"Elsa!" Anna shouted, as the little radio in her hand erupted with little shards of ice before shattering.
"As you see, I'm gaining more control of Elsa's powers by the second" Simeon said smugly.
"No you're not" the Doctor said, striding back from the door to the ice man standing in front of the open window. "If anything, this shows even less control. Localised cold temperature is easier to do than an ice spike, as is the gust of wind with which you opened the window." He looked at his sonic screwdriver.
"This was enough for breaking into the room where you thought you were safely barricaded, Doctor."
"We did not think we were safely barricaded" the Doctor shot back, fidgeting with his screwdriver.
"I thought we were" Osmine said. "I hoped so anyway. You said so."
She yanked a firebrand from the fire and held it in the direction of the advancing ice man.
"Stop here! Or I will melt you!" she shouted.
Simeon sniggered.
"Do you think this weak flame could stop me? Unless you are prepared to melt all of ice in Arendelle with it…"
"He's right about that point at least" the Doctor said. "It would take far too long."
Anna tugged nervously at her cape, and felt an unexpected weight. Her hand closed on the object and recognised the shape of Strax's strange "lesser gun" through the fabric.
"And actually", the Doctor went on, looking up right at her as if he had been reading her mind, "even if it could melt him in a few seconds, that would not work either. He would simply have to jump to any nearby ice."
"I control the ice!"
"If anything, I think whatever control he had is waning" the Doctor said, ignoring him. The screwdriver whistled a few times with different tones. "He is trapped in the ice, with a very minor control of it. It's simply lucky for him there is so much of it around."
"Who needs controlling the ice when you control the icemaker?"
"You can't control Elsa!" Anna shouted. "You can make her angry, but you can't control her! She's stronger than you think!"
"And how strong do you think she will be when the news of her sister's death reach her? I'm not talking about you" he added, as Anna tensed and looked at him defiantly while Osmine tried to step between the princess and him. "You are probably here thanks to one of the Doctor's tricks. I'm talking about the Anna who is now lost in the mountains, and whose heart contains a sliver of ice. I can feel it."
Anna opened her mouth to answer, caught the Doctor's eye, and slowly closed it. The Time Lord was still playing with his sonic screwdriver.
Simeon picked up a piece from the chessboard and looked at it derisively.
"You have only delayed the inevitable in the castle. The news of her sister's death, by her own hand, will crush Elsa. And I will be there, ready to fill the void in her soul." He slammed the piece back on the chessboard. "And I'll fill it with me. I'll control the queen."
He turned back to the Doctor, who was tapping the side of the sonic screwdriver. "But before that, I will kill you, Doctor. Or maybe I will let you live just long enough to see this lovely queen become the instrument of my vengeance. What do you say about that, Doctor?"
The Doctor raised his head.
"I'm sorry, I was not listening. I was trying to find the antifreeze feature I had installed on the sonic screwdriver the last time I met you. I should really clean its memory from time to time" He smiled triumphantly. "I'm not quite sure it still works, do you have an idea how to test it?"
The Doctor pointed the whistling sonic screwdriver at the ice man, who shrieked as he instantly melted into a puddle on the floor.
"Anna? Doctor? Someone?"
Elsa stopped shouting as her throat became sore. She looked at the console, trying to remember what the Doctor had done to make the device work in the first place, and what he had been saying she should do if they stopped hearing her. She gingerly tried pressing a few buttons, but was rewarded only by some metallic beeps.
"Anna? Please, if you hear me, answer me… What is going on?"
Snow was now falling in the console room. There had been a whirring somewhere and a warm wind had begun blowing in the room, but it had not been strong enough to melt the thin layer of snow that was forming on the floor along with the occasional patch of ice.
Elsa tried to calm herself, but could not remove from her mind the thought that Anna was now in the presence of… something that had done its best to make her hate her sister. It had not only been her sister, actually: the voice in the ice had apparently tried to push her to hate everyone but herself, as far as she could judge by the flashes of memory she was getting more and more frequently now. But since Anna was the person for whom she cared the most, the voice, this Simeon, as the Doctor had called it, had focused its efforts on Elsa's love for her sister.
"Anna? If you can hear me in any way… Please answer me…"
Silence remained in the room, only troubled by the various distant beeps and mechanical sounds of the TARDIS. Elsa leaned on the console. Finally she raised her head and looked at the speaker from which her sister's voice used to be heard.
"Fine. I'm coming for you, Anna."
Turning around, Elsa strode toward the TARDIS doors.
"But you destroyed him, right? Why do we have to hurry?"
"I did not destroy him. I merely thawed extremely quickly the ice where he was manifesting." The Doctor walked quickly in the corridors of the castle, followed by the two young women. "It was quick enough that he did not have time to get ready for it, unlike anything else you could have tried. That was the equivalent of a sucker punch for him, but he will recover soon enough. Which is why we have to hurry to the TARDIS."
"Can't you thaw him again?"
"Last time I used this program, it worked only the first time. I'm not taking chances."
"What is this TARDIS?" Osmine asked.
"It's a wonderful machine that belongs to the Doctor" Anna answered. "It looks like a little blue box, but inside it's… huge. With plenty of rooms. And the Doctor says it can travel anywhere."
"It does" the Doctor said. "And don't forget it can travel in time as well."
"I always dreamed of travelling…" Osmine said dreamily.
"Then I can drop you somewhere to begin your journey if you want. Anywhere you want."
"Can I choose somewhere amazing?"
"I would not accept any other choice from you."
The Doctor winced. Anna looked at him. There was definitely ice forming on his face.
"It will be quicker that way, Doctor" she said, showing a staircase. "It's right down these steps."
"Fine." The Doctor stopped and leaned against a wall. "Go to the TARDIS. I'll join you there. Here" he added, reaching into his coat, "take the key. And don't lose it!"
"Wait, what? Where are you going?"
"Just… following you. Stop discussing, go! Your sister needs you."
"But, Doctor… we can't leave you there. You said the… bad ice man would catch up with us soon. And you are about to turn into ice. I know, it happened to me!"
"Stop being so human! I'm telling you I'll join you!"
"But what if the ice man gets to you?"
"Or us" Osmine said.
"Yes! Maybe your antifreeze would work a second time. If it attacks us…"
"It's me it's after! I'm telling you two to go now! In the TARDIS!" the Doctor shouted.
"But… what are you going to do?"
"Die" came Simeon's voice.
Anna gasped, while the Doctor looked at her with a weary and reproachful expression. Ice creaked around them. Osmine turned her head to see the staircase slowly fill with ice spikes.
"But you can die too, if you want" Simeon went on, coalescing near the wall. "Having her sister die twice that day would break the icemaker even more."
Elsa put her hand on the door handle, hesitated a second, and turned it.
The door was locked.
"No!"
The queen desperately shook the handle, slamming the door with her hand.
"No! Why is it locked?! Unlock yourself! I want to go out!"
There was a sizzling sound behind her. She turned around and gasped.
The Doctor had appeared near the console. He was slightly transparent, and occasionally shimmering. He was facing another equally ghost-like Elsa.
"The TARDIS is protecting you for now" the apparition said, in a crackling voice that sounded like the Doctor speaking through the radio device. "If you go out, your timeline will realign with the one outside. Your memories will merge with your current counterpart, and you will eventually disappear, as she probably never travelled with me in the first time. Do you understand?"
"Yes, Doctor" the ghost Elsa answered.
"I don't care!" Elsa shouted. "My memories are already changing! I want to go and help my sister!"
"If you leave the TARDIS, you will cease to exist" the ghost Doctor went on. "The year your sister was talking about will never have happened for you. Is that understood?"
"Yes, Doctor" the shimmering Elsa repeated.
Elsa strode to the console until she was level with the two ghosts.
"I don't care if I disappear, as long as I can help my sister! That's my choice to make!" she shouted.
"If you leave the TARDIS, you will cease to exist" the ghost Doctor repeated.
Elsa gingerly reached out and tried touching the shimmering image. Her hand went through it as if nothing was there.
"I know the risks! I'm ready to face them if it can help my sister!"
The image of the Doctor shimmered. "If you leave the TARDIS, you will cease to exist" it repeated again.
Elsa turned her head to look at the central column.
"Is that you doing this, machine?"
The ghostly Doctor suddenly changed position. "The TARDIS is protecting you for now" it said again.
Elsa walked to the console.
"OK, machine. Anna says you are alive, so maybe you can understand me. I want to go out and help my sister. I know that you are protecting me, and that if I go out I will disappear even sooner. But I don't care about that! I want to help Anna!"
"You will cease to exist" the image of the Doctor said once more.
Elsa banged her fist on the console, immediately regretting it.
"Listen to me, machine" she said, trying to ignore the sharp pain searing through her hand. "If you can understand what I'm saying… I want to save my sister. She's in danger, and I want to help her, even if that's the last thing I do."
"If you go out" the ghostly Doctor shimmered, abruptly changing his posture "your memories will merge with your current counterpart" it finished.
"I want to help my sister. Do you know what it's like to have a sister, machine? It's… someone who is part of you. Someone who you love more than you could ever love somebody else. Someone who you saw growing up while you yourself were growing up. The first years of your life… the most important… you lived them with her, and she lived them with you. Well, some of them anyway because I was too afraid to open up to her… But still… I knew her as a baby, she knew me as a little girl. I still remember how small she was in her crib, even if I was not very big myself at the time. She's a part of me." Elsa breathed deeply, ignoring her wet cheeks. "She was ready to give her life for me, she gave it actually. I'm ready to give my existence for her."
The ghostly Doctor and Elsa both disappeared. Then her own image reappeared a few feet from her, huddled near the railing as she had been moments ago.
"I remember being angry with you, Anna" it said, in this slightly metallic voice everyone had when talking through the radio. AA was right, hearing one's own voice really was strange.
Elsa looked at the column protruding from the console.
"I know that" she said softly. "But if I can't do anything about it… at least I can try to help Anna one last time… My little baby Anna… How small she was in her crib… I'll always remember that…"
Elsa stopped suddenly. She concentrated on her memories. Her time locked behind her door was now a blur of conflicting remembrances, torn between anger and despair, with the voice of her sister calling out to her now mingling with the whispering of the ice. But her other memories were still clear. She focused on them, remembering baby Anna, little girl Anna playing with her in the snow…
"I still remember that" she muttered. "Baby Anna. Even if I remember everything this ice man whispered to me… I still remember that. He did not change that."
Elsa looked at the column again, a faint smile on her lips.
"I still remember that!" she said, hope creeping into her voice. "And it's not changing! If I can remember that, maybe the other Elsa can also remember it! That's what the Doctor meant when he said I should hold on the right memories, right?" She looked at the immobile column, then at her image, huddled near the railing. "If I can't help becoming this other Elsa, maybe I can help her becoming me again…"
Elsa slowly turned around, her eyes unfocused.
"The ice man made me throw away Anna's doll… I think I remember that. He did not want me to remember little Anna… our time together. Maybe that's the key. We have to tell her that…"
She paced nervously in the direction of her shimmering image before turning back.
"I have to warn Anna to tell her…" Elsa looked up thoughtfully at the ceiling with its strange intertwined circles. "Please, machine. If you can remember everything that people do and say and make it appear again, like you did… You have to tell them that. Tell my sister she needs to tell myself to remember about our youth. Of everything that happened before the accident. If I disappear when I leave… she will still know what to do."
Elsa stepped back from the console.
"Please, if I can help her come back inside and I'm not… there… just repeat what I said. She will know what I'm talking about. She needs to tell..." Elsa stopped, whirling around herself. "No, wait, that's not right. I can't ask Anna to speak with… the other me. She's so angry with her, she could… No, Anna must not come near her…" Elsa looked up. "Maybe the Doctor could do it?" She searched her memories. "The Doctor, the Doctor… No! I also remember having to hate him…"
Elsa slowly turned round to face the console again. Resolve slowly set on her face.
"I have to do it myself. I must talk with… her. Me."
She looked up at the central column.
"Please, machine. Let me do this. I need to talk with my other self. I don't know if I can reach her before disappearing, but I must do it, if it's the last thing I do. Please."
There was another sizzling sound behind her.
"If you leave the TARDIS, you will cease to exist" the Doctor's voice said.
"I know" Elsa said. She breathed deeply. "But maybe not instantly. Maybe I'll have time to reach my other self. Or simply help Anna come back safely in here. Just… If she does, could you please say this to her?"
Elsa turned around, looking in the distance, trying to imagine Anna in front of her.
"Hello Anna. I hope this works. I don't know if I'm still around… Maybe I'm with you just now and I'm feeling silly… But if I'm not there, if you did not see me… I went trying to tell the other Elsa about our past together. Before the accident. The voice in the ice did not change those memories, it wanted me to forget them… That's how I could stop being angry with you. If I'm not there, I probably disappeared… Someone has to tell her that. Not you, she's too dangerous, really dangerous for you, much more than I ever was. And the Doctor. Maybe this other woman who was with you? She must not know her. I'm… I'm going now. Maybe see you again, as myself. I hope."
Elsa turned back to the console.
"Please, machine, let me go out this time. I want to help my sister… And the Doctor as well. He was struck by the other me, if I can stop her maybe she could… save him. He will freeze otherwise."
Elsa slowly walked toward the door.
"If you leave the TARDIS, you will cease to exist" the Doctor's voice said once again behind her.
"I'm ready for that."
There was another sizzling sound. The ghostly Doctor appeared hunched in front of her, his eyes boring on her under his thick eyebrows.
"Now, please answer me truthfully. Do you really mean what you said?" he said.
"Yes" Elsa said, smiling.
A mechanical whirring suddenly erupted from the console. Then a noise she had come to know very well echoed in the room.
"No!" she yelled, turning round. "No, please! Please, machine! Don't take me away! I want to help my sister! Please!"
Elsa ran to the console, desperately trying to switch random levers and hit some buttons. The central column was rising and falling rhythmically as the sound of the TARDIS engines filled the room.
"No! Please! Don't leave my sister here! Stop! Don't move! Or take me to her! Please!"
The sound receded. The column ceased moving.
Elsa heard a click behind her.
The queen turned around and slowly walked up to the doors.
"Where did you take me?" she muttered.
She gingerly laid a hand on the doorknob and turned. The door opened. Elsa looked outside.
Her ice palace stood glittering under the starlight.
She slowly turned back to the console.
"Thank you" she muttered. "Thank you, TARDIS. Sorry for calling you a machine."
The queen slowly stepped out of the TARDIS, steadying herself as a wave of dizziness swept over her. She concentrated on the memories of her first years.
Then she began walking toward the castle, trying to keep her eyes focused on it and muttering words under her breath like a mantra.
"Anna in her crib… Anna in her crib… Anna in her crib."
Behind her, the sound of the TARDIS disappearing echoed loudly in the silence of the mountains. She did not paid attention to it as she headed for the most important conversation in her life.
Even if, technically, it would be a monologue.
The Great Intelligence slowly walked toward the little group, smiling mockingly.
"Doctor! Try the antifreeze thing!" Anna whispered.
The Doctor brandished his sonic screwdriver. It whistled, but Simeon kept advancing.
The Doctor shivered. Ice formed on his hand. He slowly slid to the ground, wrapping his arms around himself.
"Leave me. Now" he intimated in a low voice. "Lead Osmine to the TARDIS, you can find another route."
"I'm not leaving you here, Doctor!"
Anna looked around frantically. She rushed to an old crest on the wall, and desperately struggled to remove one of the swords embedded in it. The blade gave in eventually, snapping neatly a few inches above the hilt.
"Step back" Anna shouted, brandishing the broken sword in front of the advancing ice man.
"Don't do that, Anna, Your Highness" Osmine shouted. "It'll kill you!"
"Not leaving the Doctor" Anna answered through clenched teeth.
"Fine!"
Osmine jumped to the crest and struggled to remove the other sword. Her efforts were rewarded with a slightly longer stump of broken sword above the hilt.
"You heard the Princess" she said defiantly. "Step back!"
"Oh for the love of…"
The Doctor slowly stood up, clutching at his chest.
"I told you to go away" he said in a hoarse voice.
"I'm not leaving people behind!" Anna said.
"And you promised me to drop me somewhere amazing" Osmine added.
"How touching" Simeon said mockingly. Ice spikes began growing on the walls. "So I'll kill each of you, then."
"You really don't hold much of a power, do you" the Doctor asked, leaning against the wall. "You could have killed us everywhere in the castle if you really controlled any ice created by Platinum."
"I can control every ice she creates!"
"Do you need to gloat that badly that you have to appear everywhere you control ice? Or is it simply that you can't control anything until there is enough of your consciousness around to do the controlling? Because you could have created those spikes" he pointed to the advancing shards "any time you wanted. It's not as if we never stood near some ice since we've been there."
"I am in every ice she creates! I can feel anything the ice feels! And I can talk to her!"
"Doctor, what are you doing?" Anna whispered. She raised her sword stump as one of the spikes drew closer to them.
"That's very interesting" the Doctor said, ignoring her. "And I suppose your feeling increases when you are closer?"
The spike closed on the Doctor. Anna stepped forward and clanged her sword against it, neatly snapping the ice. Simeon winced.
"Thanks for helping me prove my point, Anna" the Doctor said softly. "So… you can probably feel this, then."
The Doctor closed his eyes and grimaced.
Simeon yelled and stepped back.
"What are you doing?" he screamed. "Stop this!" Water began to run along him. "I order you to stop!" he shouted, as he began to visibly melt.
"How are you doing that, Doctor?" Anna asked, puzzled.
"I can regulate my internal body temperature" the Doctor answered through clenched teeth. "So right now, I'm burning with a fever. And I just happen to have a little shard of ice in my heart."
"I understand!" Osmine said. "Since you said he feels what the ice feels… you are burning him." She paused and looked thoughtful. "How on Earth can you change your body temperature?!"
Anna looked dubiously at the slowly melting Simeon.
"Does that count as an act of true love?" she asked.
"Apparently not" the Doctor muttered. "This ice transmits the heat, but does not thaw. Did I mention it's also spreading faster through me now?"
The Doctor doubled back, grunting in pain.
"We have to move" Anna said, dropping her sword and grabbing his arm. She recoiled. "Ouch! You really are burning!"
"Not enough" the Doctor muttered. "I have to stop that. Go to the TARDIS, now. "
"No" Anna said simply, bracing herself and helping the Doctor on his feet. "Come, Osmine" she said, grunting under the effort.
"Go first" the dark haired woman answered, picking up Anna's discarded sword stump and facing the lump of ice that was trying to regain Simeon's shape. "I'll cover you."
Anna and the Doctor hobbled toward the staircase, with Osmine slowly walking backward behind them.
"Are you getting cooler?" Anna asked, as she helped the Doctor climbing down the stairs.
"Yes. I told you I can't hold this for long. Which means…"
With a crinkling sound, ice began to form on the Time Lord's face and hands. Anna looked around desperately as they descended the staircase, with Osmine following them a few steps above, her broken swords raised defensively.
"We have to find you an act of true love… The TARDIS!" she exclaimed. "You said you always travel with her… Maybe that counts as a family? Do you think that would be true love?"
"What are you suggesting?" the Doctor grunted, not hiding the sarcasm in his voice. "That I should kiss my time machine so that I stop freezing?"
"I don't know, maybe you could… she could… if she… do you know…" Anna bit her lip, frantically racking her brain. She helped the Doctor on the last step. They now were in a small antechamber. The princess pointed to a door. "She's right behind that door" she said. She looked at the Doctor. "Don't you have another power that could help you?" she asked. "You said you had a way out, can you take it now?"
"You never give up, don't you?" the Doctor said, smiling unexpectedly. Anna thought she saw a curious orange light glow under his skin for a second. "It's not time yet" he added.
"But you are going to turn to ice any second now! I know how it worked, it happened to me! Will it still be time when it's too late?"
"No. Go to the TARDIS with Osmine, now."
"You can barely stand! How will you reach it?"
A yell from Osmine interrupted whatever answer the Doctor was about to give. They turned to see Simeon standing in the room, mere meters from them.
"Enough games" he said dryly. "You die, now."
The hands of the ice man changed, becoming long spikes of ice.
"Run!"
Osmine jumped in front of him, shielding Anna and the Doctor with her body, her swords stumps raised defensively.
"I'll hold him off! If you have a way to leave this place, run away, now!" she shouted.
"But… I can't… Osmine! Doctor! I can't leave..."
"You heard her" the Doctor muttered in a hoarse voice.
Simeon swung one of his blades. Osmine braced herself and blocked the blow with one of her sword stumps. It was knocked out of her hands and clattered against the wall.
"Run away, now!" she shouted over her shoulder, as Simeon swung his other blade. "Run away, you clever…"
"Sorry" the Doctor said. "Not this time."
The Time Lord grabbed Osmine by the shoulders and pushed her away, stepping in front of the ice blade that plunged neatly into his chest.
Authors' Notes: The TARDIS has a holographic interface with which it can interact with people, but I found more interesting to have it use pieces of earlier conversations.
I don't remember the Doctor stating that he can control his temperature, but given the vast range of things Time Lords have been shown to do (like surviving in the vacuum for some time, for instance), that particular one did not feel to far-fetched to me.