CHAPTER 1
The Doctor is busy tinkering with the sonic on the ground when her wife flounces in, all angel curls and distracted eyes. The TARDIS doors slam and the Doctor watches, unblinking, as River approaches the console, her hand creeping over to a railing to hold on as her time machine begins to wheeze and groan.
So much for the blue buttons, the Doctor thinks, lips curling into a smile as River haphazardly drives, unused to her console and unable to find the stabilisers. The sonic – so different, so unfinished – and all the bits she was using to fiddle with it slip into the pocket of her dressing gown, hidden from sight. When the TARDIS enters the Vortex, roaming quietly, River finally notices the other person in the room.
"Oh," River startles, blinking rapidly. "I'm sorry, I didn't see you."
"It's alright," the Doctor says, still smiling. River obviously doesn't recognise her and that's fine – the Doctor didn't even recognise herself, for a while. "You can fly her. Not many people can do that."
"No, not many people can…I'm sorry," River shakes her head, hand curling around the console as the other tracks a line across her pelvis, "but who are you? Are you one of my husband's companions?"
"Yeah," the Doctor says, shamelessly and without a hint of a lie. This face is good at bluffing. "The name's Romana of the House of Dvora."
River's eyebrow rises. "Dvora?"
"Gallifreyan House," the Doctor says, as if it explains everything. River grips the console tightly and the Doctor wonders how her wife feels about other Gallifreyans – is she scared? Apprehensive? Jealous? "Who are you?"
"…Melody," River says and that is interesting. Is River afraid of something or is this something new she's trying?
"Melody, like a song," the Doctor replies, hauling herself up, fixing her dressing gown. Well- fixes Clara's dressing gown. The Doctor has been borrowing a lot of clothes from her old companions, recently. Her downtime is full of dress-up, trying on new things. It's a fun game, finding out what makes this body tick, even if she's settled for now in that pink-red rainbow shirt, suspenders and long coat. I've always liked long coats.
"Yes," River says, looking her up and down ever so subtly. "How long have you been travelling with the Doctor?"
"Years. He's a right tosser, sometimes, but the running always gets me," the Doctor says, seeing a low shadow in the corridor behind River. There's a moment where her eyes flicker over, catching sight of Jenny, but her small daughter disappears before River can see when she looks in turn, following the Doctor's gaze.
"Thought I saw K9," the Time Lady offers in excuse. "You ever met him?"
"No," River says, to the Doctor's delight.
"Really?" the Doctor questions. She bounds over, taking River's hand, tugging her in the direction of the corridor, "Come on, I'll introduce you!"
"Alright," River says, slightly befuddled. The Doctor pulls her over to the corridor, leading her down it, past the living room where Sky Smith is asleep on the sofa and through the kitchen where K9 has left track-marks. The Doctor thinks he must have been in the art room, if the sparkling, yellow and green never-dry paint smeared on the floor is anything.
"Everything is different," River says, when they reach the indoor garden. The ceiling is high and the sky twinkles above them, stars shining and nebulas swirling on the holographic display. Plants from hundreds of times grow around them and over by the Earth flowers, K9 is set in his charging dock.
Beside him, as if she's been there all along, is Jenny.
"Hey, Jen," the Doctor greets her. "Is K9 awake?"
"No," Jenny says, glancing over at them, looking through a long red fringe. "I put him to sleep."
She looks so much like Donna, the Doctor thinks, even though she knows it's not true. Jenny regenerated the day they reunited and there's something to be said about the Doctor's luck that her daughter manages to pick up the ginger gene and the Doctor doesn't. Letting go of River's hand, she goes to her daughter, plopping down onto the lavender grass, tugging the girl onto her lap.
"This is Melody – she can drive the TARDIS," the Doctor grins, motioning River over with a quick tilt of her head. River is wary, glancing around, as if expecting a past Doctor to jump out of nowhere, asking why she's being all domestic with his companions, but she comes over, sitting tentatively on the grass.
The Doctor only then notices she's wearing a long red opera dress which probably shouldn't be sat on the ground in, however the Doctor knows River and River likely doesn't give a damn.
"The Doctor's out right now getting milk," the Doctor offers, "though I don't know how he's going to get back here, considering you took us somewhere."
"An…acquaintance of mine will be in the immediate area for some time," River says, "I'm sure they'll run into each other. Either my acquaintance will be banished or we'll return in the nick of time to pick that old man up."
"He's very old," Jenny agrees quietly, the Doctor giving her arm a quick squeeze in protest. River laughs, though.
"Yes, he is. Who might you be?"
"Jennifer Larn," Jenny enunciates, tongue curling around the words in a posh, Victorian-esque, London fashion, which sounds dead wrong to the Doctor's ears, not when her daughter should be speaking in a Cardiff accent. "How do you do?"
"I'm quite tired, to be honest," River says. "Running from old enemies does that to you. What's a young girl like you doing on the TARDIS?"
Here, the Doctor interjects before Jenny can take control of the situation, ruining the game or worse – playing along while also revealing that River is, in all technicalities, a step-mother.
"Jen's my daughter. Didn't want to live on Gallifrey with my kids anymore, not after the War," the Doctor says, smile fading somewhat as she continues, "and I took Sky in when her mum died. Sarah-Jane Smith. Amazing, brilliant woman. She had a son, too, but he was in uni by the time she passed. He's still on Earth. You probably saw Sky conked out in the living room, back there. The Doctor owed me a favour, which is why we're holed up in here."
River looks interested. Her mouth opens, probably to ask a question, but all of a sudden the stars and nebulas above begin flashing mauve and the Doctor shoots to her feet, depositing Jenny beside K9 roughly as the cloisters begin to ring.
"K9, wake up," she orders, the tin dog powering up.
"Mis-tress. My auditory processors are picking up cloister warning sounds. Code Mauve."
"K9, stay with Jenny," the Doctor orders, looking to River, offering her a hand. River takes it, her dress not the most convenient in an emergency, hauling herself up. "You should go get changed. I'm sure the TARDIS will move the wardrobe next door. Meet me in the console room."
"Do you know what you're doing?" River questions her.
The Doctor's eyes glint and a smile breaks over her face, "I was President of Gallifrey during the Time War, before Rassilon overthrew me and I travelled with the Doctor in his fourth face, for two of my faces – I have this, Mels."
…I haven't got this.
The Code Mauve is because of Time Lord intervention. Something is trying to lock it's metaphorical and metaphysical claws into the TARDIS. Nothing the Doctor is doing can stop it from happening – she just feels lucky they were only drifting through the Vortex, rather than flying somewhere. It would be easy for the Time Lord's to redirect them, if they were doing that, providing they still had the technology lying around.
"Can I do anything else?" Sky questions, barely hanging on as things start to get bumpy, flipping a switch on the console. The Doctor similarly has to switch grips as the TARDIS jerks violently, gritting her teeth.
"The TARDIS is going to get damaged – going to get hurt. This technology trying to snatch us isn't meant for her Type of TARDIS-" with another jerk comes another body, River stumbling up to the console, trying to adjust her two portions of the six-man vehicle "-it's meant for later models!"
"What if we let them take us? Then, we change the time-space coordinates after they've already done it?"
The Doctor grabs a monitor, adjusting the angle harshly so she can see the rapidly-changing Gallifreyan, the engine levels very much not happy. Out of the corner of her eye, she can't help but admire the fine cut of River's blue trousers, muscled arms bare and fine, as the kids say in the twenty-first century. For once, there's no Vortex Manipulator strapped to her wrist, though. Where is it? The Doctor wonders as she speaks.
"Maybe," she says, "but I've got kids on board who I don't want to endanger, if we can't do it."
"I'm not a kid," Sky argues.
"Not now," the Doctor snaps, "and you're a teenager, which is a form of child. Get over it. I need you to reset that processor to your left."
Sky growls slightly, but gets to work, "What am I turning it into?"
The Doctor motions to River for a brief moment, hands sliding across her part of the console, turning levers and switching buttons. "We're going to go through with her plan anyway, despite you and Jen being onboard. If we don't, the TARDIS starts getting harmed very soon and that can lead to worse things. I need you to familiarise yourself with the reformatting of the space-time coordinates. It doesn't matter what you turn them into, just memorise the sequence so you can repeat it."
"Okay?" Sky says, fiddling with the dials, "I've got one."
"Now we travel there," River says, easily taking over the Doctor's information, "and when they grab us, you turn those numbers right back to what they were."
"Readying for TARDIS flight," the Doctor says, "on your mark, River."
"On three," River says, brow furrowing. "Hang on, how do you know my name?"
Damn it, the Doctor sighs, but she shakes her head at the same time. "Not now. Let's escape what is assumedly the High Council, then talk."
"Fine. On three," River says, working her two station. "One, two-"
"Three!" the Doctor finishes, lunging over to Sky's station to slam her hand on the purple button. Immediately, the TARDIS begins to wheeze-groan, before the cloisters double in volume, the dials Sky had set spinning and sticking on new numbers, glowing gold. "And we're stolen! Sky, turn the numbers back!"
Sky immediately tries to fiddle with the console, but the Doctor sees the stuck buttons, the levers not budging under Sky's hands.
"They aren't moving!" Sky quickly grabs onto the console once again as they jerk, but its not enough for any of them, the three time travellers all hitting the floor. The cloisters are still sounding and the noise is getting to the Doctor's head, so when she stands up again, she switches them off. "Where are we going?"
The Doctor leans over her way once more, peering at the space-time coordinates. Immediately, alarm bells go off in her head, mouth going dry. There's a flip-flopping in her gut and a queasiness that doesn't fade as she staggers around, switching places with her young companion.
"We're locked on," she announces, matching eyes with River. "We're heading to the Death Zone."
"Death Zone?" River questions, "What the hell is that?"
"Think the Hunger Games, but Gallifrey-style," the Doctor says, grim as she turns back to Sky. "Stay in the TARDIS. Find Jenny and K9 and lock yourself in a room. Don't come out for anything, not even me."
"I want to help," Sky says, "I don't need to hide away, Mum."
The word hits the Doctor like a hammer to the gut, like it always does. It chases her queasiness away, replacing it with grief-tinged longing. Oh, my Sarah, your daughter…
"This is about keeping you safe." The Doctor uses a jerking of the TARDIS to her advantage, knowing there's nothing they can do to stop her being tugged through the Vortex. Her hand clasps Sky's shoulder. "Please, just go. The Death Zone is an arena, full of dangers untold. They can scoop anything from any time and drop it down inside. Daleks and cybermen are the only things you will never find there – but everything else, in all of space and time are up for grabs. Go."
Sky reaches up, grabbing her arm. "I don't want you to go out there, then. I already lost my mother. Don't make me lose you, too."
"You won't, promise, love," the Doctor swears, before pulling her gently, shoving her in the direction of the corridor. "Find Jen. I think she's in the garden."
"Okay. Stay safe!" Sky orders, brushing her long brown hair behind her ear as she points at the Doctor fiercely. The Doctor nods rapidly, watching her leave as the TARDIS comes to a final standstill.
"…so, Time Lord Hunger Games," River says, "What should we expect?"
"The Death Zone is in a time bubble, separate from reality," the Doctor describes, looking at the display screen. A picture of outside appears, the thick fog making it impossible to see much more than a sandy beach floor. "It's kind of like a game board. Bits can be moved about. At the end is the tomb of Rassilon, bloody codger. We don't get on. He tried to be President again after the war ended but I-"
The Doctor pauses.
"But I got the Doctor involved," she says, because I'm Romana, aren't I? "And he became the new President of Gallifrey. Saved the day, didn't he? Always does. We searched for the Keys to Time, when I was younger."
"The Doctor as President – should I be worried?" River jokes, sidling up beside her. Her head tilts. "Who's that?"
The Doctor looks back to the display. In the fog, she sees someone walking around hesitantly, stumbling over a rock. A man, the Doctor thinks, reaching to turn a dial, the sound turning up so they can hear odd mutterings. The Doctor turns the sound up a little more, so they can hear him.
"-chips. A good kebab. Yeah. Yeah, I deserve a good kebab. Kebab and chips. Bloody aliens. Bloody Slitheen…this goop is soaking into my jeans."
"Hold on, I know that voice," the Doctor blinks, squinting closer. "Is that…the tin dog. Oh my god, it's Mickey Mouse. Why's he going on about the Slitheen?"
Twisting away from the display, she heads for the doors, opening them both up just as Mickey catches sight of the TARDIS. He stops still, barely six feet from her, staring.
"…am I seeing things?" he questions, "Is this another trick?"
"C'mon Mickey, you can do better than that," the Doctor says, grinning. "The Doctor's away right now, but you and I have met in another time and place, see? Get inside, will you?"
Mickey's shoulders drop – in relief or exhaustion, the Doctor doesn't know. He moves forwards and suddenly, the Doctor can see the green goo splattered all over his black jeans and jacket, smelling it.
"You're ripe," the Doctor wrinkles her nose, letting him inside, shutting the doors behind him. "How'd you end up in the Death Zone?"
"Scooped up by some aliens. Nutters in red robes, not that you're much better, no offence – that dressing gown is dodgy to be wearing, in dangerous situations like this," he says, peeling off his leather jacket and then his shoes. He glances around. "He redecorated."
"Yeah, cool, right?" the Doctor grins, ignoring his comment on Clara's dressing gown and twirling around to look at her TARDIS.
Bright and airy, her TARDIS is mainly silver, with bright white lights, red roundels in the walls. The space itself is rather like her tenth face's TARDIS – the console in the middle, surrounded by a grate walkway, with sheet and glass barriers like her eleventh face's TARDIS, then more space around it. However, that is where the influence from her seventh face's TARDIS comes in, the small, lowered space around it full of stuff. There's a cosy nook, with armchairs and a few bookcases in one bit and a long desk full of mechanical parts in another. A magnetised surface keeps the things on top of it in place, thankfully, so the TARDIS' jolting doesn't make everything roll off.
The console itself is low and the time rotor is short and stubby, a large red crystal poking out the top at chest-height. The buttons and levers are all sorts of colours – purple, green, blue, yellow – which don't at all match the silver-red theme of her console room, but the Doctor can't help but love it dearly.
"Kind of retro, isn't it?" River dares question, the Doctor having a fit of pique.
"It's not retro! It's classic."
"Defensive," Mickey notes jokingly.
"She travelled with him, way back when," River says, "in one of his earlier faces."
"I travelled with the tall one in a trenchcoat," Mickey replies fondly, as if only one regeneration wore a trench-coat, "and I knew the one before that, with the big ears and leather jacket. He was kind of stuck-up, back then."
"You don't know the half of it," River purrs, the two obviously getting along, if Mickey's grin back at her is any indication. The Doctor rolls her eyes, before checking the TARDIS controls.
We're stuck, she confirms grimly. No getting out of here until they let us. "Did you see anyone out there, Mickey?"
"Just me and some Slitheen," Mickey says, "but I was in the middle of pouring out vinegar into a cup for my dinner. Martha and I, we keep some in the cupboard in a big plastic container, yeah? Me and Jackie, we blew them up before and it was a precaution, so when the dudes in red transported me, I was just like…I'm going to throw this on them so they don't kill me, like we always planned."
"If you had to," the Doctor murmurs, grimacing. Unfortunately, any Slitheen in the Death Zone were very much likely out to kill the other inhabitants in their panic – you don't exactly plan being taken by a Time Scoop. "Wardrobe is down that corridor," she directs him, when the smell of exploded Slitheen reaches her nose again.
"Cool," he says, utterly at ease, now he's in familiar space. He goes to move towards it, but stops. "Who are you?"
"Romanadvoratrelundar," the Doctor says. "Romana for short. Or Fred. We've met already, from my perspective, at least."
"Alright Fred," Mickey looks to River. "I'm Mickey."
"River Song," River greets, eyes flickering back to the Doctor as Mickey gives a mock-salute, disappearing into the bowels of the TARDIS. "We have time to talk now. How did you know my real name? I told you I was Melody."
The Doctor begins to feel bad. This is my wife, she thinks, nervous, rubbing her hands on her dressing gown. I need to change. "Just a few minutes longer," she stalls, crouching down to slip into the bowels of the TARDIS engines, dropping through a trap-door. Once she shuts it behind her, locking it, she changes out of her unicorn pyjamas and Clara's dressing gown, hanging them up where her usual get-up had been staying.
A knock comes from the trap-door. The Doctor doesn't open up. River demands she tell her how she knows her and when the Doctor hears her wife's sonic, she quickly digs out her own, happy to have basic locking and unlocking all set up to combat intruders.
"Not really an intruder, though," the Doctor says, wondering where in her timeline her wife is. Is this after Darillium? Is this before Demons Run? The Doctor wonders if being happy to see her was wrong – if she should have been more nervous, like now, or if she should have been honest from the start. "Probably," she answers her own question aloud, playing with her earrings.
At least five minutes pass before another knock comes, this one accompanied by a ringing in her ear. Well, not really her ear. More like her brain. The Doctor shuts her eyes, reaching out to Jen above, where she's reaching out from.
'River is angry,' Jenny says in her head.
'River wants to know how I know she's called River and I'm being a chicken,' the Doctor confesses. 'I haven't seen her since Darillium. Those were some of the best years of my life and now I've got her believing I'm my old friend Romana.'
'Keep doing it,' Jenny does the mental equivalent of a shrug. 'I want to know her. Is that okay?'
'Sure, kiddo. Why keep up the game, though?' the Doctor questions, wanting to know why Jenny thinks she should.
'Recon,' Jenny replies shortly. 'Now come upstairs and say that you've met before, pretend it's in her future. You're terrible at keeping secrets.'
'Thanks for that,' the Doctor shakes her head.
'You are though,' Jenny argues, before physically knocking again. The Doctor sighs, before tucking the sonic in her jacket pocket, manually unlocking the trap-door. When she opens it, she finds Jenny kneeling in front of it, but her daughter scrambles out of the way when the Doctor hauls herself up.
"Sorry, I was getting dressed, stressed and panicky," she says to River. "A costume change was necessary. Sorry. I'm just…not good with anomalies. We've met before, see."
"Why didn't you just say?" River demands, cross. "We're stuck in this place – be more honest with us, if you will."
"Yes, I agree," Jenny pipes up, on her feet again, yellow anorak on over her blue and white dress. The Doctor narrows her eyes.
"You only wear that when you're going outside," she states, before deducing, "You want to go outside."
"I'm combat trained," Jenny says, staunch. "I can take them."
"Not in this body, you can't. May I remind you that you're not a child-soldier anymore?" the Doctor says, tugging at the top button of her anorak when Jenny scowls. "Come on. Go to your room and hide out with Sky – make a fort, or something."
"I'd rather be with you," Jenny says, mulish.
"Who even said I'm going outside?"
Mickey – apparently back already, sitting on one of only four chairs in the central console area – snorts. "You're like us. Of course you're going back out, if you can't leave with the TARDIS. How else are we going to find out the reason we're here?"
"It's for sport," the Doctor answers. "Or misdirection, so someone can try get immortality and sort of get it. I've been here before, when President Borusa brought me and my past selves all together to distract the High Council. The Master was even here, once and he only survived because he's a canny twit, he is. All the other investigators died. If it's not safe for fully grown Time Lords, it's definitely not safe for Time Tots."
"I hate it when you call me that," Jenny mutters with a roll of her eyes.
"You love it," the Doctor smiles briefly, before Mickey questions her.
"How did you survive, then? How are you special?"
The Doctor glances back at Mickey, wondering if there's some way she can tell him who she really is, without giving it away to River. I'll say something I said to him before.
"You're the tin dog, Mickey," she says. "You figure it out."
"Mis-tress," K9 then protests from the other side of the console, "I am your robotic canine companion. Mickey Smith is a humanoid."
"Holy Jesus-" Mickey startles, getting to his feet, head twisting as he moves to look at K9. "Dude! I've not seen you in ages, damn dog." Mickey rushes over, crouching down to put his hand on the robot dog's head, flicking his red sensory probe. "Aww, it's so good to see you. Last time we met, you were on the other side of a screen and the time before that, you were blown up."
"My databanks are hardly compromised," K9 replies in that cheeky voice of his. The Doctor snorts at his version of, I remember.
Mickey rolls his eyes, standing up. "Ruined the moment. Great job, dog."
K9 whirls and beeps, before trundling over to the Doctor. "Mis-tress. I have detected the presence of an anomaly in space-time, similar in signature to that of other Time Lords."
The Doctor glances at River, who K9 now looks to. "That's River Song. Uplink with the TARDIS if you want some info, but it's not my place to get into it."
"Yes, Mis-tress. Am I to assume the anomaly is not a threat?"
"Of course she is, she's River Song," the Doctor says probably too proudly. Chastising herself, she tones it down. "I mean, yeah, not a threat to us. She's more dangerous than me, at times."
"Noted," K9 says, before falling silent.
"Uh, Mum?" Sky clears her throat, "Where's Jenny?"
The Doctor whirls around, but Jenny is nowhere in sight. Dashing in a circle, checking behind River, down the trapdoor and in the nook off to the side, the Doctor finally – painedly – brings herself to look at the console display. She sees a small amount of movement and a tiny yellow splodge disappearing into the fog, groaning at the sight.
"Damnit," she pulls the hood of her coat up, going over to Sky, doing up the zipper of her dull white hoodie, afraid and over-compensating. "Sorry," she says to the fourteen year-old, but Sky just watches her curiously, probably wondering what she's going to do next. The Doctor reaches up to take her cheeks, pressing their foreheads together. "Your sister, honestly. Gives me the fright of my life every two days."
"Are we going after her?"
"Yeah," the Doctor confirms, "Have to, don't we? She's a kid, no matter that she used to be taller. Regeneration means nothing this young."
"What about the TARDIS?" River questions, butting in. "Can we leave her safely here, in the Death Zone? Will the Time Lords take her."
"Probably, yeah," the Doctor confirms, looking to Mickey. "And I have a feeling we're going to be picking up more of the Doctor's companions along the way. Funny how you stumbled right on us, huh?"
Mickey frowns, "Well, yeah, but this place can't be that big, can it?"
"It's half the size of Wales," the Doctor says frankly. "And it's like Lego – pieces can be moved about, according to the wants and desires of the Gamemaster. The Death Zone is the place, but out there? That's the Game – the Game of Rassilon; and my plucky, bull-headed baby girl just walked right outside."