"Your physical self is stored in the library as an energy signature." Miss Evangelista was explaining. "It can be actualized again whenever you or the Library requires."

"The Library?" Donna repeated. "If my face ends up on one of those statues…"

"You remember the statues?" Miss Evangelista asked.

"Wait, no, just…hang on. So…this isn't the real me? This isn't my real body. But I've been dieting!" Donna seethed.

"What you see around you, this entire world is nothing more than virtual reality." Miss Evangelista told her.

"So why do you look like that?" she asked.

"I had no choice." Miss Evangelista replied. "You teleported. You're a perfect reproduction. I was just a data ghost caught in the Wi-Fi and automatically uploaded."

"And it made you clever?" Donna asked.

"We're only strings of numbers." She explained. "I think a decimal point may have shifted in my IQ. But my face has been the bigger advantage. I have the two qualities you require to see absolute truth. I am brilliant…and unloved."

"If this is all a dream…" Donna said. "Whose dream is it?"

"It's hard to see everything in the data core, even for me." Miss Evangelista replied. "But there is a word. Just one word. CAL"

In her home, the girl was in tears watching them talk. She picked up the remote and pushed a button.

"Mummy!" Ella cried. "My knee!"

She was on the ground crying and Donna ran to her.

"Oh, oh look at that knee!" Donna told her. "Oh, look at that silly old knee!" She hugged Ella.

"She's not real." Miss Evangelista said, walking up behind her. "They're fictions. I'm sorry, but now that you understand that, you won't be able to keep a hold. They are sustained only by your belief."

"You don't know." Donna replied. "You don't have children!"

"Neither do you." Miss Evangelista replied.

Donna took Ella and Joshua's hands and left.

"Donna, for you own sake, let them go!" Miss Evangelista called after her.

"Stop it!" the girl screamed at the television.

"You'll spoil everything! I hate you! You're going to ruin everything! Stop it!"

Her dad came in from the kitchen, drying his hands on a hand towel.

"Sweetie, what's wrong?" he asked her.

"Shut up!" she yelled, whipping around to point the television remote at him.

With a push of a key, her dad disappeared before her very eyes.

"Daddy!" she screamed. "No! Daddy!"

In anguish and despair, she threw the remote to the ground before collapsing to the floor in a fit of tears.

An alarm began sounding in the Library.

"What is it?" Lux demanded. "What's wrong?"

"Auto-destruct enabled in 20 minutes." The computer announced.

"Well, that was really original…" Luna said, rolling her eyes as she tangled her fingers in her fiery curls. "How come whenever we're involved with computers, they end up blowing up? Or, any electrical equipment in general?"

"What're you going on about?" River asked, staring at the Gideon in confusion.

"Oh come on! He," she said, pointing to the Doctor by her side. "has a track record with toasters! He can't resist meddling with their insides!"

Donna and her children quickly walked away from the playground in an attempt to escape Evangelista's words. They seemed to haunt the red-headed woman.

"Mummy, what did the lady mean?" Ella asked. "Are we not real? Where are we going?"

"Home!" Donna replied

They sat huddled on the small couch in their living room. A deep red hue bled in through the windows, filling the room while the sound of an alarm echoed throughout the entire house.

"That was quick, wasn't it, Mummy?" Ella asked.

"Mummy, what's wrong with the sky?" Joshua asked.

"What's maximum erasure?" River asked.

"Erm… Can I pass on this question?" Luna asked, shrugging her shoulders.

This earned a look from the archaeologist.

"What? I don't know everything you know!"

"20 minutes, this planet's gonna crack like an egg." The Doctor answered in her place.

"No!" Lux told them. "No, it's alright, the doctor moon will stop it. It's programmed to protect CAL."

The girl was curled up on the floor, crying, while Dr. Moon sat next to her.

"Now, you really must stop this, you know." He told her in his usual calming tone. "You've forgotten again it was you who saved all those people, haven't you? And then, you remembered."

"Shut up, Dr. Moon!" she shouted.

She pressed a button on the remote again and Dr. Moon disappeared like her dad.

The screen of the information terminal goes blank.

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no!" the Doctor shouted.

"All Library systems are permanently offline." The computer announced. "Sorry for any inconvenience. Shortly…"

"We need to stop this." Lux told them. "We've got to save CAL!"

"Okay… What the hell is CAL and why do we need to risk our lives saving it?"

"We need to get to the main computer." He told them. "I'll show you."

"It's at the core of the planet." The Doctor pointed out.

"Well, then." River said. "Let's go!"

She pointed her screwdriver at the symbol on the floor and the centre of the room opened up.

"Gravity platform!" she announced.

"Oh my god! I love you Ray!"

"Gee, don't I feel special?" The doctor said, rolling his eyes.

"Oh don't get all sulky… She just saved me from having to walk down a million and something stairs… Who doesn't like taking the easy way?"

Donna sat on the couch, holding her children tight.

"Mummy, you're hurting my hand." Joshua told her.

"You just…you just stay where I can see you." Donna told them in tears. "Right, you, you don't get out of my sight."

"Is it bed time?" Ella asked.

They children sat in their beds.

"Okay." Donna said. "That was lovely, wasn't it? That was a lovely bedtime. We had warm milk, and we watched cartoons, and then Mummy read you a lovely bedtime story."

"Mummy, Joshua and me, we're not real, are we?" Ella asked.

"Of course you're real." Donna told her. "You're as real as anything. Why d'you say that?"

"But, Mummy, sometimes, when you're not here, it's like we're not here." Joshua told her.

"Even when you close your eyes, we just stop." Ella added.

"Well, Mummy promises to never close her eyes again." Donna told them.

But when she looked at the beds, they were gone.

"No!" she cried. "Please! No, please! No! No, no! NO!"

"Autodestruct in 15 minutes." The computer told them.

"The Data Core!" the Doctor marvelled. "4,000 living minds, trapped inside it."

"Yeah, well they won't be living much longer." River told him. "We're running out of time."

"Ray's kinda got a point love… Don't suppose you could stop talking and start doing, could you?"

In the girl's home, the girl was still on the floor, crying.

"Help me." She begged. "Please help me. Please, please help me!"

In the Library, they heard the girl's pleading coming from the terminal.

"Help me." She cried. "Please, help me."

"What's that?" Anita asked.

"Was that a child?" River asked.

"Computer's in sleep mode." The Doctor replied. He pushed the keys. "I can't wake it up. I'm trying."

"Move aside amateur," Lu said, pushing him aside gently. "Let the professional have a crack at it."

While the crimson haired woman began typing, her fingers nothing but a blur, River looked at the screen in an attempt to analysis the readings.

"Doctor, these readings!" River said.

"Kinda noticed Ray!... It's like she's dreaming which is why it's very bloody difficult to wake her up!" She moaned before throwing her hands up in exasperation.

"It is dreaming." Lux spoke up and they all turned to look at him. "Of a normal life, and a lovely Dad, and of every book ever written."

"Computers don't dream." Anita said.

"Help me." The girl begged. "Please help me."

"No." Lux answered. "But little girls do."

He pushed a lever and a door opened. He led them inside.

There, they found a Node.

It turned to face them and they saw that it was the little girl's face.

"Please help me." It begged in her voice. "Please help me."

"Oh, my God." River gasped.

"It's the little girl." Anita said. "The girl we saw in the computer."

Luna walked up to the Node, looking up at the innocent little girl's face with a sad expression before running a finger down her flushed cheek. "I'm so sorry this happened to you sweetheart."

"She's not in the computer." Lux told them. "In a way, she is the computer. The main command node. This is CAL."

"CAL is a child!" the Doctor exclaimed. "A child hooked up to a mainframe? Why didn't you tell me this? I needed to know this!"

"Yeah, kinda a big thing to be missing out you idiot!" Lu snapped, whipping around to glare at the middle aged man however the Time lord caught her around the waist before she managed to move towards him.

"Because she's family!" Lux shot back. "CAL…Charlotte Abigail Lux. My grandfather's youngest daughter. She was dying, so he built her a library, and put her living mind inside, with a moon to watch over her, and all of human history to pass the time, any era to live in, any book to read. She loved books more than anything. He gave her them all. He asked only that she be left in peace. A secret, not a freak show."

"So, the whole patent thing? You were just trying to protect her?"

"This is only half a life, of course." Lux said. "But it's forever."

"And then the shadows came." The Doctor said.

"Shadows." CAL said. "I have to…I have to save. Have to save…"

"And she saved them." The Doctor continued. "She saved everyone in the Library, folded them into her dreams and kept them safe."

"This brave little girl…" Lu murmured, leaning into the Doctor's side slightly. "She took it upon herself to save 4,000 people… It restores your faith in humanity."

"So what do we do?" River asked.

"Autodestruct in ten minutes." The computer told them.

"Easy!" the Doctor said. "We beam all the people out of the data core, the computer will reset and stop the countdown. Difficult, Charlotte doesn't have enough memory space left to make the transfer. Easy! I'll hook myself up to the computer and she can borrow my memory space."

"Like freaking hell you will!" Luna shouted. "It'll kill you!"

"You can't!" River agreed. "It'll burn out both your hearts and don't think you'll regenerate!"

"It'll work! Now, listen. Luna, I want you, the professor and Luxy-boy over there to go back to the main library. Prime any data cells you can find to ensure a maximum download."

"I'm not letting you!" His love said, throwing her arms around his neck to hold him close. In a moment of weakness, he held her just as tight before dropping a kiss to her head.

"I'm gonna be fine, don't worry. Now I need you to go look after them." Nodding, she leaned up to peck his lips before galloping away with the other two in tow.

After they'd left, the Doctor stood frantically working at the terminal.

"What about the Vashta Nerada?" Anita asked.

"These are their forests." The Doctor told her. "I'm gonna seal Charlotte inside her little world, take everybody else away. The shadows can swarm to their hearts' content."

"So, you think they're just gonna let us go?" she asked.

"Best offer they're gonna get." He replied.

"You're gonna make 'em an offer?" she asked.

"They'd better take it, cause right now, I'm finding it very hard to make any kind of offer at all." He told her.

"You know what…"

He looked at her.

"I really like Anita." He told the thing that had taken her place.

"She was brave, even when she was crying, and she never gave in. And you ate her."

He pointed the screwdriver at the visor and it revealed the skeleton inside.

"But I'm gonna let that pass." He told it, turning back to his work. "Just as long as you let them pass."

"How long have you known?" the Vashta Nerada asked.

"I counted the shadows." He replied. "You only have one now."

He glanced at the blinking neural relay.

"She's nearly gone." He told it. "Be kind."

"These are our forests." It replied. "We are not kind."

"I'm giving you back your forests, but you are giving me them." He told it. "You are letting them go."

Shadows reached out from it towards the Doctor.

"These are our forests." It told him. "They are our meat."

"Don't play games with me!" he shouted at it. "You just killed someone I liked, that's not a safe place to stand. I'm the Doctor and you're in the biggest library in the universe. Look me up."

After a moment, the shadows withdrew.

"You have one day." It told him before the suit collapsed.

"Anita!" River called as she walked in. A moment later, Luna came rushing in as well though she made sure she was unseen. Both her and River had managed to hatch a plan and despite how much she hated to deceive her best friend, she had to this time.

"I'm sorry, she's been dead a while now." He told her. "I told you to go!"

"I thought I'd be more use down here." She told him.

Lu snuck up behind him and hit him across the back of the head without a word shared between the two women.