A/N (updated 9/3/15):

Eleven (Matt Smith's Doctor) is appearing between The God Complex and Closing Time (Season 6).

Much love and thanks to my friends AudaciumLux and Craggidor for their beta efforts, and many many thanks to Chopped Bread, korrd, and CKfor stepping up to help midway through. My spouse also deserves credit, for introducing me to BioWare games in the first place, and then for listening to me babble on about plots and plans.

The Doctor and the TARDIS are the property of the BBC; everyone else is property of BioWare. I'm doing this for fun, not profit.

This is still a work in progress - reviews and feedback are quite welcome!

2185
The Illusive Man's Base (Cronos Station)
Anadius/Horsehead Nebula

The Illusive Man nodded to Miranda as she walked in. "Miss Lawson. How is Shepard?"

"Remarkably well," Miranda said. "I think we'll be able to bring her back soon."

"Good. That's partly why I wanted to talk to you," he said, inhaling on his cigarette. "I've been working on the dossiers for Shepard's team, and I came across something … rather interesting. Someone who could be of great help to Cerberus, but who will need to be convinced in the right way."

"Much like you're doing to Shepard?" Miranda asked dryly.

"Precisely." The Illusive Man flicked at the controls next to him and brought up a holographic image of a large rectangular box, painted in blue.

Miranda frowned at the image. "What is that?"

"It's an old-style police call box," the Illusive Man replied. "At least, that's what it looks like. My intelligence suggests that there's more to it. Much more. Beyond even the Reapers, potentially."

"It's just a box," Miranda said, stepping closer to inspect the image.

"If my intelligence is correct, it's actually a highly advanced ship able to be piloted by a single person, and go anywhere instantaneously."

Miranda folded her arms in front of her and stared at her boss. "Are you making fun of me? Is this your idea of a little joke to give me a break from the Lazarus Project?"

"Miranda, I'm deadly serious," he replied. "The rumors - legends, really - say that the man in the box is known as the Doctor. Just the Doctor, no other name. He's an alien who appears human, and has supposedly intervened to save humanity in the past. He has some connection with Earth. Needless to say, he'd be a valuable asset for Cerberus."

"So you want me to find him," Miranda said. "Chase down a legend."

The Illusive Man chuckled. "No, you have enough to do with bringing another legend back from the dead. I just wanted you to be aware of this, in case he shows up."

"Right. I'll be sure to call you if I see a blue … police box," Miranda replied, shifting back and forth. "Is there anything else?"

"Just keep me posted on Shepard."

Miranda nodded. "I will."

4135
The Ood Sphere
Mutter's Spiral/Horsehead Nebula

The Doctor leaned back against the console of the TARDIS and exhaled. "I can never go anywhere nice," he said. "I always forget how rubbish the weather is on different planets."

He looked around and remembered, again, that he was alone. His decision to leave Amy and Rory on Earth had been the correct one, but he was never quite happy when there was an empty TARDIS. Every time he thought he might find pick someone up from somewhere, the memory of Amy facing the Minotaur held him back.

The period of loneliness would end. It always did. In the meantime, he was stopping at places he might never have visited otherwise. He hated risking crossing his own time stream, though he'd done it before. Things got very … messy.

It had been a whim to visit the Ood Sphere, he'd thought, up until they started talking about a new song, out in the far heavens (whatever that meant to an Ood). Muttering to himself, he found the coordinates that he'd need to visit the spot, and punched them in.

The Doctor felt the familiar whoosh and acceleration of the TARDIS and almost smiled for a moment. Then it was as if the TARDIS had crashed into a wall, stopping abruptly and sending the Doctor flying backwards.

"What was that?" he demanded as he dusted himself off and moved forward to the console. "We're here," he said, examining the screen, "but we're not here. I hate logic puzzles."

Off in the corner, the phone rang.

The Doctor's head swiveled around to look - glare - at the phone. It was being called a lot more often than he'd like for being a supposedly private number. If it was Amy, he'd forgive her. He supposed that went for Rory too.

He pulled the brake and walked over to open the door and answer the phone. "How did you get this number?" he demanded.

"Are you the one they call the Doctor?"

The voice on the other end was an older man's, smooth, with an American accent. The Doctor frowned. "You still haven't answered my question."

"I'll take that as a yes," the man said. "Doctor, the human race is in danger. We need your help."

"I'm hanging up if you don't tell me who you are."

A chuckle. "You can call me the Illusive Man."

"That's not very illusive … man."

"You've surprised me. That doesn't happen very often." A pause, and a brief inhalation on the other end. "What do you know about the Reapers?"

The Doctor froze. A scene played through his mind - Rose outside of a church. A winged creature coming in from the sky. Pete Tyler stepping in front of a car.

"If you've got Reapers, you're already done for," the Doctor said coldly, "and in a few minutes this conversation will have never happened."

"Interesting," the man … the Illusive Man … said. "The part about being already done for, many who know the truth would agree with you. But what do you mean by this conversation will never have happened?"

"I mean if you've got Reapers, you did something so abominably stupid as to cause a temporal paradox, and not even my people can fight them off," the Doctor said.

There was a pause. "I don't think we're talking about the same Reapers, Doctor," the man said. "These Reapers are giant sentient machines bent on exterminating all organic life in the galaxy."

"When did the Daleks start being called Reapers? That's a ridiculous name." The Doctor ran a hand through his hair. "Look, if you're not going to talk sense, at least tell me something funny instead of something potentially terrifying."

Another long pause. "I see. You have my apologies - I went about this in the wrong way. I will ask only one thing of you: go to Ilium, in the Crescent Nebula, and speak with Dr. Liara T'Soni. I think she will be able to explain the situation much better than I could. I hope you'll help us, Doctor." Then the man hung up.

"Why do people always talk in nonsense?" the Doctor muttered as he closed the door and went back inside the TARDIS. "Where was he calling from-"

He stopped dead. The call had supposedly originated from a space station in the year 2185. The TARDIS was in the location of that station.

"Illusive Man, you are going to illuminate some things for me," the Doctor said, setting the TARDIS to go back to 2185.

Nothing happened.

"Did I forget to carry the one?" the Doctor demanded of the TARDIS.

He got no answer, of course, so he punched in a few more buttons on the console to try and come up with an answer. He looked up at the screen, and for a moment just stood there trying to make sense of what he saw.

There was a rift there.

It was - and was not - like the black hole where the creature calling itself the Beast lived. Related, that was obvious. How, he couldn't have said. The Doctor didn't like the implications of the readings he saw.

"Another parallel universe," he said, still talking to himself. "How did he talk to me from a parallel universe? How did he know about me?"

He walked away from the console and paced in circles. "If it's a trap, I can't see it," he said. "It's a mystery. A complete puzzle. He's talking about something I've never heard of - on a level that I should have heard of, if it was in this universe. But it isn't. But how could he reach me?"

The Doctor continued pacing for a few more minutes until he finally sighed. "There are things that I know have yet to come," he said. "So I must be able to do them. Which means that I am able to return to this universe, somehow. Which means…"

The anxiety was beginning to ebb away, replaced by excitement. "Something new. I never could turn down something new. Geronimo!"