by the silver doors, the death grip on Farren's forearm tightening so hard that she felt like her bones were sludge.