"The Benevolent Doctor"
33. What Drives You
Sometime in New New York
The way he moved about the room, one might have thought he had all the time in the world. As much as they tried to keep up with what he was doing, before long Martha, Santana, and Brittany had decided that the best thing they could do was stand back and let him do what he had to do and it would be done quicker. Martha would go back into the cell room, to keep the prisoners calm as they waited. As far as they'd known, they were about to be taken out of there, free, but now they were told to wait, and some of them were getting agitated.
Santana stood in the corner, Brittany by her side. She kept hold of her arm, maybe to make sure they wouldn't get separated again. She'd tried to hold her hand and found it too weird, with how it had changed, so she settled for her arm.
"What do you think he's going to do?" Brittany whispered to her.
"I don't know, maybe he's making something to blow this place wide open. That should stop him," she turned her eyes up to the ceiling, to wherever he might be.
"We'll get out of here first, right?" Brittany trembled at the thought.
"Or maybe it's something else," Santana kept thinking aloud. "It might be something to turn him into a weirdo like those guys in there," she nodded to the cell room.
"I'm not a weirdo, am I?" Brittany blinked.
"The good kind," Santana promised, and the cat girl was reassured.
"Yes, here we are…" the Doctor's voice drew them back, and they turned to see he had collected a number of syringes in a tray. "One of you fetch Martha, will you?" he called back. The girls looked at each other, and Santana ended up being the one to go. Left alone, Brittany spotted the Doctor as he stuck a few of the syringes in his pocket.
"What are those?" she made herself ask. The Doctor picked up one of the syringes still in the tray and he showed it to her.
"This should reverse what was done to you. I can stick you now, or I can do it to one of them first, your choice." The way he looked at her, she felt safe, and she stepped up.
"Is it going to hurt?"
"I'm not going to lie to you, it won't be pleasant. I mixed in a sedative, it'll knock you out so when you come to again, it'll all be over," he explained. She was nervous, but he would keep her safe, and that was what mattered.
"Did you do it?" Martha came in just then, with Santana in tow. The Doctor put Brittany's syringe in his other pocket before holding up the tray.
"Take these, administer them to the others. They'll need to lie down. I trust you know how to do this," he gave her a look and she met it with a half-hearted glare.
"Want to give me a hand?" she asked Santana, who threw a look to Brittany before following.
"Right, ready?" the Doctor looked at the cat girl, reaching in his pocket for the syringe.
Before he could get hold of it though, the opposing door, the one through which he'd come with Santana, burst open, and with Alexander Brannigan held before himself, Doctor Benedict walked in.
"Well I see you've been making yourself at home, haven't you, Doctor?" he looked around, seeing his people still unconscious on the ground.
"Oh, what can I say, nine hundred and some years, who knows how many more to go, and I still do not care for wasting even a minute of it. Had to keep myself busy while I waited for you. I do believe this was my most productive under the circumstances. But now here you are, our lord and master, and with some tricks up your sleeves, too, or anywhere else on your person," the Doctor nodded, and she didn't know how she knew, but Brittany had a feeling this last part was directed at her.
She looked to Benedict, with Alexander in front of him. The cat boy looked moderately spooked, but he wasn't completely helpless, and when Brittany caught his eye, while Benedict was rambling about some thing or another, she carefully motioned for him to reach for something, miming against herself. Alexander had the presence of mind to turn his eyes and catch sight of what she was indicating, dangling from the doctor's neck. He took a moment, and then all at once, his hand dove in.
It was all much faster than it felt in reality. First Alexander's hand closed on the thing around Benedict's neck, then he tugged it away, which both startled the man and surprised him enough to let go. In the next moment, the Doctor whistled, and Alexander tossed the thing to him before sliding out of Benedict's reach.
"What do we have here then?" the Doctor held up the object. Benedict's hand went to his chest, like he still expected it to be there, even though he'd seen it get taken away.
"You give that back!" he pointed a shaking finger at the Doctor.
"Why would I do a thing like that?"
"Give it here, Doctor, or… or…"
"Or what? What are you going to do, please, give it a thought," the Doctor nodded calmly, as he pulled out his sonic screwdriver. "I'm just going to do a thing, to…" He aimed it at the pendant, and in the next second, the soft light emanating from it dimmed and extinguished itself.
As soon as it did, Benedict gave a greatly distressed gurgle, his eyes rolled into the back of his head, and he crumpled to the ground.
"You killed him!" Brittany gasped.
"Oh, no, he's alive, he is," the Doctor reassured her. "He's just going to sleep for a while now. He's just gone and lost something very dear."
"What's that?" she asked, and the Doctor looked to the pendant, weighed it in his palm.
"His muse."
TO BE CONTINUED (SATURDAY)