Chapter Fourteen: Complications

No one would say anything. Rose was processing this turn of events, the Master was trying to figure out a way to talk his way out of the predicament, and the Doctor was processing what they interrupted. Donna took control of the situation. "All right, someone has to explain. Just standing around isn't going to get us anywhere. I'm Donna Noble, the Doctor's best mate. Obviously, he's not dead. The Master lied to you, Rose. He's nothing but bad news. We aren't about to let him take over this Earth."

Still, no one said a thing.

"Come on! Someone say something? Rose? Master? What about you, spaceman? Anything?"

Then, they all started to speak at once. The Master was yelling at the Doctor, the Doctor was yelling right back at him, and Rose was yelling at them both to calm down.

"Oi! Stop it!" Donna shouted, causing everyone to shut up. "Good. Now, one at a time. It's like talking to children, I swear…"

Rose focused on the Master. "You lied to me. I knew it. I knew that I shouldn't have trusted you. Was this all lie? Some big plan? I'll bet every word out of your mouth hasn't been true. Looks like I am a stupid ape for believing in you."

"Listen to me. I didn't know who you were then. When we first met, I was planning on hurting the Doctor. I was going to use you. It's who I was. Who I am. But I'm changing. You know that I am. Let me prove it. Give me a chance. I'll show you the truth. Not everything was a lie…" the Master attempted.

He began to move towards Rose and the Doctor went to stop him. He held up his hands with a hard look in his fellow Time Lord's direction. "Doctor, please. I need a few minutes. That's all."

The Doctor was stunned by this. What happened to the Master? He was acting almost…human. Rose had tears in her eyes from it all. She wasn't able to move away from the Master due to the heavy chains, but he was able to get closer. He put his fingers to her temples and shut his eyes. With all of his might, he opened his mind to her. She saw everything from the beginning and it was horrifying. The drums were pounding in the background. When it reached the truth of what happened on the other world, she was furious. He was a monster. Just as she was about to tell him to stop, the montage reached their meeting.

There was a shift in him. The drums were quieter. He was still the same villain as before, but he was evolving. He was starting to feel. Starting to love. He was happy with her, and it was better than how he felt when he had power. His fear was evident. It shook her to the core. The man had never felt anything like it. It was truth. It was pure. He didn't want to hurt her. He didn't want to lose her. She saw his nightmares and his dreams. When he planned to take the world, it wasn't to see suffering. He saw them together, laughing and dancing in the stars. As hard as it was for him, he would stop hurting people…but only for her.

Pulling his fingertips away, he held her gaze with fearful eyes. "I'm sorry."

Silently, after careful thought, she put her arms around him as best as she could. "It's all right. You're lost. That's all it is. You have done terrible, unforgivable things, but…not to me…I forgive you."

"I love you, Rosie. I do."

The Doctor swallowed. "Love?"

"I love her," the Master answered him darkly. "I went and fell in love with a human. Sissy, sissy, sissy."

"Well, that's wizard. Can you explain the chains and the dungeon? Tell me it's not foreplay," Donna grumbled unhappily.

Rose smirked at the fiery ginger. "We're prisoners. The Hotspurlians are planning to take over Earth."

"I thought that was the pair of you," Donna frowned.

"Yes. It was. But, I changed my mind. My mates didn't…" the Master explained. He held out his chains. "You wouldn't happen to have that stupid sonic screwdriver, would you? We should probably get to saving the world. God, listen to me. Saving the world. It makes me want to gag."

The Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver and went to the Master. In an intense silence, he freed him from the chains. He went to Rose next. Their eyes locked and she gave him a wide smile. "Hello."

He had to smile back. "Hello."

"I see you're alive and well. It's been so long."

"Yeah. It's been quite awhile, Rose Tyler," he nodded as he quickly walked over to Donna. "We need a plan."

"We only have the two teleportation devices, so that won't work as an exit. If only we had a ship…" Donna hummed.

The Master popped his head between them with a grin. "Did someone say ship? I have one."

"Where is it?" the Doctor asked.

"Parked, docked, connected—all to this one."

"Brilliant. We'll use that to escape. But first things first, we need to stop them before they do any more damage. Allons-y," the Doctor declared almost cheerfully as he used his sonic to open a door. Inside, he was nowhere near cheerful. He was a wreck.

Stealthily, the four of them entered the hallway. The blobs were too large to guard anything personally, but they did have alarms. One sounded and they took off for the nearest room. They reached one and the Master easily hacked the code. Inside, there were two of the puddles. The Doctor changed the setting on the sonic screwdriver to cause them to ripple in calming motions. In under a minute, they were asleep. They'd transport them out as soon as they could.

"What a pathetic solution. I could have made them implode with the same device," the Master sneered as he went to the console. He cut off the alarm, sent the blobs out, and checked the readings. "They haven't caused any more destruction."

"Why not? Not that it's a bad thing," Rose wondered as she went to his side.

"They're waiting. They've called their other ships into the area. They'll be here in five minutes."

The Doctor wedged between them and got to work. "I can reverse the message. Send them back."

"What can the rest of us do?" Donna asked curiously.

"We need to disable the ship."

"I command all of Earth's defenses. I could shoot out their engines. Leave the ship stalled and in the dark," the Master suggested. "But I'll need a console more powerful than this one."

"If you miss, we'll go down with them. We need to do this internally. You can go to the engines—"

"And enter the overrides simultaneously with you while you work here. That will fry their technology completely."

He nodded. "That's exactly right. I can harness some of the energy from Torchwood to make this console stronger. There's no way they could prevent the meltdown then."

The Master scowled. "No. I'll stay here and you go to the engines."

"A ship this big will have a highly complicated propulsion system. You're stone cold brilliant. It'll take you half the time it would me. Where's the Torchwood transmitter?"

"It's in Rose's broach."

The Doctor saw the pretty thing and held out his hand to take it. Rose went to give it to him, but the Master stopped her. He sent a glare in the Master's direction. "Having cold feet, Master?"

"It only works when it's near Rose herself. I'm a big fan of isomorphic controls. A true fanatic, really. The broach has to be within several feet of her."

"So I'll stay up here," she decided, placing a hand on the Master's shoulder when he went to argue. "You take Donna. We need to move before they start shooting."

Pointedly, the Master kissed her and nodded to Donna. "C'mon, ginger."

"Oi, watch it spaceman…number two."

Rolling his eyes, he glanced at the Doctor. "There's a communication unit. We'll use it when we're in position. Uck, look at me. Working with the Doctor. How times have changed…"

After they left, Rose stood by the Doctor in an awkward silence. He continued to work without looking at her. She bumped him with her shoulder. "Hey."

"What?"

She winced at how he said it. "I haven't seen you in years and we've barely said two words."

"Right. Well, the world is in danger. I'm a little preoccupied. Sorry about that. So…how'd it happen?" he questioned quietly. "You and him."

"He just showed up on Bad Wolf Bay. I happened to be sitting on the rocks. Then, this man fell from the sky in handcuffs. I stitched him up and found his parallel world jumper. At first, I thought that he was you. It had Gallifreyan on it and he had two hearts. You were the last one, or so I thought. Anyway, he moved in with me and we got to know each other. I didn't know about his plan to take over the world. Not until he literally announced it. But, I got him to reconsider."

He looked at her with saddened eyes. "You've done it."

"Done what?"

"What I couldn't do. You reached him. I knew that he could be helped, but he wouldn't accept it from me," he took a steadying breath and added, "I'm happy for you. I'm glad that you found each other."

His fingers went back to work and she had a surprised expression. "Doctor, what are you trying to say?"

"I'm really happy for you both. I was worried that if he found you he would hurt you, but I should have known that you'd get to him. He could be a great man. I know that you'll see to him. Besides, it wasn't like I thought that I'd find you here, sitting about waiting for me to come back."

She blinked back tears, wondering why he came back if it wasn't to find her. "Why did you come here?"

"The Master was on the loose. I wanted to be sure that he didn't destroy this Earth like he did mine…" he explained softly, though his hearts were beating out of time. He came back for her, but he wasn't about to admit that and be crushed further. Obviously, she had moved on…with his old mate and adversary.

"Oh. Right…" she mumbled. She didn't love the Master. She liked him and felt like she could help him. Maybe, she could grow to love him. But, her true love was standing in front of her for the first time in years. Even so, he didn't seem to care. Her chest tightened.

The Master was almost at the engines with Donna in tow. She was glaring. He was tired of it. Sighing, he looked at her. "What do you want?"

"You and Rose. What's the story?"

"Are you deaf? I love her. My Bad Wolf. My empress. My everything. God, where did that come from? I'm sorry, ginger. This love thing is new to me. I have lapses of disgusting prose. Ignore it."

"Does she love you?"

He paused. "I don't know. We're a couple and she said that she'll stay with me. That's what matters right now. In time, she'll love me. I know it."

"And what if she still loves the Doctor? What then? Would you let her go?"

"I can't let her go. She's part of me. I can't live without her. I won't."

She shivered at the edge in his voice. He hurried up ahead and she paused for a moment with a tired expression. "This is not good. I just know that this can't end well…"