Travelling Worlds to Save Us (A Karna-Arjun story)

All wrong

Pov: Karna from the world of darkness

Karna could not get rid of the nagging conviction that Duryodhan had injured Arjun too much--and too unfairly at that--for him to fight the next day. Even if he managed to turn up on the battlefield, which he supposed Vasudev would ensure at any cost, he could not possibly give his best. Karna did not want to fight his enemy weakened.

He wanted to defeat him at full strength, when there would be no doubt at all regarding who was superior. In a way, he was almost glad he had had to squander his celestial spear on Bheem's demonic son.

Arjun's twin brothers were decent healers, he had heard.

Probably they could restore him to normalcy. Providing they found him on time, that is.

His stomach squirmed uncomfortably.

When he and Aswatthama had finally managed to wrest the mace out of Duryodhan's arms, a pool of blood around Arjun had already formed. He had appeared senseless. 

Duryodhan's blows had been ruthless.

Of course, Arjun was a warrior and it would take a lot more than rage-induced inaccurate blows to kill him. But if he somehow did die like this--

Karna would never have won.

"Good evening, King of Anga," said Arjun's voice the second time that evening.

Karna jumped out his skin and turned.

In front of him stood Arjun, whole and uninjured, the Gandiva clutched in one hand.

"You--you recovered this fast?" Karna asked without thinking.

Arjun tilted his head.

"Recovered from what?"

"For heaven's sake," said Karna crankily. "Don't start the ignorance routine again. How could you possibly recover from Duryodhan's injuries in less than an hour?"

 "You should know, King of Anga," said Arjun with a smile, "it is only internal wounds that last long."

Karna smiled back before he straightened his face quickly. It was all wrong; everything was wrong, especially how he felt that if not for some circumstances, he and Arjun could have been the best of friends.

He had never hated Arjun. Not really. He had simply hated the idea he represented. The privileged class, the blood-obsessed royalty who thought themselves too good for everyone around.

But Arjun had never backed off from a fight due to Karna's birth status. It was Bhisma and Drona and all the other senior members of royalty. Yet he had fought the war on the same side as people who had never shown him the slightest respect--and his goal in the war was to slay Arjun, who had been one of the few of the privileged class who had never passed a comment on charioteer sons.

It did not make much sense to him anymore.

And then he had discovered the opposition side had been his brothers all along.

When it was far too late.

But there was one thing he could hold on to to keep himself: Arjun had been attempting trickery and lying about it.

"I suppose you will again deny later that you visited our camp," he said viciously. "I am afraid I cannot tolerate this conversation a moment longer."

"Wait!" cried Arjun. "I have come with a proposal this time."

Karna gritted his teeth.

"I heard you can influence Brother Duryodhan, King of Anga," said Arjun solemnly, "and I can influence my older brother. We can persuade them to concede to peace."

"Really?" said Karna sarcastically. "How do you suppose we do that?"

"We can convince them to divide the divide the kingdom into half again," said Arjun. "Neither they nor we would interfere in each other's kingdom again. We can coexist in the same world."

"Divide the kingdom?" said Karna.

Arjun had said it in such an innocent way, like he genuinely thought it was that easy--like he did not know that if it had been possible at all, the war would never have happened in the first place--that a laugh escaped Karna.

"It is not a laughing matter, King of Anga."

"The way you are speaking is."

"It ought not to be." Arjun frowned. "What is so impossible about rebuilding our old kingdoms and restoring peace?"

"I am sure you are aware that Vasudev Krishna visited Prince Duryodhan before the war as a peace mercenary, Arjun? You remember what he had said?"

Arjun hesitated.

"Are you going to lie again and say you have forgotten?" asked Karna in disdain.

"No, I--"

"He asked for five villages, one for the each of you. And even that was declined. Do you think there is any chance Duryodhan will return whole of Indraprastha to them?"

"But you never tried to reason with him," said Arjun earnestly. "Everyone tried, but you didn't. You are the only one who can truly influence him. Can you not try once?"

Karna wondered if he was inside some sort of a complex dream.

Arjun had never seemed the fake sort to him; even in his worst flaws would Karna never count cunningness. If anything, he was too open with his expressions.

So he could not be rambling on for the sake of an elaborate conspiracy. Vasudev carried out plenty of conspiracies of his own, but he had never used Arjun as a pawn. And Arjun could not have come up with all this on his own for the sake of deception.

Yet he could not be speaking from sense, either.

Maybe the prolonged war had affected his head?

"Are you thinking?" asked Arjun.

"There is nothing to think," said Karna mechanically.

"I wish you would genuinely give it a thought, jyesht--" Arjun broke off. "--King of Anga."

"Don't insult Yudhishthir by calling me that, Arjun."

"Sorry."  

But Arjun looked crestfallen. Karna looked away.

"Anyway, what I was saying is--" began Arjun.

"Don't you realize I disarmed Abhimanyu and led to his death, Arjun?" said Karna finally. "Don't you realize that was the point from where we cannot go back? You are insulting your son's memory by even considering peace."

"But so long as the war continues, there will be still more deaths." Instead of flaring up at the mention of his late son, Arjun was as earnest as ever. "Revenge has to draw a line at some point, or there will be nothing left."

"There will be nothing left after this war, so it is said," said Karna.

"It makes little sense to accept that as inevitable," pointed out Arjun, not insensibly.

"And as for the two of us negotiating for peace, that is ridiculous," said Karna. "Whether there was a war or not, whether there comes peace or not, one of us has to kill the other."

Arjun opened his mouth to protest, but Karna did not give him the chance to speak.

"Neither of us can live while the other survives. It is inevitable. It is written in the stars." 

Karna waved at the sky above. Arjun followed his gaze. Three hours were left for sunrise; the stars had hidden themselves from this place of sin, but they would be there, somewhere, and they could not be changed.