"Bill, stay close by me, there's a man with a gun. Uh-uh-uh" Nardole says, Bill stops and Nardole walks ahead of her.
"Yeah, you don't actually have to do that. In fact, don't you dare do that" she walks ahead of him, and he touches her arm to stop her.
"Uh-uh-uh, Bill. You're to walk behind me now, like the Seer said."
"Yeah, totally not happening" Nardole faces Bill.
"Ok, Bill. Miss Potts" he removes his spectacles and gets very serious "I am the only person you have ever met, or ever will meet, who is officially licensed to kick the Seer'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 interests of your safety and survival" he puts his spectacles back on, and his voice goes back up a few tones "ok, Bill?"
"Ok."
"Good-o!" they walk on, Bill behind Nardole.
"Nardole, are you secretly a badass?"
"Nothing secret about it, baby doll" then he stops suddenly and whimpers, they see the man's hand holding the little gun on the floor, protruding from a side corridor "well, that answers that question" a bright light appears behind them. They turn around.
"It's an opening like we saw before," Bill says.
"Yeah, like a portal."
"You're right."
"About what?"
"It would be stupid to go and look" they walk forward, towards the light.
*Time Skip*
I remove my sonic shades and put them in my inside pocket, then I feel for the sonic screwdriver and turn on the gizmo attached to my skull. I hear a rumbling sound. I knew it wasn't the Doctor as he'd gone back to the TARDIS to grab something.
"Cardinal Angelo? I could do with your help here" I say, the shadow of a figure robed more like a Buddhist than a Catholic priest is cast across a bookcase. Its arm is very thin and the fingers quite long "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, er, give me a mo" I turn on the gizmo, power surges through the wires into my head, crackling around the electrodes. It is clearly painful. Then I slump.
---
"I am your friend," Missy says.
"Makes no difference" I say.
"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" I pull the lever. Energy surges from the four columns into Missy's body and she collapses to the floor. I turn away.
"On my oath as a Time Lord of the Prydonian Chapter, I will guard this body for a thousand years."
---
In a busy office, one woman goes to get water from the dispenser. Nardole opens the door to the broom closet and enters, Bill following.
"Hello?" the woman says confused.
"Hello," Nardole says.
"Who are you? Do you have clearance for Floor Three?"
"Floor Three of what?"
"Of what?"
"Of what?" Bill replies.
"The Pentagon!" Bill and Nardole retreat back into the broom closet and into a very bright white room. Eleven columns arranged in an almost-circle in the middle are projecting ovals of light. Bill and Nardole come back in through one.
"So the Pentagon is through there," Bill says.
"Yeah" Nardole replies.
"And, and, and the Vatican is through there," Bill says pointing at another light.
"Yeah" Nardole goes to the light to the left and puts his head through.
"I wonder what's through here?"
"What is this? How is this possible?"
"Alien technology. Let's see what else they've got" the next light to the left "ooo. Bill! Come and take a look at this" she follows him into it where a Frenchman in a white lab coat comes out of a door, swigging from a wine bottle.
"Oh, hello. Are you coming?"
"Coming where?" Bill asks.
"We're all in the cafeteria. You mustn't miss it."
"Why?"
"We'll all go together when we go" the man laughs "come on!" they walk past the sign that says CERN.
*Time Skip*
I open my eyes again and see a blurry light. I remove the electrodes and hear footsteps approaching.
"Cardinal, it worked. I can see. Not well enough, not yet. The thing about the universe is, 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 twenty minutes. But I will be able to read this!" I put my hand down on an open Veritas page "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?" the figure in red helps me buckle the leather straps across the chair "you know, 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" I notice there is more than one figure present "you invited friends and family?" I look down to see a non-human hand on my arm and up to see what looks like a living mummy "oh, it's the old, old story. They never look so good in the morning" the robed figure closes the Veritas and takes it "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 have stopped me any time you wanted. Why the play-acting? This is not a game" the figure opens its mouth, and a voice is heard.
"This is a game."
"Good, because I win" I activate my sonic screwdriver and the lights go out.
"Seer! Seer!" the Monk restores the lights with a gesture. I escaped from the cage "Seer, we have the Veritas" but I have the laptop and I am running through the darkened passages between the bookcases.
*Time Skip*
"Come, come, come, come" the man leads Bill and Nardole into the cafeteria.
"CERN" Bill says.
"Where what's-his-name sent the Veritas" Nardole add, the man taps his wedding ring against his wine bottle to attract the attention of his colleagues, who are all seated at tables drinking alcohol. A timer on the wall is counting down.
"Ladies and gentlemen! Your attention, please! I've been round everywhere, and I've checked everything. It's all ready to go. Five minutes. Last orders please!" some of the people get up to get more alcohol, others put their heads in their hands and weep.
"Look under the tables" Nardole mutters, Bill ducks down to see bundles of dynamite strapped to the table legs.
"Oh, my God."
---
I find a quiet corner and open the laptop. I open up the email client and clicks on the attachment that the man sent to CERN. Veritas. A Test of Shadows. I sit to read, but as I scroll down the letters start to blur.
"Oh no. Oh, no! No, not yet! No, no, no, no!" the Monks have found her. I scramble to the octagon and try to run but I am surrounded. Then a bright light bursts in.
*Time Skip*
"In vino veritas."
"Why are you doing this? You've got explosives!" Bill says.
"We're saving the world."
"You know, we should go. We should probably even run" Nardole says.
"How is blowing yourselves up saving the world?" Bill asks.
"Because this isn't the world!"
"This isn't what?"
"Bill, time, tiny bit running out," Nardole says.
"You haven't read it. You haven't read the Veritas."
"Sorry, love to, but must dash" Nardole tries to hustle Bill out.
"Choose a number. Any number. Both of you. Now. And say it when I tap this table" the man hits the table with the wine bottles on it.
"36" Bill and Nardole say at the same time.
"Try again. Keep going."
"17."
"Again, don't stop. Every time I tap the table."
"9. 48. 103. A million. Seven million and seven" the man laughs and hits the table again.
"67."
"905."
"20,460."
"12. 4. 87. 702!"
"What is this? How are you doing that?" Bill asks.
"It's a test. It's a shadow test. I'm really very sorry" as 14 ticks down to 13 seconds, the scientists stand and raise their glasses. Nardole and Bill run for their lives.
"Eleven, ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one!" Bill and Nardole go back into the light.
"Ok, what was that about? Those numbers, how did they do that?" Bill asks.
"Ooo. Oh. Ooo!"
"You ok?"
"No! Yes. No!" there are neat round drops of blood on the floor.
"Someone's been through here. Could be the Seer and 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 Theft Auto."
"But 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 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" Nardole reaches into a space between two projectors, and his hand begins to decompile into a grid outline "I'm part of it! I'm part of the simulation! Bill, I'm not real!" the rest of him dissolves into pixels, and he disappears "Bill!"
"Nardole!" Bill starts to reach into the space between the projectors, but pulls back. Instead, she turns to the trail of blood drops.
"Seer. Doctor?" She step through the portal and into the Oval office where the television is on mute. The ticker says Total Communications Blackout at White House - The President has not been seen for at least 12 hours. Appeal for calm as authorities... she turns and see a man slumped in a chair by the window, a bottle of pills spilt on the floor.
"Bill, is that you?" I am seated with my feet up on the Resolute desk.
"Hello, Seer. Is that the President?"
"It was" Bill turns on the lights.
"I take it he read the Veritas."
"So did I. Well, I listened to it. There's this thing on here, it 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."
"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 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, in 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 this is, this..." she knocks on the desk "this is real. 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. And if all the simulated people are part of the same computer programme, then they'll all generate the same string. The exact same numbers."
"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, er, 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" Bill starts to decompile.
"Please, help me."
"Bill, what's happening to you?"
"Save me" with that I am gone in a shower of pixel, and the Monk is revealed to have been standing behind her.
"Bill, are you there?"
"She was not real. You are not real" the Monk says.
"No, I'm not. I'm a shadow. A puppet Seer 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. Turn me off! I have nothing. Not even hope."
"Without hope. Without witness. Without reward" I take River's Diary out of my jacket.
"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 Seer. I am what stands between you and them."
"You are not the Seer. You are not real" I feel my way around the desk to stand in front of the Monk.
"Oh, you don't have to be real to be the Seer. 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, it's far too good" I pick up my sonic shades "do you 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 subroutine, you can do it. You can always..." she puts on the shades "e-mail!"
"What are you doing?"
"I'm doing what everybody does when the world is in danger. I'm calling the Seer and the Doctor. Pressing send" I grin, and the whole image flickers, pixelates and is replaced by - Recording ends.
I am sitting outside the Vault I remove my shades and then replaces them when I get another message alert. 'Additional message P.S. Dear Seer, Save Them Alex X.' I stand and use my mobile phone.
"I'm doing it, I'm doing it. The essay, I'm doing it" Bill says.
"Are you on a date?" I ask.
"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, awesome genius from space and I'm telling you no, she's not out of your league."
"Ok, 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 going to be very busy. Call her tonight" with that I hang up and turn towards the vault "listen. If it comes down to it, if you're all I've got left and I need your help, you said you were my friend."
---
The two guards step forward to remove Missy's body.
"Oi! Get off. Get off! I've just been executed. Show a little respect" she says.
"She's, she's alive."
"I was just a bit sleepy, all right? Let's not split hairs. Shut up. Night-night" Missy closes her eyes again.
"Of course she's not dead. She's my sister. I may have fiddled with your wiring a little bit" I say.
"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 Seer."
"You have an entry, just like any other sentient being."
"Under Cause Of Death," the man works his wrist computer. It ticks rapidly as it runs through all matching entries.
"You do seem to have an impressive record of fatalities credited to you" the ticking keeps going, and speeds up "a truly remarkable record" the guards retreat "where are you going? She's unarmed! You are unarmed?"
"Always" the wrist computer still hasn't stopped scrolling through.
"You stand alone?"
"For the time being."
"You're the one who should be afraid."
"Never."
"Have a nice day, then" he runs away, very fast.
"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 to the dark?"