"I hope I'm not late to the party, Doctor," Luke casually remarked in a childish way.
The Doctor looked down at Luke's younger form and understood something immediately.
"Well, you certainly surprise me, Luke. Why are you barely six years old?" He asked.
"Because I am nearly six years old, Doctor. The version of me in your time should be more than three times my current age and much more powerful than what I can do." Luke replied as he stepped out of the Voidship. As he did, the Doctor got a good look inside and understood that this was an early version of his ship before the doors quietly clicked closed.
"So, let me guess. Ruby, as a baby, stolen by goblins and it caused a temporal schism. You came back to fight the goblins, but I just so happen to arrive as you did?"
"Summed up perfectly, hon," the Doctor replied in confirmation. "Now, shall we?"
Luke nodded as he freely called forth a wisp of Anima to his right hand. "I can snare the goblins and confuse them long enough for you to save her, Doctor. While I'd love to blast them apart using Wind spells, I don't want to accidentally hurt little Ruby."
"Great! That's wonderful!" the Doctor said as he and Luke began to run towards the goblins that still had little baby Ruby.
"So, it seems like the Toymaker still split you into two, huh?" Luke inquired lightly as he waved his right hand towards the goblins to force the dead wood of the Church's roof to sprout phantasmic vines that would force a few to trip. "Though you two still won the game of catch."
Luke was already sure that his efforts to keep the canon timeline of events were successful because of Fifteen's presence and the events happening around him now, but he wanted some sort of confirmation from this future version of the Doctor. It was why he could speak freely about events he shouldn't know about yet because he was already sure that some things were going to happen in a closed loop fashion like the infamous Bootstrap Paradox.
Or, as Twelve put it, who really composed Beethoven's Fifth?
"I suppose so," the Doctor gave a non-committal answer as he partly understood what this version of Luke wanted to know. "I'm sure talking about the future is going to cause you some trouble down the line."
He shrugged as some goblins were ensnared while others ran back towards the ladder leading up into their ship. Luke knew that if the goblins attempted to make away with baby Ruby devoured by the Goblin King, it would be bad. While he was sure that Death would not mind making an exception for him in the case of Ruby's soul, he knew that the Doctor would be a tad more reckless in this situation.
So, he resorted to attempting to keep things somewhat canonical. He'd help the Doctor save Ruby Sunday and, perhaps, give their future selves some assistance.
"Can you teleport me up to the roof?" the Doctor asked Luke as he pointed up to the church stele, right where the ladder was. "You should be able to do that at your current age, right?"
"Teleportation using Anima is currently feasible at your level," Michael quickly responded to Luke before he asked. "Since you have already re-created the world of Gielinor and implanted a version of the Abyss to act as a teleportation anchor point, you can use Anima directly to teleport the Doctor anywhere."
Luke nodded and snapped his fingers on his left hand, still using his right to snare and confuse the goblins he already caught. The Doctor felt a familiar vvwurmp as space bent to Luke's will and he was instantly carried from the ground to the roof where the end of the ladder was.
He then said as he put on the intelligent gloves, "Thanks, Luke!"
"No problem, doc! Just end this quickly and save her!" Luke replied as he was paying attention to the battle. Michael was subtly informing him of the experience points he was racking up from ensnaring and confusing the goblins while the Doctor pulled down the ladder using the gloves.
Unlike the Doctor somehow not realizing that Newton misheard him say gravity as mavity, Luke seemed to be unaffected by it. He then asked Michael why he knows the real name of gravity instead of mavity.
"It is because it counts as an indirect alteration," Michael replied back quickly. "Not only was the producers of the show putting that in as a joke, you already knew about it from beyond the fourth wall. This will also prevent the gods of this universe from meddling with you beyond this same wall."
Luke understood quickly what Michael said, but he was unaware that, in the future when he would deal with Lux Imperator (the god of light), this would prevent the god from putting him in the reels. Back to the current events, he watched as the Doctor pulled the ship down and the stele of the church speared into the ship. It killed the Goblin King and the ship was slowly fading into the aether.
Luke immediately noticed little baby Ruby in the air just as the ship faded away and he heard the Doctor ask him to catch her.
"Aero Tempest!" Luke shouted out as his right hand reached out towards baby Ruby's cot and a gush of white steam-like Anima shot out from that same hand. Akin to fast speed, the spell landed and shielded baby Ruby from gravity's effects.
It was similar to a slow-falling effect from Minecraft or gliding on an elytra.
Luke snapped his fingers on his left hand again to teleport the Doctor safely from the roof back onto the ground below Ruby's cot. The goblins from earlier, however, had long since faded into the Aether with the destruction of their ship.
As baby Ruby safely landed in the Doctor's awaiting arms, the effect of Aero Tempest disappearing, Luke got a notification in his vision.
[Congratulations! You have saved baby Ruby!]
"Well then, that was easy, no?" Luke chuckled as he, the Doctor, and baby Ruby walked towards the place where the priest would pick her up from the cold and restore order to history.
The Doctor only chuckled as his friend was right. It usually was easier when Luke helped.
=={DW:NG}==
Continued in: Prelude III: Future Trouble.