Disclaimer: I don't own "Doctor Who", "Twilight", or the "Princesses" series; you know the drill
Feedback: Much appreciated
AN: The first part of a three-way crossover that I hope will meet with the approval of my readers, as the Tenth Doctor and Bella Swan- brought together in my series 'The Twilight Storm'- find themselves in a new world with new allies who are strangely familiar to both, facing an old and deadly enemy of the Doctor's…
The Perils of Lorindar
"You see, Bella," the Doctor said, looking at me in a rare example of his more casual 'lecture mode', when we started talking about something that wasn't related to the current threat, still enjoying our time off after the emotional trauma of the Doctor nearly being erased from history, "the key thing to remember when dealing with history is that people will always edit out certain details when writing about what happened."
"And it's sometimes hard to know whether what they edited out was important?" I asked, smiling thoughtfully as I contemplated this interesting news.
"Exactly," the Doctor said, nodding in approval at me. "For example, a few centuries back I went back to the Russian Revolution and met up with Rasputin-"
"Rasputin?" I said, my mind suddenly flashing back to that animated Anastasia movie I'd seen a few years ago. "You mean… that mad monk who helped kill the Russian royal family?"
"My point exactly," the Doctor said, smiling in confirmation at me. "History's portrayed him as a man who used his hypnotic influence to control the Romanovs, but actually he only had that kind of power in the family because he'd treated the youngest son for an illness and they couldn't admit what was wrong with the boy; he made himself such a prominent person to draw attention away from the more awkward Alexandra, and he tended to be so direct when talking to other people because he'd taken a bit of a knock as a child and it left him needing to really focus when having a conversation."
"Oh," I said, suddenly feeling rather depressed about how quick I'd been to judge the man, despite the fact that I'd known virtually nothing about Rasputin before now apart from that time I'd watched the cartoon movie Anastasia. "So… he really wasn't that bad?"
"He spent some time talking with my current companion and all he did was ask her about some of the places she'd been because of his own love for travelling," the Doctor said, smiling at me before his expression became more sullen, clearly recalling a painful memory. "Of course, the disadvantage with being in that kind of situation is that you have to let the bad things happen even when they don't deserve it; the consequences of undoing a major event like Rasputin's death are just… well, they're complicated."
"They are?" I said curiously.
"I'm not saying that the Revolution itself was a good thing, but-" the Doctor began, only to be interrupted when alarms suddenly blared from the TARDIS console, prompting the Doctor to get to his feet and dash to examine the console while I followed him.
"What is it?" I asked, taking up position near him as the Doctor urgently studied the readings provided by his ship; evidently our self-declared vacation was at an end.
"There's some kind of rift in the fabric of the universe…" the Doctor said, staring at the screen in confusion for a moment before his eyes widened. "Oh, that's not good…"
"What's not good?" I asked. "The rift?"
As I said the word, my mind was flashing back to the last rift we'd encountered, and what we'd dealt with then; the Daleks had been bad enough, but I sometimes wondered how the Doctor really felt about the fact that he'd been back in a time before the Time War and couldn't do anything about it…
"Oh, the rift could be coped with- there's a few rifts scattered around the universe that can be anything from an annoyance to a threat to the local populace but can be left alone so long as someone knows they're there and how to cope with the consequences of their presence-; it's what's coming through the rift that worries me," the Doctor said, looking grimly at me.
"Coming through it?" I repeated, before my eyes widened at the possible implications. "Are you saying… something's trying to get through from the other side? That something's invading us?"
"Possibly; the readings indicate a strong presence on the other side of the barrier that's trying to enter this realm, but the rift isn't strong enough to allow it through… whatever it is," the Doctor said, looking grimly at the screen. "I could be over-reacting and it's all just an accident on the other end, of course, but since we can't know what's coming through that rift or even where it's from, the possibilities aren't encouraging; even if our potential intruder's not intentionally dangerous, it could be that it's just not equipped to cope in this universe because the laws of physics where it comes from are too different…"
Turning his attention to a nearby console, he ran a series of quick searches, tapping various buttons and flicking switches, before turning his attention back to the screen, nodding in approval at the results. "Well, from what I can pick up right now, the environment on the other side isn't immediately dangerous, so just give me a moment to ensure the remote link's strong enough…"
"Excuse me?" I said, looking anxiously at the Doctor. "What are you talking about?"
"If we're going to find what's trying to come through, our best chance is to beat it at its own game and find out what we're dealing with while it's still on its own turf rather than on ours," the Doctor said, his expression grim as he moved to another console and began to make further adjustments to the controls. "It's risky, but if we confront it in an environment where our attacker knows the rules and isn't expecting an assaultwe might be able to turn the tables on it; they wouldn't know what we could do to it there, after all."
"I thought you said we couldn't go through-" I began.
"The thing on the other side can't get through the rift yet or it would have done it already, but that's just because it doesn't have our resources; all we need to do to go through is set the TARDIS and brace ourselves," the Doctor clarified, smiling at me. "The TARDIS surpasses most other methods of travel through time and space, so it can go where other things would at least have more trouble; whatever's trying to get through from the other side needs to create certain conditions that the TARDIS can work out automatically-"
Further explanation was cut off as the TARDIS shook around us, leaving me to desperately grab on to one of the pillars as the Doctor held on to the console, staring at the screen in front of him as he fought for control, before the ship stopped with a shuddering impact, leaving me sprawling on the floor as I looked up at the Doctor as he lay against the console, which had suddenly become far darker than I was used to seeing it, only a few lights active compared to the usual illumination.
"Well," the Doctor said, looking at me with a smile that seemed more forced than normal after taking a moment to collect himself, "slight exaggeration of how automatic that was going to be- something about our destination the TARDIS doesn't quite like-, but we're there."
"And… where are we?" I asked, trying not to think too much about the darkness around us.
"The world that was the source of that attack," the Doctor said, his expression unusually grim as he looked at his darkened ship. "The TARDIS has gone into reserve power to maintain its resources; we're close enough to the rift that she can still draw on power from our universe, but she can't do anything more than what she's done already."
"We're… on a world?" I repeated, looking at the Doctor in confusion; we'd been to hostile planets before now, but something about the Doctor's word choice suggested that it was more complicated than that even without the TARDIS's current condition (I was trying not to think about that; the idea of the TARDIS breaking down wasn't something I wanted to face unless I had to). "Do you mean… planet?"
"Dimension, actually," the Doctor said.
"Pardon?" I said, looking at him in confusion at his unusual clarification.
"Well, I've explained the possibility of alternate realities to you by now, right?" the Doctor asked, looking curiously at me.
"You mean… the idea of worlds where something happened differently compared to how it turned out here?" I asked uncertainly; he'd mentioned alternate realities to me shortly after our experience on Arkheon, but I'd tried not to think too much about it because the possibility of a world where Edward hadn't gotten tired of me inspired various emotions that I wasn't sure about yet.
"Bingo," the Doctor said, nodding at me with a smile before he continued. "Anyway, other dimensions aren't the same; alternate realities are worlds virtually identical to the one we know with only some historical differences changed- people lived when they died or died when they lived, people married other people and had new children who made crucial discoveries earlier, that kind of thing-, but other dimensions are worlds that can operate on a completely different set of physical laws to what we know and may have virtually nothing in common with our world. I haven't gone to many of them, but I've encountered beings from those worlds more than once; the original vampires I told you about are an obvious example, but I learned a while back that one of my oldest opponents gains his powers because he comes from another dimension, and I've encountered at least two rifts to two different worlds that manifested themselves as the afterlife but were really worlds shaped by the perceptions of others."
"Oh," I said, suppressing my immediate question- if those worlds have actually been the afterlife the Doctor would have said so- and turning my attention to another matter. "And… is this dimension like that?"
"Not entirely," the Doctor said, looking thoughtfully at the monitors. "As I said earlier, from what I can see, we haven't completely lost contact with 'our' universe, and we're dealing with a more permeable barrier than I normally encounter; I think we might be dealing with a Gardner Wall effect here…"
"A what?" I asked.
"You'll probably see when we step outside," the Doctor said, smiling briefly at me before he indicated the door. "On that topic, shall we?"
"What?" I said, looking at him in surprise. "You're saying we just… go outside?"
"Well, I'm fairly sure we're not in the exact location where that attack I detected was coming from, and everything I've seen suggests that this isn't dangerous to us, so taking a look outside should be safe enough," the Doctor said with a nonchalant smile. "So, shall we?"
"Uh… sure," I said, out of a lack of anything else to say; he seemed unusually casual after his earlier panic about the possibility of what we might find ourselves up against in this world, but he still seemed to be acting fairly normally, and his explanation for his actions made sense, so I wasn't going to start worrying just yet.
"Good," the Doctor said, as he walked up to the TARDIS door and opened it. "In that case, here we go!"
Looking at our immediate surroundings as I walked out of the TARDIS, I was immediately amazed at the scale of it. We were standing in the courtyard of a vast white palace, with towers and walls all around us, the sound of the sea audible from one side and the buildings themselves in virtually pristine condition. A few people were walking through the courtyard nearby, but if any of them had noticed the TARDIS they weren't commenting on it. A large gate at one end revealed glimpses of an old-fashioned-looking town, while the general attire of the locals put me in mind of the kind of clothing I'd seen in Disney movies or read about in fairy tales as a child, velvet and leather coming together to create various appearances ranging from elaborate robes to plainer attire (Although even those in the casual attire seemed to be fairly clean; if I'd seen this thing in history books I would have expected a smell, but everything seemed fairly clean).
"Wow…" I said, lost for words at the scale of what was around us.
"Quite," the Doctor said, smiling as he came outside to join me. "Very nice."
"Any ideas where we are?" I asked, looking curiously at him.
"Not immediately," the Doctor said, thoughtfully studying our surroundings as he walked away from the TARDIS. "There's something here, but like I said earlier, I'm also fairly sure that we haven't reached the exact source of that attack; this must just be-"
The Doctor was suddenly cut short when a knife appeared at his throat, followed by a woman walking out from behind the TARDIS with a cold expression on her face as she looked at us. She had dark skin and was dressed in dark red trousers and a sleeveless top that put me in mind of a corset, with at least three daggers strapped to her legs as well as the blade she was aiming at the Doctor, along with a silver bracelet around her right wrist.
"Who are you?" she said, glaring at the Doctor even as she pulled out another knife and aimed it in my approximate direction; judging by the way she held it, I had little doubt that she was capable of using it, but she had apparently identified the Doctor as the most likely 'threat'.
"Talia," another voice said from behind me, with a tone that suggested long experience with this situation, "didn't Beatrice tell you these two weren't dangerous?"
"They appeared inside the castle, Princess," the woman who was apparently Talia said, looking at the speaker as she walked over to join the first woman. The latest arrival was a blonde woman in a white dress with what looked like a glass sword hanging at her waist. "I don't think I need to remind you of the power you need to do something like that if you're not allowed?"
"We don't even know where we are right now; how can we be a threat?" I asked, turning to look at the speaker while trying to work out what was going on; how could these people live in what seemed to be a castle and not immediately start panicking about the impossibility of a box appearing out of thin air?
"Actually, we were just tracking a… well, something unusual, anyway… and we stopped off here to get a better idea of what it might be and where to go," the Doctor said, smiling brightly at the two women despite the knife still being held uncomfortably close to his throat. "I'm the Doctor, by the way, and this is my friend Bella; where are we?"
"'Where are we'?" the blonde princess repeated, looking at the Doctor in surprise. "You don't know where you are?"
"Disadvantage of travelling the way we do; it happens," the Doctor said with a casual shrug. "Can you tell me?"
"You're in Lorindar," the dark-skinned woman said, blade still at the Doctor's throat even as she seemed to be relaxing slightly. "Whiteshore Palace, to be exact."
"Really?" the Doctor said, looking up at the building with a new smile. "Whiteshore Palace… lovely name for a place, really."
"Thanks," a third voice said, prompting me to turn and look at another woman, this one a few years older than the other two, with streaks of grey in her long dark hair and faint lines around her red lips, dressed in a very tight-fitting bodice and wearing an elaborate mirrored choker around her neck in the shape of a snowflake. "It's definitely one of the nicer places where I've ever lived myself."
"Snow…" the dark-skinned woman said, looking at the older woman in frustration.
"Snow?" I repeated, looking at the third woman in confusion, even as the possible implications came to me; a beautiful woman, pale skin, dark hair that was only further emphasised by the white streaks at the front, bright red lips…
It would have been a ridiculous thought to have under normal circumstances, but after dating a vampire, confronting a race of alien mutants, being trapped in a second by a virtual god, finding myself in an alternate reality where my friend and mentor had been erased from history, and all the alien planets I'd seen in the last few months, I'd long ago told myself to believe everything to be on the safe side.
"Are you…" I began, momentarily uncertain if I could finish what I was about to say without feeling stupid, before I took a deep breath and spat it out; the similarities wouldn't leave me alone until I asked the question. "Are you Snow White?"
"That's me," the woman said, smiling at me.
I blinked at the absolute sincerity of the statement; I had been expecting some kind of defensive counter-argument, or maybe confusion about who I was talking about, but that statement had been made in such simple sincerity it couldn't be anything but the truth.
"You're… you're serious?" I said as I looked at her. "You're… you're really Snow White?"
"Snow…" the dark-skinned woman said, looking at Snow in frustration.
"What?" Snow said with a smile. "Bea didn't think they were dangerous, and if she was wrong, we're not exactly going to find it hard to stop them in this position; where's the harm in telling them who we are?"
"Thanks," the Doctor said, grinning at the woman in question before turning his attention to the dark-skinned woman with the knives, squinting at her for a moment before he smiled in understanding. "So, if she's Snow White, that would make you… Sleeping Beauty, am I right?"
"How do you know that?" the woman said, glaring at the Doctor as she raised her blades again, aiming them warningly at his face.
"Your temporal presence is about a century older than your overall quantum state and consciousness; if she's Snow White, Sleeping Beauty's the obvious choice for your identity, considering the century you spent asleep in most sources," the Doctor said with a shrug, as though temporal presences were something everyone could see.
"So…" I said, looking thoughtfully at the blonde, feeling stupid for even thinking what I was about to say, "if they're Snow White and Sleeping Beauty, would that make you… I mean, the glass makes me think of… Cinderella?"
"Yes," the blonde said, with a resigned tone that suggested she was used to that name. "That's the name I seem to have been given in the kingdom's stories, anyway; I'm fine with Danielle."
"Danielle," I said, nodding awkwardly out of a lack of anything else to do that wouldn't leave me looking or feeling like an idiot. "Right… sorry…"
"What did you mean by all that stuff about my… temporal presence?" Talia asked, glaring at the Doctor once more.
"Oh, it's one of the little bonuses I receive thanks to my extra senses; I don't use it often, but considering the circumstances, I thought it was appropriate to check," the Doctor explained, grinning casually at Talia before looking at the blonde who was apparently Cinderella. "Anyway, Princess Danielle, you mentioned a 'Beatrice' earlier; who is she?"
"My mother-in-law," Danielle said, smiling slightly at the Doctor as she indicated the castle behind us. "And she's been waiting to meet you for a while, so if you could follow us?"
"Uh…" I said, stuck for anything else to say in this situation, even as the Doctor grinned and indicated to Danielle that she could lead the way, leaving me stuck with no other choice but to follow him as I stared at our surroundings in confusion.
I'd grown used to experiencing weird things in my life, but finding myself being confronted by Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and Snow White was still a virtually unprecedent level of weird even by my standards…
AN 2: To those who don't know, the other world that the Doctor and Bella have just arrived in is the world of Jim C. Hines' 'Princesses' series (And how it can exist in the Doctor's world will be explained soon); putting a darker spin on the fairy tales we're familiar with, the series focuses on protagonists Princess Danielle Whiteshore (AKA Cinderella, possessing the ability to talk to animals and an unbreakable glass sword forged by her mother's spirit that can cut anything but Danielle's own flesh), Talia Malak-el-Dahshat (AKA Sleeping Beauty, possessing formidable martial arts skills due to the gift of grace she received from the fairies at her christening, forced to flee her kingdom when she awoke after giving birth to her twin sons and murdered her rapist as he was now the 'official' king, now apparently no longer requiring sleep after her century of doing nothing but), and Ermillina Curtana (AKA Snow White, a sorceress who was forced to flee her kingdom after killing her mother, able to weave various spells using her mirrors as a focus when away from her mother's original magic mirror; the role of the dwarves in this series will be explained later).
As for the force that the Doctor detected through the rift…
Well, that will be revealed later.