The Time Ring

Meanwhile, the Doctor couldn't think properly. His mind was full of old and new memories. For example, the woman that died. It was an innocent life, and a slightly dumb one, but still innocent. But overall, it was his fault. Mousy disappeared and that was his fault too. She told him not to use the ring, to find her and give her the ring back but he didn't. He did find the girl but his memories were shown as nightmares. He thought everything was just a joke, a dream made by his subconscious. But it was real; all of it was reality. The frustrated Doctor hit whatever came in hand. He didn't even know where she could be.

"Wait, that's it!" He changed in a more suitable suit aka his usual attire and grabbed his coat on the way out the door. He drove to the same place Mousy fainted. It was secluded but he still looked around for any sign of human or alien presence. There was no one. Good. Before he entered the forest he patted his pocket to be sure the ring was there. It was.

Once inside, he couldn't really remember how he found the huge metallic tree. Every tree looked exactly the same.

"That's going to take a while" He sighed and got ready to inspect every tree he found weird.

It did take a while until he finally came across something; a path he found rather disturbing. It gave a bad vibe. Something was definitely very wrong. As he got closer to the base, the feeling intensified. He looked around and found that same tree he touched not long time ago. He put his hand on it and immediately backed off. The ring inside his pocket started to shine brightly and buzz. He got it out and pointed it at the tree. The light went from blue to red and he took it as a bad sign. However, the ring opened the secret door.

Inside the ship, the technology and surrounding looked rather intriguing. He slowed down when he arrived in front of the spiral stairs. The ring didn't stop buzzing so he had to walk upstairs. It was agonizing. It seemed those stairs were getting him nowhere! That, until he finally heard voices. He stuck his head up a little to see who the voices belonged to. His eyes widened when he saw at least ten iris-less men.

"Uh-oh"

He got back down and started to think about his next move. It was obvious that Mousy wasn't there. When his mind got a block, the ring saved the situation. It started to shine the blue light again. Surprisingly, his sonic screwdriver -that he almost forgot he had- started to shine the same blue light. He took it out and enlightened his surroundings. He found out that attached to the spiral stairs were another pair of stairs on each side if of it. The ring buzzed when he pointed it to the right side so he walked that way.

He walked through passages that didn't seem to have an end until he came across another tunnel. The Doctor was officially freaked out. The tree wasn't actually a hologram and it wasn't a cover either so how was it so big on the inside?! Wait. That was exactly how his TARDIS was too. From what he remembered, gatekeepers were known to copy Time Lords' technology for their own entertainment. He sighed and kept walking.

Saving Mousy was going to be harder than he imagined.