Earlier that morning:
John's feet hit the dirt inside the Master's compound at exactly 3:02 in the morning. There was a distinct lack of guards around the perimeter, sending John's paranoia spiking. There should at least be a couple of guards patrolling the outside.
He'd known all along that this place was a trap but now fear prickled along his scalp as he stared it down. This was a different kind of trap than he had anticipated. John took a deep breath and stepped out of the deep shadows clinging to the perimeter wall to dart towards the main building. Nothing to do but keep walking straight into it and hope he could outwit whatever Koschei had set up.
John slipped into the building after a far too brief struggle between his lockpicks and a side door. Nerves thrummed through his body, making his shoulders tense. This was too easy and every instinct was telling him to run while he still had a chance to do so. Rose was probably still sleeping, blissfully unaware of the bridge he'd set fire to by leaving the flat. He could still go back and douse the flames and try this again later with her by his side.
John crept forward. He had a mission to complete and turning back now wasn't an option, no matter how much he missed having Rose's insight and comforting presence with him. He even missed her chatter over the comms that drove him crazy half the time. But he had to keep the Master away from her.
John made sure the knife he'd brought with him was ready to be drawn as he continued down the corridor. He normally avoided violence where he could but he knew better than to come into Koschei's territory unarmed. He opened a door, looking for the way down to the basement and cringed when the hinges squealed in the heavy silence.
He took off running after ascertaining the room was a storage cupboard, trying to put as much space between him and the source of noise as possible. He opened another door, grateful for the way it swung open silently, and slipped inside.
No sooner had he closed the door behind him before a door across the room opened. John's skin crawled as he laid eyes on the figure backlit in the doorway. He couldn't see his face yet but he didn't need to.
The man started clapping slowly and his mocking smile became clear as he stepped into the room, joining John in the shadows.
"And here I thought you'd be much tougher to catch, Theta," The Master said, smile still on his face. "You're slipping."
John clenched his teeth and didn't respond.
The Master looked around. "Didn't bring your pretty little partner? How disappointing. I was so looking forward to meeting her."
A growl tried to crawl its way up John's throat but he swallowed it down. He wouldn't give Koschei the satisfaction of knowing how much Rose meant to him, at least not this easily.
"Nothing to say? I'd say it was a shame but I think I'll have fun making you talk. I'm getting bored with your friend. Pesky Torchwood training is a pain to break." He moved closer, each step deliberate. John was reminded of a predator stalking his target and he didn't particularly care for being the prey.
"I'm the one you were after. Let my friend go," John said.
"I don't think I will. Perhaps if you'd brought your partner along, I would've considered it. But I have a feeling your little wolf is going to try and rescue the pair of you and I'm not going to let the opportunity to have the entire set slip through my fingers."
"What do you want with us?" John asked, hoping to keep him talking and distracted as he prepared to draw his knife.
"At first I just wanted to make you pay for interfering with my plans, but then I figured out that you were the Doctor," Koschei said. He continued walking towards John.
"And your plans now?"
"Can't you figure them out, old friend?" The Master chided. "And to think, they used to call you a genius."
John checked the impulse to roll his eyes and made a move for his knife.
The Master moved faster, pinning John against the wall with a forearm over his throat and a bruising grip on John's wrist. The knife clattered to the floor as the Master applied more pressure on his wrist.
"Tsk tsk, you shouldn't have done that, Theta. You know I was always better than you at hand to hand combat." He pressed his forearm harder against John, cutting off his air supply. "Besides, you don't have the stomach to kill me and we both know it."
He let go of John and stepped back, stooping to pick up the knife on his way. John coughed as he tried to catch his breath, not taking his eyes off Koschei. The man's gaze was cold as he watched John and John would not be forgetting the manic gleam that had been in his eyes as he choked him any time soon. It seemed Koschei had lost some of the tiny bits of sanity he'd clung to back when John had known him.
"You're a disappointment, just like you always were," the Master said with a sneer, disgust lacing his tone. "If this is your best effort to save your friend, then I'll have your wolf captured the moment she shows her face without having to use any effort at all."
John carefully kept his face blank. The Master obviously thought Rose was the weak link in their partnership, that she simply followed behind John. He wasn't going to disabuse the Master of that notion. The less he knew about Rose, the better her chances. He was more certain than Koschei that Rose would stage a rescue. She never turned her back on her friends.
"I'll have you talking soon enough," the Master said. "We have so much to catch up on."
As a few of the Master's henchmen led John away and up a set of stairs to the top floor, he hoped that Rose had a better plan to come in solo than he had. He'd been stupid to try and protect her and now all he could do was wait for her to make her move pray that she would come out of this in one piece.
/
Midnight:
"You ready?" Amy's voice was soft in Rose's ear, coming over the comms Rose had shared with her.
"About to go in," Rose replied. "You?"
"Ready as I can be. You sure this is going to work?"
"No, but it's better than any other plan I came up with," Rose said. "It's not too late to back out. I'm going in but this is my fight, not anyone else's."
"We're sticking to the plan, Rose. Not leaving you to face this alone," Amy declared, steel in her tone.
Rose took a deep breath. "Okay. Let's do this. I'm going in. Keep me updated on your position and what you find but I'm going quiet."
"Gotcha. See you soon," Amy said.
Rose squared her shoulders and scrambled up the perimeter wall of the Master's compound. Every heartbeat was laced with worry. John had been in the Master's clutches for too long, and Jack even longer, and she had no idea if they were okay.
She dropped down to the ground soundlessly and let out a breath. Worry wouldn't help her right now. She was here to save them and that's what she was going to do. Rose raced across the grounds to the shadows offered by the main building, noting the lack of guards and visible cameras as she went.
Definitely expecting her then and trying to lull her into a false sense of complacency by making things easy as well. She had no doubt that her every move was being watched but she went forward with her plan anyways. As long as all eyes were on her, Amy was free to work her magic.
The side door lock was the work of a second and it swung open quietly. She frowned at this further evidence of a trap. She was almost insulted that they were making things so easy. She could have done everything up to this point with her eyes shut.
Rose carefully closed the door behind her and padded down the corridor, mapping the space in her head as she went. Seemed like a fairly standard layout but there was likely a trick hidden somewhere.
A trick or a trap or a combination of both. Rose would put her money on both.
The building was too quiet, too still.
Rose spotted a door that was slightly ajar about halfway down the corridor. A weak beam of light spilled out into the hallway, beckoning her closer. It might as well have been a neon sign in the corridor with a flashing arrow pointed at the door.
This is it, Rose thought as she inched closer. No way this is not the trap they've set for me.
She rested her hand on the door and listened hard. Over the hum of the radiator that must be in there she could just make out the soft breathing of several people. Rose closed her eyes, gathering her courage to face whatever was on the other side of the door. Jack's life depended on her being able to get through this. John depended on her being able to get through this and she was not going to let him get away with running off, not when she still had so much to say to him.
Rose tapped on her earpiece three times to signal Amy and then faced the door with a grim look.
She pressed her lips into a thin line as she pushed the door open, wincing at the squeal of the hinges. Rose stepped forward into the dim light, into the baited trap, with her head held high and fear snaking down her spine.
She made it three steps before the sound of a bullet being chambered stopped her in her tracks.
The trap was sprung.
"Well, well, well, if it isn't the big bad wolf, finally come out to play."
Rose's eyes snapped to the open doorway across the room where a man was walking in. His voice registered as a threat. It was oily and barbed all at once and her skin crawled at the sound of it.
As soon as he stepped into the light, Rose could confirm what she already knew. It was the Master. He looked just like the photos John had dug up from his failed Parliament run, suit and all.
"I've been waiting for you," the Master said.
"Where's my partner?" Rose demanded.
"I don't think you're in any position to be asking questions," the Master said, moving closer. There was a gun in his hand. He tapped it against his leg in a repetitive rhythm as he surveyed Rose.
"You're not as pretty as I thought you'd be," he said.
Rose bit back the acid response on the tip of her tongue.
"Not going to talk? We'll fix that soon enough." The Master smiled and Rose shivered at the malice contained in the expression.
He stopped a few steps in front of Rose. "Theta didn't want to talk either. Perhaps the two of you will be chattier if you're in the same room." He tilted his head to the side. "You know, you were even easier to catch than he was. It must be such a disappointment for Theta to have to work with someone so incompetent. Must be great in bed to make up for that."
The leer he gave her was contemplative and Rose's stomach turned.
"Not my type," he decided. "Pity."
"You're disgusting," Rose spat.
He ignored her outburst, looking over her shoulder at one of the guards behind her. "Go get Theta and bring him here. Don't tell him we have her. I want to see the look on his face. And bring the ones guarding him back with you. One of these two might decide to try something stupid."
Rose wanted to ask why he kept calling John "Theta" but didn't dare. John had called the Master Koschei a fair few times over the past couple of days and she had to assume that Theta was John's codename from back when he worked with the Master.
She heard footsteps leave the room and another set shuffle closer to her. She glanced over her shoulder and spotted one guard still by the door and another immediately behind her. Two more had come into the room following the Master and stood behind him, guns trained on her.
"Are all these guns necessary?" Rose asked.
"Yes. Are they making you uncomfortable?"
Rose didn't deign to answer him.
"Good," he said, inferring a positive from her non-response. "They're supposed to."
Rose swallowed hard and tried not to let the silence in the room unnerve her as they all waited for John to be fetched.
"Move over there," the Master ordered after a minute. He gestured with his gun for Rose to move towards the blank wall to her right.
"Don't want me with a door at my back?" Rose taunted. "Afraid that if I make a move your guards would miss and shoot you?"
"Shut up," he ordered, voice even. "You're annoying me."
She complied, his calm somehow more terrifying than his anger would have been. Her eyes flit over the formation the guards made behind the Master. They weren't guarding the doors any longer, just him.
It was another minute before she heard footsteps echoing down the hallway.
"You don't have to shove me, I know how to walk," an annoyed voice said. "If he wanted to see me that fast, he would've come upstairs himself instead of calling me like a dog."
Rose's heart lifted at the sound of John's voice. He was alive and well enough to be complaining about things. He'd apparently decided to be difficult and loud, probably hoping to broadcast his position in case she or Jack were around to hear him.
She schooled her face as they neared the doorway she'd entered through, not wanting to give away the depth of her attachment to John for the Master to use against them.
John was pushed into the room, hands secured behind his back. He stumbled forward and shot a fierce glare at the Master before his eyes followed the line of his gun to Rose.
She read shock and fear in his eyes before his gaze shuttered, hiding his emotions.
Rose swallowed hard, and shifted her attention back to the Master who looked smug.
"Reunited at last," he said. "I would think there would be a little bit more emotion at this touching moment."
"Go to hell," John growled. The guard behind him shoved him, sending John to his knees.
"I really thought I would have to work much harder to get the vaunted Team TARDIS in my grasp," the Master said, ignoring John. "Only took a single kidnapping and a strategic lowering of my cyber security around certain files. The two of you practically handed yourselves to me on a silver platter."
"What do you want with us?" Rose asked, tired of him dancing around the point.
The Master turned his hard stare on her, sending fear skittering over her skin. "I want answers and I want to make the both of you pay."