After a few moments, the falling sensation ends, and he feels the presence of a room around him. By his feet is a small, rectangular sliver of light. It's muted and blue, but it's light. After feeling around a few moments, he finds the doorknob, twists it, pushing it open, and walking out into a hallway. It is very reminiscent of the hallways in a hospital: white walls, floor, and ceiling, though there are no lights, however somewhere is a faded blue glow, which gives the light. Turning around, he finds he was in a supply closet. It's empty. Carefully, he pulls out the sonic screwdriver, and turns it on. The soft whirring noise it makes is uncomfortably loud, like it's echoing, he rarely minds the sound normally, but in the strange hallways and silence, it makes him wary. It fails, however, to pick up on the strange, glowing object floating towards him. It's the color of the Time Lord regeneration energy, identical to a ball of flame, without the heat and closer to the outlines of a fire instead. It stops about two feet away from him, there's a beat of silence, and then it expands, twisting into black, smoky lines, draining of all color until what now stands before him is a 12-foot tall creature with no color except for the black lines that define its appearance, and its eyes, which are the only part of it that kept that coloured glow. It tilts its head at him, bending to bring itself closer to his own eye level. "You must be the Doctor." It states. Its eyes, while they do hold color, are not filled in, and the pupils, slitted like a cat's, are also glowing. When it spoke, he noted not only that it sounds male, but also what appeared to be points in his upper jaw, like more triangular versions of the sharp canines they hide. "I expected you to be...greater." He sighs, twitching his ear. This motion makes the wispy, smoke-like but linear outline flicker and waver, like a candle flickering when you blow on it. "Well, if you know who I am, why don't I know who you are?" The Doctor asks, putting his sonic screwdriver away for the time being. "You don't even know the name of the girl whose mind you're in right now. You know very little, actually. And I get to watch as you start to realize just how much you missed. But, for the sake of it, I'll tell you my name: Veeran." They reply, finishing with a bow in what can only be a clearly mocking manner. "So you're that guide she referred to, I'm guessing?" Veeran nods, smiling still. It's eerie, how he watches the Doctor. Like he can't wait for what's coming. Like this is the thing he's been waiting for, and it's about to come to pass, but none of it is good. "Indeed I am. Here to bring you off and on your way to experience horrors you never knew possible." As Veeran speaks, his legs lift up, so now he's floating up and lengthwise to The Doctor, before moving past him and twisting so he's curled around him, inspecting him slowly. "Shadow's gone soft. Several hundred years ago, she'd never have let you into her mind, let alone have spoken to you at all. And your lack of hesitation is all but encouraging...you barely know what you're doing." Veeran muses, voice dripping with scorn and mockery. "Then why don't you tell me?" The Doctor challenges, deciding he's had enough of this, wanting to move on. "Oh, that's not my job. Not entirely. My apparent first priority is to make sure you don't get lost in here, and become trapped forever. Not that it matters much to me, but I would rather you not be here. And secondly, I'm supposed to be more of a narrator, just confirming that which you already realize. With that said, let's go, the sooner you're gone the sooner I don't have to talk to you." Veeran answers, flicking their tail and drifting off down the hallway. The Doctor frowns slightly. I dont like him, not very much, he decides. Veeran has stopped beside a door, waiting for him to catch up. "You're very slow." He observes, then nods to the door before the Doctor can respond. "Through there is the first memory Shadow has of this time. Open it." It was not a suggestion. The Doctor grasps the handle, turns it, and pushes the door open, stepping into the room. It's bare and abandoned, a rectangular space with a panel of buttons on either side, but the majority of attention is focused on the wall opposite to the door. It's made of glass, or some clear surface, and in the room past it are two people: a man, a Time Lord, however he wears a simple white coat and what appear to be slip-on shoes. His hair is short and black, his hands are gloved, and he has crouched to look the other person in the eyes. She's a little girl, perhaps at the age of six, she has white hair, long and straight, icy blue eyes looking up at him fearfully. Veeran appears beside him, now almost the same height, being about half his original.

 "This is their first interaction." Veeran tells him curtly, before moving over to one of the panels and pressing a button. There's a burst of static, which quickly sharpens into coherent and clear sentences. "...now. You're going to be staying with us, and we'll keep you safe." The Time Lord was saying, his voice gentle and sweet, however the Doctor frowns, disconcerted. He can feel how shallow it is, how empty his words are. He won't actually hurt her, will he? No, of course not. A little part of him reminds him of the Master, however, and what they were using him for. It becomes a little more believable. Setting that aside as a later problem, he returns his attention to the conversation. "But what about my Ma? My Da? And my brother? Will they come here, too? Will I see them again?" She sounds pitifully young, voice wavering. They must be a shelter of some sort, then? Or is this building actually the one she was in? "I don't know...but you won't see them for a while, in any case." This was clearly the wrong thing to say, her eyes widen and fill with tears. "But for now, I have a friend for you! Here." The Time Lord hurriedly takes something out of his coat, and hands it to her. She tentatively receives it, holding it up to see. The Doctor looks at Veeran, then back at the doll she holds. They look the same. It looks like Veeran, but in doll form, two little horns, a long tail, long limbs, but it lacks fingers, and of course, cannot move. Veeran refuses to make eye contact, acting as though oblivious to the Doctor's reaction. "This guy's name is Veeran. He'll be your friend, now. Okay?" This time, he sounds a little more compassionate, though it's still notably false. The girl nods, hugging the doll like letting it go would make it disappear forever. "Good. Now, did you already choose a name?" She nods. "The Shadow." She answers, voice barely above a whisper. "That's a very strong name, you should make sure you live up to it." The Time Lord instructs. "Come on, let me show you to your room." He takes her wrist and gently pulls her along, more a demand than an offer. The two of them exit the room, and Veeran finally turns to the Doctor. "Before you ask all of your questions, no. Just, no. You get one. Whatever else you want to know, I'll explain if and when I deem it necessary." With this restriction in mind, he thinks long and hard on it. "What is this place they're in?" He decides. "She doesn't know it, but she's in a laboratory. A very well-hidden laboratory. They got her to come with them under the guise that it was a bunker, her family was sending her ahead to keep her safe while they got ready to come along. Of course, they never do." The Doctor glances at the now empty space the two had been in a minute ago. "They lied to her." He says. "Of course they did. Do you think a child would WILLINGLY be experimented on?" Veeran snorts, then shrugs. "She was always very smart, for a six year old. You wouldn't think it, but she was perceptive. Still is." They move past the Doctor and out of the room. "Come on." Veeran slows his pace a little this time, then stops at the next door. 

"You can look into this one if you want, or I can just make this go by faster and tell you how the next couple of years go." The Doctor considers. "I'll go into the room." Veeran's ears lay back in annoyance, but he says nothing as the Doctor moves into the space. This time, the sound is already working, no buttons needed, although they are still there, an overturned chair left at one of the panels. "So, Shadow, how are you today?" This time, the voice is a woman's. She's much more sincere and sweet, bright and happy as she smiles at the little girl. Her hair is wavy and ruddy, and instead of a white coat she wears a robe more befitting a Time Lord, but blue in tones of jade and silver. "Her memory of their clothes is fuzzy, it changes often." Veeran says behind him. He hasn't entered the room. "Good..." The Shadow replies, however she seems tired, dark bags forming under her eyes, and she still holds the Veeran doll tightly. "That's good to hear, Shadow. How's Veeran doing? Are you two getting along?" The woman asks, and the Shadow looks down at it for a moment. "He says that I'm his only friend." She answers. "Oh, that's not true! Veeran seems to have forgotten I'm their friend, too!" The Time Lord laughs. "He said it when I had the dream." The Shadow elaborates, giving the woman pause. "Oh...was it the same? Anything different?" The girl shakes her head. "No...just the strange machines yelling at me and chasing me, before I scream and they disappear. Then the man is in front of me, he trusts me and I watch him put his fingers on my head and I put mine on his. He falls asleep and then I blink and he bolts up, gasping, but now he's hurt. He looks scared. He looks at me like I'm an awful monster, but thinks I need a hug because I was sad. Then there's the man made of smoke and glowing yellow eyes. He stole Veeran from me." She replies sadly. "Do you remember what I said they were called, those machines?" The woman asks, moving to open a folder, flipping through pages before selecting a picture. "A Dalek. They're bad guys, and they're trying to hurt the people of Gallifrey, and the Time Lords." She nods. "Yes, that's right. And here, we're making sure you stay safe, but one day, we'll start teaching you how to fight them! So you can save people, like The Doctor!" The Doctor stops. "Yes, you were well-known to her. You were the thing that not only motivated everything that happened to her, but also what motivated her, as well." Veeran's voice is a venom, dripping with a cold poison that fails to mask the intense dislike and bitter hate they hold for the Doctor. It takes some willpower to bite back a defensive reply, and continue watching the interaction. "Yes, I believe you'll be as good as him. In fact, you'll be better. I promise." The two suddenly stop, and after a few moments, it's clear that they're not going to move anymore. The memory has ended. "Why me? There were some far better, more admirable people for her to look up to. For them to be inspired by. So why me?" The Doctor asks, struggling to wrap his head around it. He wasn't THAT important, was he? Veeran moves, standing so he's only a couple feet from him. "Because you brought hope. You were rebellious. You thought a bit outside the box, enough to garner their attention and begrudging respect. They knew you were different before it all happened." He replies, speaking matter-of-factly. Is he saying this is my fault?  The Doctor wonders. Given his behavior so far,  he definitely seems to have something against him, so it wouldn't be TOO far off to guess so. But he had no idea this was happening, so how could he have helped what he didn't know about? "Come on. Let's keep going. We can skip the next few doors." Veeran turns and floats away, turning and disappearing into the hallway with a flick of their tail as the Doctor follows. Something's beginning to bother him, and he can't put his finger on it, however he thinks it may be something about that dream the Shadow mentioned. It'll be important, he knows. He just needs to figure out how, and why. When he's about to turn the corner and leave, closing the door behind him, he glances at the two one last time, and freezes. 

They're staring directly at him.