"The Benevolent Doctor"

27. Now We Know

Sometime in New New York

The idea had been for Trean to sneak his way in and impersonate one of the guards. With the way their uniforms were made, helmet and all, no one would be the wiser, and when Benedict inevitably double crossed him, the Doctor would have an ally on hand that wasn't in fact trapped behind bars at the moment. They'd split up before the Doctor could come into view of the mansion and, therefore, of the guards. This was where the plan had changed, though the Doctor would only become aware of this later.

After the Doctor had gone, while Trean was working out a way to infiltrate the mansion, he'd been accosted by Valerie. She'd taken the risk to leave the kids behind at the house, putting the kind of fear in them only a mother could on the repercussions of their leaving the house in any way until she or their father or both had returned. Tried as she might, after seeing what they'd done to her son, and knowing they had her daughter and, if they caught him, which they probably would, her husband as well, she could not sit back and do nothing. Running into Trean and finding him without the Doctor after she'd seen them leave together was a surprise, but once she knew what the Time Lord was planning, she wanted in.

When she had seen her daughter in that cage, at first, she hadn't realized it was her. She'd looked for a cat girl, but the one she found, she soon realized, was actually the human girl, Brittany. Her eyes had swept to the side, but it had taken several seconds before she understood the one who was human at this time was her girl, her Agnes. Once she'd understood this, it seemed completely incredible that she wouldn't have figured it out sooner, when Agnes was now a mirror image of herself at that age, with just that spark that, feline or not, would have made her for Brannigan's child.

Agnes was freed from her cage, where she ran into her mother's arms. The other prisoners were also let out. Brittany hurried to Santana, worried for her after how she'd been incapacitated before. The other girl hardly batted an eye at finding her friend was now a cat, and she held on to her, only relieved that she had her back. Brannigan was reunited with his wife and daughter, and not one of them brought up the fact that Brannigan had gone sneaking off like a big hero on his own.

Trean had finally found his family, and now all he could do was see the state he had found them in. His daughter was so strangely disfigured, though in seeing her he was reminded of a handful of people around the city with similar symptoms. Beneath all the mismatched features, he could still see his little girl, and that was all he had wanted to get back. But then his wife, his Erlin… He could see there was something different about her, and it was soon that he knew what had been done to her. When she'd seen him, she'd looked so stricken, like she knew she was supposed to know him, but she couldn't figure out why. What she must have known, judging from her reaction to him, was that she would always be safe around him. When he held out his hand to her, she took it without hesitation. Trean didn't know if this would be permanent, if she would never regain full access to her memories, but if she didn't, then he would do his best to remind her, no matter how long it took.

And there was Martha, who made a straight line for the Doctor, still on the ground. He grunted something at her ear, and she scrambled to Valerie, asking to borrow her uniform. With the borrowed clothes, Martha was able to sneak out of the cell room undetected and find what the Doctor needed. While she was gone, Benedict had been pulled into a cell, bound and gagged, the better to keep control of him. Some of the prisoners showed reticence at this act, and soon they would all come to decided they should have realized what would come next.

After Martha returned with a syringe, the others, prisoners and rescuers alike, watched her inject it into the Doctor. He was locked in spasms for a few moments before, but slowly he started looking like he was getting better. He tried to sit up and Martha went to help him.

"Well, that's one way of finding things out, wouldn't you say?" he told Martha with a quivering laugh as though he was tipsy. He wasn't completely solid on his feet yet, and for several minutes more, every so often, they would have to keep him from falling over. "And now I think I know how to fix them."

"You can change us back?" Agnes asked.

"You just watch me," he pointed at her with confidence. There was a rumble of voices.

"What if we don't want to be changed back?" a woman asked, another of the prisoners. "What if we like the way we are?"

"You can't be serious," Martha was baffled.

"What would you know?" a man jumped in like he'd been insulted.

"I'm sorry, but…" she started to reply, but with the angry looks she got, she thought better of it.

"This was never meant to happen to you, Doctor Benedict meddled with some very…"

"I'm better now than I was before," said a deformed man.

"Better now, living in a cage?" Santana scowled.

"But we're not in cages now, are we?" said the woman. "And if that's the case, then I don't see anything better than to protect the one who made us this way," she touched the bars of the cell in which they'd placed Benedict. "So you have a choice now. Leave him, leave this place, and we shall leave it there. Stay, or try and come anywhere near our doctor, and we will have to retaliate."

Within two minutes the Doctor, Martha, Santana, Brittany, the three Brannigans, Trean and his family, Arpen and the still nameless man, were stumbling past the gates, dumbstruck.

TO BE CONTINUED (WEDNESDAY)