"YOU HAVE SENT INFORMATION TO THE ICE WARRIORS, DOCTOR!" a Dalek shrieked.

"Technically, it is you who sent it when you accessed their sensor network remotely."

"THIS WAS USELESS. THERE IS NOTHING THEY CAN DO TO STOP US. WE WILL NOT TOLERATE ANY MORE TRICKS. THE DALEK PLAN WILL PROCEED WITHOUT INTERRUPTION!"

"Oh, are you really sure of that?" the Doctor said with a sarcastic smile.

"YOU WILL BE EXTERMINATED! YOUR COMPANION WILL BE CONVERTED! NOBODY CAN HELP YOU NOW!"

"Except possibly my old friend Houdini," the Doctor said calmly. "And those cheeky Venusian nuns. And of course, my trusty sonic, which has just found the right frequency again if I'm not wrong." He shot a brief but intense glance at Kristoff. "So I still think I will try, thank you very much."

And then things went very fast. One of the Doctor's hands slipped out of the grasp of the Ice Warrior who had been holding him, in a movement that did not seem natural for someone with a normal wrist. His hand shot upward, brandishing the whistling sonic screwdriver. Then the Doctor made another complicated movement, and the other Ice Warrior holding him was suddenly pirouetting over himself and falling on top of the Dalek facing them.

Kristoff felt the Ice Warrior holding him stiffen as the sonic screwdriver rose in pitch. He made another attempt to yank himself out of his captor's grasp, and to his surprise managed to free one of his arms. The Ice Warrior tried to catch him again, but his movements were suddenly twitchy and erratic, just like when the Doctor had used his screwdriver to paralyse them before.

Kristoff, who in his childhood had wrestled with young stone Trolls twice his weight, did not have too much difficulty freeing his other arm and throwing the taller and heavier Ice Warrior to the ground. As the Martian fell, Kristoff looked wildly around him, trying to spot Anna among the crowd of Ice Warrior puppets, but the Doctor grabbed his hand and shouted for him to follow before he had time to find her. Kristoff was hesitating whether to obey him when a white beam, accompanied with a shriek of "EXTERMINATE!", missed him by a couple of inches thanks to a well-timed shove from the Doctor. With a last desperate look around the room he followed the man who slalomed expertly through the crowd of twitching Ice Warriors and reached the exit, accompanied by the whines of the Dalek weapons and sparks flying around them. As they crossed the threshold, Kristoff heard Dalek voices shrieking to follow and exterminate them.

They both ran through the Dalek ship in one of those mad dashes with which Kristoff was becoming familiar. That one however did not last too long, and the Doctor soon dived behind a debris, pulling Kristoff behind him, after having run what seemed an uncomfortably short distance away from the room full of Daleks and their pursuers. Kristoff flattened himself against the wall, trying to calm his breath and hoping the beating of his heart was not loud enough to attract attention.

A Dalek glided through the corridor they had just left a moment later, shrieking about exterminating the Doctor, followed by a squad of clomping Ice Warrior puppets. As the last member of the squad walked into view, Kristoff felt one of the Doctor's hands clamp over his mouth while the other grabbed his arm.

"If you do or say anything they'll catch us, and I'm out of tricks for the moment," he whispered in his ear.

Kristoff managed to resist the urge to escape the man's grip as he watched Anna follow the Ice Warrior squad through the corridor. She was carrying a large weapon, moving rigidly like a clockwork soldier, although with the occasional stumble. At least he could take some comfort from the fact that Anna's lovely forehead had not been disgraced by an eye stick like the other Ice Warrior puppets. The Doctor's grip only relaxed when the footsteps had died away.

"Aren't we going to save her, Doctor?" Kristoff hissed.

"Not right now," the Doctor said. "I need to stop the Daleks from blowing up this volcano. Oh, and exterminating us. Are you willing to help?"

"I'm… no. I want to go after Anna."

"She knocked you out, remember? She will do it again. And if she's with her new friends, they will probably use more lethal means."

"I won't let Anna down! She wouldn't let me down if I was in her place! She wouldn't let anybody down!"

The Doctor sighed.

"Listen, Reindeer Man. Your girlfriend now thinks like a Dalek. If you try to get her back, she will simply take this as an opportunity to capture you, or worse. For now there is nothing we can do for her."

"I won't… What do you mean, for now? The… the thing they did to her will wear off?"

"Probably not. But the conversion was not complete, so there is some hope. Have you seen how she was walking?"

"Like a clockwork soldier! That was awful."

"I meant the stumbling."

"Oh, er, that… well, Anna can be clumsy sometimes. Maybe that's one thing they did not manage to suppress."

"No. That was not clumsiness for the sake of clumsiness. That was like… wearing clothes that don't fit. You're clumsy when this happens. You can't believe how clumsy I was when I was wearing a bow tie."

"I hope you were nicer, at least."

"My point is, Freckles is wearing thoughts that don't fit her. She's probably fighting them from the inside, if only a little. That's also why she shot at me, but merely knocked you out. There is a small part of her inside that is still resisting, but she won't be able to shake the brainwashing on her own."

"Then we have to help her!"

"We are not the right help, Reindeer Man. But if it's any consolation, what we are going to do will also help her. Because if we don't keep the Daleks busy enough, they will probably realise after a while that her conditioning was not complete, and will either complete it or simply exterminate her."

"Yeah, but… who is the right help?"

"I already asked you, who do you think Freckles loves the most?"

"Well that… wait, you can't think of bringing Elsa here!"

"No, but I hope she'll come. Right now she's the only one who can do something for Freckles."

"Wait… so when we saw Elsa and the Ice Warriors on the screen earlier… it really was happening? She's back with the Ice Warriors?"

"Yes. I was hoping she would be clever enough to do that, or that Ice Cream Brain would find her if she did not."

"And they could hear and see us?"

"I very much hope so. You can never be sure with the Ice Warriors, but judging by how she was screaming at her sister, I'd say Platinum heard and saw enough to understand what was going on."

"So… you knew she was listening and you kept repeating that Anna had been… are you completely stupid, or do you enjoy seeing people suffering?"

"I can be very stupid when I don't put my mind to it, but there is nothing enjoyable in seeing people suffering," the Doctor snapped. "I just don't understand the need you humans have to hold off giving bad news or sugar-coating them. If I had a sister who had been turned into a Dalek servant, I'd prefer to be informed as soon as possible. It would save a lot of embarrassment later on."

"But you don't have a sister, do you?"

"We'd better get moving now, Reindeer Man. That patrol will come back. And… there is still the possibility that I made a miscalculation."

"When did you have to calculate anything?"

"I meant about the situation. If I'm right, and if you do exactly what I say… we could have a chance of stopping the Daleks and getting out of here alive."

"And if you're wrong?" Kristoff could not stop himself from asking.

"We might still be able to stop the Daleks," the Doctor said airily. "But we will all die in the process."


Elsa had retreated to the ward. There were too many people moving around in the main room, and the air here did make her headache recede further, although it now felt like a minor inconvenience. She was sitting on the edge of the slab where she had woken up, wrapped in Anna's cape, her eyes unfocused. From time to time she would glance at her hands in fear of seeing frost appearing around them, out of an old habit born from years of fear.

"So… what Thedoctor said was not a good thing for Anna, right?" Olaf asked softly. The little snowman had managed to haul himself on the slab and was sitting next to her.

"No," Elsa managed to answer. "She has been captured by the Daleks. They have done... something to her. I can't do… I can't do anything to help her. It's all my fault."

"But you were not the one who did something! You just told me it was the Daleks."

"I should have protected her! I should have… I should have been able to do something."

"What could you have done?"

"We got separated. When we were on the Dalek ship. I decided to keep following the Doctor instead of going after her. She said we'd meet outside, you see, and… I should have gone back for her. I should have gone with her."

"What happened?"

"I managed to escape the Dalek ship, and she probably got captured and… have you seen how she looked? She did not have that horrible stick in her forehead, but she looked so… so… cold…"

"So, you are saying that if you had gone with Anna you would have both managed to escape instead of both being captured?"

"What? Oh, yes, you're right, Olaf, there's no reason to believe I could have done something… In fact, without my powers I would probably have been captured just like her. But… at least I could have tried something, you see? I would have… I could have…" Elsa sighed. "At least if we had both been captured and turned into… into this… we would still be together," she finished in a whisper.

"And I would be alone," Olaf said cheerfully.

"Sorry, Olaf," Elsa said, turning toward him. "I'm selfish. But… I can't imagine a life without Anna, and what happened to her is so… there's no words for it! She was looking ahead of her as if she was a statue."

"But she's still alive, right? So maybe she could be made… Anna again?"

"Maybe. But I don't know if the Doctor can do it."

"Why couldn't you do it?"

"Me?" Elsa said with a bitter laugh. "Me? What can I do, Olaf? I've lost my powers! I can't even breathe normally when I leave this room! I'm useless!"

"Oh, right, I forgot," Olaf said. "You can have my breathing pill," he went on, flourishing a large pill like those the Doctor had given them during their first minutes on Mars. "Thedoctor said that maybe I would not need it, and I think he was right because nothing happened when I took it. It did not even taste good."

"Thank you, Olaf," Elsa said, taking the pill and letting it dissolve on her tongue. "But even if I can leave this room for a while, that does not change the fact that I'm useless without my powers."

"But you are more than your powers, Elsa! Anna managed to find you on the North Mountain, and she did not have any powers either! And I'm sure you can do just like her!"

"It's nice of you to say so, Olaf, but… these Daleks… they are worse than anything we have ever encountered! They're… they're even more dangerous than my powers ever were!"

"Your powers are not dangerous! I'm alive thanks to them."

"They can be dangerous, Olaf. When I feared them. When I hurt Anna and froze the kingdom."

"So you fear the Daleks?"

"Well I… yes, they are very dangerous. They could kill everyone or turn them into puppets. Or both."

"Do you fear them like you feared your powers?"

"Well… It's different, Olaf. My powers were… I mean… they were not actively trying to hurt people. I never tried to… I never wanted to hurt anyone, Olaf."

"You never really hurt anyone, Elsa," Olaf said comfortingly.

"But I did, Olaf! I killed this Dalek with my powers. I wanted it to die. I wanted my powers to kill it. I had never… I had never wanted something like this." Elsa took a ragged breath. "You see," she managed to say in a calmer voice, "we had been travelling with the Doctor earlier, er, today and… there was something in my past that was changed and, er, another past me tried to hurt Anna. It's complicated, I don't understand everything either but… even then, this other me, I remember sometimes having been her. She was so angry but … she did not really want to hurt Anna, it was more about trying to see what would happen. Anyway, the Doctor says I can choose not to have been her, and I chose that. But this Dalek… I wanted to hurt it. I wanted it to turn to ice. I wanted it dead."

"But if you hadn't, uh, stopped it, it would have killed us, right?"

"That's not the point, Olaf. I used my powers to kill. And if I still had them… if I still had them… yes," Elsa said, clenching her fist, "I think I would use them again to try killing Daleks. At least until they let Anna go. And Kristoff and the Doctor, of course."

"But… isn't that a good thing? Freeing Anna, Kristoff and Thedoctor, I mean?"

"But I should not want to use my powers for this, Olaf! I should… I mean… I don't know why I got these powers, but I'm sure they were not given to me so that I could kill things with them! Even the Daleks! I should not use them for this! I don't… I don't deserve them, Olaf. I don't deserve to have these powers."

"So… you think you lost your powers because you did not deserve them?" Olaf asked quietly after a pause.

"Maybe," Elsa said dejectedly. "Maybe I was not supposed to want to kill something with it… and succeed. It would be for the best, really."

"Well, if you think it's for the best, that's great, then!" Olaf said cheerfully. "Now, how do you think we should go about freeing Anna from the Daleks? And Kristoff and Thedoctor, of course."

"What?"

"Well, I'm sure the Ice Warriors will do something, but maybe we could do something to help them too. If they go to rescue Anna from the Daleks we could stay here and press some of those buttons on these machines they have. This time we would be doing it to help and Thedoctor would not have anything to say about it."

Elsa sagged. Olaf was right, she should have been planning on how to rescue Anna instead of moping about herself. But she really felt at a loss on how to proceed. She was in an alien world, facing a threat she could barely comprehend, with her powers gone and Olaf as her only remaining companion. Learning about Anna's fate had shocked her in a way she had never experienced before. Those empty eyes, void of any spark of reaction when talking about her, were beyond the worst fate she could have dreaded for her sister. Even her face when she had been frozen into an ice statue had been more expressive.

Elsa passed her arm around Olaf and wordlessly held him closer to her.

"Elsa? It's going to be alright," the little snowman said.

Elsa could only smile in response, or at least attempt to.

"You said Thedoctor is clever. Maybe he will find a way to save everyone!"

Elsa was still looking for an answer when the door opened, revealing Ixadra flanked by two guards. All of them were carrying large weapons.

"Queen Elsssa of Arendelle, we are going to attack the Dalek base. Do you want to join usss?"

"Have you found it?"

"We think we have located on our mapsss the hill that you dessscribed. The transssmissssion that we received from the Dalek ship thanksss to the Doctor helped usss pinpointing it. We will march there at once."

"But I thought it was too hot for you outside and you did not have enough, er, ships to travel safely."

"That isss true. But we can't ssstand here and do nothing. Not after the Doctor managed to tell usss, probably at the cost of hisss life, what the Daleksss are planning to do. That would not be honourable. And the consssequencess of the Daleksss sssucceeding would be catassstrophic."

"But… if you are slowed down by the heat… The Daleks will slaughter you!" Elsa said, repressing a shiver at the idea of a possible death of the Doctor, and probably Kristoff as well.

"Then we will die with honour, and our weaponsss in hand! Will you fight at our ssside, Queen Elsssa of Arendelle, and you, Olaf? You can travel in my personal shuttle if you ssso wish. I will have the oxygen flow adjusssted to your convenience."

"But, Queen Ixadra… I can't fight. I don't have my powers any more and… I don't really know how to fight without them."

"There," Ixadra said, handing Elsa the weapon she had been holding. "Thisss will allow you to fight at our side, asss long as your powersss have not returned."

Elsa gingerly took the large device. It looked vaguely like a rifle, but it was heavier than any rifle she had ever handled, even with the lower Martian gravity.

"This can… kill… Daleks?"

"Not by itssself," Ixadra said reluctantly. "But if enough of usss concentrate their fire on one of them, its armour will be damaged eventually and it will be dessstroyed."

Elsa turned the alien weapons in her hands. She was not even sure which was the correct way to hold it. Her experience with weapons was very limited – she had held a sword once for a royal portrait, and a crossbow during a review of the army, but that was almost all. Arendelle only had a few rifles, and Elsa had been content to leave them in the hands of experts. Anna had shown a little more interest in weapons, although it had been limited so far to learning how to pick up a sword the right way round, and it was dubious she would be able to go further.

"Anna," Elsa whispered, still looking at the strange weapon but without really seeing it.

"We are leaving sssoon. Do you want to accompany usss?"

"Daleks are not important," Elsa said dreamily. "It's Anna. I want to find her."

"Your sssissster hasss been turned into a Dalek puppet, Queen Elsssa. She will try to kill you, jussst like any other Dalek, if you find her. And Dalek puppetsss can't be turned back. The only merciful thing to do is give them ressst."

"I will never do that!" Elsa said, snapped out of her musings. "I will find a way to free her!"

"There isss none, Queen Elsssa. You mussst not entertain falssse hopesss." She paused, looking at Elsa with her head cocked on the side, hissing softly, then moved toward the door. "Asssk my warriorsss to direct you if you decide to join usss," she said. "There will be a place for you on my shuttle, if you make your decision before we have left. Sssome of my warriorss will remain to defend the base, should the Daleksss resume their attacksss on our command centre. You can join them if you decide to ssstay."

Elsa looked at the door closing behind the alien queen and her guards.

"Are you going to go with her?" Olaf asked.

Elsa sagged, her gaze falling back on the strange and heavy weapon in her hands.

"I don't know, Olaf. I want to… I want to find Anna and free her. That's all that counts. And Kristoff and the Doctor, of course, but they have not been… changed, and I'm sure the Doctor will find something to free himself and Kristoff."

"Maybe he will also find something to free Anna, then," Olaf said, not sounding very convinced.

"He said she would be that way forever… And I don't care if he does something or not. I want to be there! I want to help Anna! Like she found me when I was on the mountain. And I will bring her back!"

"So… you are going to go with the Ice Warriors and help them fight the Daleks with this weapon?"

Elsa looked again at the device. She was pretty sure she had now found how to hold it correctly, although it had evidently been designed for someone with hands much larger and with less fingers than hers. Her thoughts were finally becoming clearer, for the first time since she had fought the Dalek.

"I'm not going there to fight the Daleks, Olaf," she said at least. She hesitated a second, looking at the weapon. "Well, maybe if they are an obstacle to Anna, but if I can get Anna out without harming a single Dalek, I will."

"But… you said they were dangerous?"

"Yes, they are," Elsa said, slowly sliding from the slab and standing up.

"So… you don't fear and hate them any more?"

Elsa placed the heavy weapon on the slab and turned to face Olaf.

"I do fear them, Olaf. And… well, I hate them for what they've done to Anna, that's true. But… they're not important. Anna is. And Anna… Anna does not hate. Oh, she gets angry sometimes, but hating is not her. And now I've got to be like her and let go of the hate. As for fear… it's an enemy I've known ever since I was a child. I'm used to fighting it."

"So… you're saying that you don't want to hate or fear the Daleks, even if you do?"

"No, that's not… no, in fact you're right, Olaf. I've spent too much time since we've been here hating and fearing the Daleks. When I… used my powers against one… well, at first I thought about protecting Anna, but then, when I killed it… I was thinking only of killing it. And I've been thinking of that ever since, because they scare me and… and I hate them. But I mustn't think like that! I must think of Anna first! They've taken my little Anna from me… I will take her back! That's all that matters! I don't want revenge or anything, I just want Anna!"

Elsa paused to catch her breath. Olaf realised there was something strange, or rather very familiar for her, when she breathed in the cold air. But before he had the time to put it into words Elsa was straightening up again.

"I'm going with Ixadra," she said. "That's the best way to get closer to Anna and find her again. Er… it will probably be very dangerous. I think it would be better if you stayed here. I'll be back with Anna, I swear," Elsa said, giving the little snowman a long hug.

Then she turned and walked out of the door.

"Elsa," Olaf called, "wait! You are forgetting the weapon Ixadra gave you!"

But the door had already slid close behind Elsa.

"And… your breath is not doing little clouds any more," he added to the empty room.