Author's Notes: This is the direct sequel to my fic Am I a good girl?, itself a sequel to Unless there is children crying. It is not absolutely necessary to have read them to enjoy this story, but you are welcome to do so.
This story (like Am I a good girl?) takes place somewhere in the middle of season 8 of the new Doctor Who series (early 12th Doctor) and a few weeks after Frozen Fever.
And thanks for your patience if you'd been waiting for this sequel since Am I a good girl?! This fic was much harder to write and took a lot more rewrites than I had expected.
The warrior moved cautiously through the long tunnel, his heavy footsteps reverberating on the stone. The place should have been familiar to him – he was, after all, still in his stronghold – yet, to his shame, he could not prevent a disquieting feeling from creeping up on him. These corridors had been out of use for some time now, but they were supposed to be regularly patrolled. So why couldn't he shake the impression that he was the first to venture in these parts for some time?
Maybe this had something to do with the unknown enemy whose presence they had been suspecting. If it was, his Queen would most likely be pleased that he could at least find a lead when nobody else had, but it would also be very worrying if this lead was found in her own stronghold. Especially if it meant warriors had been shirking their patrol duties – which was unthinkable.
There was movement ahead, and the warrior saw something slipping out of the shadows. He aimed his weapon and ordered it to stop. Then the thing became fully visible, and he realised that the danger was far greater than everyone had thought.
The warrior tried to fire, but he was not fast enough.
There was a shriek, and a high-pitched whine.
The warrior staggered backwards, screaming, the three fingers of his claw leaving scratches on the wall as he ineffectually attempted to steady himself before collapsing. He had stopped moving by the time his body hit the floor.
The ribbons of the Time Vortex spread and coiled through the void, forming strange, swirling displays. Few beings would be able to see them as they were, at least not without going mad. Most would instead interpret them as something they were more familiar with, like when recognising shapes in clouds, and could even think that they had seen a face briefly appearing among the whirling stars.
Tumbling through this otherworldly display, a small, seemingly vulnerable blue box made its way, moving haphazardly across the swirling ribbons, shaken like a cork in a river by the capricious whirls of the Vortex.
Inside the blue box, an argument was going on.
"I told you not to touch this, Ice-Cream Brain!" the Doctor shouted. "That meant I did not want you to touch it!"
"But there were all those lights and… and things that looked like they had been made to be touched," Olaf protested. "And I did not touch much anyway."
"You activated the emergency dematerialisation!"
"And that is bad?"
"It means I took off with you and… and Reindeer Man over there!" the Doctor said with a vague gesture toward one of the corridors branching out of the vast room. "Oi, Freckles!" he shouted. "Don't get lost in there!"
Anna exited from another corridor a few seconds later, dragging a bewildered Kristoff behind her.
"And here we're back in the main room!" she said excitedly. "Have you seen how big this dressing room was?"
"So, er, Thedoctor…" Olaf said, "would it help if I touched something else?"
"No! It is hard steering us as it is!" the Doctor said, jumping around the console, hitting buttons and switching levers.
"And there were these boxes that allowed us to talk to one another over a distance," Anna was explaining to Kristoff, who kept looking around him with a dazed look. "And later on she made an image of Elsa appear over there…"
"But it… it was just a small box…" Kristoff managed to utter. "And… and this is a huge room…"
"Oh, er, yes, Madam TARDIS is larger on the inside," Anna said matter-of-factly. "That's because, er, because, well, it's how she is."
"I had wondered about that too," Olaf said. "Why don't we have that in the castle?"
"Because you pudding-brains can't grasp the principles of transcendental engineering any more than you can grasp the concept of not touching things," the Doctor snapped, furiously hitting more buttons.
"Is that some kind of magic?" Olaf asked, undeterred.
Elsa had been observing the whole scene with a slight smile. The young queen was obviously very much amused.
"Come on, Doctor," she said softly, "it is not that bad, is it? You said we could make one trip in your TARDIS, after all."
"I said no passengers!" the Doctor growled. "Especially no ice-cream brain who sets off the emergency dematerialisation without recalibrating the dimensional translocator."
"Oooh, what should I have touched to do that?" Olaf said, tottering toward the console.
"Nothing!" the Doctor snapped. "Now hold on to something, all of you. I will try to land."
The room shook while the central column began to move faster. Anna and Kristoff fell over. Olaf giggled excitedly and grabbed a railing behind the console, only for his arm to detach and the rest of his body to fly across the room. Only Elsa managed to clutch the console in time to avoid being thrown off balance.
The room shook a few more times, sending Anna and Kristoff rolling randomly across the floor, and scattering more of Olaf's body parts around. Eventually the rising and falling complaint of the TARDIS materialising filled the vast space. Silence fell for a second, until it was broken by Olaf asking if someone had seen his legs.
"That was fun!" Anna said, standing up. "Are we there yet?"
"We have materialised," the Doctor said sternly, fiddling with more switches.
"So, we have arrived? Where are we?" Anna said, running to his side while Kristoff slowly got to his feet and went to retrieve Olaf's midsection which was stuck in a railing. "Or, er, when, too? Because she can travel in time too!" she added, turning toward Kristoff.
"Not sure yet," the Doctor said, looking at a screen filled with strange symbols. "We'd need to take a look outside…"
"Oooh, can I go first? Can I go first, please?" Anna asked, jumping in place with excitement.
"Anna, wait," Elsa said, walking to her sister on shaky legs. "We don't know what's outside."
"Could it be dangerous, Doctor?" Anna asked with far too much enthusiasm for Elsa's taste. "I'm sure Madam TARDIS would not have brought us somewhere dangerous, right?" she said, looking at the column in the centre of the room.
"You'd be surprised," the Doctor said between his teeth. "Fine," he went on, "let's say this was the trip you asked for. Now you get a look around and we go back once the TARDIS has finished recalibrating."
"Yes!" Anna squealed. "Thank you, Doctor! Come, Kristoff, we'll discover where we are," she added, dragging her boyfriend behind her.
"But… we are in the courtyard, right?" Kristoff said, stumbling as he followed her.
"Elsa, Olaf, come with me! We'll see what's outside! Maybe it's another country! Like, er, Germany, or Spain! Or even another continent! One where it is always warm and sunny, like Africa or South America! I've never been to another continent!"
Anna opened the door of the TARDIS and looked outside for a few seconds. Then she turned on her heels and stomped back to the Doctor.
"Now, Doctor, this is no fun at all!" she said in an indignant voice. "It's not fair! We only wanted one trip!"
"So, you got one trip," the Doctor said wearily. "What is wrong?"
"But it should have been a… a nice place! Or at least an interesting one! Not the same thing as before!"
"Then you should have stopped Ice-Cream Brain here from playing with the controls."
"But… but why does it have to be another cold place full of snow!? Like the first time, where it was some kind of nightmare future that should not have happened anyway!"
"There are lots of places full of snow, Freckles. Not my fault if you don't like it."
"But it's so… so common! It's only rocks and snow and frost everywhere outside! I don't want to visit another weird false future Arendelle!"
"Er… Anna?" Kristoff called from the door. He had taken a few tentative steps outside before coming back.
"I don't want my Elsa to risk disappearing again because something that did not happen suddenly happened in the past!"
"Anna?" Kristoff called patiently from the threshold.
"So I don't want this to be Arendelle in the future or the past or something that should not have happened! I just wanted to go somewhere… new!"
"Anna, I don't think we are in Arendelle any more," Kristoff said.
"We aren't? That's great! Wait, how do you know?"
"I'm pretty sure I would remember that mountain over there," Kristoff said, pointing in a direction outside.
Anna rushed at his side, joined by Olaf who had finally managed to recover all of his body parts. Elsa smiled at the Doctor and slowly followed her sister out of the TARDIS.
"There are only rocks and snow and frost," Anna complained. "Which mountain are you… oh."
She stopped a couple of feet from the TARDIS and remained transfixed as she looked at the mountain in the distance, although mountain seemed too small a word. In fact, it was doubtful there was even a word to describe it. It started as an immense cliff that took a good part of the horizon. Its height was difficult to estimate, but it was impressive even at what seemed like a great distance. And above this cliff the ground kept rising in a gentler slope, forming a mound with a flattened top that was twice as tall as the cliff itself.
"Wow that's… that's a big mountain," Anna said, giggling.
"I don't know if that's a trick of the light," Kristoff said, "but if it is as far as I think it is, it's not big, it is… huge… enormous… I… I didn't know there was such a high mountain anywhere in the world. I'm not sure even the one you told me about in India is that high. It looks as if it is as large as a country!"
"Oooh, but maybe there will be one such mountain in the future! Or there was one in the past!" Anna said, jumping up and down excitedly. To her surprise, the up was much higher than usual and the down took longer.
"Did you just jump up 3 feet without trying?" Kristoff said.
"Well… yes! It must be because I'm so excited! Let me see…"
She crouched before jumping into the air. This time she almost reached Kristoff's height, and the descent definitely took a couple of seconds. She giggled with delight.
"Ah, good old Olympus Mons," the Doctor said as he stepped out of the TARDIS.
"Is that where we are, Doctor?" Anna asked eagerly. "Where is it? Uh… when is it?"
"This is Mars." The Doctor licked one of his fingers and held it up, as if he was trying to determine where the wind was blowing from. "A few millennia before your time, I'd say."
"The ground is so red," Kristoff said, crouching to grab a rock covered in frost. "Even the snow is red in places… Wait, where did he say we were?"
"Mars," Elsa whispered softly. "Anna, we are on another planet!"
"Wait, what?"
"Do you remember? The red star we see sometimes in the sky, when it is clear? This is it… It is the same Mars, right?" she asked the Doctor, who grunted an approbation.
"We are… on a star?" Kristoff said.
"No, it's a planet," Anna said excitedly. "Elsa explained that to me. It's, err… like the Earth, but, err… it circles around, er, the, uh, Sun, I think, like the Moon around the Earth. Stars are… like the Sun, but much farther, right Elsa?"
"Yes. And right now we are also further from Arendelle than anywhere on Earth, Anna," Elsa said in an awed voice. "Thank you, Doctor. This is a wonderful trip. I would never have thought that I could be visiting another planet, some day."
The Doctor smiled without answering.
"And why can I jump so high?" Anna asked excitedly. "Look, Elsa, I can jump as high as Kristoff is tall now!"
"Different gravity," the Doctor said mildly. "You weigh one third of your normal weight."
With an excited "weeee!" Anna leaped and landed a few yards from them.
"Wow, look! I jumped at least 10 feet without even trying!" she exclaimed. "Woo-hoo!" she hollered as she took another jump that propelled her further away.
Elsa and Kristoff took a couple of steps across the landscape while Olaf joined Anna in a gigantic jump. The Doctor followed them then stopped and sniffed loudly.
"Lower pressure," he commented. "Hold on a second," he went on, entering the TARDIS. "Freckles, come back here right now!" he called from the threshold.
"What?" Anna called while taking another giant jump.
"The Doctor said to come back," Elsa shouted. "Right now. Please, Anna, it may be dangerous!"
Anna crossed the distance to the TARDIS in a fifteen yards bound, followed by Olaf who was doing cartwheels.
"Did you see that jump?" she panted. "And I only took a few yards of run-up. What is happening?"
"I'm not sure," Elsa said, looking at the TARDIS. "Are you OK?"
"Sure," Anna said between two long breaths. "It's so fun to jump like that!"
"You really seem out of breath! How many of those jumps did you take exactly?"
"Only a couple, but I'm better now. Maybe jumping here is more tiring than at home because I can jump so far?"
"So this is real?" said Kristoff. "We really are on a, a, somewhere in the sky? And… Sven is all alone at home now?"
"Yes, but don't worry about him. The Doctor can bring us back right after we left, so no time will have passed for him. We already did that today," Anna said cheerfully.
"And in any case I think the Doctor said we were also in the past," Elsa said. "So I think this means that Sven is… not alone yet."
"So… you were already there this morning with this Doctor?" Kristoff said, furrowing his brow.
"Not here. We were in Arendelle, but in the past. Well, first we were in the future, but it was not the right one because the past was wrong, and then we went back into the past but it was still not the right one because a very bad man wanted to… anyway, he lost," Anna finished hurriedly, "and the past became the right one again. So we asked the Doctor to have one last trip in his TARDIS, because he can go anywhere he wants with her and it's so fun and he also gave one trip to Osmine anyway so it's only fair."
"Er… Is Anna all right?" Kristoff asked, looking despondently at Elsa.
"Yes," Elsa said with a smile. "And she's right, too. We had an incredible adventure today… today for us at least. The Doctor's machine… the TARDIS… can travel in space and time."
"This sounds fun," Olaf said. "You could go back to your favourite days to enjoy them all over again."
"Here," the Doctor said, reappearing at the door holding a small box that he tossed to Anna. "Take one of these, and give one to Platinum and Reindeer Man. I'm not sure Ice-cream Brain needs it," he added with a glance at Olaf.
"What are these, Doctor?" Anna asked, opening the box and taking out a large pill.
"Oxygen complements," the Doctor said. "Allows humans to survive in oxygen-poor environments. They should last for a couple of hours, at least, unless you overexert yourself. We'll have left by then anyway."
"Why do we need them?"
"Because you humans need thick air to breathe correctly," the Doctor sighed. "It would be like going too fast to the top of a mountain."
"I heard about this," Kristoff said. "You can get sick if you climb too fast… but we didn't climb anything?"
"But Madam TARDIS can bring us to the top of mountains without us having to climb," Anna said, making a face as she swallowed her pill. "Are we on top of a mountain now?"
"No," the Doctor said, "but the air is just as thin as if we were. You felt it while you were jumping around outside of the TARDIS protection bubble. You'd eventually have felt various unpleasantness, like dizziness, headache, exhaustion, and that's only the start. The only way to stop it would be to come back into a thicker atmosphere."
"I can't see any bubbles," Kristoff said, while Elsa handed him the box and tried not to make a face as she felt the pill evaporate on her tongue.
"So now I can jump around again without getting short of breath or sick like you said?" Anna asked eagerly.
"Yes, but don't wander too far. You were supposed to get one trip, not a trek around Mars!"
"Oh, come on, Doctor! What is the fun in being on another world if we can't go exploring it a little?" Anna said, jumping away.
"Are there other dangers like this thin air, Doctor?" Elsa asked.
"Not much more than crossing the street."
"Why is the air thin even if we are not on a mountain?" Kristoff asked
"Because the whole atmosphere is thinning out, along with the temperature dropping. The climate of Mars is changing, just like Earth will do in your future if you are not careful. A millennia later and we would have needed a space suit to walk around, and I'm not sure even Platinum would have withstood the cold."
"Space suit?" Kristoff asked, looking worryingly at Anna who was jumping around the TARDIS with Olaf.
"Elsa, Kristoff, come on!" she shouted. "Let's explore a bit?"
"Can we go, Doctor?" Elsa asked.
"Knock yourself out," the Doctor said curtly, looking around him with a suspicious expression.
"You don't want to come with us?"
"I suppose I can," the Doctor sighed. "But I'm not jumping."
"Why did you ask Anna not to wander too far? Is it dangerous out there? Is she in danger? You said it was not more dangerous than crossing the street!"
"A lot can happen when you cross the street. And Freckles may sprain an ankle if she keeps jumping around like that."
"I meant, are there any… Mars-specific risks? Like, er, I don't know… can we catch a, a Martian cold or something like that?"
"What? What is a Martian cold?" Kristoff asked, as they followed the bouncing Anna and Olaf.
"I don't know! Some kind of specific cold you only catch on Mars!"
"That seldom happens," the Doctor said, sniffing a couple of times as if he was trying to catch a scent.
"You mean it could?" Kristoff asked. "Would it be dangerous?"
"It could be," the Doctor said evasively. "But I've not seen it happen too often."
"Any other more frequent dangers? Like some, uh, wild beasts around?"
"Why do you want to have dangers around so much?"
"I just want to make sure that Anna is safe. And us, too."
"You can never be completely sure that you are safe. Anyway, most predators have disappeared by that time," the Doctor said. "The conditions were getting too harsh and the Ice Warriors took care of the largest ones."
"The Ice Warriors?"
They had reached the point where Anna had been when she had called them, but the princess had since jumped further away and was now dancing with Olaf around a large rock some distance from them. Elsa had allowed herself a discreet jump as they were walking, but had not liked very much the sickening sensation of falling down in slow motion. She had also noted that Kristoff had stumbled a couple of times as if his stride had taken him farther than he intended.
"Look," Anna called, "we are going to clear this rock in one jump".
"Be careful," Elsa called back. "What are these Ice Warriors, Doctor?"
"The native species of Mars," the Doctor said.
Ahead of them Anna ran and jumped above the rock, pulling Olaf with her. She did not quite make it, but managed to push herself further up when she collided with the top of the rock and flew above it in a graceful arc.
"You mean… extra-terrestrials?" Elsa asked, her eyes opening wide. "What were they like?"
"Are, not were. They had adapted their armours to withstand the cold, but it became too much even for them after a while. They eventually left Mars or went into cryosleep."
"Cryo… sleep? What is that?"
"Deep hibernation. Like keeping something on ice to keep it fresh, only what you are keeping on ice is a whole person."
"You mean… freezing someone?" Elsa said, horrified.
"Yes, but not in the way you think. It's usually harmless. Most of the time people wake up just fine."
"So these… Ice Warriors… they don't mind the cold?"
"They are used to a much colder temperature than humans. Most humans, I mean," he added after a glance to Elsa. "They don't like it when it is hot, in fact."
They were now close to the rock behind which Anna and Olaf had disappeared. Elsa was beginning to wonder why her sister had been hiding behind it for so long.
"So, err," she said, looking worriedly at the rock, "you are saying that it is not too cold for them right now?"
"No, this weather would be quite pleasant for them." The Doctor sniffed the air again. "In fact, they may even find it a bit too warm right now. Which is strange, because… uh-oh."
"What is wrong?" Elsa asked as they made their way around the large rock. It turned out it was standing on a ridge beyond which the ground dropped by a dozen feet.
"Er… I'm sorry," came Anna's voice below them.
"Anna?" Elsa called. "Are you all right? Did you hurt yourself?"
"Uh… no... but…"
They reached the edge of the depression, and Kristoff and Elsa gasped in surprise at the sight that awaited them. Anna was standing at the bottom, with Olaf at her side. Around them were three creatures Elsa had never seen in her life. They were roughly humanoid, but even though they wore green, bulky armours and helmets that made it hard to see their full shape they were definitely not human. Each of them was raising an arm in Anna's direction.
"Sorry," she said with a small, embarrassed grin. "I think I disturbed these people."