What happened to the Doctor?
The Doctor took you to safety.
He paid a price.
You're blind.
It's temporary.
- Look at me! - Nardole, I can't. I really can't.
I can't look at anything ever again.
I'm still blind.
Death is an increasing problem.
With over a billion intelligent species active in this galaxy alone,
it is an ever greater challenge to know how to kill all of them.
On this planet, we are proud to serve as executioners
to every living thing.
The destruction of a Time Lord, however, is a particular honour.
This technology is precisely calibrated.
As you can see,
it will stop both hearts, all three brain stems,
and deliver a cellular shockwave
that will permanently disable regenerative ability.
I know how it works.
You certainly will in a moment.
Following termination,
the body will be placed in a quantum fold chamber
under constant guard for no less than a thousand years.
In case of, shall we say, relapses.
Life can be a cunning enemy.
An additional stipulation of the fatality index
is that the sentence must be carried out by another Time Lord.
Apologies for our choice, but your people are not easy to come by.
Oh, Doctor?
I didn't expect you.
Thought you'd retired.
Domestic bliss on Darillium.
That's the word among the Daleks.
What happened?
Oh, I see.
My condolences.
The prisoner will kneel.
Right.
Thank you.
They can't know I'm blind, Missy.
No one can know.
Memories are so much worse in the dark.
The quantum fold chamber is prepared.
Great.
The sentence will be carried out.
Executioner?
Please, I'll do anything.
Just let me live.
Hello?
Hello? Who's there?
Good evening, Doctor.
We have come here today, direct from the Vatican.
All right, that's nice.
Well, if you've got a collecting tin,
I'm sure I can find something.
Uh, leaky roof, is it?
Oh, no.
No. No, no. No, no, no. Stop talking.
Stop now. Please, just listen to them. Sounds important.
We have come here to see you,
because your services of wisdom are recommended at the highest level.
As you can see,
this is a personal recommendation of Pope Benedict IX...
...in 1045.
Pope Benedict.
Lovely girl. What a night.
I knew she was trouble,
but she wove a spell with her castanets.
Doctor, on behalf of every human soul in this world,
of any creed, of any faith,
with the utmost respect
and in complete secrecy,
His Holiness, the Pope, the Bishop of Rome,
request most urgently a personal audience.
Well, if he was so keen to talk to me, why didn't he just come here himself?
He is here. He's standing right in front of us.
Hello.
Uh, the Pope. I'm sorry that I didn't recognise you there.
You don't do this.
The Pope doesn't zoom around the world in the Popemobile surprising people.
Why would you do that?
Mmm-hmm.
Extremis.
There is an ancient text
buried deep in the most secret of the Vatican libraries.
Text older than the church itself.
The language of this text is lost to us.
But thanks to the work of an early Christian sect,
the title has survived.
Okay, so, what's the title?
Oh, yes, I can see that it says, uh, "Veritas".
Oh. Hmm.
Literally, "the Truth".
Obviously, this sect, they understood the language.
It died with them.
And all copies of their translation
disappeared shortly after their mass suicide.
Few months ago, after many centuries of work,
the Veritas was translated again.
Right. And?
What did it say?
No one knows.
Everyone who worked on the translation and everyone who subsequently read it
is now dead.
Dead, Doctor, by their own hand.
The Veritas is a short document.
A few pages only.
And yet contains a secret
that drives all who know it to destroy themselves.
Confirmed suicides, all of them?
In every case, beyond doubt.
All bodies recovered?
Except one. But we naturally assumed...
Assume nothing.
Assumption makes an ass out of you and umption.
Cardinal, one of your translators is missing.
Doctor, those translators were devout believers.
They took their own lives
in the knowledge that suicide is a mortal sin.
They read the Veritas and chose hell.
Dottore...
Will you read the Veritas?
- Loo through there. - Oh, ta.
I thought you moved out from here.
Yeah, slightly didn't work out.
Second attempt on the way.
Did I hear voices?
I thought you were going out with Harry tonight.
- Howard. - I don't like knowing the names,
I only get attached.
Did you bring someone home?
Yeah.
I'm a grownup, I can do that, can't I?
Of course not. I have very strict rules about men.
Probably not as strict as mine.
Oh, hello, are you Moira?
Oh, you're a girl.
Mmm. I'm Penny.
Oh. Oh.
Oh, I see. Oh, I'm sorry.
Here's me thinking she dragged some poor terrified man home.
Well, phew!
Oh, phew.
Right, you two. I'm off to the pub.
Don't do anything I wouldn't do.
Well...
Alone at last.
Oh, God. What was that?
The, uh...
...pipes.
It's... It's the... The pipes
in... In my bedroom.
Be warned. Sometimes I shout at them.
Wha...
Are you okay?
Yeah, sorry, I'm just not quite used to...
...all of this.
Well, whatever this is,
and actually, it's not anything yet,
it is absolutely nothing to feel guilty about.
- Okay? - Okay.
That was the Pope.
Bill, that was the Pope.
Yeah, yeah, give me a minute.
I am about to have a truly awesome word with someone.
- Oh, my God. - No, Penny, wait.
You're all going to hell.
Doctor.
Here's a tip.
When I'm on a date,
when that rare and special thing happens in my real life,
do not, do not under any circumstances
put the Pope in my bedroom.
Okay. Now I know.
Air cleared. Nardole will explain what's going on.
Uh, Doctor?
It, uh... I think it's pretty serious.
- What's happened? - Well...
You know the Vatican?
- Yeah. - The one in Rome.
That's in Italy.
- Yeah. - And what is that?
- Where the Pope lives. - It's a sort of, uh,
a reading aid.
It looks dangerous.
Completely deadly.
But, uh, you know, swings and roundabouts...
Pope Benedict said that you were more in need of confession
than any man breathing.
But when the offer was made,
you replied it would take too much time.
On behalf of the Catholic Church, the offer stands.
You seem like a man with regret on his mind.
Have you requested a priest?
Oh, I haven't.
Apparently, I have.
I shall seek consultation.
There are 412 precedents in the fatality index.
Divine intervention therefore is permitted for a maximum
of five minutes.
Five minutes.
The executioner may now discuss
his immortal soul and any peril there unto.
Greetings, sinner.
Only in darkness are we revealed.
I never sent for you.
Goodness is not goodness that seeks advantage.
Good is good in the final hour.
In the deepest pit, without hope, without witness.
Without reward.
Virtue is only virtue in extremis.
This is what he believes.
And this is the reason above all, I love him.
My husband. My madman in a box.
My Doctor.
Your missus wouldn't approve.
How the hell did you get here?
Followed you from Darillium
on the explicit orders of your late wife, River Song.
Warning, I have full permission to kick your arse.
Okay. So, you're blind and you don't want your enemies to know.
I get it. But why does it have to be a secret from Bill?
Because I don't like being worried about.
Around me, people should be worried about themselves.
- Yeah, shall I tell you the real reason? - No.
Because the moment you tell Bill, it becomes real.
And then you might actually have to deal with it.
Good point. Well made. Definitely not telling her now.
You're an idiot.
Everyone knows that.
Here you must go without me.
Cardinal Angelo will conduct you to the library.
May God light your path.
Well, we could certainly give it a go.
The entrance to the Hereticum.
The Library of forbidden and heretical texts.
First instituted by your old friend, Pope Benedict,
who still guards the door.
You old dog.
Very few know this place exists.
The library of blasphemy.
The Hereticum.
Harry Potter.
Language.
Please stay close to me.
The layout is designed to confuse the uninitiated.
Sort of like religion, really.
You happy in those shades?
Not dark enough for ya?
In darkness, we are revealed.
Remember, sinner, in darkness we are revealed.
I regret, gentlemen,
this consultation is over.
I regret it, too.
The sentence must now be carried out.
Well, take a few more minutes if you like.
Knock yourself out. Actually, do... Do that. Knock yourself right out.
I'll be good, I promise.
I'll turn. I'll turn good. Please.
Teach me. Teach me how to be...
...good.
Without hope.
Without witness.
Without reward.
Who was your date, then?
Uh, Penny. Uh, it's a long story.
The very centre of the Hereticum.
Home of the Veritas for over a thousand years.
Truth in the heart of heresy.
And death in the heart of truth.
You'd be wizard at writing Christmas crackers, you two.
- Doctor. - What's that?
I don't know.
Oh, look, it's er, a mysterious light shining round a corner
approximately 10 feet away.
Hello.
Who's there?
Doctor?
This library is forbidden.
- No, wait! - Who are you?
What are you doing here?
Speak!
Speak to me!
What's through there? What's through that door?
There's no door there. It's a wall.
Impossible. Quite impossible.
Let's take a look at the Veritas.
I have a feeling the answers might be there.
I have to check if there is a breach in the wall.
I'll unlock the cage in a moment.
Sure.
Oh, my God!
What's wrong?
Oh, hang on.
I think there's someone in there.
Yeah, we are very slightly getting that.
I'm sorry.
I sent it.
Sent what?
I sent it, yes.
Sent what? Where?
No, stop!
You'll just get lost.
Cardinal Angelo, someone just broke into your book cage.
Priest, by the look of him.
Shot out the lock.
Oh, well, he hasn't got far.
So much for your forbidden library, Cardinal.
Doctor, look at this.
Must have been his.
Laptop.
Hey, there's Wi-Fi down here.
Of course there's Wi-Fi. It's a library.
Reading chair with a safety belt.
What's CERN?
- CERN? - Yeah.
The European Organisation for Nuclear Research.
The largest particle physics laboratory on this planet. Why?
Because four hours ago, someone, that priest presumably,
emailed them a copy
of the Veritas translation from this computer.
Remember what he said.
He said, "I sent it."
He sent the Veritas.
- And CERN have just replied. - What'd they say?
"Pray for us."
When do a bunch of scientists ask for prayers?
The same time anyone does.
When they're very, very afraid.
Particle physicists and priests.
What could scare them both?
He's been down here for a while, that guy. Whoever he is.
I'd guess the missing translator.
- That's promising. - "Promising"?
Yeah. At least one person read the Veritas and lived.
Go and see if he's all right. Both of you.
I think we know he isn't.
We know nothing of the kind. He might need help.
Might have useful information. He's about 50 feet that way.
- Are you trying to get rid of us? - Why?
Because you're sending us into the dark after a man with a gun.
- Ah, well, I thought of that. - Thank you.
Nardole, make sure you walk in front of Bill.
Oh, great.
Are you gonna read this? Is that why you're sending us off?
- I won't read this without you. - Really, he won't.
- Promise? - Trust me.
We'll shout if we need you.
Me too.
Does it give you the fear when he says, "Trust me"?
If I worked here, I'd cross meself.
Bill, stay close by me. There's a man with a gun.
Uh-uh-uh.
Yeah, you don't actually have to do that.
In fact, don't you dare do that.
Uh-uh-uh, Bill.
You're to walk behind me now, like the Doctor said.
Yeah. Totally not happening.
Okay, Bill. Miss Potts.
I'm the only person you've ever met or will ever meet
who is officially licensed to kick the Doctor's arse.
I will happily do the same to you in the event
that you do not align yourself with any instructions I have issued,
which I personally judge to be in the best interest
of your safety and survival.
Okay, Bill?
- Okay. - Good-o!
Nardole?
Are you secretly a badass?
Nothing secret about it, baby doll.
Well, that answers that question.
It's an opening like we saw before.
Yeah, like a portal.
- You're right. - About what?
It would be stupid to go and look.
Cardinal Angelo.
I could do with your help here.
I'm not absolutely sure how this is going to work.
Either it's going to temporarily fix my eyesight
or it's going to burn out my brain.
Just, uh, give me a moment.
I am your friend.
Makes no difference.
I know it doesn't.
I know I'm going to die.
I have to say it. The truth.
Without hope.
Without witness.
Without reward.
I am your friend.
On my oath as a Time Lord of the Prydonian Chapter,
I will guard this body
for a thousand years.
- Hello. - Hello.
Who are you?
Do you have clearance for floor three?
Floor three of what?
Of what?
The Pentagon.
So, the Pentagon is through there.
Yeah.
And the Vatican is through there.
Huh. I wonder what's through here.
What is this?
- How is this possible? - Alien technology.
Let's see what else they got.
Ooh. Bill, come and take a look at this.
Oh, hello.
Are... Are you coming?
Coming where?
Uh, we are all in the cafeteria.
You mustn't miss it.
Why?
We're all going together when we go.
Come on!
Cardinal. It worked! I can see.
Not well enough. Not yet.
Think about the universes.
Whatever you need, you can always borrow.
As long as you pay it back.
I just borrowed from my future.
I get a few minutes of proper eyesight
but I lose something.
Maybe all my future regenerations will be blind.
Maybe I won't regenerate ever again.
Maybe I'll drop dead in 20 minutes,
but I will be able to read this.
Now, I have no idea how that is going to affect me.
So, I'd be a bit stupid
to reject the precautions provided.
Could you help me, please?
Could you help me?
Now, I've read a lot of books that this chair would be quite useful for.
Moby Dick. Honestly, shut up and get to the whale.
Have you invited friends and family?
Oh, it's the old, old story.
They never look so good in the morning.
Goodbye to the truth. I came a long way to read that book.
Two thousand years at the last count.
If you don't want me to read it,
you could've stopped me any time you wanted.
Why the play acting? This is not a game.
This is a game.
Good, because I win!
Doctor!
Doctor, we have the Veritas.
Come, come, come, come.
CERN.
Where what's-his-name sent the Veritas.
Ladies and gentlemen.
Your attention, please!
I've been around everywhere
and I've checked everything.
It's all ready to go.
Five minutes.
Last orders, please.
Cheers.
Look under the tables.
Oh, my God.
Oh, no.
Oh, no!
No! Not yet!
No!
No, no, no, no!
In vino veritas.
Why are you doing this?
You've got explosives.
We're saving the world.
You know, we should go.
We should probably even run.
How is blowing yourselves up saving the world?
Because this isn't the world.
- This isn't what? - Bill, time. Tiny bit running out.
You haven't read it?
You haven't read the Veritas?
Sorry, I'd love to but must dash.
Choose a number.
Any number. Both of you.
Now.
And say it when I tap this table.
36.
Try again. Keep going.
17.
- Huh? - Again.
Don't stop. Every time I tap the table.
9.
48.
103.
A million.
Seven billion and seven.
67.
905.
20,460.
Twelve.
Four.
87.
702.
What is this? How are you doing that?
It's a test.
It's a shadow test.
Oh. I'm really very sorry.
Ten, nine,
eight, seven, six,
five, four, three, two, one!
Okay, what was that about?
Those numbers, how did they do that?
Ooh.
Oh!
- You okay? - No.
Yes.
No!
Someone's been through here.
Could be the Doctor.
Those things.
What do they look like?
- Projectors. - Exactly.
- Yeah, they're projecting the portals.
No, they're not.
They're projecting everything.
Those worlds, they're all projected.
The Pentagon, the Vatican, CERN...
- They're not real? - No, no! They're holograms.
They're holographic simulations and the people in them, too.
Sorry, what?
You know, like the holodeck on Star Trek
or a really posh VR without a headset.
Through there, those places, that's basically Grand Thef tAuto.
It can't be.
It is! Look at the tech! It definitely is!
What? Sorry, you're not making any sense.
When did we end up in a computer game?
When did that start?
I... I don't know. Maybe when we arrived at the Vatican?
But I programmed the TARDIS myself.
We were on target, we went to the Vatican,
the real one, I'm sure of it.
Oh.
Oh?
Those machines, they...
...project the simulations.
Yeah?
And I'm just wondering...
What happens if
we move outside the light of the projector.
Don't let me be right.
Please don't let me be right.
I'm part of it!
I'm part of the simulation!
Bill, I'm not real!
Bill!
Nardole!
Doctor.
Doctor?
Bill, is that you?
Hello, Doctor.
Is that the president?
It was.
I take it he read the Veritas.
So did I.
Well...
I listened to it.
There's this thing on here that reads aloud to you. It's very useful.
Who needs Nardole?
Where is Nardole?
I need to know what's real and what isn't real.
- Don't we all? - Don't play games.
Tell me.
Uh...
The Veritas tells
of an evil demon who wants to conquer the world.
But to do it,
he needs to learn about it first.
So he creates a shadow world.
A world for him to practise conquering.
Full of shadow people who think they're real.
There was a... A thing.
The shadow test?
If you're in doubt whether you're real or not,
the Veritas invites you to write down as many numbers as you like.
Of any size, any order.
And then turn the page.
All the same numbers in the same order.
Yes.
Let's bring the story up to date, Bill.
Imagine an alien life form
of immense power
and sophistication,
and it wants to conquer the Earth.
So it runs a simulation.
A holographic simulation
of all of Earth's history and every person alive on the surface,
a practice Earth,
to assess the abilities of the resident population.
Especially the ones smart enough to realise
that they are just simulants
inside a great big computer game.
But... But this is... This... This...
This... This is real. I... I feel it.
Computers aren't good with random numbers.
If you ask a computer-simulated person
to generate a random string of numbers,
it won't truly be random.
If all the simulated people
are part of the same computer program,
then they'll all generate the same string.
The exact same numbers.
The... The numbers...
I said them, too.
I know.
So did I.
The trouble is,
when simulants develop enough independent intelligence
to realise what they are,
there's a risk they'll rebel.
Those deaths...
They weren't suicide.
Those were people...
...escaping.
It's like, um, Super Mario.
Figuring out what's going on.
Deleting himself from the game
because he's sick of dying.
No, I'm real. I feel real.
Those pretend people
you shoot at in computer games...
- Now you know. - Know what?
They think they're real.
They feel it.
We feel it.
Help me.
Bill, what's happening to you?
Save me.
Bill, are you there?
She was not real.
You are not real.
No, I'm not. I'm a shadow.
A puppet doctor for you to practise killing.
We have killed you many times.
Then what are you waiting for? Why don't you kill me now?
You suffer.
Pain is information.
Information will be gathered.
Turn me off.
I have nothing.
Not even hope.
Without hope.
Without witness.
Without reward.
Funny.
I don't believe much.
I'm not sure I believe anything.
But right now...
...belief is all I am.
Virtue is only virtue in extremis.
I take it that your intention is to invade the Earth.
The simulations have been run.
The Earth will be ours.
Well, consider this a warning.
On the eve of war,
I am the Doctor.
I...
...am what stands between you and them!
You are not the Doctor.
You are not real.
You don't have to be real to be the Doctor.
As long as you never give up.
Long as you always trick the bad guys into their own traps.
And here's the trap you fell into.
Your simulation is far too good.
See these?
They're set to record.
I'm blind, you see.
So I'm psychically wired into these.
So my memory print of the last few hours
will still be intact on here.
Information about you.
You are not real. There is nothing you can do.
There's always one thing you can do from inside a computer,
even if you're a jumped up little sub-routine, you can do it.
You can always...
...e-mail.
What are you doing?
I'm doing what everybody does when the world is in danger.
I'm calling the Doctor.
Pressing send.
I'm doing it, I'm doing it. The essay, I'm doing it.
- Are you on a date? - No.
- Are you sure? - I think I'd kind of notice.
What about Penny? Do you know a girl called Penny?
- Well, yeah. - What's she like?
Out of my league.
- No. - Sorry, what?
- No? - No.
What does that mean, "no"?
It means I'm a scary handsome genius from space
and I'm telling you, no, she's not out of your league.
Okay, well, maybe I'll call her tomorrow.
- Call her tonight. - Tonight?
Something's coming, Bill.
Something very big.
And something possibly very, very bad.
And I have the feeling that we're gonna be fairly busy.
Call her tonight.
Listen.
If it comes down to it,
if you're all I've got left, then I need your help.
You said you were my friend.
Oi! Get off!
I've just been executed.
Show a little respect.
She's... She's alive.
I was just a bit sleepy, all right?
Let's not split hairs. Shut up.
Night-night.
Of course she's not dead.
She's a friend of mine. I may have fiddled with your wiring a little bit.
You swore an oath.
I swore an oath I'd look after her body for a thousand years.
Nobody mentioned dead.
You cannot do this.
You will not leave this planet alive.
Do me a favour,
the fatality index, look up "The Doctor".
You have an entry just like any other sentient being.
Under "cause of death".
You do seem to have, uh,
an impressive record
of fatalities credited to you.
A truly remarkable record.
Where are you going?
He's unarmed.
- You are unarmed. - Always.
You stand alone?
Often.
You're the one who should be afraid.
Never.
Have a nice day then.
Nardole, help me move Missy to the vault.
Something's coming, Missy,
and I'm blind.
How can I save them
when I'm lost in the dark?
Tell me what you see.
It's a 5,000-year-old pyramid.
One little problem, it wasn't there yesterday.
Those creatures in that pyramid, they have studied you.
And they have chosen this exact moment and this exact place.
What's wrong with the Doctor?
I lied. I've been blind since Chasm Forge.
Co-ordinate your attacks.
It did not come here in peace.
We will take this planet and its people.
Life on Earth will cease by humanity's own hand.
Ripped & Corrected By mstoll June 2017
Ripped & Corrected By mstoll Released on www.Addic7ed.com