The response I got for last chapter- was heart whelming!

Also, the last chapter got the most comments for any chapter in this whole book! I mean it!

Target for this chapter- 25 votes and 100 comments.

If you reach it quick, I will update quickly, if you delay, I will not update, you reach the target for yesterday's chapter, so here I am with a new chapter today!

So when I update is basically in your hands.

This chapter, will take you through a rollercoaster an unexpected revelation, so dive in!

~~~~~~~~~~~

Dhriti

When someone who was once significant in your life comes back after an extended absence, emotions you had finally freed yourself from are reawakened, and if that's not enough to contend with, dormant memories are summoned whether you want them to be or not. He wanted to go and tend to her yet did not want to move, because of the traitor she was.

He just stood there numb, beside him he felt Karn rush forward to know the commotion, but Yudhishthira could not move, he knew, one move and he would lose his sanity.

Her painful memories returned as he felt tears stud his eyelashes but he did not let them fall. He felt he would burst from everything.

There, in a distance, he saw Arjun fall on his knees and take the girl's head on his lap, Kunti and the other elders rushed there in a hurry as they inquired what happened.

It had happened too fast, no one could comprehend what happened.

She was bleeding all over, a part in Yudhishthira still cared for her, burning at seeing her bleed, maybe there was a reason why people called him- Ajatshatru- The one without enemies. But the moment she exposed herself came back as he tried to shake all those thoughts away.

"All I saw were some arrows come in Arjun's direction laced with poison from an unknown terrorist, and before anyone knew it, she leaped forward and took them on herself." Bheem said as he rushed out to get the killer.

"That is exactly what happened." Arjun said as he shook her violently.

"But who is she? Why would she risk her life for arjun?" Kunti asked worried as she kneeled beside the girl.

"Maybe some admirer." nakul said as looked shaken at her beauty.

"She looks like a royal." Bheeshma said as ran his hands over her silks and her sword.

"Wait-

I have seen her somewhere, isn't she the girl you gave the kingdom to Bhrata Yudhishthira, when i met you again." bheem said getting up looking Yudhishthira straight.

"Do you know her putra?" Kunti got up. When yudhi did not respond, arjun went and shook him vigorously.

"Take her to the royal doctor right now!" Karn commanded as he also came and faced Yudhishthira.

Bheem took one more glance at her and exclaimed, "I am sure it was her, I saw her once with bhrata Yudhishthira"

At this, Yudhishthira glared at Bheem, if looks could kill, then bheem would have been 10 feet under the ground by now.

"Bhrata Yudhishthira, just open your mouth and say something! She literally saved my life, we need to inform her family." Arjun said a little louder than expected making Yudhishthira look up in shock.

Yudhishthira couldn't say anything, not because he didn't know what to say, but because there was too much of it.

And yet, whenever they started with the questions Yudhishthira froze stiff, as if he had been pushed onstage in a play where he didn't know the lines.

"YUDHI! JUST SAY SOMETHING" Karn screamed losing his temper, involuntarily holding tight at the exact place where yudhi tried to cut himself in front of Karn, so karn would not force him to accept the throne, yudhi tried to not show the sharp surge of pain as he broke out of his reverie, doing his best to not show the burning pain.

"I am sorry Yudhishthira, I should not have screamed." Karn said genuinely as yudhi nodded softly.

'Do you know her?" Nakul asked as Yudhi nodded subtly, there was no use of lying.

"I know her." Yudhishthira said finally as everyone's mouth dropped open.

"Who is she? How do you know her? Is she some secret lover?" Arjun asked as Yudhi looked at him with a bewildered look. Thinking that someone rejected Arjun's marriage proposal so he could only think of love.

"No, I met her when I escaped from Dwaraka, she is like my sister." Yudhishthira said emphasizing on'like.'

"Do you know her family?" Sahadev asked as yudhi found himself at a loss of words.

But before they could question him further a guard came there and bowed and seeked permission to speak.

'Devi has regained consiousness and is well, she needs some rest." the guard said and bowed again.

"Can we talk to her?" arjun asked the guard and the guard nodded.

They all went to the the room where she was resting, all but Yudhishthira who could not move.

~~~~~'

In the room, they all went to her and surrounded her as she sat up with Kunti's help.

The first thing she noticed was her clothes were changed.

"Who changed my clothes?" she asked as she thought of the time she had seen these people for the first time at the time in her life, that time they were the ones who had hurt her brother beyond extend, now some people for whom she risked her life.

"Dasis." Arjun said softly as he sat beside her and took her hand.

"It's just plain obvious, I don't have any acquaintance with you, yet many thanks for what you did, you took a chance with your life to save me, I won't ever have the option to offer my thanks." Arjun added yet Dhriti snapped her hand away as she got up and put her dagger at his neck as she took warrior strands leaving everybody in this room dumbfounded.

"Where is Yuvraj?" she asked quietly as she squeezed the blade a little.

"Bhrata Yudhishthira?" Arjun asked his voice floundering, he didn't have the foggiest idea what bewildered him more. Her exquisite looks or her boldness and war abilities.

With a breadth second he took to dagger from her as he pointed it at her, yet she dodged.

"I anticipate sparring with you sometime in the not-so-distant future." arjun said smiling.

"You didn't respond to me." Dhriti reminded in a perilous tone

"Oh he, he did not wish to you right now, he shall be out, Why? By the way, do you know him." arjun said still smirking at which she nodded subtly.

They could help but notice that she and their brother shared the same complexion and jawline.

"Yes, I do. Please tell him, I wish to meet him alone right now, in this chamber. And if my message is not delivered right now, I can kill you if I can save you." she said picking up her dagger again.

"You are a courageous one." Nakul said as kunti gave her a look of concern but Sahadev looked distant as they went out as arjun went the other way to inform Yudhishthira.

~~~~~~~

She heard the royal door slam and the curtains blow as she saw her brother.

"Another plan to kill me?" he asked softly as he locked the dorr behind him after asking for privacy.

"What makes you think that?" she asked as she stood right in front of him her gaze straight in his eyes.

"What is it about asking you Catholic questions that gets you all jumpy?" he asked her wittily.

"You'd be jumpy, too, if I asked you things that make you feel the hot breath of hell at your back." she replied taking a step.

"You're not going to hell. Even though I wished you did, you saved my brother." yudhi said smirking looking her in the eye.

"What makes you think that? I'm your goddamn salvation." she smirked.

"You??" yudhi laughed before looking at her again.

"See, we need to talk, you ever let me complete that day. I tried twice." Dhriti reminded him.

_____

FLASHBACK

"But I don't want the throne. I-" He heard her voice from back in barely above a whisper. The subjects should not hear their conversation.

"Were you asked anything, maharani?" he said cutting her short giving a sarcastic reply while pressing on the word maharani.

"Listen to me. I-" she tried again.

"You want to kill me. It is as plain as it is. And I don't accept that." He again cut her blankly.

"I am trusting you with the citizens, they are a part of me. Please don't try to kill them. Take my life but please don't harm them. You are dhamanandini, you are dad's daughter, we have the same blood. You can't hurt them." He said as he rushed down at the best he could as she stood there with a smile on her face as the cool breeze hit her face, she would never hurt the citizens now..

The subjects chanted "Maharani Dhriti ki jai!"

______

"What is left to say? You tried to kill me." Yudhi said pretty loud, she always got the best and worse out of him.

"I did, I won't lie, but I was desperate, alone, lonely. You changed me, you made me look for the better, I only told you, because I had to tell you, I could not bear it in me anymore." Dhriti replied holding his hand and pulling him.

"And how am I to believe you?" he asked even though he believed her, her eyes showed she was true to her words.

"I would not save your brother if I wished you dead." she remarked at which yudhi looked convinced.

"You're so... You're too... You're..." He faltered, then took a deep breath. "I have no words for you, Dhriti. You leave me speechless."

She smiled and pinched his hand so he twitched. "Speechless? Gods, I've broken you. I never would have deemed it possible to render you speechless." she said dramatically.

"I can't believe you shared a wife!" Dhriti said in disbelief.

"There was not another choice, also Draupadi is the best thing that happened to me." yudhi said proudly.

"you know I am hotter?" Dhriti brought up the topic again.

"Yesterday I received a love letter from the princess of udaipur." Yudhi stared at her proudly.

"Just a letter? A hot guy confessed his crush on me yesterday." she said, she needed to argue.

"Wait! you recieved a love letter, bhabi  draupadi will deal with it." she said.

"You naughty little monkey!" he screamed at her as she continued laughing.

"This conversation is deja vu." he said absent mindedly as dhriti nodded, it was.

"Still, accept it, I am hotter. What was up with your archer brothers whisteling around me?" Dhriti said as yudhi's face twisted in disagreement.

"Girls loose their voice when they see me! And yeah, I have 2 archer  brothers." yudhishthira said.

"We both know who is smitten by me. Both of them" Dhriti said sarcastically.

"You should have seen that younger guy's face when i jerked his hand off." she laughed.

"Why didn't I see it? It would be worth it." yudhi said as he laughed.

"Yeah, will you accept them?" yudhishthira asked as he ran his hand through her hair.

"For the time being no, one who is smitten already has a shared wife, I can't stand being second wife. Second one who is also falling, is single but elder to you, I can't imagine myself ordering you around, but it will seem fun." at this they both laughed and left, this was gonna be one hell of a day.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Mood-swings are very normal in mental trauma. You might be surprised how yudhishthira went from depressed to shocked to kill himself to numb to teasing his sister. It is all very normal in mental traumas. Your heart feels everything or nothing. But at the end you go back to loneliness and depression, the joy, the moods are temporary, the depression stays. That is exactly what he is going through. And that is why it is not easy for someone to know if a loved one is going through a mental trauma, unless you know the scars and the tears shed behind closed doors. Yudhishthira especially is a personality who will never share his pain with anyone, so not everyone knows he is struggling and suffering. Also his brothers are not inconsiderate, it is just he is too good at hiding his pain. If they had any clue, they would lay down their lives to get a real smile on his face.

Guess, Dhriti was not that mean after all.

How was this chapter?

Did you like the conversation between Yudhishthira and Dhriti?

What is up with the archers?

Will Dhriti end up falling for them too?

Whom do you want me to pair Dhriti with?

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