Niran coughed as she appeared in the dark cavern that was the Doctor's mind. She looked around, before chuckling slightly at where she was. She was in a dark cave. A dark cave made of stone, only lit by the torches on the walls. She had heard the Doctor was cold, but she didn't expect this.
In each mind, there is a landscape that is based off of your personality, which protects but also leads to the main part of the brain, the central memories. Occasionally a few unimportant or current memories were placed on the outskirts of the central area, but normally all memories were placed in one central storage unit. Niran, for some reason, had a talent for hacking into the memories and placing herself inside of them. Sabotaging them so the person died or turned over to the Daleks, things like that.
The fact that the Doctor's landscape was a cave made a little flicker of nervousness sprout inside of her. Normally the people of Gallifrey had landscapes that were their houses, or a forest, or just infinite space. Those were normal. Those were the usual. But a cave was much harder to navigate, seeing as a cave could be carved out into a maze. And it also meant the Doctor was a hard and dark person. Niran's landscape was much different. Still odd, but much different. Her landscape was a war. Her landscape was a random war between Daleks and some sort of humanoid alien. They were constantly fighting, distracting anyone that went into her landscape with the fire and the gun shots. But her memories were buried deep inside of a castle at the very back of the land.
Niran grabbed one of the torches off the wall and took a deep breath. She could do this. It wasn't any different from any other mission. Get inside the Doctor's memories, kill him through one of them, and leave. Simple. Easy. The usual routine.
Her footsteps echoed off the walls as she walked through the caves, looking for a way into the central part of the Doctor's mind. The torches seemed as if they were actual fire, and when Niran touched the flame, thinking it was fake like everything else, it actually burnt her hand a bit. Not as bad as if would have been if she hadn't been inside of a mind, but it still stung.
Coughing slightly, Niran continues her trek through the dingy maze. It seemed to reach on forever, and it all looked monotonous. It was insanity wrapped in a monochrome package. It was as if her whole world had turned grey, and the only speck of color were her own clothes and the little flame that sparked off the old torch. She had begun to hope that it ended soon, or else she actually might go insane. Not that she wasn't already.
After what seemed like another hour or so, Niran finally reached an opening in the cave. Breathing a sigh of relief, she leaned again the wall as she glimpsed at her surroundings. The cave had expanded dramatically in size, with the walls curved slightly upward in a dome shape, meeting in the middle. Where the dome met in the middle, a vast golden chandelier hung down, swinging slightly from the draft that seemed to go through the cave. On the chandelier, about 100 candles were lit and they gave an almost homey aroma to the room. The room was cluttered with stack of books, which Niran assumed were the Doctor's memories. She laughed slightly at this, signing the Doctor off as foolish. The cave may have been hard to navigate, but it was nowhere near enough protection for someone's memories.
Something that bothered Niran though, was the fact that there was a simple chair in the middle of the room. And in that chair, sat a man. The most noticeable feature about him was that he had a shaggy grey, almost white beard and mustache. His hair was the same color, and it stuck up slightly in a messy way. He had very ample ears, and creases across his forehead, showing obvious stress. His clothing seemed to be similar to hers, with the brown worn out clothing and dirty looking boots. He had an interesting aura around him, like he wasn't one you wanted to mess with.
Niran gave a cocky grin before stepping forward towards the man, quickly figuring out who it was. She slowly reached a hand behind her back and placed her fingertips on the grip of the gun she had in the holster there. She gave a quick wave with her hand, adding a little wink for affect, before almost skipping over to the closest book that she could find.
"Memories, right? Ah, I love memories. A personal glimpse into a person's soul. Quite clever, these landscapes are, don't you agree? Well, I prefer the term 'mindscapes', just because it sounds cooler. Did you know, there used to be people who could go inside of other people's memories and hijack them? Seems almost silly. But, the tradition was passed on." Niran flipped the book open. "And some people can still do it."
Niran smirked as she projected herself into the memory, giving the Doctor a quick "Goodbye" before being sucked into a memory of his past, one she was to sabotage and possibly destroy. It was the best part of her job, being able to completely corrupt people's memories. It was fun, and the destruction that followed was absolutely breathtaking.
Niran coughed slightly as she appeared in what seemed to be a forest. Unlike a human forest, the leaves were silver and caught the reflection of the sun, making the air around her hotter than it actually was. But they were beautiful, the way they shimmered and gently floated in the breeze, some of them snapping off and gliding to the ground. There didn't seem to be many animals, only some sort of cat that Niran had seen passing by when she had first arrived.
Glancing at a tree, she strode over toward it before grabbing a branch and pulling herself up, hiding her in the silvery branches. She figured the Doctor was supposed to arrive in that spot soon, or else it was a fake memory and Niran would have to go back and try again. She hoped that wasn't the case. She had only met one person that had fake memories, but it took her hours to find the right one to destroy. She had been sufficiently annoyed after that one, retreating to the library in the Dalek ship afterwards just so she could calm down.
Niran froze when she heard the sound of footsteps and sobbing. Someone was sobbing, and by the absolute horror the sobs were creating, Niran assumed it was pretty bad. Glancing down, she noticed two boys now on the path below her. One had dropped to his knees, his hands buried in his face in an attempt to muffle the heart-wrenching sobs that were coming from his throat. The other boy had squatted down and placed his hand on the first boy's back, in an attempt to comfort him.
"It's not your fault. You weren't there at the time. You couldn't have done anything. You know that." The second boy had uttered, choosing to wrap his arms around the other boy's shoulders instead of the gentle gesture he had been doing before.
"But…She was… Sister… I…Could have…Something…" The first boy sobbed, turning around and burying his head in the second boy's shoulder. They weren't any older than 12, in human years at least. They could be any age if they weren't human. And judging by the trees, they most likely weren't.
"Theta, your sister was captured by Daleks while you were at school. You really couldn't have done anything, even if you had tried. If you had tried… you would have died. You can't die, not now anyways. And you don't know that your sister is dead, she could possibly still be alive." The second boy said comfortingly, squeezing tightly to the boy, dubbed 'Theta'.
"Koshcei, it's the Daleks we're talking about here. She is just a baby, of course they would kill her." Theta deadpanned, looking up at the second boy, Koshcei, with the most devastating look on his face. If looks could kill, Koshcei would probably be dead in an instant.
"I was just trying to comfort you…" Koshcei muttered, his face downcast. Though by the way he was shaking, Niran knew he was absolutely furious at the Daleks for the capture of his friend's sister.
"I don't need your comfort! I just want to be alone." Theta mumbled, curling up into fetal position and burying his head into his knees. Koshcei smartly stood up and stepped away, walking out of the forest and into whatever lied outside.
Niran slowly slid down the tree and onto the ground, landing with a slightly 'thump', making Theta's head turn towards her. His eyes widened, and he scrambled back slightly, frightened by her appearance. She frowned, leaning against a tree.
"I'm sorry. I heard about your sister. I'm just going to break it to you and say she's probably dead. I know the Daleks well, and they don't like to keep other species on their ship… Except me." Niran divulged, picking up a little pebble from the ground and playing with it in her hand. Theta stood up, staring angrily at her.
"Were you the one to take my sister?" He growled, picking up a stick and pointing it at her. It made Niran want to laugh, but she didn't. The poor child had lost his sister. To sabotage him during all this pain and suffering would be beyond her morals. Well, almost.
"No, not at all. I think the Daleks are the ones who did that. I just work for them. Well, I sort of am one of them, just in a humanoid body. With a cockier and sillier attitude, of course. Anyways, I'm a person who goes into memories and sabotages them. Any way to get people to not do the same things they did in the future. They blow up a full fleet of Daleks? I get to go inside that person's memories and kill them before it happens. It's a nice job actually, even if it doesn't sound like it." Niran rambled, smiling slightly at the kid's awed expression before it turned dark.
"And you came here to kill me, didn't you?" Theta sighed, gripping the stick tighter in his hands, ready to lunge at any attack that came his way.
"Sadly, yes. I'm sorry you lost your sister and all, but it is my job." Niran pulled the gun from its holster and aimed it at the child. "You were supposed to become important in the future. The main enemy of the Daleks and your own people. It's laughable, really. You started a huge war, actually. But now, to save the Daleks, I must kill you. I'm sorry you have to leave your boyfriend, but it's for the better."
"You mean Koshcei? He's not my boyfriend!" Theta exclaimed, before lunging at Niran with the stick. Niran laughed, dodging the stick with ease.
"My bad. But I'll have you know, I'm an expert at fighting and I've been trained for this my whole life." Niran said, firing a bullet at Theta's head. The kid somehow ducked out of the way, making the bullet fly into a tree behind him.
Niran chuckled, before holding the gun out with both hands straight at him. "You know, you dodged that pretty well for a little kid. But I never lose." She said, firing again, this time hitting his left arm. He cried out in pain, but still kept his grip on the stick he was holding. He swung the stick at Niran's hand, knocking it out of her clutches and towards him.
After that, time seemed to go by slow. Theta jumped for the gun, grabbing it and swiftly turning around, shooting her in the leg, making searing pain shoot through her body as she fell to the ground, hitting her head on a branch, making her feel extremely faint. She quickly disappeared and reappeared in the Dalek ship, coughing up blood as her vision slowly faded into black.
"I….I..L-lost?"