It's all a dream

Brief Explanation: This is kind of a Dr. Who/ Frozen cross, but the Dr. Who bits are more or less just a plot device to allow the plot to be possible in the first place. I was too lazy to write a proper set up for the

story, so I'm basically doing it here. The Doctor has allowed Anna to go back to when Elsa was ten years old to take her out to a planet called “Christmas.”

 

It's all a dream

by Kirk

 

 

Anna stepped quietly into Elsa's dark room. The moonlight cascading into the room, painting the floor a pale white, lay across Elsa's bed. She stirred and sat up sharply as Anna stepped into the light softly

reflected off the floor.

 

“Elsa,” Anna said, with a smile.

 

“Who are you?” Elsa asked, scooting backward away from Anna and into the headboard of her bed. “Stay away from me!” she said, pulling the blankets up to her chin.

 

“It's all right, Elsa,” Anna said, holding her hand out as if for Elsa to take hold of. “It's me, Anna.”

 

“Anna's younger than me,” Elsa said hurriedly, crawling out of bed and backing away still. “Leave me alone!” She was clearly terrified and the last thing Anna wanted to do was frighten her sister.

 

“I'm,” Anna started, wondering how to proceed. “This is a dream, Elsa,” she said finally.

 

Elsa's brow crinkled slightly in momentary confusion. “A dream?” she asked.

 

“That's right,” said Anna, reaching out toward Elsa again.

 

“No!” squeaked Elsa, “I... you have to leave,” she said quietly. “Please,” she added, a hint of urgency in her voice.

 

“I know about your powers, Elsa,” Anna said gently. “You won't hurt me. This is just a dream and you can't hurt anyone here.” Anna knew if Elsa wasn't afraid then she would be able to control her powers. In a heartbeat, Anna felt a terrible desire to tell Elsa exactly how to control her powers. But she'd been warned not to change the time line. Anna held out her hand once more. “Take my hand, Elsa.”

 

Elsa gazed warily at Anna's outstretched hand.

 

“You won't hurt me, I promise,” said Anna, smiling. “You can't hurt a dream.”

 

The corners of Elsa's mouth turned ever so slightly upward and she reached out and took hold of Anna's hand. There was a moment, just a fraction of a second where Anna felt a chill at her sister's touch, but then it was gone and she could feel warmth. Elsa returned Anna's smile with full force.

 

“Come on, I have a friend who said he'd show us something amazing,” Anna said, leading her sister around the bed and toward the door. Elsa followed and Anna couldn't help but look back at the ten year old version of her older sister.

 

“You look beautiful, Anna,” Elsa said as Anna lead her through the doorway and into the Tardis.

 

“Thank you,” said Anna. “You look adorable.” Elsa giggled then gasped as she saw the interior of the Tardis.

 

“Welcome to the Tardis, Princess Elsa of Arendelle,” the Doctor said, bowing.

 

“This is my friend,” Anna said. “The Doctor. He'll be taking us to a wonderful place, and we can spend a day together having fun, just like we used to!”

 

Elsa grinned from ear to ear, clasping her hands in front of her chest. Then, apparently remembering her manners, she curtsied and said “Nice to meet you, Doctor.”

 

“It's nice to meet you, Princess Elsa,” he replied, then turned toward the control panel. “So,” he said to the room at large more than simply to Anna. “One day on the planet Christmas, as promised.”

 

The familiar sound of the Tardis engines filled the air and Anna turned to Elsa. “You're going to love this!” she said, grinning.

 

 

Moments later, the Tardis had landed and the Doctor rushed to the door. “Princess Anna, Princess Elsa,” he said with a somewhat overly dramatic pause. “The planet Christmas.” With that, he opened the

 

Tardis door and through it they could see a snow-covered meadow with trees off in the distance. There was no wind and the sky and ground seemed to be the same color of white.

 

Anna looked down at Elsa whose face seemed alight with happiness. Elsa looked up at Anna, her face split into a wide toothy smile.

 

“Do you want to build a snowman?” Anna asked, excited to see the joy on her sister's young face.

 

They ran out into the snowy landscape: Anna tripping on something underfoot and falling face first into the snow. Elsa only giggled, but shrieked happily as Anna came up with a snowball and threw it at her.

 

Elsa returned the snowball, plus ten more all at once.

 

They spend hours playing in the snow, building a snowman, making snow angels,(Elsa without even having to lay down) trying to catch snowflakes on their noses and tongues. Elsa made a patch of ice after a few hours and they skated about (Anna falling more than skating.)  Elsa made an ice-sled and they wooshed about, propelled by Elsa's magic.

 

The sky cleared late in the day and the girls sat down on the hillside as the deep golden sun began to sink below the horizon. They watched it together, side by side, Elsa leaning her head against Anna's shoulder. Just as the last sliver of sun disappeared behind the snowy hills, the sky seemed to explode into millions of tiny shimmering lights. It looked the same as the painted sky back over Arendelle, but

 

instead of colors shafts, these looked as though they were made of pure diamonds, shimmering and twinkling by the millions in the sky overhead.

 

Elsa stood up and walked forward a few steps, gazing up at the sky. Anna watched her older sister's younger self as she examined the sky above her. She was so happy to have spent this time with her younger self. So happy that she could give this little gift of fun to Elsa when she knew Elsa had to stay locked up in her room. But she wouldn't think about that: today had been a good day.

 

Even as Anna though this, Elsa's head slowly fell until she was looking down at her feet. Anna was about to speak when Elsa turned toward her slowly. Her face was sad. It hurt Anna just to see her like this, but before Anna could do or say anything, Elsa spoke.

 

“I wish this was real,” she said with a trembling voice, as though fighting to not cry. In fact, tears were welling in her eyes.

 

The breath caught in Anna's chest as the words cut into her heart more fiercely than the ice that Elsa had accidentally struck her with, and she could feel a prickling in the corners of her eyes. She pushed herself up onto her knees at the same moment it seemed Elsa lost her fight against tears. The two came together in a tight embrace, tears forming in Anna's eyes as she heard Elsa sobbing. Anna just held her:

 

she wished she could hold her like this forever.

 

“I miss you so much, Anna,” Elsa sobbed into Anna's shoulder. Anna was crying now in earnest, and had to fight the urge to tell Elsa the truth. It wasn't fair. Elsa would have eleven more years of loneliness and fear before she could be free. Anna could change it all. With only a few sentences, she could make Elsa's young life so much more bearable. But the Doctor had warned Anna about interfering too much in the past.

 

It took all of Anna's willpower to stand there, hearing her sister's pain poured out in tears, and feeling that same pain in her own heart and have to keep the secrets of the future.

 

“I love you so much, Elsa,” she finally said, squeezing Elsa still tighter. “You're my sister and I'll ALWAYS love you.” Anna pulled away so she could look into Elsa's eyes. “Always. No matter what happens, no matter what anyone says, even me,” she said, holding Elsa's shoulders tightly. “No matter what, I love you.”

 

Elsa was taking great gasping breaths and trying to wipe the tears out of her eyes. Anna waited for Elsa to calm down and stop crying completely before she spoke again.

 

“Do you believe me?” she asked Elsa.

 

Elsa only nodded and slipped her arms back around Anna. “I love you, Anna,” she said thickly.

 

“I love you, too,” Anna replied.

 

 

 

It was nearly fifteen minutes later when Anna and Elsa returned to the Tardis. The ride back was quiet, Anna sat with Elsa in her lap, and soon they had arrived back in the hallway outside Elsa's door. Anna held her sister's hand as they left the Tardis and went back into the room that Anna knew would essentially be Elsa's prison for another eleven years. She fought back a fresh wave of heartache as the though struck her.

 

“I'm sorry I hurt you,” Elsa said as she stood gazing at her bed.

 

“Everything is fine, Elsa,” Anna said. Without a word, Elsa crawled into her bed and Anna pulled the blankets up to her sister's chest.

 

“Um,” Elsa said, hesitantly.

 

“Yes?”

 

“Can you sing me a song?”

 

Anna smiled, taking Elsa's hand, and without so much as a thought it seemed, a song found it's way to her lips.

 

 

“Do you want to build a snowman

Under a diamond sky so wide?

 

It doesn't matter what you want to do

I'll be right here with you

deep down inside.

 

We only have each other

It's just you and me

Until the end of time

 

Do you want to build a snowman?”

 

 

Anna whispered the last line as she rested Elsa's hand on her chest: she'd fallen fast asleep. Anna hesitated and then leaned in toward Elsa's ear.

 

“Elsa,” she breathed softly. “You've got a long, hard road ahead of you. You'll be lonely, and afraid, but don't worry. Someday we'll be able to be sisters again. I promise.” She leaned in and softly kissed Elsa's temple before standing up. She gazed down at the eleven year old version of her sister, lying peacefully in sleep. Anna stepped backward away from the bed as the corners of her eyes began to prickle again.

 

She brought her hand to her mouth as though to hold back any sob that might have threatened to escape. Finally, after several backward steps, she tore her eyes away from the young older sister that she wouldn't be able to help for another eleven years and made to head back through the bedroom door and to the Tardis.

 

She stopped dead in her tracks. Standing in the doorway was the older version of Elsa. Even in the dark, Anna could see the tears glistening on Elsa's cheeks. She stepped forward at the same time Anna did.

 

“I thought I'd dreamed it,” Elsa whispered, her face contorted from the effort of holding back her sobs. The sisters seemed to collapse onto one another and held each other tightly, both crying as softly as they could. After what felt like half an hour, they broke apart, but kept hold of each other's hands.

 

“Thank you,” Elsa said, smiling, her cheeks still glistening with tears.

 

“I didn't know you'd be here,” Anna said, sniffing back a few straggling tears.

 

“The Doctor came while you and I, well, you and my younger self were on Christmas. He said he wanted to show me something, but I had to stay hidden from my past self,” Elsa said as the two sisters made their way back to the Tardis.

 

The Doctor was waiting on them as they stepped inside.

 

“Told you I'd give you both the best Christmas present you'd ever had,” he said, suddenly smiling wide, and throwing the Tardis into motion. “I think you two need another Christmas holiday.”

 

Within moments, he was throwing the Tardis door wide, and once again the snow-covered wonderland of the Planet Christmas lay before them. Elsa and Anna looked at one another.

 

“Do you want to build a snowman?” Elsa asked Anna.