| Leela
"We need to take care of that guard right outside that door,"
I whisper, looking around the corner at the Tesh. He is unaware of our
presence; these Tesh may have great powers, but they lack a warrior's instincts.
So much that has happened of late has been strange to me, beyond my
comprehension, but this... this is something I understand. I take
a Janis thorn into my hand and raise it up, muscles tensed to spring...
Suddenly, a hand clamps onto my arm, hard. I stifle the urge to
scream, and twist around to see who it is that has attacked me, preparing
to deal him a disabling kick. I stop myself just in time when I realize
that it is the Doctor. He glares at me, and I give him a puzzled look in
response. Does he not want me to deal with the Tesh?
"No," he says quietly, taking the thorn from my hand. "There's been
enough death already. Don't add to it, Leela. No more Janis thorns."
The Tesh guard, apparently, is not quite as deaf as he had seemed, because
he hears this and comes to look around the corner. I instinctively reach
for my knife, but the Doctor merely mutters a few words, and the Tesh falls
to the ground, snoring.
When I see the Doctor do magic like this, I almost find it easy to believe
-- if only for a moment -- that he is the Evil One. My hand goes
to touch my neck, my shoulder, but I stop it before I have completed the
gesture. I will not be the ignorant savage that the Tesh would name me.
And, besides, the Evil One of Sevateem legend delights in cruelty and death.
Why would he spare the life of an enemy?
I pull myself together and look him in the eye. I am proud that my voice
is calm. "What must we do now?"
"Now," he says, "I go and have a little chat with Xoanon." He casts
a hard look at the others, before any of them has a chance to say anything,
and adds, "Alone."
There is a babble of protest. "Doctor, you don't know just how insane
that computer is!" says Betty. "He's quite capable of killing you!"
"No, he isn't," says the Doctor, in a voice that sounds both reasonable
and amused. "You're forgetting."
Betty blushes a little, looking strangely embarrassed for some reason
and says, "Well, yeah, OK, but still..."
-
 But the Doctor
ignores her, and steps forward and around the corner, as if confident that
none of us will follow.
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