"Don't move, Freckles!" the Doctor called. "We are unarmed!" he shouted to the creatures. One of them looked up at him, but the other two kept their arms aimed at Anna.
"Are these the… people living here?" Elsa asked in a whisper.
"Ice Warriors, yes," the Doctor answered out of the corner of his mouth. "Took me some time to realise they would still be around and active in this era. I must be getting old, or Ice-cream Brain distracted me. She's not a warrior!" he shouted at the creatures. "Freckles! Do like me!"
The Doctor placed his closed fist on his chest. "By the Moons I honour thee," he said in a clear voice. "I am the Doctor of Gallifrey."
Elsa looked at Anna trying to reproduce the Doctor's gesture.
"By the Moon I honour these," she parroted. "I am the Do… sorry, I am Anna of Arendelle."
The creatures did not move, but two of them were now pointing their wrists in the direction of Elsa and the Doctor. Elsa noticed a small muzzle fixed on their forearms.
"What are those devices on their wrists?" she whispered to the Doctor while keeping her gaze on the creatures below.
"Weapons," the Doctor hissed back. "We apologise," he said to the creatures, "we did not want to trespass on your territory."
"They are threatening Anna with weapons?" Elsa said, unable to keep her voice low this time.
"Hush! Yes, they're soldiers. They do that," the Doctor said. "But don't worry, they won't fire unless someone does something foolish."
"Hello!" came Olaf's cheerful voice below them. Elsa watched with horror as the little snowman walked toward one of the creatures. "I am Olaf and I like warm hugs."
"Something like this," she heard the Doctor say at her side.
"Sstand back," the creatures said, aiming its weapon at Olaf. Its voice was gravelly, each word sounding halfway between a growl and a hiss. "Sstand back or I will fire."
"He's not dangerous!" the Doctor called. "Ice-Cream Brain! Go back with Freckles, right now!"
The creature raised its weapon as Olaf made another step toward it before Anna could stop him.
"You have been ordered to sstop," the creature said. "I will fire."
"I love fire," Olaf said good-naturedly. "Can I…"
There was a high-pitched whistle, and the snowman was knocked back violently, his head, torso and feet flying in separate directions. Anna shouted and went to catch his head, but another of the creatures raised its hand in her direction as she moved, and there was another high-pitched whistle.
But a wall of ice was already rising between Anna and the creature. It shattered when the weapon whistled, but all Anna got was some icicles peppering her.
"Platinum! Stop this right now! We don't want to fight them!" the Doctor said urgently. "We are not here to fight!" he shouted.
"I'm not fighting," Elsa said through clenched teeth. "I'm protecting my sister."
Down below Anna had grabbed Olaf's head against her and was waving at the creatures around her with her free hand.
"I'm with them, and I'm not here to fight either," she was saying, slowly turning over herself to face each of them in succession.
"Did you do thiss?" a creature said, pointing at the crumbling wall of ice.
"I did," Elsa called. "But I'm not here to fight either!"
The creatures seemed to hesitate, but they kept their weapons trained on either Anna or Elsa.
"Do not move further," one of them hissed.
"Doctor?" Elsa whispered. "What do we do?"
"For now, we do what they say. You don't want to get shot like Ice-Cream Brain was."
"What was it they did to him?"
"Sonic gun. Nasty weapon. Ice-Cream Brain is lucky to be… well, ice cream."
"What would have happened to someone not made of… snow?"
"At low settings, it would knock you out. At higher settings, it would knock you out with enough force to pierce your skin and break your bones," the Doctor said matter-of-factly. "And at even higher settings… you don't want to know."
"But… it did not throw anything? There was no arrow, no bullet… And it destroyed my ice wall!"
"Yes. Compressed sonic wave. Very powerful, and very dangerous to living tissue."
"Didn't you say your wand was sonic too?"
"Yes, but my sonic screwdriver is a tool, not a weapon," the Doctor said definitely. "The only point it has in common with those weapons is that it could cancel a shot from one of them, but that would require precise timing."
Elsa looked down at the Ice Warriors surrounding Anna. One of them seemed to have been hissing something into its free wrist while she talked with the Doctor.
"Doctor?" she whispered. "What are they doing? Are we in trouble?"
"They are calling their superiors now. Your little show has surprised them."
"Sorry, I just wanted to protect Anna and Olaf."
"At least you picked their interest," the Doctor said. "But try to avoid doing it again for now. Displays of unusual powers can make people nervous, and you don't want to make soldiers nervous."
"What is that noise?" Kristoff said behind them.
Elsa realised she had been hearing a strange droning that seemed to come from above. She looked up and gasped. Something silvery was moving purposefully through the air toward them, but it did not look like anything she had ever seen flying – or anything she had ever seen at all, in fact – nor did it fly like anything she knew. It was bulky and full of angles, a bit like a coach, if coaches were made of metal with lots of strange appendages, and wobbling through the air like a skiff at full speed.
The thing slowly descended toward them, its droning sound rising in pitch the closest it came to the ground, and landed thirty feet from them in a cloud of red snow.
"What is that, Doctor?" Elsa asked in an awed voice.
"Probably one of their commanders," the Doctor said with satisfaction. "We should get some answers. The Ice Warriors are usually not that hostile, or trigger-happy for that matter."
He strode off purposefully toward the thing. He was halfway through when a hatch opened and an Ice Warrior stepped out.
"Halt!" it commanded. "Do not sstep further."
Elsa could not suppress another little gasp upon seeing one of them up close. It was bulkier and taller than a human, its armour apparently made of green scales. Its helmet covered most of its face, except for the mouth, which was filled with uncomfortably sharp teeth. Its armoured hands sported only three large fingers, and looked in fact more like claws than hands.
"Can we get on with it please?" the Doctor said impatiently. "OK," he went on as the Ice Warrior pointed its wrist weapon at him, "I'm stopping, look. Do I also have to put my hands up?"
The Ice Warrior moved aside and another one stepped out of the flying carriage. The newcomer wore a helmet with a noticeably different shape that was adorned with what looked like jewels.
"By the Moons I honour thee," the Doctor said, placing his fist on his chest. "I am the Doctor of Gallifrey."
Elsa found herself stepping forward. Maybe it was her diplomatic habits taking over or maybe it was a vague desire to prove to the Doctor – or even to herself – that she could handle unusual situations like these. She did her best to imitate the Doctor's gesture and summoned all her experience as a Queen to keep a steady voice when she spoke.
"By the Moons, I honour thee," she intoned. "I am Elsa of Arendelle."
She briefly glanced at the Doctor and imagined she caught an approving smirk on the man's face.
"Err… what they said," Kristoff said, vaguely punching his chest. "I am Kristoff of, er, the ice harvesters."
The creature nodded imperceptibly.
"I am Marshall Hamraak, of the Tharseesian Castle," it hissed. "Have you come here to ssurrender?"
"Why would we surrender?" the Doctor said. "We are not at war."
"Do not lie to me," the Ice Warrior growled. "We know we have been sstalked by an unknown enemy for ssome time. We have finally caught you. Will you deny your involvement?"
"Of course we deny it!" came Anna's unexpected voice. Elsa turned to discover that her sister and Olaf had climbed back up, still flanked by the three Ice Warriors that had captured them. "Excuse me, Sir," she went on, "how did you know you were sstalked, sorry, stalked, by this enemy? Were they… following you around, or something? Because we have just arrived here, and I'm pretty sure we did not stalk anyone. Oh, and I honour thee by the Moons, of course," she added as an afterthought, briefly moving her fist to her chest.
"By the honour I moon thee," Olaf said cheerfully. "I think you got it wrong Anna," he hissed loudly.
The Ice Warrior ignored him and looked at Anna without speaking, breathing heavily, its expression undecipherable behind its mask, although Elsa wondered if it was not for the best that she could not see its face
"Good point, Freckles," the Doctor said. "So, what has this enemy of yours been doing that could frighten a whole army of well armed Ice Warriors?"
"Ssilence!" the Marshall boomed. "You are not to assk quesstions!"
"Sorry, but that's usually the best way to get answers," the Doctor said quickly. "And that would be easier to clear this misunderstanding. Freckles here is right," he said, jerking his thumb toward Anna. "We have landed here less than an hour ago, so I don't think we would have had the time to stalk anyone except maybe by accident."
"Are you going to pretend," the Ice Warrior said, slowly advancing on the Doctor who did flinch one bit, "that you are not responsible for the ssituation here?"
"Of course not!" Anna blurted out. "Er, I mean, yes, we are going to pretend that we are not responsible, and it's not pretending because it's true anyway! I have done nothing apart from jumping around since I've been here! And neither did any of us!"
"Good point again, Freckles," the Doctor said mid voice, "but perhaps you should let me do the talking now. I'm better used to that sort of thing than you."
"You have already done this?" Anna hissed back incredulously. "Talking with people who say that you attacked them when you did not?"
"Long before and after you were born. It's amazing how people tend to jump to the conclusion that newcomers are the cause of all their problems."
Elsa had been looking nervously from the discussion between the Doctor and her sister to the Ice Warrior Marshall who stood looking at them, breathing heavily. One of the Ice Warriors who had caught Anna and Olaf was now whispering something in its ear. She jumped as the Marshall stepped further toward the group and extended a claw in her direction.
"That one attacked my warriors with a cryonic weapon," it said, its voice dripping with menace.
"I did not attack anyone!" Elsa cried. "I just created an ice wall to protect my sister! It was purely defensive!"
"What device did you use to create thiss ice wall?" the Marshall demanded.
"Er… no device… I just, uh… did it, uh, by myself. Er… It's magic," Elsa said, trying to hold the gaze of the creature, or at least what she supposed to be its gaze under the red lenses on its helmet where eyes should be on a human head.
"What sspecies are you?"
"Human," the Doctor said curtly. "All of them. Except for Ice-Cream Brain, who is one of a kind, I hope. And I'm a Time Lord."
"The apess from the third planet do not have ssuch abilitiess."
"She's special!" Anna said, stepping between the Ice Warrior and her sister. "She has magic powers. And she's not an ape."
"And I don't think your problems are due to the cold in any case," the Doctor said. "I think you have the exact opposite issue. I think you are concerned with the temperature, which is rising, while it should not. And that's not something you like nor understand. And I guarantee you that we are not responsible for it."
The Marshall looked at the Doctor, breathing heavily.
"What do you know about thiss?" it asked eventually.
"Nothing yet, except what I have noticed as soon as I stepped on your planet. Warm air currents here and there. Patterns on the surface of the snow. And I know for a fact that the temperature should have dropped before the air thinned out, and it is not nearly as cold right now as it should be. That's what threw me off, by the way," he said, half turning to Elsa.
"You will tell uss everything you know about thiss!" Hamraak said.
"You'll soon find out that we don't know much yet. Apart of course that you have reasons to suspect foul play, since you were so eager to find people to pin the blame on. So maybe there is a bit more than simply the air being too warm. Perhaps a couple of disappearances? That would make you suspect enemy action without being sure."
The Marshall looked at him for a couple of seconds, breathing heavily.
"You sseem to know much, desspite what you say," it said at least.
"Just observation and deduction. You could do the same if you tried thinking instead of threatening."
"Then you will be interrogated. Take them away," the Marshall said, gesturing to the guards.
"Oh, come on, I'm sure we can talk this over!" Anna said.
The Doctor raised a warning hand and Elsa tried to catch her sister's shoulder to stop her, but Anna was already walking resolutely toward the fearsome creature.
"Listen," she said, "we did not know we were trespassing on your territory. There were no signs or fences anywhere, and I looked, you know. I have only been jumping around a bit with Olaf, and I'm pretty sure we did not break anything at all… OK, maybe we disturbed a couple of rocks. And left some footprints in the snow. It's not forbidden to leave footprints in the snow, is it?"
"Footprintss are not relevant," the Ice Warrior said, visibly puzzled by the complete disregard Anna was showing for the weapons aimed at her.
"Fine! Then that's all we did here. I swear we have not been stalking you. Why would anyone want to stalk you anyway?"
"The Ice Warriors have powerful enemies," the Ice Warrior hissed. "Now you will…"
"But we are not your enemies," Anna went on, undeterred. "And we are not powerful either. Well, I'm not. Elsa has powers, but she's very careful not to hurt anyone with them. And the Doctor… well, the Doctor is very clever. I'm sure he could help you, if you asked him nicely. He's very good at helping people."
Elsa had been watching the exchange tensely, hoping she could be fast enough to protect Anna if one of the Ice Warriors decided to fire its horrible sonic weapon at her sister. She risked a sideways glance at the Doctor, and was mildly surprised to see that the Time Lord was looking at the discussion with an appraising smirk, apparently content to remain silent for once.
"And I want to help you too, if I can," Anna went on, almost as calmly as if she had been standing in the great hall of the Arendelle palace instead of a plain of red snow surrounded by seven feet tall reptiles. "I can…. Well, right now I have no idea what I can do, but I'm sure I will find something. And maybe all of this is just a misunderstanding and nobody is stalking you after all."
"Ssome of our warriors have disappeared," the Ice Warrior growled. "Thiss is not a ssimple missundersstanding."
"Maybe they got lost?"
"Ice Warriors don't get losst!" the Ice Warrior snapped. "Is that the kind of help you offer? Inssultss?"
"That's when I come in," the Doctor said, stepping forward. "Not for the insults, at least not yet. And first I would like to speak to the person in charge, and that is not you. I am sure that you are doing a perfectly fine job ordering your soldiers around, but the Tharseesian caste is not under command of a simple Marshall. It would take at least an Ice Lord or a Grand Marshall."
Hamraak moved closer to the Doctor, hissing, but once again the Doctor did not seem impressed in the slightest.
"What do you know about uss? About our casste?"
"I know that the Ice Warriors are very honourable," the Doctor said, "for soldiers, anyway, and a noble race who should have stuck to writing their great poetry, but that's not the point now."
"Oh, you wrote poetry? I love listening to poetry! And stories!"
"Hush, Ice-Cream Brain! And I know that a Grand Marshall is leading the Tharseesian caste, and I don't think you'd be led by any rank lower than that. Oh, unless of course, this situation you are so concerned about involves your leader disappearing, leaving you the highest ranking warrior in charge, which would be embarrassing for me, so I'll ignore that theory."
"Have you met a Grand Marshall of the Tharseesian caste?"
The Doctor seemed to hesitate for a second before answering.
"Yes, once. Name was Skaldak. Ring a bell?"
Elsa would be the first to admit that she was not always good at reading body language – years spent avoiding people would do that to you – and even more so when the people to read were seven feet tall pointy-toothed creatures in scaly armour. But even she was able to notice the impact on the Ice Warriors around them of the name the Doctor had said. They straightened their position and one of them snarled at him.
"What do you know of Skaldak?" Hamraak said in a threatening tone.
"He was a great warrior, respected and feared by his enemies and allies alike," the Doctor said matter-of-factly. "So, can you take us to your leader now?"
The Ice Warrior hissed without answering.
"Right, I guess your base must be this way," the Doctor said, pointing to the direction the flying carriage had come from. "Let's go now," he went on, striding through the red snow without waiting for an answer.
Elsa looked in apprehension at the Ice Warriors gathered in front of them. The creatures were hissing, some of them turning to point their wrist weapons at the retreating Doctor while others were still aiming at the Arendellians.
"OK, let's go then," Anna said cheerfully. She started walking behind the Doctor then stopped and turned toward the group. "Come on, Elsa!" she said with a wave. "And you too, Marshall Hamraak. Your base is that way, right?"
"Yes," the Doctor called, brandishing his whistling sonic screwdriver. "It should not be a long walk."
Hamraak hissed an order. Two of the Ice Warriors started following the Doctor, while the other two gestured for Elsa and Kristoff to move.
"What happened?" Kristoff said, dumbfounded, as they started walking behind Anna and the Doctor, followed by the two Ice Warriors.
"I think Anna happened," Elsa said softly. "And the Doctor, of course." She quickened her pace to reach her sister's level, a couple of feet behind the Doctor.
"Anna, are you all right?" she said.
"Yes, I'm fine! This was fun!"
"Weren't you afraid? Talking to these… Ice Warriors who were pointing their weapons at you?"
"Was that the thing on their wrists?"
"Yes! The Doctor said it's a… sonic… weapon. It can harm things with… sound, I think."
"Oh, so this was how they disassembled Olaf and destroyed your wall?"
"Yes! But it can be much more harmful than that! You could have been hurt if they had decided to fire at you!"
"But they did not," Anna said cheerfully. "I guess we startled them so that's why they were so defensive but now we have talked this over things should be OK and we will all be friends."
Elsa spared a glance at the foreboding Ice Warriors stomping behind them and considered asking Anna if she really thought she could have startled them.
"Who are they anyway?" Anna went on.
"The Doctor says they are Ice Warriors. They are… from here. From Mars."
"So, we have been trespassing on their planet without introducing ourselves first! No wonder they would be suspicious of us."
They walked in silence for a while, during which Elsa did her best to share her sister's optimism, but it was not an easy task. She could not help wondering if the Ice Warriors had even more dangerous weapons in her arsenal, some that could harm even Olaf, and whether her powers could do anything to protect her family. She had seen how the Ice Warrior's strange weapons had shattered her ice wall in a second, something no arrows or even bullets had even managed to do - Anna had once asked the guards to try shooting at her sister's walls with their rifles to see what would happen, and none had come close to shattering them as easily as the Ice Warriors weapons had done.
"Why is the snow red?" Olaf asked as they crossed an area where the snow's unusual tint was particularly noticeable.
"Iron oxide dust," the Doctor called without turning around.
"Ooh, great! What is ironoxidust?"
"Rust," the Doctor said, still striding ahead of them without turning back.
Elsa looked up to a droning sound from above. Hamraak's flying carriage, which had been hovering a hundred feet above them, was accelerating and soon disappeared behind a rocky outcrop.
"Doctor!" she called, hurrying to the Time Lord's level.. "What is that… contraption that Hamraak is travelling with?"
"Antigrav shuttle," the Doctor answered. "A rather simple vehicle but handy to quickly cross short distances."
"That could be useful when we go visit Kristoff's parents," Anna remarked behind her.
"What's wrong with my sled?" Kristoff grumbled.
"Ah, there we are," the Doctor said after a few more minutes of walking.
Elsa realised that what had looked like an assembly of very regular rocks was in fact an artificial construction when one of them slid aside noiselessly, and two more Ice Warriors stepped out, arms pointed at them. The Doctor slowed down, while the clomping Ice Warriors who had been following them caught up with the group.
"What do we do, Doctor?" Elsa asked.
"What else do you want to do, Platinum?" the Doctor said with a smirk. "We've come to meet their leader. We go in. Try not to make any ice walls unless really necessary."
There was a brief hissing exchange between the Ice Warriors, who then gestured the group to enter. Elsa found herself walking through a long descending tunnel where rock soon gave place to metal and other materials that looked like different types of crystal. There were strange, otherworldly noises in the distance, and occasionally a side door would slide open to reveal a room full of Ice Warriors looking at bizarre devices that vaguely reminded Elsa of the apparatuses in the Doctor's TARDIS, mainly because they too were completely alien to her. Eventually they were ushered into a large room, with its walls full of blinking lights, and various devices of unknown use scattered here and there.
There were also a lot of Ice Warriors milling around, but one of them, who was surrounded by a small group, stood out from the rest. Its helmet had a more refined shape, and it was wearing something that looked like a long, green cape over its armour. A bunch of thick green cables was hanging from its head. Its stance reminded Elsa of a sovereign, amidst their advisers and honour guard. She thought she recognised Hamraak among the group surrounding it.
The putative ruler slowly walked to the little group, its hissing breathing filling the suddenly silent room, and stopped a dozen feet from them.
The Doctor stepped forward and repeated the salute that Elsa was beginning to know well.
"By the Moons, I honour thee," he intoned. "I'm the Doctor of Gallifrey."
"By the Moons, I honour thee," Elsa parroted. "I'm Queen Elsa of Arendelle." If this was a high ranked dignitary of the Ice Warrior, she had to use her full title.
She heard whispering between Anna and Olaf. Then her sister spoke.
"By the Moon, er, Moons, I honour thee," her sister said. "I'm Princess Anna of Arendelle."
"By the moon I honour thee too," Olaf said cheerfully. "I'm Olaf and I like warm hugs. Who is thee exactly?"
Kristoff muttered something that sounded like the same salute, but Elsa could not hear how he introduced himself. She knew her sister's boyfriend had never been comfortable on formal occasions like this, and she could not blame him for being even less at ease on this one.
The Ice Warrior cocked its head on the side and looked in turn at each of them, slightly too long for comfort to Elsa's taste. Then it spoke, and Elsa was surprised to discover that its voice was pitched higher than the Ice Warriors' she had met so far.
"I am Queen Ixadra of the Tharseesian caste," it said, "daughter of Grand Marshall Skaldak." The Ice Warrior's gaze lingered on the Doctor. "Do you know anything about his whereaboutsss?"
"No, sorry," the Doctor said quickly. "Just heard about him, that's all."
"But you ssseemed to know more about the heat rising and our warriorsss disappearing?"
"Just some observations, for now," the Doctor said. "But I can look into this further. I'm good at looking into things."
The Ice Warrior Queen slowly moved toward the unflinching Doctor, and hissed for a moment while looking at him closely. Then it turned suddenly toward Anna.
"You sssaid that you could help, Princessss Anna?" it said.
To Elsa's admiration, it took less than a second for her sister to rally.
"Certainly, Queen… Ixarda," Anna managed. "I mean, I'm not sure how I could help, but I'm ready to do it."
"Ssso you have no idea whether your help would be valuable to usss?" Ixadra said, slowly pacing around her.
"At the moment, I don't," Anna said frankly. "But I just arrived here. If you give me some time I'm sure I will find something that will help you. Er… have you tried organising searching parties to find your missing warriors?" she added almost immediately.
"Do you think we are foolsss, Princesses Anna? We have sssearched and ssscanned the areas where they were lassst ssseen. We found nothing."
"Oh, then… I'll find something else in a moment."
The Ice Queen turned toward Elsa, who had had some time to prepare herself and managed to return the gaze from the red lenses. Nevertheless, she was not entirely certain there was not some ice forming at her feet. Thankfully this was not much of a problem here – the temperature inside the Ice Warrior base was quite low to begin with, judging from the clouds forming from Anna and Kristoff's breaths.
"And how about you, Queen Elsssa?" the Ice Queen said.
"I'm ready to help too if I can."
"It ssseemsss you have sssome… interesssting cryokinetic abilitiesss. Would you be ready to use them asss part of the help you offer?"
"Cryokine… oh, cryo, cold?" Elsa hesitated for a second. "It depends. I won't use them to harm people."
Ixadra hissed for a second.
"Can you alssso create… heat?"
"No. I can thaw what I froze, though."
"And what isss thisss?" Ixadra said suddenly, pointing at Olaf.
"Hello, I'm Olaf and I like warm hugs!" Olaf said earnestly.
"He's… our friend," Elsa said.
"Isss he a creature of snow?"
"Err… yes. That's… thanks to my powers."
"Interesssting. That mussst be very useful. An army of snow creatures should be very powerful."
"Oh, er… I… never thought about that. Er… I don't think I would, er… It is an interesting idea, I shall consider it," Elsa said, remembering one of her father's advice on how to answer an utterly ridiculous suggestion without offending the person making it. She then wondered if Ixadra had received the same advice when the creature hissed wordlessly, its lips parting into something that could be either a smile or simply a way to show a lot of pointy teeth.
"And who is the lassst male?" she said, pointing at Kristoff.
"He's my boyfriend," Anna said readily.
Ixadra cocked her head to the side, hissing the word "boyfriend" as if she did not understand it. Yet she did not comment further on it, and Elsa was struck by the similarity between the Ice Warrior's behaviour and her own when she was trying to act like a dignified queen. She was slowly beginning to see the creature in front of her as another head of state, like she had encountered many before, instead of a seven feet tall armoured reptile surrounded by guards as terrifying as her and armed with strange and equally terrifying weapons.
"So, now that the introductions are complete," the Doctor said with authority, "maybe we could start working seriously. You have a problem with the atmosphere heating up. I can look into this, but you have to allow my companions to leave safely."
"Wait, what?" Anna said. "Why are you sending us away?"
The Doctor seemed uncharacteristically at a loss for words for a second. He leaned toward Anna and hissed something in her ear. Elsa thought she could make out the words "safe" and "TARDIS".
"But I don't want to go waiting in the TARDIS while you are going on an adventure!" Anna said. "I want to investigate too! This looks like fun!"
"Anna!" Elsa hissed. "This is not supposed to be fun!"
"No, of course, I did not say you were fun at all," she said, shooting one of her disarming smiles at Ixadra, although Elsa wondered how that would look to an Ice Warrior. "But investigating should be fun! And we would be helping those people," Anna went on, with a broad gesture encompassing the room full of strange, blinking, chiming devices and even stranger creatures, "and there are so many new things around and I could try jumping higher too!"
"Your enthusiasssm to help usss is noted and appreciated, Princessss Anna," Ixadra said. "But it is not enough for me to fully trussst you."
"Yes, Freckles has an untrustworthy face," the Doctor cut in. "I'm much more trustworthy. Let me take care of this thing alone. For one thing, did you know your sensor system has been glitching a lot?"
"How do you know that?" Ixadra snapped.
"I accessed it while you were talking," the Doctor said, brandishing his sonic screwdriver. "Sonic technology interfaces well. I wanted to see what you could have missed."
Ixadra hissed for a second before answering.
"You will not interfere further with our sssyssstemsss, Doctor," she said threateningly. "I don't trussst any of you. But I am willing to offer you a chance to earn thisss trussst." She pointed a clawed finger at the Doctor. "You will go invessstigate thisss heat, with her," she added, her finger moving to Anna. "We will track your progressss with our sssensssorsss. The othersss will remain here."
"Yay!" Anna said, jumping in place. The Doctor's hand shot up and caught her as she was beginning to ascend. "Oh, sorry, forgot about the jumping here… Thank you, Queen Ixadra," she added politely. "We will do our best to help you. Wait, why can't Elsa, Olaf and Kristoff come with us?"
"They will ssstay with usss," Ixadra said. "Asss… our honoured guessstsss."
"I did not know Ice Warriors took hostages," the Doctor said curtly.
"Wait, what? Hostages?"
"I assure you, Doctor, they will be treated asss should befit a Queen and her honour guard. They have nothing to fear from usss… asss long as you are honessst with usss in return. Thisss is a honourable agreement under the circumssstances."
"Can't I come with them, at least?" Kristoff said. "Sorry, your Majesty, but, er, I love Anna, and I know a few things about snow and mountains, and this world of yours seems to have a lot of them."
"Ah, the male ssspeaksss," Ixadra said. "But is he also familiar with the Martian mountainsss and sssnow?"
"Aren't they the same anywhere?" Kristoff said. "Snow is snow, even red. And my name is Kristoff. Look, I just want to make sure that Anna is OK. "
"Your loyalty is commendable, little Krissstoff. But thisss isss not open for debate. You will content yourself to ssstay apart from your consssort."
Elsa smiled faintly despite herself at hearing Kristoff being called little. But Ixadra was indeed taller than him, something that few people apart from Oaken managed to do, at least in Arendelle.
"Do I have your word that they will not be mistreated until we come back?" the Doctor said after a moment, his piercing stare fixed on the Ice Warrior Queen.
"Are you doubting me, Doctor?" Ixadra said threateningly. "I jussst sssaid they would be treated as honoured guessstsss. You will not asssk more assssurance from me!"
"We will be fine, Doctor," Elsa said quickly. She had begun to wonder exactly how much control the Doctor had on the situation, but in any case she did not think that angering a seven feet tall queen in a room full of her soldiers was a good idea. "Don't worry."
The Doctor bore his piercing eyes into hers for a second, but did not answer. Elsa walked to her sister.
"Please, be careful, Anna," she said. "We don't know anything in this strange land. Listen to the Doctor."
"Of course, Elsa, I will. Please be careful too. And you too, Olaf."
"Of course, Anna. I will make sure Elsa is safe!" Olaf said cheerfully.
As Anna went to Kristoff, Elsa turned to the Doctor, who had kept looking from them to the Ice Warrior Queen.
"Doctor," she said in a low voice, "are we in danger?"
"Not for now," he answered in a whisper. "But stay sharp."
"OK. Er… please keep Anna safe," she said. The Doctor nodded.
As Elsa reluctantly followed a group of guards out of the room with Olaf and Kristoff, she craned her head to get a look at her sister. Anna caught her eye, and waved at her, smiling confidently, and Elsa did her best to smile back. As she left the room, she found herself hoping that the foreboding she felt was simply due to their unfamiliar surroundings.
Author's Notes: I began writing this a few years ago, and I had decided from the start that it would involve Skaldak's daughter. Since then, the season 10 episode "The Empress of Mars" has aired, which introduced Ice Queens, so I decided to make her one.
By the way, another thing that this episode established was that the Doctor was familiar with Frozen, which made me laugh a lot, even if it raises some questions about crossovers like this one.