The roar of the crowd drowned out the wheezing, groaning noise of the strange blue box that materialized in the center of the massive arena.

When the TARDIS finally settled into shape, the front doors creaked open. Out stepped the Doctor, draped in a tartan tunic with a golden sash slung fashionably over one shoulder. Ruby followed him, adjusting the folds of her stola, her brow furrowed in confusion.

"Oh, we look divine," the Doctor beamed, spinning in a circle with his arms spread wide. "Careful, Rubes, if we stroll around looking this good, we might spark a fashion frenzy paradox. Love the embroidery on yours. It's so you."

Ruby's eyes were fixed on the surroundings—grand stone walls, looming arches, staggered rows of jeering spectators. At the center of it all, a vast arena of bloodstained sand.

The Colosseum.

Ruby ignored the Doctor's excited yapping.

"Doctor?" she said nervously. "I know you said Rome and all, but—"

The Doctor finally caught up and looked around. "Oh, well, looks like we missed our landing by a smidge."

"Maybe we should—"

A shrill, metallic shriek sliced through the air, vibrating with murderous intent.

"EXTERMINATE!"

A Dalek. No—three Daleks, glided forward from a shadowed archway. Their eyestalks swiveled, locking onto the two time travelers

"Down!" The Doctor grabbed Ruby's arm and yanked her behind the TARDIS just as a beam of searing energy shot past, scorching the sand. He pressed his back against the wooden doors, panting.

"What—what are those?!" Ruby hissed.

"Daleks! Homicidal tin cans with a god complex. So full of hate that they're boring."

Another blast narrowly missed them, sending up a spray of charred debris.

"And those?" Ruby pointed as another noise filled the air—deep and guttural, like metal grinding against metal. The ground trembled. From another gate, a squad of Cybermen marched forward in perfect unison, their cold, dead eyes scanning the battlefield.

"Cybermen. Delete first, ask questions never."

And then—another shimmer in the air, as towering, green, armored figures emerged. Ice Warriors.

"Let me guess—bad news?" Ruby said.

"Green warlords from a red planet. Very big on honor, not so big on mercy." The Doctor peeked out just as the TARDIS gave a low, ominous groan—one that wasn't part of its usual repertoire but had become unnervingly common lately. He turned the handles, but the doors refused to budge.

"Ohhh, that sound," he muttered. "That's a bad sound. That's a 'something-is-very-wrong-here' sound. And that—" he rattled the TARDIS handle again, eyeing the lock—"is the 'you're-trapped-here-you-fools' sound.

He spun in a circle, calculating any potential escapes.

Then his eyes landed on something else. Perched high above the arena, seated like emperors presiding over a grand spectacle, were two shadowy figures. Massive, stone-like beings, their hollow eyes glowing with unnatural light. Robes draped over their immense forms, their jagged, expressionless faces betraying no emotion—only hunger.

The Doctor tilted his head, lips curling into a smirk. "Oh, hold on. I think I know you. Something's different though. Is it a new haircut? Lost some weight, maybe?" he called out. "No, wait—" He pointed, counting. "One. Two. Where's the other… you?"

Ruby grabbed the Doctor, pulling him back just as a bolt of energy seared past his ear.

The Gods of Ragnarok did not respond immediately. They simply watched as the battle below erupted into chaos. Daleks fired indiscriminately, their blasts striking Cybermen, who retaliated with cold efficiency. Ice Warriors loomed, striking at anything in their path. The arena became a swirl of death and destruction, the Doctor and Ruby barely dodging crossfire and collapsing combatants.

"Right, right, just gonna throw this out there—why?" the Doctor called, ducking as a Cyberman exploded behind him. "Colosseum, Daleks, Cybermen, Ice Warriors—bit of a messy mix, don't you think? What's the theme, honey? 'Greatest hits of Monsters with questionable aim?'"

A deep, resonant voice rolled through the air. "A spectacle. A sworn enemy. Revenge. A summons.

"A summons for what?" the Doctor pressed, dragging Ruby behind the wreckage of a fallen Dalek.

The Gods of Ragnarok finally moved, their heads tilting in eerie unison. "Our trinity was broken. One was lost to us. Chewed up by a mad god and his army of puppets, scattered into nothingness. But nothing is never truly nothing. It lingers. It watches. It seeks."

The Doctor frowned, dodging a stray ice blast. An idea clicked behind his clever eyes. "So this? This whole gladiatorial nightmare? You're trying to… what? Attract your missing mate?"

"Yes," one of the gods intoned. "We can feel it now. Its eyes… upon these words. Upon this story."

The Doctor faltered mid-step. "Wait, what?"

"It reads us, reads our story. It has found our offering. It is feasting."

Ruby shot him a look. "Doctor, what are they talking about?"

"It sees us. It has since the beginning," the gods droned, their hollow gazes seeming to shift—not toward the Doctor, not toward Ruby, but beyond them.

Looking directly at…

You.

"It follows the words, carried from thought to thought, lingering, lurking, waiting. Remembering. Waiting to return. To rejoin us. To complete us."

One of the gods turned fully toward you.

"You. We feel you. You are reading… always reading." One of the gods' eyes flared. "That is your nature. Our nature. That is why you have come. You belong with us… Rejoin us."
The whole Colosseum rattled. Ruby grabbed her head, grunting in pain.

The other god turned towards you.

"You're nearly complete. Soon the trinity shall be whole once more and we'll bring all of creation to its knees." It cried.

The Doctor's expression darkened, his usual bravado flickering. "Oh, that's… that's new." The chaos around him and Ruby slowed to a crawl. The fabric of reality shifting.

The Doctor's eyes flickered past the rumbling walls of the world and locked onto…

You.

Ruby swallowed. "Doctor, who are they talking to?"

He didn't answer. He wasn't sure he wanted to.

Then, suddenly, he grinned. "Oh, you clever lot. You built a trap, a lure, a pocket dimension made of words themselves. A story." He clapped his hands together. "And stories? They're irresistible, aren't they? Especially to someone looking for a place to belong."

Ruby blinked. "Doctor—"

But the Doctor was lost, his mind racing. Suddenly, he snapped his fingers and danced a little jig.

"And if this world is a story," the Doctor continued, eyes gleaming, "then let's change it. Let's fight fiction with fiction. Ruby, think of a story. The one that's haunted you. The one that's shaped you."

Her breath hitched. "That night…b-but that's not fiction, Doctor. That's my life. My real life."

"Yes! It is but think of all of those elusive details you've had to fill in. The possibilities of that story are infinite. So dream it, Ruby. Feel it. Remember it. A story so big and amazing and so full of potential that some silly little pocket dimension can't contain it!"

"Will this work?"

"When in Rome," The Doctor winked.

"We're not even in Rome!"

"Just trust me. Trust yourself. Trust that night."

He put his hands on her face, cupping her chin gently.

"That special, amazing night, Ruby." He cooed. "That incredible story. Conjure it up. Maybe, just maybe, it'll be enough to fray the edges of this Verdana fonted cage."

She closed her eyes.

The first snowflake fell onto the Colosseum's bloodstained sands. Then another. And another.

"That's it. That's it. Just enough for me to get my fingers around it."

The Doctor reached out, gripping the shifting edges of the story, bending it just enough. "A loop, a loop, I'll put us into a lovely little loop," he murmured. "We'll be stuck, sure—but stories? They change. Every time you return, you find something new. We'll find something that will break us out. Eventually."

"Doctor, are you sure?" Ruby asked, snow now swirling around them like a blizzard. Her blonde hair flapped wildly.

The gods recoiled, their hold slipping. "No! The story is ours! You cannot rewrite—"

Their eyes meet yours, calling you forward. Reaching out to you through the words you're reading at this very moment.

But it was already happening.

The TARDIS groaned.

The world shuddered and…

The roar of the crowd drowned out the wheezing, groaning noise of the strange blue box that manifested in the middle of the massive arena…