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

The end of the road

Pov: Karna from the world of light

"I cannot accept anything happening to you, my friend," Duryodhan kept saying over and over. "I have lost enough--after Dussashan, I cannot live on if anything happens to you."

"N-nothing will happen to me," Karna felt compelled to say. He tried to reason with himself that he was not technically lying.

Duryodhan's demeanour was the only thing in this world that had seemed right to Karna so far. Even in their world, he had always been close to Duryodhan. They did have polar opposite views on several things, but Karna enjoyed being with him second only to Arjun.

"You give me your word, don't you?" asked Duryodhan. "You will certainly slay Arjun tomorrow?"

"I--" Karna could not complete that line. He simply could not.

Under dire requirement, he could lie about anything, but not this.

Duryodhan caught his shoulders and gazed at him. There was something unstable in the gaze. Something crazed and rabid.

Karna remembered what he had gathered so far: Dussashan had been dealt a brutal death by Bheem yesterday. It was not Duryodhan's fault if he was unstable tonight. After seeing your brother's savaged body...

He shivered at the idea. Warriors and protectors of kingdoms could not help war, of course; but to encounter a war on this scale would be a misfortune indeed.

"You stopped me from killing him today. He was at our feet--and he deserved it, after making up stories to you about how he wanted to forfeit. He deserved to die at our feet."

That meant Arjun was somewhere, hurt. 

Idiot--thinking he could reason with people who detested the very sight of him.

"You have to kill that Arjun tomorrow," murmured Duryodhan. "Make him beg before killing him. I shall try to direct Bheem towards you just as you kill him. I want to make Bheem see his younger brother begging for death. I need to make Bheem suffer. Only then can I be at peace about my brother's death."

Karna closed his eyes, but could not banish the image painted in front of his eyes.

"Promise me, Karna. Promise me, my friend."

Karna's eyes found the sky; it was less than an hour for sunrise.

"I--I promise I will act for the best," he said. "You get a bit of rest; I will be back soon."

"You cannot leave," said Duryodhan pleadingly.

"I am not leaving, my friend, I will be right here." Karna freed himself gently from his oldest cousin's arms and escaped.

****************

He ran all the way to the vicinity of the Pandava camp, glancing up at the sky every minute.

Fifty minutes to sunrise.

Forty minutes to sunrise...

There was much general bustle in and around the camp; men getting ready, women aiding them, people calling each other in shouts. 

This time, Karna was absolutely determined to keep himself hidden. There was to be no scene as the one when he had first arrived.

Keeping his head down and shoulders hunched, he slunk around the camp perimeter, scrutinizing everyone desperately for some hint--any hint that might guide him to his brother.

He found Arjun with Vasudev Krishna and an unknown woman. She had her arm around Arjun's waist and her head on his shoulder.

Karna looked away queasily.

This world's Arjun could just as well be married to someone other than Draupadi for all he knew. He was no one to pass judgement.

If there was this world's Arjun inside the camp, his Arjun would be outside.

Possibly injured. Though hopefully he had recovered...

Karna sent a despairing look at the sky.

Thirty minutes left to sunrise, at best.

He sprinted away from the camp in a circle, trying to cover as much area as he could in as less time as possible. His eyes scanned every tree for movement.

But the dark crumpled shape he found under a tree nearby was not moving. It was bloodied and broken. The silver Gandiva in its fist was the only part that had not imbibed the blood. But its chest was heaving up and down steadily.

Every fibre in Karna's being came alive. It was so overwhelming that he knew he had been dead inside for a while now. He was not whole without his brother.

Karna also knew then that as long as he lived, he would drop everything and follow Arjun to the end of the world if it was needed.

For Karna, the end of the road would always be Arjun.

*****************

The first thing he did was feel his brother's pulse.

It was all right.

Only then did he let the fury crash over him.

"You idiot," shouted Karna, flinging himself down on the pool of blood. "If you do not have a single bit of common sense in your head, why can you not listen to me?"

Arjun did not answer.

Unaware that he was crying, Karna lifted his limp head into his lap.

"I hope you know you are the reason behind this mess. Behind this entire mess. Do you think we can ever forget what we have seen this night? You deserve to live on in this horrible world for your stupidity--Arjun, you infernal idiot, you deserve to--

"Answer me back, for heaven's sake!" The last part was a scream.

But Arjun stayed as limp as ever.

Karna took Arjun's wrist in one hand again to feel the reassuring pulse and ran the other through Arjun's blood-stained hair.

"It is no good yelling at you when you won't answer back," he breathed. "You just wait till Nakul and Sahadev have fixed you up."

In spite of Arjun's non-cooperation, it was not hard to lift him up. Maybe it had something to do with the number of times Karna had done it before. Arjun had always been perfectly capable of falling asleep in any place under the sun: on a haystack, on horseback, on the branch of a tree. Carrying him back home to bed had always been Karna's duty.

"Jyesht?" mumbled Arjun.

"Yes, I'm here," said Karna. "Do you feel better, child?"

Arjun groaned and reverted back into oblivion.

Karna smiled through his tears and held his brother's body to his heart and hunted for the portal. It would not take long to find Nakul and Sahadev on the other side. Arjun was going to be all right.

In their world, at least, everything was going to be all right.