"Nothing like a cleanup, eh, old girl?" said the Doctor as he finished polishing the TARDIS console. "Amy, Rory…I've cleaned her up. Time for a trip! Somewhere new, The Twelve Singing Moons of the Casper system, New Earth, Raxacoricofallapatorius, we could finally see the Aplans! Ponds? Can you hear me?" He walked up the stairs a little. "Ponds? Are you having a nap? It's alright if you are I just wanted to know what you wanted to see next." Then he remembered. Amy and Rory, his best friends, were gone. Gone and never able to return.
"Right." He said, that lonely old man in his box. "Ok, time to move on, I suppose." Instantly he had cheered up and ran right back at the console and got the machine running and the TARDIS was off again heading toward a new adventure. But then the Doctor suddenly fell over and began to slide across the floor, "This is new!" he shouted holding onto the railing. The cloister bell began to ring out, that meant danger and at a very critical lever. "No, no, no, no…don't do that! Please don't do that!" The TARDIS straightened out but the cloister bell became louder, it was an unbearable noise. The whole console room shook each time it rang out and the floor vibrated, cracking the glass. The Doctor braced himself on the console, hitting every button, pulling ever lever, checking the monitor for any sort of clue as to the problem. "Come on, old girl. What do you have for me? What's wrong?" The TARDIS was sick, that's the only way the Doctor would describe it to himself. Then it came up on the monitor: coordinates, star charts, universe map: UNKNOWN. The Doctor was shocked by the information, he shrugged out of fear and with a voice embracing that fear he said, "Geronimo." Then it all stopped. The TARDIS was quiet again, just the small hum of the room, the bell was gone, and the engines had stopped. Quiet.
The Doctor was relieved; he went to the monitor again. UNKNOWN. And he couldn't see outside. He gulped, checked his watch, straightened his bowtie, and dusted off the tweed jacket. He was ready. Ready for whatever was out there. Ready for anything. Or was he? He looked around him. Where were his friends? Any of them? His companions, his travelling partners, the ones that defended him, fought for him, died for him and because of him. Not today, today the Doctor was all alone. And this was a feeling he did not enjoy. He walked out of the TARDIS and viewed the world around him, "I went through all that for the Highlands?" he shouted out looking at the green hilly scenery. It had looked like it just rained, the clouds were gray as was the sky, the fog was light but all around, the grass was green and there were many hills and mountains in the distance. He jumped up and down, "Oh, no, no, definitely not Scotland, definitely not Earth." If it wasn't Earth, where was it? The Doctor got down on the ground and sniffed the grass. He laughed, "Oh, of course. I should have known." But then he got serious, he became very aware of where he was. And he was scared. "No, it can't be here. I can't be here. I have to go…" he said this as he turned around to get back in the TARDIS. But the TARDIS was gone. Then he could hear it, it was faint. Laughter, sinister, evil. Laughter.
"It's you isn't it? The Master?" he asked, crouched a little. Observing everything. The laughter picked up, louder but still sinister. "Show yourself!" Then he appeared. It was him. After all this time. But how?
"You." said the Doctor with genuine surprise and anger.
"The Master is intelligent Doctor, but he could never come up with something like this." The man in the brown robes let down his hood. It was the Monk, the Meddling Monk, a renegade Time Lord. The Doctor had encountered him before but knew him for a great number of years. He was just one of those Time Lords that went bad. But he specialized in changing history. One question remained.
"How did you survive the Time War? I know you were there." The Doctor demanded answers; he tried to remain calm and patient in order to get them.
"I survived, that's all that counts." Was his reply. "I know how you survived, Doctor." A big sinister smile.
"How does that sit in your hearts?" Why the taunting? Why was the Monk going through all of this? The Doctor quickly ran up to him and tried to grab his robes. His hands went right through. The Monk was a hologram. The Monk laughed, "By now, Doctor, I believe you've discovered that I'm not real."
The Doctor straightened his bow tie, "Don't play games with me, Monk. Where are you really and why have you brought me here?"
"My dear Doctor. I didn't bring you here, but I am a part of this place. Since you are here now, this means I have been activated. I've been dead for a great number of years. I was killed in the Time War, sometime after you acquired The Moment. You've now been brought here to this place…The Death Zone. You've been here before, yes?"
"Yes, I was. Many times over."
"I will assume you just referred to the last time you were here."
The Doctor groaned, "Holograms. They're so….awkward."
"I can be prompted by questions." the Monk said.
"Why didn't you say so?" The Doctor was clearly annoyed. "Question one, who brought me here?"
"Unknown." Was all the Monk replied.
"Question two." The Doctor walked closer. "Gallifrey is time locked, how can I be here?"
"The time lock has been broken."
"So someone needs my help."
"Unknown. I am limited to three questions before shutting down." The Doctor paced around, he wanted the last question to really count. "Ok, ok. Last question, where is she?"
"She is close." The Monk said. "Good luck, Doctor. I cannot tell you what you are in for. But it will be the hardest fight in your long, long life." The Monk disappeared. When the Monk had gone someone was right there, behind him. That someone was now there staring at the Doctor. He approached her with amazement, like seeing a beautiful sunset. She just stood there, smiling back at him. The Doctor stopped; they both stared at each other for a long time.
"Hello." The Doctor said, as happy as he could be.
"Hello, Doctor." She said back, smiling as big as him. "You've changed your face."
"Yeah." Said The Doctor touching his face. "11. You've stayed the same."
"I've stayed safe. Haven't needed to regenerate. Do you want me to change, I could do it again. On a whim."
"No." the Doctor replied, putting his hand on her shoulder. "I want you to stay the same. Just like you always looked. Same old Romana." The two old friends laughed and embraced. But it wasn't long before the Doctor was back to asking questions.
"Did you bring me here, Romana?" asked the Doctor.
"Yes." She said instantly. "No. Well, sort of. You're just…here."
"But why the Death Zone? Why Gallifrey?"
Romana smirked, "Who wouldn't want to come home?" The Death Zone was no home; it was an ancient battleground for the Time Lords. It was a sick venue of entertainment, a reminder of Gallifrey's dark days, and was once a battleground for the Doctor as well. It led him to the Dark Tower and the Tomb of Rassilon.
"Romana, Gallifrey is time locked. We shouldn't be here. How can we be here?" Deadly serious.
"You've died, Doctor." Romana said with no emotion. "This is like a purgatory. The afterlife of the Time Lords. It takes the dark places from your mind. The Death Zone becomes a purgatory for all Time Lords." So, the rumors were true, the Doctor thought. But how could he be dead?
"I don't remember dying." The Doctor said with sadness.
"You wouldn't. Death is too painful, the stopping of both hearts. The last memories are repressed and soon forgotten. Then you enjoy eternity." Romana smiled at the end of her sentence, eternity, forever.
"So you're dead too. How does it feel?" the Doctor asked, curiously, not yet knowing how to feel himself. Romana smiled her usual smile.
"You get used to it after awhile."
"That's what I thought. But we're Time Lords! 13 lives, longing to live forever. And you were quite cold when I touched you. You are not my Romana." The Doctor sounded insulted. How dare anyone put him up to this. Who was responsible? The Doctor scanned her with his sonic screwdriver. The fake Romana stood there still and then her head went down. She was an android. A false Romana. The Doctor moved on, he found a road and began to walk on it.
"This is what happens when you live 900 years. You make a lot of noise; upset a lot of Daleks and Cybermen and Silurian and Autons and Weeping Angels. I've gotten too big, I know I have. That's why I was put in the Pandorica. Well I'm sorry that there's a gigantic universe dying to be explored!" The Time Lord looked around at the gigantic landscape; no sign of the TARDIS.
This certainly was the Death Zone. But was he really dead? How could he be certain of either being dead or alive? Out of all the messes the Doctor had gotten himself into; this one was certainly the trickiest. More tricky than the parallel universe and crossing paths with his former selves. He decided to press on though; if this place was really the Death Zone then he would make his way to the Tower of Rassilon. The only place in the Death Zone capable of some kind of answer.