Arriving on Karn the ragtag team was met with suspicion. Ohillia regarded them dubiously as they brought an injured man before the sisterhood. Off worlders were not generally well received on Karn, in older times they'd have been as likely to execute trespassers as to aid them.

Ohillia and her sisters were profoundly shocked upon closer inspection. The man was a Time Lord...

The off-worlders explained the unusual circumstances which had ailed him, that he had been bitten by a vampire and his body was fighting the infection. Ohillia sensed something different with this Time Lord, there was more than just a virus which ailed him, and he had long been sick; maybe even dying?

Time Lords were rare and preciously useful in this age. Having thought their cousin race destroyed, Ohillia decided to help.

After conversing with the other elders an elixir was uniquely prepared for this occasion. Hurriedly bringing the chalice forth; the unconscious Time Lord was laid within the sacred cave, on a large flat stone. His jaw was tilted back and lips opened so that the elixir could be given. Not long after receiving the elixir the Time Lord began to stir back to life. Of the off-worlders, one of the girls had kept particularly close to the Time Lord at all times. A young, pinkish haired woman. She knelt beside the Time Lord who squinted his eyes as he awoke.

"Long time, no see." The Time Lord grinned upon seeing the apparently familiar woman.

The girl gripped his hand with relief. "Robin, haven't I told you we have to stop seeing each other like this!" She replied with amusement.

"Can't be helped, can it?" Robin laughed in return. Anne sighed, although for the moment relieved, she still felt uneasy.

Some hours later Robin was healed enough to be of more assistance. Anne found him sitting on a rocky outcrop some distance from the sisterhood's temple.

"Robin!" Anne happily approached to sit but was surprised to see one other... "Ohillia?" The High Priestess of the Sisterhood. Ohillia smiled in return and Anne sat beside Robin.

"Its okay, Ohillia's an old friend." Robin explained looking to Anne. "Sort off... in a way. I've met her. She hasn't met me. Tis a complicated world."

Anne laughed. "Yeah, you get that a lot. So what's going on, you've been very quiet and somehow removed since you woke."

Robin sighed, slumped slightly and rested his chin upon his hand as he looked out on the night sky. "I'm vexed Anne. Terribly vexed."

Anne was shocked by Robin's remarks, though she thought it shouldn't surprise her. "I know you must be troubled Robin but you must try to take respite. Things are for once relaxed, we need to make the most of it."

Ohillia spoke up in reply. "I'm afraid in my council I have only given Robin more concerns."

"Hardly. They were already on my mind, I hoped I might overlook them but it's time I faced reality." Robin said regretfully. Looking at the stars Robin continued to speak. "This dimension is so weird. Even here in my home constellation. "He drew Anne's attention to a point in the sky. "Right there should be Gallifrey. And yet it has never existed in this dimension. Why is it then that the Sisterhood know of Gallifrey? It could be that the Sisterhood's powers allow them to see through temporal distortions but it isn't so simple.

Anne didn't like what Robin was saying at all. "Please Robin, just say what it is that troubles you!"

"Ever since I entered this world. Ever since that day I crashed in your Kingdom Anne; nothing has made sense. I think I've been trying avoid the truth of it, but I can't no longer. This world is too perfect. It is like a dream!" Robin said dismayed.

"Perfect?" Anne gasped. "What exactly about my world is perfect Robin? My Kingdom stands on the brink of collapse, everything I have built, everything I have strived for is threatened! How can you tell me that is a perfect world?"

"Not your perfect world Anne. Mine. Sure, it isn't bliss and it sure as hell isn't always peaceful. But who would be at home in a world that was entirely perfect? I surely wouldn't. This world is so perfectly suited... to me! Designed to keep me occupied. Here I have always felt needed. And maybe that's all I ever really wanted? You need me, your kingdom needs me, and now this entire universe needs saving! This reality is so beautifully crafted... for me. It has elements of every dimension I have ever visited; crafted together into some dream world that could keep me entertained for billions of years just trying to unravel it's various oddities. So similar to my home universe, but so many pieces are missing. Like where is Gallifrey? The simple answer is it doesn't exist here. But there are traces of it? Intentionally placed breadcrumbs to keep me on my toes, to give me hope it may remain. So maybe I would never leave. I have to stop playing his game Anne, I can never win."

"What? You're saying everything is somehow fictional? Made to occupy you? So what then, I suppose you think I'm some happy fiction? That I'm not real?" Anne began to raise her voice so that she was almost screaming back at Robin. She stormed off angrily and conflicted. Robin ran after her...

"Anne I didn't mean it like that!" Robin called to her.

"But you did! That's exactly how you said it. I'm some perfect distraction to keep you occupied. I suppose I should be flattered?! Well I'm not Robin." Anne huffed.

"Please Anne, if there's one thing in this world I could never give up it's you! I'm hopelessly attached to you. I wouldn't have it any other way. But you can't deny my theory Anne. I know it must be true. It is part of his game." Robin explained, sitting back down looking miserable.

Anne looked back at him surprised. His admission of his feeling to her a shock for some reason. After so long of worrying he may one day run away, leave her... To hear he felt so hopelessly bound to her felt warming. Anne sighed and calmed down a notch. "Robin... Who's game?"

"The Celestial Toymaker's. Who else?" Robin stated bluntly.

"Him? You think he's still pulling your strings?" Anne expression showed great shock and worry. Robin shrugged and nodded confirming her question.

"What can I say, he's an eternal and omnipotent being. He's in this for the long game. I should have foreseen this..."Robin said with self-disappoint.

"Mm yes. I see so much of this does make sense. This is just like those game worlds you described. Just on a grander scale. You said these guardians like the Toymaker use agents to do their bidding sometimes? For instance he once employed you to stop the Lich?" Anne surmised and Robin nodded along. "Well isn't this blatantly obvious Robin? The Toymaker has a new Agent... Azrael is the Toymakers new proxy. It's like chess you see. He's arranged that Azrael's goals collide with your own. He's making you do battle for his own sick enjoyment. We're all gladiators in his grand arena Robin. It all makes sense!" Anne deduced with much grief. Robin stood silently and Anne looked at him hoping for some advice. Ohillia rested a hand on Anne's shoulder in comfort.

"I believe you are both correct. I have sensed some form of intervention." Ohillia agreed.

"Chess." Robin said. "If that is so why is there a third party in this game?" Robin spoke terribly vexed. "She's completely rogue." He said before rushing back to the others. Anne quickly followed Robin and Ohillia too. Back at the Sisterhood's temple they found Marceline, Ben, Simon, Bonnibel and Octavia. Robin brushed by them all and went straight to Astral who was sitting with one of the priestess'. Robin grabbed her by the shoulder and started to speak to her accusingly. "You are the one person here that does not make sense Astral! You appear as one of Azrael's minions but all along you've been assisting me too, even if I didn't always know it. You've appeared to me so many times, often for no reason and then disappeared just as quickly. Always keeping me off foot. What is your motive Astral? You're not really here to join my camp are you?" Astral looked at Robin in shock, her eyes unable to meet his own. "And you clearly aren't serving Azrael?" Astral shook her head.

"My agenda is my own Robin. "Astral looked Robin in the eye, and he believed her.

"I know." Robin replied. "Then you're another pawn of the Toymaker then."

"My agenda is my own." Astral replied once more. "I am beyond the Toymakers influence, even more so than you."

"Really? So tell me how exactly is that? I've done everything possible to stop the Toymaker influencing my time stream." Robin questioned as if it was an interrogation.

"A Time Lord's time stream is immensely complicated. And even more difficult to manipulate. How could she be any more beyond interference than you Robin?"" Ohillia asked.

"Wouldn't I like to know?" Robin agreed. "There is only one thing. One impossible thing that could be more free and protected from higher manipulation." Robin looked at Astral with sad pity. '"What did they do to you?"

"You weren't there Robin. In this universe you died, I survived. You were so reckless! Can you imagine how I felt? How alone I was. In the final days of the Time War... I volunteered myself. You spoke of Rassilon's 'Final Sanction', but did you ever stop to think what other failed experiments must have led to such a plan? I'm sorry Robin, my agenda is my own. But I'll help you, if you'll let me." Astral said with deep emotion laden in her voice. She brushed her hand along Robin's arm. "If you just help me." Astral spoke softly and then vanished before Robin's very eyes. It confirmed Robin's suspicions entirely. He ran his hands through his hair and took a deep breath in shock.

"I never thought it could have come to that sort of experimentation." Robin spoke to himself.

"In the Time War?" Ohillia asked and Robin nodded.

"Of course I knew they were developing new weapons, new TARDISs... Humanoid, with a humanoid sentience. But never..."

Anne gripped Robin's hand. "Time Lord?" She asked. Robin nodded.

"They actually made people into TARDISs." He said sorrowfully. "Can you imagine what sort of stress that would bring on someone? The pain? The sensory overload alone would be enough to drive someone insane. But what else could be more beyond 'divine' intervention and time line manipulation than a TARDIS?" To think what horrors drove them to such a thing stirred up terrible memories in Robin.

A/N:

Sorry for the time since last update. Severe writers block! I knew where I was going with this but couldn't put it to words.

Few points, Karn was first seen in the episode 'The Brain of Morbius' as well as more recently 'Night of the Doctor' and 'Magician's Apprentice' With the Sisterhood and Ohillia also making an appearance in 'Hell Bent'.

Sentient, humanoid TARDISs feature in the spin off 'Faction Paradox' novels, especially the character of 'Compassion'.

A big thanks to my beta Spazzy!