[Kerapac's Laboratory, Orthen, Time of the Dragonkin]
"Well, it seems we have arrived," Luke said to Jas as he turned back to look at the console. He smiled as he realized when he arrived was exactly when he wanted.
"The destroyer's lair?" Jas inquired curiously.
Luke turned back to face her and nodded. "Kerapac will have mostly completed his machine for Anima, but not yet have tested it. This means that you and your sisters have not yet been awakened to curse him and his race for his transgressions, so that prevents him from being angered by my arrival."
He stepped away from the console and towards the exit. Luke knew that, while things were slowly proceeding towards the canon event, he needs to weigh the risk of introducing Kerapac to Earth this early. While he had plans for some of the people from the game's canon, including Harold and Kerapac, to help out with some of the crisis points, the risks were not inconsequential.
The risks of involving Kerapac were obvious, but the others needed to be considered too. He knew that, along with Kerapac, he wanted to have Jas and her sisters get involved with the Reality Bomb too. The power of the Elder Goddesses would serve as a suitable bulwark against the Daleks and, while the metacrisis Doctor would still happen, it would give him a good reason to slaughter the Daleks.
However, he needed Jas to interact with Donna in her parallel world first and give Rose Tyler a message from him at the right time.
As for Harold, Luke knew that he'd need to get him involved with the Doctor's timeline when it comes time for Eleven to meet Amy and Rory. He wanted to change a tiny detail right at the end of their established timeline, but he wanted to make sure they do what they are meant to do before he changed that event.
With each step towards the exit, Luke ran through all of the possible ways things could go. He knew that Jas, in his presence, remembered everything from the game and that included what Kerapac had done by summoning the Shadow Leviathan. He understood that, while Kerapac had not yet done that, Jas would attempt to erase Kerapac from history at this point to change the future.
Hence Luke needed to make sure Jas couldn't erase him. That was why he told her that, for his future plans, Kerapac had to stay alive.
"Sorry, Kerapac," Luke thought to himself as he slowly opened the door right as he arrived to the exit. "While I can do anything I desire with my powers, I won't stop your fate of being bound to the Stone. I'll try to make it up to you in the future when the Sixth Age comes to be and the events of the Elder God Wars happen."
The doors creaked open. The first thing that Luke saw as the doors opened was a scene equivalent to a medieval dungeon. Gemstones embedded within the walls that gave off a faint purple light, but the rest of the laboratory was lit with the magma rivers.
In the main chamber of the laboratory, in front of Luke's eyes, floated the very machine that Kerapac designed to convert normal Anima into its more toxic counterpart. He wasn't concerned about the machine, which was dubbed as the Crucible, affecting him since the Shadow Anima held no effect on him, but the significance of this invention and its role to play in the future of both Kerapac's species and the world was massive.
While he knew that Ful would end up destroying the lab in the Sixth Age, Luke knew that this point in time would be important. He wouldn't have fired up the machine yet and the Crucible wouldn't attract the attention of Jas and her sisters for some time. He also knew, from the game lore, that when Kerapac used The Needle to rewind time to bring back his laboratory, it would be at a midpoint between the Crucible's destruction and his race's enslavement to the Catalyst.
Luke had intentionally arrived at a point before Kerapac informed the Kindra Council about using his device to elevate themselves to a similar level as the Elder Goddesses. This would give him enough time to construct a deal with Kerapac and potentially alter a tiny detail in his timeline.
"So, that is the Crucible, huh?" Luke said inquisitively as he stepped out of his Voidship with Jas, in her humanoid vessel, behind him. "Scale theory did not do it much justice."
The Crucible itself was a tad bigger than what was shown in the game. While the size of the machine wouldn't detract from its main function of converting Anima into Shadow Anima, it did leave Luke wondering why it was bigger than it was in the game.
"I can feel it," Jas murmured in warning as she looked off to the side, away from the Crucible. "An intruder with a familiar signature to my own..."
Luke immediately looked to Jas, understanding immediately what she sensed. "I'm willing to bet that is the TARDIS. Does it feel like a living box?"
Jas nodded.
"Then it is the Doctor," Luke informed her. "A Time Lord from beyond the Veil."
Luke then waved his hand towards where Jas was looking. Jas had just witnessed Luke using time itself to bounce back the TARDIS and return it back to the future, which she nodded to inform him that the intruder retreated back.
"Take no offense to the Time Lord. I'm guessing that they were attempting to come back in time to scan the Crucible before it even fired," Luke informed Jas kindly. "I only bounced them back a bit, but if I know the Doctor, they'll try again."
Jas understood what Luke was telling her and did not bother to do anything to the Doctor. She did inquire what a Time Lord was to Luke and he told her that they were once a race that were the most technologically superior in the universe beyond the Anima Veil, but due to a big war, there were scant few left in existence. Even with their ability to cheat death a set amount of times, they were still able to die.
She understood what Luke told her, but chose not to deal with these so-called "Time Lords" unless they posed a significant threat to her sisters and her creation.
"Now," Luke began as he looked over the laboratory, "I see the Crucible, but where is the inventor? Kerapac, where are you?"
That was when the door to the laboratory opened.
===[+]===
Continued in: School Reunion V.