The showdown with the Master finally commences.
AN: Ummm, it's been three months but I finally have an update! Sorry about the wait. Also, we're definitely nearing the end. I'm thinking one or two more chapters most likely.
"Why hello there," Saxon cooed, walking up to her. He looked out of place in the dusty warehouse in his immaculate suit yet seemed completely at ease, just as he had when he'd visited Jimmy. "So glad you could join us for this little chat."
Rose took a deep breath, before speaking with a tremor in her voice that wasn't entirely manufactured. "Let's just get this over with, yeah? I give you the info and the Doctor's mobile and you call off the people you have trying to kill me, that's the deal."
The Master laughed and the hairs on Rose's arms stood up at the sound. "If I like the intel you have, I'll do my best to protect you from whoever is trying to kill you."
Jack swore in her ear and Rose wished she could echo the sentiment. She needed him to admit to putting a contract out on her and he kept sidestepping it with an ease that spoke of a significant amount of practice.
"Someone's coming into the building. Looks like they're with Saxon and they're carrying something."
Rose was still listening to the last of Jack's warning when Saxon started talking again.
"Why don't we step over here, standing in the middle of this place seems so cliché and I'd rather not feel like I'm in some low budget movie." Saxon grabbed her arm and pulled her towards the edge of the room where his underling was setting up a table. Rose resisted but the slim man was deceptively strong so before long she was standing next to the table, Saxon's hand still holding her arm in a bruising grip.
John grit his teeth when he saw the Master put his hand on Rose. Him manhandling Rose after everything she'd been through was another reason on his very long list of reasons that he wanted to punch Saxon's face in. When he realized where he was taking her he let out a curse of his own.
"Rose, he took you out of my line of sight. I'm blind up here now. I'll try to move to reestablish visual but for now Jack and I both only have audio on you," he whispered.
"Do you think he knows you're up there?" Jack asked, voicing Rose's worry as well.
"No, I think he's just being a prick and happened to pick the only spot in the warehouse I can't see." John grumbled.
Rose halfway listened to her boys talk as Saxon finally let go of her arm and sat down in the single chair his man had provided. He gestured to the other side of the table, apparently expecting her to stand opposite of him.
It was terrifying knowing that John wasn't keeping an eye on her any longer but Rose wasn't going to disappoint him and Jack by folding at the first sign of pressure. She mentally straightened her spine and outwardly shuffled to where the Master wanted her, head bowed in a picture of submission.
"Much better," Saxon said, leaning back in his chair. "Now, down to business. Why don't you go ahead and hand over the Doctor's mobile."
"Don't give it to him yet," John instructed. They'd wiped most of the sensitive data from it, leaving just enough about the Master for him to think he was hitting the jackpot when he first got a look at it.
"I think I'll hold onto it for now," Rose said haltingly, putting a possessive hand over where it rested in her pocket. "It's my only physical bargaining chip and I'm more comfortable havin' it with me until I know you're going to hold up your end of the deal."
"I can't promise my protection until I know your information's good and that includes whatever is on that phone."
"How do I know you won't just get rid of me as soon as I hand it over?" Rose asked, tremor back in her voice.
"You don't," Saxon said, sickly sweet smile forming on his lips. He held his hand out and beckoned for her to hand over the phone.
"No, I need to know that people are going to stop trying to kill me before I give it to you."
"Seems we're at a standoff then, Miss Tyler. You are surprisingly difficult to deal with," he commented, leaning forward over the table. Rose's eyes widened as he continued in an offhand manner. "It's no wonder that Mr. Stone went out of his way to try and teach you some manners. His methods were somewhat crude but…so is he. Fitting really."
He paused for a moment. "Now, what information do you think you have, besides the Doctor's mobile, that could entice me to call off your impending assassination that I went through so much effort to secure."
"Got him," John whispered darkly.
Rose resisted smiling at the satisfaction evident in John's words and the calming effect he had on her. One mission down, one to go.
"I know the Doctor suspects that your dealings with Jimmy are a part of something bigger," she offered, making sure to sound as scared as she could. It didn't require much acting skill as Saxon wouldn't hesitate to put a bullet in her head if he picked up on the fact that she was satisfied with their proceedings so far and that was not the plan, not by a longshot.
The Master propped his chin up on his fist and made a show of contemplating her statement. "That's not much of a problem and not nearly valuable enough information to guarantee your safety."
Rose swallowed hard. "What if I told you that he and the Captain are working together to piece together all the information they have on you to figure out what that bigger plan is?"
"I'm listening," the Master drawled.
"They're still gatherin' their information so you have time to cover up whatever it is you're doing," Rose continued.
"They'll never figure it out," he answered cheerfully. "I'm planning something that would never even cross their tiny little minds."
"Doesn't hurt to be careful, though," Rose said. "The Doctor seemed pretty confident."
"Oh that one's always confident," Saxon replied, leaning back in his chair. "Doesn't mean he knows what he's doing, though."
Jack snorted in her earpiece.
"What are you doing?" Rose asked, disregarding Jack's aside and John's annoyed huff.
He tutted at her. "Now, why would I tell you that? You've exhausted your information, little flower. Hand over the Doctor's mobile and I'll call my men off and you're free to go. But if you ever breathe a word of this conversation to anyone I will not hesitate to put a bullet in that pretty head of yours."
Rose nodded silently, shaken to the core by how nonchalant the man was while threatening her life. "Got it," she said.
"Mobile." He held out his hand again.
"Not until you call off your men," Rose maintained stubbornly. "Told you I don't want to die."
The smile he gave her chilled Rose's blood. "I'm sorry, that's just not an option."
Rose opened her mouth to ask what he meant but before she could make a sound, the sharp report of a gunshot echoed through the warehouse, shattering the silence as a bullet flew towards Rose from the gun in the Master's hand.
"Take the mobile off her and then get rid of the body," Saxon said, stripping off his gloves and handing the gun to one of his henchmen. "Her being dead is one less thorn in my side at least."
He waited until his companion gave a halfhearted chuckle at his pun before grinning and laughing himself.
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.
The bottom dropped out of John's stomach as the shot echoed through the large space. Not caring if he was seen and completely ignoring Jack's panicked questions in his ear, John started scrambling across the catwalks to get a visual on what was happening. He was talking over Jack, saying Rose's name over and over, praying to every deity he could name and some that he couldn't that she would answer him.
He found a ladder and slid down halfway before jumping the rest of the way to the floor. He was pulling out his sidearm, having abandoned his sniper rifle in the catwalks as soon as the shot rang out, when Saxon walked around the corner.
"Well, well, well, if it isn't the mighty Doctor," the man said, rocking back on his heels and sticking his hands in his pockets. "Should've known Jimmy's little tart couldn't have come up with that intel and this whole meeting all on her own. What a shame you aren't very good at making plans either, always getting people you're trying to protect killed. Tsk tsk, some doctor you are."
The Master's smile was the very definition of smarmy and John barely resisted punching him in the teeth. It could wait until later, right now he had to get to Rose. He needed to see her, there was no way he was trusting Saxon's word that Rose was actually dead.
"Get out of my way," John growled.
"She's dead, getting there faster won't change anything. Why not stay here and have a chat with me? We have so much to talk about."
"Not interested." He pointed his gun at Saxon.
The man just laughed.
"Now, we both know you're not going to-" His sentence was cut off by his own scream and another gunshot. "You shot me." He said in shock from the floor where he had fallen. "You actually shot me." Blood was pooling on the concrete floor around his right knee where a bullet from John's gun had impacted.
"You were in my way." John stepped around him and started towards the corner that hid Rose from view. A glare from him sent the Master's cronies scrambling, none of them loyal enough to their employer to risk getting in John's way as well.
"Don't tell me you actually care about the girl?" Saxon said incredulously from behind John. "She's nobody, just a pawn in the game!"
The Doctor didn't answer him, filling in Jack instead who was still asking questions about the gunshots and Rose. "Captain, our target is incapacitated if you'd like to come collect him. I'm on my way to Rose now."
John raced around the corner as soon as Jack confirmed that he was on his way inside. His heart stuttered to a stop when he caught sight of Rose was sprawled motionless on the floor. The noise of the Master still pontificating and rambling and Jack bursting into the warehouse faded away to nothing as he knelt next to Rose, carefully cupping her cheek in his hand.
"Rose? Rose, please answer me," he pleaded softly. "Rose…"
A second passed. Two. Three.
He brushed his thumb across the curve of her cheek, name still slipping off his lips like a prayer.
Rose opened her eyes.
