The Doctor had no idea what "Minusland" meant, but he figured it was some kind of electrical room in the factory. He expected the elevator to go down like any other elevator. He was wrong. The elevator shot suddenly to the side, throwing him off his feet. His face slammed painfully into the glass door, filling his vision with stars. He blinked them away just as the elevator passed into a huge space that resembled miles of snow-capped mountain peaks. The Doctor's eyes widened in surprise. What was this?
"Uh, Mr. Wonka, where are we?"
Wonka was dutifully staring at the Weeping Angel, but he knew where they were by the powdered sugar dusting the glass.
"Fudge Mountain," he answered simply. "It's where my workers mine the fudge I use in my factory."
The Doctor shot him an incredulous look. "But how -"
"Does it all fit in my factory?" Wonka said for him. "Simple. It doesn't. But underneath my factory, I have miles and miles of space to work with, so long as I hollow it out. This room is only one of many, as you will soon see. But let me concentrate now. I don't want to blink and let this fellow get away."
The Doctor rubbed his sore nose as he continued to look through the glass door. He could see tiny men at work on the mountain. They were all tied together with ropes for safety, and they were hewing chunks of fudge out of the mountainside with pickaxes. The room disappeared as the elevator shot into a tunnel that was completely lit, so Wonka was able to keep the Angel in sight. The elevator passed into another huge room that was brightly lit, showing a great expanse of a jungle canopy.
"A jungle?" The Doctor muttered, shaking his head. He was no stranger to traveling between worlds, but to do it in a candy factory?
"It's where I grow the cocoa beans I use in my factory," Wonka explained. "I use millions of them a day. Perhaps I'll be able to show you, once we are rid of our friend on the roof."
The elevator passed over the jungle and slid through a narrow passageway into what looked like a deep cavern, but all along the walls there were platforms where the tiny men and women were busily working at desks.
"Ah, the Administrative Offices," Wonka said as the elevator began to descend. "We're getting close to our destination."
The elevator dropped further and further, until it dropped through a hole in the floor. The elevator slid into another huge room, This one filled with rows and rows of large safes. Dozens of tiny men in guard uniforms were working among the safes, filling them with hundreds of boxes.
"What are all these safes for?" The Doctor asked.
"Money, of course," Wonka said. "And jewels and bars of silver and gold. Whatever people use to pay for my candy. I also store my greatest secret recipes here, since they were stolen once before. The other thing that is here is the gateway to Minusland. You will see."
The elevator glided on rails over the room, until it was hanging over a great metal hatch set in the floor. A number of the tiny men were guarding it. When they saw Wonka in the elevator, they knew that it was time to open it. One of the men pushed a button, and the huge metal door opened.
Wonka took his eyes off the Angel, since he knew there was no where else for it to go. He looked at the Doctor and grinned.
"Are you afraid of falling, Doctor?" he asked.
The Doctor gave him a nervous look. "I'm not particularly fond of it, I'll admit."
"Then you better hold on," Wonka said, pressing one of the glass buttons. The description beside it said RELEASE.
The elevator fell from the rails into the great hole in the floor. The Doctor cried out in alarm, but Wonka only smiled placidly as they fell into the darkness. Hidden from sight, the Angel on the roof resumed pounding even as they fell. The Doctor's feet rose from the floor, and he wondered just how Wonka was able to maintain his composure even as they were plummeting to their deaths. Perhaps he was insane.
They fell for what seemed like an eternity, though in truth it was only a few minutes. Wonka had been counting the seconds the whole time. At the right moment, he hit another button, and the elevator stopped. He set his feet on the floor with the practice of a gymnast. The Doctor, on the other hand, flopped onto his bottom.
"What did you do?" He demanded.
"We're here," was all Wonka said. He pointed outside. All around them was darkness. It was so thick, it looked like someone had painted the outside of the elevator black. The only light came from the lit button. It was quiet. The Doctor could hear himself breathing, his two hearts beating louder than normal. Then he realized that he couldn't hear the Angel pounding on the roof anymore.
"The Angel," he whispered. "It's gone."
"The Minuses must have got him," Wonka murmured. "And now they're the ones doing the energy draining."
The Doctor looked unsure. "I've never heard of 'Minuses', or 'Minusland'. What is it?"
"Simply put," Wonka said, "It's an antiparallel dimension where time values are negative. And Minuses are people or creatures who had the misfortune of losing more time than they actually had. So they end up in Minusland until they accumulate enough time to become Plusses, like us."
"But, but that's impossible!" The Doctor exclaimed.
"Come now," Wonka said with a smile, "It only makes sense that if there is a forward direction, there is also a backward one. Otherwise time travel would be impossible. Minusland works the same way, but instead of a direction of travel being negative, time is."
The Doctor had no reply for that. It was very rare that he met a person who intrigued him, and Wonka was doing just that.