Notes: All right, I've been an ElfQuest fan for a lot longer than I've been a Whovian, so if anyone was going to notice certain things, similarities and differences in certain biologies, it was going to be me. But I couldn't make it work the way I wanted without going a little bit out of the way. For the Doctor, nothing after "Angels Take Manhattan" has happened. For the Wolfriders, I had to bring in a new character because everyone else was taken. Believe me, I tried to make it work with an existing character, and it just wouldn't. It has been 200 years since Rayek stole the Palace of the High Ones and kidnapped Cutter's family.

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"ElfQuest Human/Writing"

Thoughts

"Elfspeech/Anything the TARDIS is translating for the Doctor"

**Sending/Telepathy**

**DW**

The Broken Wheel

Chapter 1: Discovery

They were known by so many names, all across the universe; First Ones, Lightwalkers, Eternals. Ancient Gallifreyans called them Bringers, because they brought knowledge and long life to their world. One of them had gotten left behind during their exploration of the young world, and that one mixed with a native woman. Her name was Tyron, and her daughters were the mothers of the first Shadow Walkers, time-sensitive ancestors to the Time Lords. All of Gallifrey eventually became part of their bloodline, and all gained telepathy and longer lives. But only the Time Lords, led by Rassilon, Omega and the Other, looked into Time itself, and lived.

**DW**

Amy and Rory were dead, killed by the touch of a Weeping Angel. They sent him letters once a week, putting them all in a safe deposit box and mailing him the key. He had decided to take the slow path with the letters, keeping them as alive in his head as he could. He only read one letter every seven days, keeping himself in sync with their time stream. But it had already been decades, and he had reached the last letter. Amy refused to write any more after Rory died, telling the Doctor that she didn't want him to watch her die. "Just know that I love you, Raggedy Man, and I always will."

That had been a couple of years ago. The letters were now in a box in the TARDIS library. He could visit them again if he wanted, but they were really just there to preserve them, to keep that last little bit of his friends alive in some form. He didn't even have their daughter anymore, not really. His timeline seemed to have completely passed beyond hers, though he occasionally found her echo from the Planetary Library poking around the TARDIS. He ignored that one, because anything else would be far too painful.

He was trying to stay active, but he knew it wasn't going to last. Someday soon, he would just stop, retire over old London, go down for a pint once in a while, and fade into obscurity for the rest of his life. This was his last life, and he thought it was probably time for him to retire, spend the next few centuries just watching where he couldn't do any harm.

But for today, he was exploring a primitive little world called simply Abode. There was a humanoid population that looked as if it was still in the Stone Age. Some few civilizations were beginning to build cities, but he chose an area where they were not. He wanted to walk in unspoiled lands, just taking in nature for a few days. This world would one day send people to the stars, but like Earth, its primitive beginnings were wild and beautiful, and not to be interfered with.

Currently, the Doctor was sitting on a blanket, just past the tree line in a meadow that was deep inside a massively forested area. A little stream trickled in the near distance, providing a quiet burbling noise that accompanied the local birds and small mammals. Above all that was the droning of various insects and a light breeze. The sun was just starting to go down, and fireflies were starting to make an appearance as the warm, fragrant air blew gently through the trees and grass.

It was idyllic, and he couldn't help but wish Rose was here with him, or Amy, or any number of other companions who would have appreciated the scene, but they had all gone for one reason or another; left him, left behind, or dead. He missed them all, and felt guilty about them all. He was no good on his own; he knew that. But all too often he felt as if he did them no good, like their lives would have been so much better if they'd never met him.

As the sun set, he heaved out a great sigh. He should head back to the TARDIS before it was too dark to see his way. Although, with two full moons in the sky ad no light pollution, seeing the way back really shouldn't be a problem. Standing, he heard the nearby howl of a wolf, and he thought it would probably be a good idea to hurry anyway. Not that he was particularly worried; the sonic was a good deterrent to a species with such good hearing. But better safe than sorry.

Reaching the TARDIS, the Doctor realized he was starting to hear whispers. But they were not whispers of sound. They were thoughts floating on the wind, the wake of telepathic communication from a group of mental sensitives who did not know that there was a stranger nearby who could hear them. Now that was interesting! The temptation to reach out was tremendous, but instead he tightened his mental shields. Not polite to be eavesdropping, not even by accident.

Inside his ship, he went to the console and pulled up his files on this world. The registered inhabitants were not telepathic; in fact, they were so close to human there was basically no point in calling them anything else. No, there was something else here, something the Shadow Proclamation had missed when they surveyed Abode for sentient species. A quick scan by the life form sensors of the local area revealed an even more intriguing picture. The scanners picked up six total sentient races!

The Doctor closely examined the readings. Three of the sentient species were closely linked, two of them being partbreeds with the third. Of the other three, one was the humans, one was a tiny insectoid race, no bigger than some butterflies he'd seen, and one was a subterranean humanoid with a very stout build.

The three linked species were his greatest point of curiosity at the moment. At least two out of the three were fully telepathic, slender humanoids with large eyes and pointed ears. One of those two was the pure race, and their signatures did not match that of the rest of the planet any more than the subterraneans or the insectoids. But the two crossbred species did belong, either dominantly or recessively linked to the natural wolf species of the planet.

The Doctor sat back on the jump seat, his head swirling with the odd information and all the questions it brought. A sentient race from offworld had bred two halfblood races and left itself and two others on the planet. Why? Was this a planned infiltration? Would the current population even have the answers to that? Or was it something far less intentional?

Now he was excited! Here was something new, something that neither the Time Lords nor the Shadow Proclamation had ever discovered. He would get to be the first! Of course, given the primitive nature of the planet, if they were anywhere as primitive as the local humans, his appearance might not be welcome. He'd certainly have to tread carefully until he had all the facts.

He could still sense the telepathic wake, of course, and from that he was able to judge that there were fourteen of the two humanoids and about twenty of the wolves in the local area, all in a very close locality to each other. Even as he "watched", the group, which was probably a small village, split up, all the wolves and about half of the humanoids heading off into the woods. They felt edgy and excited, and he could tell that it was hunger that was driving them out into the wood. This was a hunting party.

And there was something else he was sensing, now that he was paying attention to those people. They were in a paradox loop!

The Doctor had never seen a loop this big. It stretched from ninety-five centuries into the future to one hundred and five centuries into the past, a full twenty thousand years! How did that happen? Something that big - it couldn't have been intentional, could it? He shook his head. More and more, he wanted to go out and meet these people. But he didn't want to frighten them.

For the rest of the night, he watched how the hunters moved through the woods, feeling it when they caught up to their prey and when they returned home with the kill to share it with those who had stayed behind. He made sure to keep his watching passive, not dipping into anyone's mind, observing only, but he still attracted some attention. One of the humanoids seemed to be a shield producer, and she had noticed him watching.

Suddenly he found his mind bombarded by a shield pulse, a move designed to forcibly knock an intruder out. If he'd actually tried to enter any of the minds he'd been watching, he would have been rendered unconscious. As it was, the pulse knocked him about, and he landed on the floor of the console room, holding his head from the sudden massive headache.

Brilliant, old man, he thought. Well he was definitely about to have visitors, and probably very irritated ones. So, with that in mind, he picked himself up off the floor and grabbed the blanket he had been sitting on previously, then walked out of the TARDIS. He spread the blanket on the grass in front of the door, and used the door as a back rest. It shouldn't be too long. He wanted to appear as non-threatening as possible, but he was fairly certain the party would be armed. No matter. If he was completely unwelcome, he would just leave, though it would sadden him. Learning something new was so exciting for someone like him, who had seen and done so much, but he recognized that a strong telepathic stranger would be a threat if not handled with a great deal of caution.

They arrived very quickly, and the Doctor was surprised to see the humanoids mounted on their lupine brothers, actually riding them! He didn't know what he was expecting about the relationship being maintained between the species, but that most certainly wasn't it.

The pair in the front were obviously the leaders, but looking at the wolf he realized that she was more different even than all of the others. She was actually of the pure race, but had changed herself into a white wolf. She was at least one of the ultimate forbearers of the two partbreeds, she had to be! And made her a lot older than he was!

He shook his head to clear it. These people were a mass of puzzles and mysteries, but at the moment they were primitives approaching an intruder into their territory, and he needed to deal with them on that level first and foremost.

The humanoid of the lead pair dismounted and stood menacingly above him, a long curved dagger threatening him from the man's fist. He was about two feet shorter in height than the Doctor, with long blonde hair that was tied up on top of his head and came to the front of his face in flowing sideburns and very large blue eyes that were trying to drill holes through him. He wore undyed furs and leathers, with a gold circle at his neck and a bare chest.

The Doctor said, "I'd like to begin by offering an apology. I didn't mean to startle anyone. I was only curious about your people."

The chieftain spoke in a low tenor. "We all felt eyes on our backs, all through the hunt. Are you telling me that was you?"

"Yes. Not my most brilliant moment. But I promise I mean you and your people no harm."

The white wolf approached him, scenting him. Then she sent a thought to him. **You are not human.**

The Doctor didn't miss the surprise of the rest of the party at her speaking to him. A little smile curled the corner of his mouth. **No, dear lady, I am not.**

Her humanoid partner hissed and said, "Be quiet! You're too loud!"

"Sorry?"

"You ran into our net, but it was not meant to catch whatever it is that you are. It is there to catch an enemy who uses her mind against us, and if she hears you, she will catch you and use you!"

His eyes widened. He hadn't expected that. "Then I'll stick to speech until I can gauge how loud I'm being. I'm sorry, it's just been a very long time since I was around anyone else who was telepathic." Quickly, the Doctor ran through his own mental defenses, shoring up his shields and setting up an alarm that would warn him if anyone was trying to breach his mind without his permission. "No wonder you were upset when you sensed me watching."

The chieftain shook his head in amazement. "What are you? How can you send and speak our language?"

The Doctor went into lecture mode. "As to the second, my ship translates most languages automatically. I could be speaking any language and you'd still hear me in your own. The rest of your question is a bit more complicated." He shifted a bit, trying to keep his legs from falling asleep. "I am a Time Lord. My people were naturally telepathic just like yours, but I haven't seen another in over a hundred years. They were called Time Lords because they traveled through time and space in capsules just like this one," he tapped behind him on the wood of the TARDIS, "and because they could see Time itself, feel the way it moves. I can see all that is, all that was, what might be, what must not." He shrugged. "Not all at once, of course."

His explanation caused quite a stir. Rapid thoughts shot between the five humanoids and the Lady Wolf. Her partner lowered his weapon and kneeled down to look the Doctor in the eye. "Could you stop something from happening?"

He narrowed his eyes. "The paradox loop. You're aware of it, then? What's going on there?"

He shuddered. "Someone is trying to break it. We all owe our existence to the accident that caused the Wheel to start turning. If he breaks it-"

But he knew. "Then you'll never have been. You'll be unwritten from history. Why is he doing it?"

"He wants to save the lives of the High Ones. This world was not kind to those first elves. Some died in the accident, and others were killed, either by humans or by nature."

"How is he doing it?"

"The Palace. It was the vessel that the High Ones were traveling in, and when they were thrown back in time, it survived the crash. He's taken it and my-" The man-the elf-shook with rage, and the Doctor could only guess what this person had taken other than the ship of his ancestors. "He's taken it to the night right before the accident, planning on merging the Palace with its past self. He thinks that will stop the accident from ever happening."

He thought about it. "It might. Or it might just obliterate them both. But I don't know this person. The best person to stop him will be the people who know him best."

The chieftain growled and walked away, his mind obviously elsewhere. The Doctor took the opportunity to look at the members of the investigative party. One was an archer with sable hair and a long thin face. Then there was a stout bearded individual with curly blonde hair. The other two were women, one with dark skin and pin-straight raven hair, and the other with wavy ginger hair and very fair skin.

The dark lady he recognized as being the shielder. "Marvelous shield work, by the way. I've never encountered anything quite like it."

She gave him a tiny smile, acknowledging the compliment. "Next to Her, you were no problem at all, although I don't think you were trying to be one."

He raised an eyebrow "No, I wasn't. And I wouldn't. Still, quite a humbling experience."

The archer of the group had never allowed his eyes to move off of the Doctor, and he had an arrow nocked on his bow. It was not drawn back, but it could be in an instant, so he made no sudden moves. These people didn't have guns, but if they had, it would be this elf who was pointing one at him. He did so tire of people pointing weapons at him.

The bearded blonde was in telepathic conversation with the chieftain, and the mix-breed wolves were all milling around nervously in the background. This left the ginger female elf, who seemed more curious about him than anything else. Her head was cocked sideways and she was staring at him with her brilliant green eyes.

Emerald met a muddier green, and something passed between them. The Doctor's eyes widened and his eyebrows disappeared into his hairline. So did hers, and she took an involuntary step back. Rassilon! He was hearing a name in his head, and by the look on her face, so was she. A name. He cursed in Gallifreyan, knowing that the TARDIS wouldn't translate it. Now he was in trouble.

**DW**