The Problem

Before St Luke's, the Doctor received a call.

When he realized it was a summons to kill another Time Lord, he was, honestly, terrified. He knew that Missy was out wandering the universe, knew that there might even be others, especially with Gallifrey in the state that it was. But he also knew that Adelaide was out there.

It could have been her.

Even if the Doctor didn't honestly think it possible that Adelaide could anger many people to the point of execution – he knew that she'd had a problem the Atraxi and many other official governmental or legislative groups, but only the Silence had ever truly wanted her dead – she was still the first person he thought of. Of course, Adelaide was always the first person the Doctor's mind went to ever since she'd left.

He was fairly certain that he hated her. And he hated that he did. Hated that he even thought that.

"Death is an interesting problem," the leader of the executioner group who'd summoned him, the man naming himself Rafando, told the Doctor as they walked. "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 honor." Rafando turned to the dais before them. "This technology is perfectly calibrated. As you can see, it will stop both hearts, all three brain stems, and deliver a cellular shock wave that will permanently disable regenerative ability."

"I know how it works," the Doctor said, his fists clenched.

Rafando nodded. "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." He nearly smiled. "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. We contacted the other one, but she forwarded your information."

The door behind the Doctor opened and he didn't turn, because he couldn't bear if it was Adelaide. He didn't know what he'd do if it was Adelaide, and he hated that he didn't know.

"Oh! Doctor! I didn't expect you." The Doctor let out a breath as he turned to face Missy and didn't know if he should be thankful or hate it even more. Or even just hate it just the same. "Thought you'd retired. Either sordid bliss on Darillium with the girlfriend, or domestic bliss on Earth with the missus, that's the word among the Daleks. What happened?" Missy watched his face. "Oh, I see. My condolences."

Could she see what had happened between him and Adelaide? Did she know? Was it that obvious, or did she just know him so well after so long?

He almost didn't know which one he would have preferred.

Missy gestured back towards the dais and the Doctor turned, moving to the side opposite her, closer to the lake.

"The prisoner will kneel," Rafando ordered.

No one moved. Rafando nodded and two guards moved forward to take Missy's arms and force her to move, but she raised her hands. "Right." She stepped up onto the dais on her own. "Thank you." She knelt and looked up at the Doctor and all he could remember was the little boy he'd met on Gallifrey.

If Missy had looked anything like that little boy when Adelaide had met them, he didn't blame Adelaide for not noticing how mad he was. The Doctor certainly hadn't.

The Doctor had never thought to ask Adelaide that, exactly what she'd thought about the little boy the Time Lords had resurrected. He supposed that, like most things, Adelaide had pretended it hadn't happened.

Behind him, a cube rose from the lake, looking vaguely Gallifreyan in origin, although not quite. As though it was built by someone emulating Gallifrey, but had never actually mastered the technology. "The Quantum Fold chamber is prepared," Rafando said.

"Great."

"The sentence will be carried out." Rafando turned to the Doctor. "Executioner?"

Slowly, the Doctor turned to face Missy. He wondered what Adelaide would have done at this moment, faced with this choice. After all, she'd never been that good with making choices when pushed. She had a reputation for running away. For protesting. He'd even made her into more of a renegade. She'd always been tended towards that, even without the official designation, but the Doctor and his tendency to overturn chess boards had managed to bring the same out in her, even when she didn't realize it.

It was part of what she'd hated. Part of why she'd left. Adelaide couldn't bear becoming someone she didn't recognize. Someone she might hate.

Someone who would place their hand on the lever to execute one of their only true friends left in the universe and truly not know what they should do next.

Adelaide always prided herself on knowing what would happen next. She always thought she was right, even when she was horribly, horribly wrong.

And so did the Doctor, in the end, even when he tried to pretend otherwise. What a horrible dance this was.

The Doctor fixed his attention on Missy again. The Time Lady was not near crying – he did not remember the last time he'd seen his old friend cry – but she did look, for lack of a better word, desperate. "Please, I'll do anything. Just let me live."

|C-S|

In the dark – both internally and externally – the Doctor leaned against his lectern. He knew that there was a chance that Adelaide would come to find him here, but the chance was lower here since he didn't actually have a class in session, so she would go check his office first. And then, maybe, he'd be able to avoid her.

She had not seen him since she left his office to repair her sonic. As far as he was aware, she believed his sight returned. The Doctor would not – could not – let her realize the truth. Granted, he did not know exactly what she would do if she knew, but he also knew that he didn't want to find out.

The door in the back of the lecture hall opened and the Doctor straightened. His sonic sunglasses were capable of transmitting biological information about the people who approached – fifteen men, between forty and seventy – but, as it turned out, that wasn't a lot. "Hello? Hello? Who's there?"

"Good evening, Doctor," a man with an Italian accent said, moving closer. "We have come here today direct from the Vatican."

"Oh, right. That's nice. Well, if you've got a collecting tin, I'm sure I can find something. Er, leaking roof, is it?"

Nardole rushed in from a side door. "Oh, no...no, no, no, no, no. Stop talking. Stop now. Please, just listen to them. It sounds important."

"We have come here to see you because your services and wisdom are recommended at the highest level." The figure moved to hand something to Nardole. "As you can see, this is the personal recommendation of Pope Benedict IX. In 1045."

The Doctor smiled. He'd encountered that particular Pope before he'd ever known about Adelaide surviving the war. Had always meant to bring Adelaide to visit and introduce the pair. "Pope Benedict. Lovely girl. What a night. I knew she was trouble, but she wove a spell with her castanets." Of course, then again, the Doctor was thankful he'd yet to manage an introduction. If the Church didn't know about Adelaide and her more impressive wisdom, they wouldn't go look to her for help and he wouldn't have to run into her, which meant he wouldn't have to reveal his blindness.

"Doctor!" the Italian man said again. "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, requests most urgently, a personal audience."

The Doctor looked around as though he could see the people around him. "Well, if he's so keen to talk to me, why doesn't he just come here himself?"

Nardole leaned closer. "He is here. He's standing right in front of us." Gently, Nardole turned the Doctor to face him.

"Hello, ah, the Pope." The Doctor nodded at him. "I'm sorry that I didn't recognize you there. You don't do this. The Pope doesn't zoom round the world in the Popemobile, surprising people. Why would you do that?"

The Pope spoke to one of the other men for a moment before facing the Doctor again. "Extremis."

Adelaide would probably kill the Doctor for not calling her in to join the mystery solving, but he was willing to deal with that. He was more afraid of her discovering he was still blind than her discovering she hadn't gotten to solve a mystery.

|C-S|

Back in the Doctor's actual office, guards stood around the TARDIS to ensure he didn't run away while Angelo, the first Italian man who'd spoken, properly explained the situation. "There is an ancient text buried deep in the most secret of the Vatican libraries. A 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 survived." Angelo moved, but the Doctor had no idea what it meant.

"Okay, so what's the title?"

"Oh." Nardole moved forward. "Yes, I can see that it says...er...Veritas."

Angelo nodded. "Literally, The Truth."

"Obviously, this sect, they understood the language."

"It died with them," Angelo said. "And all copies of their translation disappeared shortly after their mass suicide. A few months ago, after many centuries of work, the Veritas was translated again."

Nardole frowned. "Right? And?"

"What did it say?" the Doctor prompted.

"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 Doctor pressed his sonic glasses to bring up the various relevant news reports. "The Veritas is a short document," Angelo continued. "A few pages only. And yet, it contains a secret that drives all who know it to destroy themselves."

"Confirmed suicides? All of them?"

Angelo nodded. "In every case. Beyond doubt."

"All bodies recovered?"

"Except one, but we naturally assumed that he had..."

"Assume nothing," the Doctor corrected. "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," the Pope said, drawing the Doctor's attention, "will you read the Veritas?"

The Doctor had to clench his fist. Going to get Adelaide, going to bring her along...he wanted to see her, but he couldn't bear it if she knew.

|C-S|

Bill had not known the Time Lords long, but she already understood that when the Doctor turned up without Adelaide or vice versa, it was not good. Granted, she'd been introduced to him without Adelaide, but she'd watched him be angry and desperate and a bit too willing to hate. Having Adelaide with him seemed to temper him, at least somewhat.

Without her, he was a bit – quite a bit – ruder.

"Doctor!" she called as she entered the TARDIS. "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!"

Above her, the Doctor was removing something from a box. "Okay. Now I know. Air cleared. Nardole will explain what's going on." He moved and sat with his back facing her.

Bill frowned. "Er...Doctor?"

"It's...er...I think it's pretty serious," Nardole said, looking between the Doctor and Bill.

"What's happened?"

"Well, you..." Nardole went quiet as the Doctor shook his head. "You know the Vatican?"

"Yeah."

"The one in Rome? In Italy?"

Bill nodded. "Yeah..." Bill looked around the console, desperately hoping that Adelaide would emerge. "Where's Ad..." That time, it was Nardole who shook his head.

The Doctor opened the device he'd removed from the box. One of the Italian men leaned closer. "And what is that?"

The Doctor soniced it with his glasses. "It's a sort of a...a reading aid."

"It looks dangerous."

"Completely deadly. But, you know," the Doctor shrugged, "swings and roundabouts."

"Pope Benedict said that you were more in need of confession than any man breathing," the Italian man said. "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."

Bill would love nothing more than to be a fly on the wall during the Doctor's confessions. And during Adelaide's. Perhaps even the Time Lady's more.

|C-S|

Rafando looked to the side. "Have you requested a priest?"

The two Time Lords looked to the side. There was a covered figure approaching. The Doctor's instinct was to search for any sense of a Time Lady, but there was nothing. It wasn't Adelaide. He knew that it couldn't have been Adelaide.

He wondered if Missy could tell that he was searching for the other Time Lady. If she cared. If she, the one who'd helped them find each other, felt proud.

"Well, I haven't," Missy said.

The figure gestured for the Doctor to approach. "Apparently, I have."

"I shall seek consultation." Rafando used his device. With an irritated sigh, Missy sat back on her heels. "There are four hundred and twelve precedents in the Fatality Index. Divine intervention, therefore, is permitted for a maximum of five minutes."

Missy sighed. "Five minutes."

Rafando held out a hand. "The executioner may now discuss his immortal soul and any peril thereunto."

Carefully, the Doctor walked to the figure. "Greetings, sinner. Only in darkness are we revealed."

"I never sent for you."

"Goodness is not goodness that seeks advantage," the figure said. "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 what I hope she will learn, in time, from him. It is his legacy in the universe. The madman in a box. My Doctor." The figure revealed a journal that the Doctor recognized before uncovering himself. It was Nardole. "River wouldn't approve."

The Doctor frowned at him. "How the hell did you get here?"

"Followed you from Darillium, on the explicit orders of your late friend, River Song." Nardole furrowed his brow. "Warning, I have full permission to kick your arse."

"Language," the Doctor mumbled.

|C-S|

Nardole managed to understand the Doctor's request for the two of them to stay in the TARDIS after everyone else left. The Doctor wasn't certain exactly how subtle he'd been, but since no one else mentioned it, he supposed he managed it suitably. "Okay, so you're blind and you don't want your enemies to know," Nardole said, nodding. "I get it. But why does it have to be a secret from Bill? Or Adelaide? Why can't she be here too?"

"Because I don't like being worried about." The Doctor swallowed. "Around me, people should be worried about themselves. Even Adelaide."

"Yeah, shall I tell you the real reason?"

"No."

"Because the moment you tell Bill or Adelaide sees, it becomes real. And then you might actually have to deal with it."

The Doctor frowned at the humanoid. "Good point, well made. Definitely not telling either of them now."

"You're an idiot."

He shrugged. "Everyone knows that."

"Adelaide might not worry. She might be able to fix it."

"She's a biologist, not an expert on Time Lord eyeballs."

"She might be."

"She's not going to come." The Doctor clenched his fists. "They don't know about her yet. And they never will." Before Nardole could speak again, the Doctor stepped out of the TARDIS, thankful for the small amount of sight that his sonic glasses provided.

He wondered if Adelaide had gotten a new sonic of her own by now.

"Que deve proseguire senza di me. Il Cardinale Angelo vi condurra alla biblioteca," the Pope said.

"Here you must go without me," Angelo translated. "Cardinal Angelo will conduct you to the library."

The Pope embraced the Doctor, who stiffened. He may like hugs more than Adelaide, but that didn't mean he adored them. "Possa il Signore illuminare il Vostro cammino."

"May God light your path."

The rest of the men who'd come to fetch the Doctor left, though the Doctor could still see their information through the walls when he directed the glasses' attention. "Well, he could certainly give it a go."

Angelo led the way to a wall. "The entrance to the Haereticum, the library of forbidden and heretical texts. First instituted by your old friend, Pope Benedict, who still guards the door."

Nardole laughed. "You old dog." If Adelaide wasn't going to remain a secret, the Doctor would have corrected the humanoid's assumption that his past relationship with Pope Benedict was even part of the reason he didn't want Adelaide there.

Something dragged against stone and the Doctor guessed Angelo had opened the secret door concealed by a painting. The Doctor could see the rough layout of the room they entered, but not much beyond that.

"Very few know this place exists," Angelo continued. "The library of blasphemy, the Haereticum."

"Harry Potter!" Bill laughed.

"Language!"

Angelo gestured for the group to follow him. "Please, stay close to me. The layout is designed to confuse the uninitiated."

The Doctor shrugged. "Sort of like religion, really."

Bill glanced back at him. "You happy in those shades? Not dark enough for you?"

"In darkness, we are revealed." Clearly, Bill needed to spend more time around Adelaide.

|C-S|

"Remember, sinner, in darkness, we are revealed," Nardole said, voice low, but gaze harsh.

"I regret, gentlemen, this consultation is over," Rafando called.

Missy groaned. "I regret it, too."

"The sentence must now be carried out." As the Doctor turned, Rafando gestured to the dais Missy still knelt on.

"Well, take a few more minutes if you like," Missy rolled her eyes. "Knock yourself out. Actually do. Do that. Knock yourself right out." The Doctor moved back to the dais, fixing all his attention on his old friend. "I'll be good, I promise." He thought he saw tears, though he knew that wasn't true. Missy never cried. "I'll turn...I'll turn good. Please. Teach me...teach me how to be good."

The Doctor swallowed. "Without hope. Without witness. Without reward."

|C-S|

The Doctor kept pace with Bill as they walked. "Who was your date, then?"

"Er, Penny. It's a long story."

He began to say something else, but Angelo stopped and pulled something. "The very center of the Haereticum," Angelo explained. "Home of the Veritas for over a thousand years."

"Truth in the heart of heresy."

"And death in the heart of truth."

Nardole frowned at the pair of them. "You'd be wizard at writing Christmas crackers, you two." The humanoid drew in a sharp breath. "Doctor!"

"What's that?" Bill asked.

"I don't know."

The Doctor tried to guess where everyone else was pointed, but he saw nothing. "Oh, look, it's a mysterious light, shining round a corner, approximately ten feet away," Nardole said, speaking louder as though the Doctor's hearing was going as well.

"Hello?" Angelo asked. "Who's there?"

"Doctor?"

"This library is forbidden!" Angelo stepped to the side.

Bill reached for him. "No, wait!"

"Who are you?" The sonic glasses picked up a figure, but no information about it. "What are you doing here? Speak! Speak to me."

"What's through there?" the Doctor guessed. "What's through that door?"

"There is no door there," Angelo said, his voice low. "It's a wall." Angelo hurried forward. "Impossible. Quite impossible."

The Doctor stepped back. "Let's take a look at the Veritas. I have a feeling the answers might be there."

Angelo didn't move. "I have to check if there is a breach in the wall. I'll unlock the cage in a moment."

The Doctor nodded. "Sure." He pulled his sonic from his pocket and turned away, using the combination of glasses and sonic to navigate towards the cage.

Bill followed, but she gasped, jumping back. "Oh, my God!"

The Doctor turned, seeing nothing. "What's wrong?" he paused. "Oh, hang on." He tapped his glasses to register the new person, standing inside the cage. "I think there's someone in there."

"Yeah, we are very slightly getting that," Nardole said.

"I'm sorry," the man said. "I'm sorry. I sent it."

The Doctor frowned. "Sent what?"

"I sent it, yes."

"Sent what where?"

The man turned and ran out of the cage, vanishing into the library. Bill moved to begin to follow, but Nardole grabbed Bill's arm. "No, stop. You'll just get lost."

"Cardinal Angelo, someone just broke into your book cage," the Doctor called behind him, moving slowly towards the cage.

"Priest, by the look of him," Nardole confirmed. "Shot out the lock."

Angelo said nothing, but the Doctor shrugged. "Oh well, he hasn't gone far. So much for your forbidden library, Cardinal." He found the door to the cage and stepped inside.

Bill moved past him. "Doctor, look at this. Must have been his."

"A laptop," Nardole provided.

Bill leaned down and the Doctor heard typing. "Hey, there's Wi-Fi down here."

"Of course there's Wi-Fi. It's a library."

Nardole touched something. "Reading chair with a safety belt?"

"What's CERN?" Bill asked.

"CERN?"

"The European Organization For Nuclear Research," the Doctor said. "The largest particle physics laboratory on this planet. Why?" He sat in said reading chair with safety belt.

Nardole moved beside Bill. "Because four hours ago, someone, that priest presumably, e-mailed 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." Bill shook her head. "When do a bunch of scientists ask for prayers?"

The Doctor swallowed. "The same time anyone does. When they're very, very afraid." Adelaide may have attempted to convince him of the opposite if she'd been there. But she wasn't here.

And even though the Doctor had done that intentionally to keep her safe, suddenly, he quite wanted her there with him.

Gently, the Doctor reached forward, stroking the cover of the Veritas. "Particle physicists and priests. What could scare them both?" Adelaide would be the expert if she was there.

"He's been down here for a while, that guy," Bill said, looking around. "Whoever he is."

The Doctor almost smiled. Bill really did need to spend more time with Adelaide. "At a guess, the missing translator." He soniced the Veritas cover.

"Oh, that's promising."

"Promising?"

"Yeah, at least one person read the Veritas and lived."

There was a gunshot behind them. The Doctor didn't need to turn to see the updates on the priest's life signs. "Go and see if he's all right. Both of you."

"I think we know he isn't."

The life signs terminated. "We know nothing of the kind. He might need help. He might have useful information. He's about fifty feet that way." The Doctor nodded in that direction.

"Are you trying to get rid of us?"

The Doctor looked toward Bill. "Why?"

"Because you're sending us into the dark, after a man with a gun," Nardole said.

"Ah, well," he shrugged, "I've thought of that."

"Thank you."

"Nardole, make sure that you walk in front of Bill."

Nardole groaned. "Oh, great."

"Are you going to read this? Is that why you're sending us off?"

The Doctor tapped the cover. "I won't read this without you."

"Really, he won't," Nardole confirmed.

"Promise?"

"Trust me."

Bill stepped back. "We'll shout if we need you."

The Doctor nodded. "Me too."

It took Bill another moment, but she and Nardole left the Doctor in the cage. Despite himself, he wished for Adelaide. He'd tried not to wish for Adelaide, knowing she would hate it. On his best days, it was easy not to wish for her, despite missing her. Despite wanting her. But sometimes it was too hard. Sometimes he couldn't help but wish for Adelaide to be beside him.

He reached over and closed the laptop Bill had found before returning to the Veritas. Gently, he opened it and pulled his small device box from his pocket, attaching two electrodes to his temples.

Time to see.

A/N: We get a lot of the Doctor's insight on the entire situation here - he's really missing Adelaide, even when he tries to tell himself that he's not.

But hm...I wonder where Adelaide is in this simulation...