Notes: This story has been rattling around in my head for a while and finally shook loose. A huge thank you goes to tenroseforeverandever for all of her help with this while thedoctormulder is unavailable to beta for me. The whole thing is done and it isn't terribly long, so I'll probably post a chapter a day because I'm not terribly patient.
Rose hummed around Alex's erection as she tipped over the edge from Evander's ministrations with his fingers and tongue. That was all it took to push Alex over the edge as well, considering Evander's other hand had been massaging his balls along with Rose. Alex shouted loudly before falling onto the bed next to her. Evander was happy to please them both at the same time as he had been treated to them waking him earlier with kisses and petting, escalating to Rose riding him to completion. The three of them were fully immersed in wedded bliss. Between visiting alien worlds and running for their lives, dinner dates and shopping trips, the trio would all tumble into bed and bask in the love they all shared for each other.
After lying snuggled together for several minutes, Rose sighed happily. "We should go somewhere random today."
"Looking for a little adventure?" Evander asked.
Rose hummed her agreement.
"Perhaps a shower first," Alex suggested. "That was a bit athletic," he added with a smile.
"Definitely. Then take me somewhere brand new," Rose told them.
The trio gathered in the console room an hour later, freshly showered and dressed. Alex still favoured his brown, pinstriped suits, paired with an oxford and patterned tie. Evander had toned down the formality of his attire by replacing his buttoned shirts with jumpers beneath his jacket, saying it made him look less like a magician. Since her regeneration, Rose was back to the styles she'd preferred as a human, wearing mostly jeans and t-shirts with a denim or leather jacket.
"Would you care to do the honours of spinning the randomizer, love?" Alex offered as he and Evander wandered around, flicking the switches and levers that would send their lovely ship through the vortex to their next destination.
"Take us somewhere brand new, Sexy," Rose requested as she activated the controls.
They all smiled excitedly as they exited the ship together. The planet was Earth-like, with green grass and rolling hills all around them, but they could tell from the spin of the planet and slight differences in atmospheric composition that it wasn't Earth. The sky was overcast and the air was cool and damp, reminding them of the English countryside in the fall. There was a path nearby, so they picked a direction and started to follow it.
The three of them had been together for about 15 years, as best they could keep track. They occasionally went to pick up their friends for a trip or two. Jack, Clara, Mickey and Martha, or even Sarah Jane and her friends joining them from time to time. The connections to Earth kept them grounded and reminded Rose of her heritage despite all the changes she'd undergone. Knowing they would outlive their friends (with exception of Jack) by centuries, they liked to spread out the time between those visits, to prolong their time with them as much as possible. But for now, they were travelling with just the three of them and enjoying the privacy that allowed on their ship.
"Any idea where we are, boys?" Rose wondered.
"Not sure from what little we've seen," Evander replied. "There looks to be a castle or something up ahead though. Maybe someone there could tell us more."
"Can't even really narrow it down based on the architectural style," Alex added.
After knocking on a few doors and getting no reply, they made their way inside, finding all of the doors unlocked. There didn't seem to be anyone there, but there were signs of recent fires for cooking, fresh water, and food. Wherever the people had gone, they'd left recently from what they could tell.
"Doesn't seem to be dangerous. Maybe we should split up and look around some more?" Rose suggested.
"That would probably be best," Alex agreed.
"Look for any writing, signs of fighting, anything out of the ordinary," Evander told them.
"The usual," Rose said with a wink, before they all turned in different directions and went exploring the castle.
Alex went up the wooden staircase, two steps at a time. It was dimly lit due to the lack of torches or candles, but there were a few windows to allow light into the castle. On the second floor, he found several bedrooms, none of which revealed much to him. The fabrics in the clothing and bed sheets were something similar to wool and linen . There were no books or artwork to give him any real reference to tell them where they were or what might have happened to all the people.
At the end of the hall, however, he came to an office. This gave him a little more hope of finding something useful. Searching the shelves, he found book after book of fairy tales from across the entire universe. He wasn't quite sure what to make of it. Alex couldn't understand how someone living in a dark-age castle would have access to all of this.
"I think I've found something. But I'm not sure what," Alex thought to his spouses.
"Where are you?" Evander asked.
"Upstairs," he replied and felt both of their acknowledgment.
Moving to the desk, he looked for something that might be handwritten. There were a few sheets of parchment, an ink bottle, and a pen. Most of the pages were blank, but there was one right in the middle of the desk where it looked like the pen had been dropped in the middle of writing a message. "Time L–"
He stared at the writing in disbelief. It was his own.
A few moments later, Evander joined Alex in the office and looked around. "This is an odd collection," he commented.
"I thought so too. What I'm more concerned about is this," Alex told him, gesturing to the parchment with a raised brow.
"That's your writing," Evander said.
"I know. How- hang on, where's Rose?" Alex wondered and tried to seek her out telepathically.
At that precise moment, both Alex and Evander winced in pain as their link to her was partially blocked, leaving them only with the sense that she was in incredible pain and absolutely terrified.
"Where did you last feel her?" Alex gasped.
"Outside, I think. Checking the stables or something?" Evander told him as they ran from the room.
They were finding it hard to focus through the intense pain and interference over their bond, but there were very few races in the universe that could affect them this way and they knew that meant that Rose was in danger. Finally reaching the area they thought she had been exploring, the Time Lords could see no sign of a struggle or trail left behind.
"Let's get back to the TARDIS and run a scan," Evander suggested.
"Good, yes," Alex said and started running back towards their ship.
"What do you think that message meant? Time Lords? Asking us for help?" Evander pondered.
"If I wrote it, I wasn't asking us for help. It would be to tell us what's going on, don't you think?" Alex replied.
"Ok, something about the timeline?"
"Doubt it. Since I already know the note is there, I also know that there won't be a lot of time to write it before I drop the pen. I'd go for something short and to the point. And this energy barrier was not here when we came," Alex rambled until they were both stopped in the road by a force field.
"Whoever is behind this, doesn't want us getting back to the ship," Evander growled.
"Maybe I managed to leave another clue in that room," Alex sighed as they both turned and headed back to the castle.
Evander used his sonic screwdriver to scan the area for the source of the force field, but couldn't find any trace of a power source and decided that it must be set up from outside of their little prison. They agreed that this had been set as some kind of trap, their opponent knowing of their arrival from whenever Alex had been there previously to leave the note.
Scouring the office once again, all they could find were books of fairy tales. They found it difficult to concentrate with the constant pounding in their heads. Knowing that Rose was afraid and out of their reach was almost unbearable, but they needed to focus on solving this puzzle. What they found were stories from Earth, Sto, Barcelona, Apalapucia, Delphon, Castrovalva, Jahoo, the list went on and on. As they considered the content of all of the stories, the connection became clear.
"Bad Wolf," the pair said together.
As soon as they spoke the phrase aloud, a sudden beeping noise brought their attention back to the desk where they saw a small disintegration ray emanating from the ink bottle destroying all of the papers and the pen.
"What?!" Alex shouted.
"Why would they do that? There wasn't anything else on those pages," Evander protested.
"Hold on, hold on, what if I wasn't here before?" Alex said.
"Well, obviously you were. How else could you leave yourself a message?"
"What if it's a Time Loop?"
The duo stared at each other in wide eyed shock before checking every desk drawer to find fresh paper and a pen. They couldn't be sure how much time they had before the loop reset, but if they could just get a message through to the next loop, they might figure it out sooner and work on breaking out. Alex managed to write 'Time L-'