Anna looked with awe at the pulsating column atop the TARDIS console.
"It's beautiful" she whispered.
"She's more than beautiful" the Doctor answered, fiddling with the controls on the console.
Anna turned sharply at him.
"Now Doctor, where the hel…ck were we? How could this be Arendelle? What was happening? And why is my sister all gloomy?" she added, pointing to Elsa who was leaning against the railing surrounding the console, her arms crossed. She raised her head upon hearing her sister.
"I'm not gloomy" she said, doing her best to keep her voice steady and not entirely succeeding.
The Doctor looked up from his console.
"We were in the future of Arendelle. Your sister apparently froze the whole kingdom on the day of her coronation and never thawed it."
"But… but she did thaw it!" Anna protested indignantly. "I was there! And you have seen that everything was thawed when we left!"
"That's the problem, isn't it" the Doctor said sombrely. He looked from one sister to another, then sighed.
"What we have here is a paradox." he said at length. He gazed at Anna's uncomprehending face. "Disjointed timelines." Anna's face did not change. "Dissociated chain of events." Anna blinked and pouted. The Doctor sighed again, this time more theatrically. "In your present, happy thawed kingdom. In the future, very sad never thawed kingdom. Contradiction. Either your present is wrong, or the future is wrong. Do you get it now, or do I have to make drawings on a blackboard?"
"I understand" Elsa said in a calm voice, as Anna was opening her mouth to say that she would like to see the drawings and even draw a bit herself. "People said I never thawed the kingdom, but I did. This future is not possible. Is it because we came here with the TARDIS?"
"No" the Doctor said with severity. "Travelling in the TARDIS does not change time like that. Something altered it. I suspect this is why the TARDIS came here in the first place. The old girl probably sensed that something was very wrong with your timeline. The question is, what was changed?"
"The TARDIS is a woman?" Anna said, looking at the rotating ceiling. "Wait, what? We know what was changed! Elsa thawed Arendelle, I know it, I've seen her doing it! This future is the one that's all wrong! We know what really happened."
"Listen to me, Freckles" the Doctor said softly, "the people in this time were also sure they knew what really happened. They have lived in this timeline, it is as real to them as your memories of your sister thawing the kingdom are to you."
"But… but I know it happened that way!" Anna said, more frantically this time. "I was there! I remember it! They have got to have it wrong!"
Elsa laid a hand on her sister's arm.
"I think I understand what the Doctor is trying to say, Anna" she said in the calmest voice she could manage. "It's like one of those dreams, where you remember something that never happened. You know, where you are absolutely sure of what you are supposed to be doing, even if no one told you?"
"You mean like the dream where I was sunbathing with Olaf, and I knew that he could not melt even though he had not his flurry, because you had made him sun-proof before we left? That one was weird" Anna added, making a face.
"Err… Yes. You remembered something that never happened, and during the dream you were sure it did. It's like that, is it, Doctor?" she asked imploringly.
"No. Not at all. But if it helps you understand it, keep it that way. That's not a bad comparison for allowing a pudding brain to understand. So, to use your words, either we or they are dreaming, and what we want to know is who is actually dreaming and who is not, and whether breakfast will be ready when we wake up. Actually no, not that last one, it has nothing to do with the problem. So forget about the breakfast and think about waking up, only you don't know who will be waking up. It's like that poem with the butterfly, which you have not heard about yet."
Anna looked at the Doctor gravely.
"Are you saying that the bad future could be the right one? That Elsa could have not thawed the kingdom and that we would be… dreaming that she did?"
"Right now, I have no way to know."
"Well that's WRONG!" Anna shouted suddenly.
"Anna…" Elsa said, laying a soothing hand on her shoulder. The princess ignored it and marched to the Doctor, her index raised.
"I KNOW Elsa can't be doing this! She can't have kept Arendelle frozen all this time! She can't have been creating those horrible Ice Beasts! They are the one who are dreaming, and it's a nightmare! She's living a nightmare! And… I'm probably living one too, wherever I am in this bad future!"
The Doctor looked at the furious eyes and gently pushed aside the raised finger.
"Believe me, I'd rather be them… dreaming… than us."
"I'm telling you they are! They are having a nightmare! They probably ate something wrong before going to bed, or had a row with someone! I never had a nightmare without a reason! They have to be awaken and given a hot cup of chocolate!"
There were tears in the furious blue eyes. Elsa gently closed her arms around her sister's trembling shoulders.
"Don't worry, little sister. We will fix it. The Doctor will fix it. You are going to fix it, right, Doctor?"
"I will need your help" the Doctor said with sudden energy, rushing back to his console.
"I will help!" Anna shouted. "And Elsa can help too! She will freeze the nightmares! And I will… bash them!"
"No, by bashing things you won't" the Doctor scolded, jumping around the console, frantically toggling switches and levers, and ducking to pull some wires from under it. "I need your timelines."
"You need what?"
"The timeline where we are now is in contradiction with your own timelines. I need to find the main point of divergence, and for that, I have to use the memories of your timelines as a beacon for the TARDIS to home in."
"Will that hurt?"
"Only if you don't behave" the Doctor said seriously, pulling out his sonic screwdriver and activating it over a wire he had pulled before plugging it into the console.
"Can't we simply go back home? I promised Olaf we would play together while Kristoff is away delivering ice."
"Right now, I have no way to guarantee what happens in your present. Actually, it's very likely that you would find a sad frozen kingdom." The Doctor extruded a strange looking handle from the console. "Now hold this, both of you!" he added.
Elsa looked at it dubiously.
"Are you sure it won't hurt?" she asked.
Anna grabbed the handle.
"No it does not" she said, looking mildly surprised. "Come on, Elsa, we have to fix the… the nightmares time things."
Elsa seized the handle hesitantly. She felt a small tingle go through her hand.
"Fine" said the Doctor from the other side of the console. "No I want both of you to concentrate on your past. It will help me to pinpoint the divergence more easily. Oh, and" he added as if an afterthought, "hold on to the console. The ride may become shaky."
He swung a lever. The TARDIS shuddered violently. A stuttering sound echoed in the room, as if the TARDIS was hiccuping. Anna and Elsa instinctively grabbed each other's free hand.
"We are now flying between your possible timelines. Look at the scanner screen and tell me if you see something you remember" the Doctor shouted above the groaning of the engines, pushing a large screen attached to the console in front of them. The sisters raised their head to look at it.
"Hey, there are images on this screen!" Anna shouted enthusiastically. "Is that like a kaleidoscope?"
"No it's not!" the Doctor shouted back, as the groaning of the TARDIS intensified. "It's a temporal scanner currently focusing through the Time Vortex onto the timeline of yours we are currently flying by, and I'd suggest you examine it closely as this is a rather complex manoeuvre I'm doing right now and I don't intend to do it forever!"
"But that's us! Look Elsa! This is us on the screen!"
"It… looks like us" Elsa answered dubiously. "But we look… strange. And what are you doing with this urn?"
"I don't remember this, Doctor" Anna shouted. "You're right Elsa, we really look strange. As if we were making a face or something… And I don't know how to fight with a sword! Not that well anyway… but that necklace I have looks nice, though."
The TARDIS shook. The floor tilted in various directions. The images on the scanner shimmered and changed.
"That's you, Elsa! This time you really look like you! Wait, what… are you getting wed? Who is your husband? Who are all these men?" Anna shouted, as images began changing rapidly on the screen.
"I don't know" Elsa answered, halfway between embarrassment and disgust. "Was that… Hans? And… Kristoff now!?"
"This is not us!" Anna shouted with ferocity at the Doctor. "This did not and will not happen! Mind you", she added as the images changed once more, "this white haired boy is rather cute."
"Too skinny" Elsa said, making a face. "The dark-haired one looked better."
"Oh, yes, he's also a bit skinny but he was… Wait, are you talking about the big one? Have you seen the size of his hands? He'd crush you!"
"What is it, Anna" Elsa said mischievously, "don't tell me you have something against strong guys?"
"If you two would stop failing the Bechdel test" the Doctor shouted severely, clutching at his console, "and concentrate a little more on finding the correct timeline, maybe we could actually land and not get lost forever into the Time Vortex!"
"But none of this is the correct one, Doctor!" Elsa shouted back. "It shows me getting wed with different men, most of which I've never met and some of which I'd never even hold hands with! And I don't even want to get married!"
"Oh, this reminds me something Madame Vastra wanted me to tell you about… Hey, now that's me in a wedding dress" Anna said cheerfully. "I look good… Wait, what is Hans doing there?!"
"Hold on!" the Doctor said, yanking another lever. The TARDIS rose in pitch as the floor tilted once again, while the image remained blurred for a few seconds before recovering its clarity.
"Hey, I recognise this!" Anna shouted. "I… remember this" she added, casting a concerned glance at Elsa.
A thin layer of frost appeared on the handle around Elsa's hand. There she was on the screen, crumpled on the frozen fjord, while Hans advanced on her with his sword raised.
"This… looked like something we lived through" she stammered.
The sound of the TARDIS changed. The floor shook. The screen shimmered, but the image stayed. It showed Hans slowly raising his sword over the prone Elsa, but Anna could be seen rushing to them from the side.
"Hey, I will get to watch myself turn into an ice statue" Anna said, laughing a bit forcefully.
Her laugh died in her throat. Elsa gasped. On the screen, her counterpart was suddenly drenched in a red shower. The image of Elsa turned back in surprise, only to see something magenta collapse in front of her.
"This is not the right line Doctor!" Anna shouted frantically. "Change the image! Please! Change it now!"
The TARDIS shook. Frost began rapidly spreading on the console. Snowflakes fell around them.
"No, no, no, don't do that, you are destabilising the TARDIS!" the Doctor yelled.
The floor shook again, this time more violently. The image on the screen blurred.
"Look, Elsa" Anna shouted desperately, pointing at it, "the image is gone! It was another nightmare!"
The TARDIS engines groaned. The whole room twisted violently around them as frost completely covered the console. The Doctor grunted, flipping levers and switches.
"You are interfering with the flight controls! Stop doing that! You, Freckles, calm her!" he shouted at Anna.
"I'm trying! Elsa, look, the screen! I'm… all right again! Look at it! It's a good line of time! We are together! We are hugging and kiss… wait, what? Ewww! But I'd never… I don't love… Not like that! It's another wrong line, Doctor! We are completely mad in these images!"
Elsa's eyes were focused beyond the screen with its blurry images, her pupils little more than two dots, her teeth clenched. Ice was now spreading on the floor.
"Blood" she muttered. "A whole bucketful of blood on my dress."
"Stop this!" the Doctor shouted again. "I can't even locate your timelines now! We will get lost into the Time Vortex!"
"Did you hear, Elsa? We will be lost in time forever! Look, the screen is not… it's not showing anything now! Please, Elsa!"
"How do you spell 'forever'?" Elsa muttered absently, her eyes still unfocused.
"Listen Elsa, you are, like, totally freaking me out right now, you should, like, totally cool off, I mean, not cool off like, being cold, like, 'cause that's what you're doing right now, like, but cool off like… wait, why… why am I talking like that?!"
"Time resonance!" the Doctor shouted, desperately jumping around his console. "We are picking up echoes of yourself existing in different times through the TARDIS telepathic interface. There seem to be a lot of you two around! And there will be a lot less of us around if you don't stop freezing my TARDIS! Can't you find something all sisterly-wisterly to say that would calm down your… Now it's getting to me! I said I'd stopped with those words! That's not cool!"
The images were now shifting on the screen, some of them too quickly for Anna to see what they were about, others too bizarre for her to comprehend. The room seemed to be spinning faster. Sparks flew from the console. The Doctor jumped back and pointed his sonic screwdriver at the central column. The TARDIS groaned louder. The images on the screen stabilised for a few seconds.
"Hey look, Elsa, that's me" Anna said, tugging at her sister with her free hand. "I'm alive and not kissing anyone! Look I'm… lighting a fire… with… my hands?! But… that's not possible! I don't have powers! I'm ordinary! It's not the right line again! I'm completely ordinary! I'm not special!"
"You're special to me, Anna" Elsa whispered softly, her eyes regaining some focus. She looked around her and gasped. "Sorry!" she shouted, as ice began to disappear on the console. "I'm sorry! Sorry, Doctor! I was…"
"You were upset. I noticed" the Doctor cut sharply. He bent over his thawing console and pressed a button. The TARDIS stopped spinning, as the sound of its engines returned to a high-pitched stutter.
The images on the scanner blurred once more. Faces and scenes flew by.
"This!" Anna shouted! "This was my birthday! It happened! No, wait, sorry, wrong party! The banner at my birthday did not say anything about bananas…"
"No, this really happened, Doctor" Elsa cut in, unable to repress a nervous laugh. "I think this is the right line of time, Doctor!"
"What? But there never was…"
"Got it!" the Doctor exclaimed suddenly.
The room finally ceased to shake. The TARDIS engines stuttered once more, then the rising and falling complaint that accompanied its appearances echoed in the room. Silence fell with the last chord.
Anna slowly unclenched her hand from the handle, then turned to Elsa and hugged her tightly. She felt her sister trembling in her arms. Distant groanings and creakings could be heard from somewhere inside the TARDIS.
The Doctor flipped some switches, then pulled the screen to him and looked at it. It was now showing numbers and strange signs.
"We are at the main point of divergence between both timelines" he announced.
"I'm sorry, Doctor" Elsa whispered, trying to compose herself. "I was…"
"You were upset because you saw someone important to you die" the Time Lord said, walking past her. "That's not something to be sorry for. It's a very… human reaction." He walked to another part of the console and flipped some switches. "Although next time" he said, raising his head and looking at her threateningly, "try not to freeze my TARDIS when you do it!"
"I'll try" Elsa answered with a wan smile.
"And sorry to you too, Madame TARDIS" Anna added, looking at the central column. "My sister did not want to freeze you."
"Stop talking to it!" Elsa whispered. "This is only a machine! The Doctor will think you are a fool!"
"Oh, I'm a fool as well" the Doctor answered matter-of-factly. "Now, I need to see what's outside."
"Will it be a nightmare future?" Anna asked timidly, following him as he walked to the door.
"No", the Doctor answered confidently. "For one thing, we are in your past. Which reminds me… whatever happens here, DON'T! TOUCH! ANYTHING! This could create a paradox far more dangerous than the one we are trying to fix right now."
The Time Lord opened the door wide, revealing a vast expanse of snow, with snowy peaks in the distance.
A familiar ice palace towered above them.
Author's Notes: This chapter was me having a bit of fun with some common themes in the Frozen fandom so I kept it short. I hope it's fun to read though.
I also absolutely wanted the Doctor to use "sisterly-wisterly", but since that's more something the Eleventh would say I had to find a way to cheat.
For the record, the scene that drives Elsa on edge when she sees it on the scanner is how I had intended to begin this story in my first drafts, before I decided to change a lot of things.
No that I had my fun, the story can go on. Stay tuned!