Arjun had dealt with Anushalva and his soldiers. He had managed to stick to his vow of not actually killing any of the soldiers and Anushalva would have to learn to live without the arm he had used to drag away Angarani. It should be a reminder that one should not touch a woman against her will.

They were nearing Hastinapur now. Finally he had managed to get Angarani back safely and he hoped.... he hoped that this might show Vrishaketu that Arjun didn't necessarily only bring destruction and loss with him.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Meeting Lakshmana Di after so long had lifted Vrishaketu's spirits at least a little bit. And the poor woman hadn't even been able to see her father or uncles during the war before their deaths, having been in Dwarka until her father's funeral, when she had briefly visited.

She was the only sibling and friend he had left who he had known before the war.

He had spent the whole day with her and Bhanumati kaki after promising Uttara to introduce her to Lakshmana Di before she left.

She had obviously been horrified to hear that his mother had been kidnapped and unfortunately that combined with... well... everything else made their reunion a rather sad one.

Vrishaketu was getting antsier and antsier over the course of four days when the news came that Rajkumar Arjun's white horse had been sighted.

He practically ran through the Palace and was the first to reach the Palace gates.

The final moments of waiting were even greater torture than the past four days had been. And then they entered through the gates.

And there she was. A bit dirty and scratched but perfectly fine and as dignified as ever.

"Maa!" He yelled, before running to the horse.

Her face lit up when she caught sight of him and the moment he reached them, he hurried to help her down. As someone who was not used to riding horses often, this journey would not have been easy on her.

The moment she was down, he pulled her into a tight embrace. Finally his worries, his fears could be put to rest. He felt like a dying man in a desert who had just been gifted water. She whispered reassurances to him, that she was alright, that she was perfectly safe but it was her fingers running through his hair that truly calmed him down.

"What about Anushalva?" He growled, pulling back from the embrace.

"I requested Arjun not to kill him but--"

"You what?!" Vrishaketu exclaimed, enraged.

"Don't worry." Rajkumar Arjun said grimly. "His life might have been spared thanks to your mother, but he will never dare to touch a woman again."

Speaking of which.... he turned to fully face the older man.

A surge of complicated emotions exploded in his chest.

"You...you kept your promise." Vrishaketu mumbled.

"I would say I was offended that you thought I wouldn't but," Rajkumar Arjun shrugged, smiling easily, "I can't exactly blame you for not having faith in me."

Vrishaketu swallowed, a lump in his throat.

"Th-thank you." He said, and for the first time, he meant it from the very bottom of his heart.

Rajkumar Arjun's face lit up with a smile as if Vrishaketu had given him a gift instead of the other way round. He had to bite his lips to hold back fond exasperation. This man, honestly......

Then it occurred to him that... he was thinking fondly of Rajkumar Arjun. What would his father think?!

He brought your mother back to you. A voice in his head seemed to tell him. Even your father might have thanked him for that.

So Vrishaketu decided to grin right back at him for once. The older man blinked in shock and that in itself made it worth it.

"Come Ma," He said turning to his mother, who seemed more amused that the situation warranted, "You must change out of these clothes. And besides, there's someone who is waiting to meet you!"

In any case, he wanted to leave before everyone else came to greet Rajkumar Arjun.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The way Vrishaketu had smiled at him today had made everything worth it. All these long months of patience, not giving up in his quest even when the boy seemed too stubborn was made worth by that bright grin. 

He practically skipped up to his mother and brothers and wives before being greeted with another surprise! MADHAV!

Just looking at Madhav seemed to remove all the stress that had accumulated over him over the past few days.

His best friend came and embraced him tightly.

"You stupid idiot!" He scolded. "Why on earth did you not tell me about this whole debacle?! And did you really think you could have kept in hidden from me?!" 

Arjun flushed at that last part. 

"Well I had definitely hoped so, despite knowing how little chance of it there was. And as for not telling you...." Arjun sighed. "Well, I gave everyone else some ridiculous explanation of not wanting to bother you with family matters, but you ARE family to that's nonsense. It's more that I wanted to prove to Vrishaketu that this was something I could do for him....that I didn't necessarily always bring ruin and pain to his life........"

"Oh Paarth..... you never bring pain to anyone's--"

"No." Arjun told him flatly. "Don't start, please. I know I can't bear to hear anything against you and you can't bear to hear anything against me but Vrishaketu's grievances against me are valid and very true."

Madhav sighed. "I feel as though I can't change your mind on this absolutely wrong opinion that you have formed."

"It's not wrong and no you can't."

"Well.....but..."

Suffice it to say, they were at it for a while.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

After his mother's return, Vrishaketu hovered over her constantly. He couldn't help it. Thankfully, she didn't get too irritated with him.

His grandparents--both sets-- hugged his mother tightly and everyone gushed over her safety like they should.

Lakshmanaa Di and Ma held each other tightly and spoke quietly of things he could not hear.

He introduced Lakshmanaa Di and Uttara and they got along like a house on fire.

All this happened over the next three days. But through everything, he could not seem to get Rajkumar Arjun out of his head.

He was for once, actually grateful to the man. And he didn't know if he should feel guilty or not about feeling grateful to the man who had killed almost half his family.

For once he did not even think that his father would be upset with him but something still seemed to clog up his throat if he thought too hard about it.

He wished for the first time that his father and Rajkumar Arjun had known each other. That is, properly known each other, not whatever wrong, hateful image of each other they had built up in their minds.

He wondered for the first time what it would have been like if they had become friends. Would the war never have happened? Would the Kauravas and Pandavas have become allies? It all seemed too far fetched. How could the fate of a whole subcontinent be changed by the mere alteration of a relationship between two men?

Then again, Vrishaketu supposed, they were the two greatest warriors of their generation, two of the people with the most impact on everything that had happened and led to the war.

And then he wondered what it would have been like for him and his brothers specifically if his father had been friends with Rajkumar Arjun. Would they have had another pseudo-uncle like Kakashree Duryodhan and Dussashan? 

The thought seemed very strange, especially in regards to Rajkumar Arjun.

Then realisation dawned on him. It kept slipping his mind but...... Rajkumar Arjun was Baba's brother. It seemed false in every way but it was the truth, because apparently due to one woman's care for her reputation, his father had lived a lie his entire life, even he and his brothers to a lesser extent, had lived their lives wrapped up in a lie.

He wanted to rage and scream at Rajmata Kunti but he did not know what he might end up doing if he had to actually talk to her so he had to banish that thought from his head.

But that once again brought him back to Rajkumar Arjun.

If the man cared for him only because he thought of him as a nephew, if he never would have given him another thought if he hadn't found out the truth about his father, then did he even deserve Vrishaketu's consideration?

But was it fair to judge him based on a what-if scenario that hadn't taken place?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Arjun laid on a fluffy mattress next to Madhav in Mata Gandhari's gardens, staring up at the stars sometime before Suryadev graced them with his presence. After the stress of the past few days, simply spending some time with his best friend was the most peaceful thing.

They had both fallen silent a while ago. It was a soft, sweet kind of silence, like it always was with Madhav.

As the stars twinkled so far away, he felt the familiar melancholy sit heavy on his heart.

It was said that you could always find your lost loved ones in the stars. Arjun had so many of those, he couldn't even begin to figure out which one might be which.

"Who are you  looking for?" Madhav asked softly from beside him.

Arjun sighed. "I don't quite know. Everyone? I miss them all so very much."

Madhav pulled him against his side. Arjun laid his head on his friend's chest to let his steady heartbeat soothe him.

"Do you want to see them again, Paarth?"

Arjun huffed a sad laugh. 

"Of course I do. Every single one of them."

"But if you had to pick one, who would you choose?"

"Well, that's a very difficult question. How am I ever meant to choose?"

"You know, whoever you want to talk to the most. I can make it happen."

Arjun sat up abruptly, staring incredulously at his best friend.

"You can make it happen?! What on earth does that mean?! How can you let me talk to someone who is dead?!"

Madhav just raised his eyebrows at him. 

"Have you forgotten who you are talking to, my dear Paarth?"

Which, fair. But still?! He could not possibly drop something like, 'I can let you talk to the dead' on him and expect him not to be shocked! Though knowing Madhav, maybe that was exactly what he had expected.

"Wait, you can really let me talk to dead people?"

"Would I jest about this?"

"Answer the question."

Madhav sighed. 

"I can let you talk to one dead person. And its a one time thing, not something that can be repeated."

Arjun really wanted to ask about the mechanics of that, how he could talk to one dead person but not more, but he felt like he would either get more confused or that Madhav would give him some vague, irritating answer.

Instead Arjun really thought about what his friend was offering. One person he could talk to, despite them being dead. Another chance at a conversation with a loved one.

He looked up at the stars which were starting to fade with the slow appearance of the Sun above the horizon.

"You would truly do that for me? Let me talk to someone from beyond the grave?"

Madhav graced him with a very soft look.

"You know that I would bend the rules of the Universe for you, Paarth."

Arjun's heart flipped like it always did each time the realisation dawned on him afresh, that the Lord of the Universe had somehow chosen him of all people to shower with his love and affection.

Madhav continued, "More than one person could get me into some serious trouble with Yamraaj, but I think I could convince him about one person. Benefits of being me."

He said it nonchalantly like he was talking about the weather and not the actual God of Death.

It was very strange sometimes, when your best friend was a God is human form.

Arjun sighed and turned his thoughts away from Madhav's (beloved) idiosyncrasies to the real question.

Which of his loved ones did he want to call? Who did he have more to say to than any of the others?

He was still in sheer disbelief of the fact that he could apparently get to talk a dead man.

Would it be Abhimanyu? Shrutakarma? Iravan? But how could he ever choose one son over the others?

Would it be Pitamaha Bheeshma? Guru Drona? Drishtadyumna? One of his nephews? Uttar?

He couldn't understand. He didn't have anything more to say to any one of them than he had the others.

Each of their deaths caused so much pain and grief to him but he felt as though they all knew how much he loved them, how much they meant to him. He didn't have any unanswered questions for them, no grudges, no grievances.

He would love the chance to talk to all of them, any of them, but.... he couldn't choose.

He could ask his brothers and wives but they would all have different answers and besides, he felt like Madhav needed this to be his answer.

He could just say that he would rather let all of the dead rest but would it be right to squander such an opportunity?

Something that everyone in all of Aryavarta now yearned for but could not have, was being offered to him.

He met Madhav's eyes. His friend looked at him pensively.

Suddenly Arjun's eyes flashed towards the rising Sun.

Surya Dev was still visible in his beauty in the early dawn before the strength of his life-giving rays blinded them all.

.........

Suddenly Arjun had the answer to who he would want to talk to from beyond the grave.

In hindsight, it was so obvious, that he wondered how it had not come to him at once.

There was no other choice.

AAAAAA GUYS, WE HAVE REACHED SO CLOSE TO THE SCENE FOR WHICH I STARTED WRITING THIS WHOLE STORY IN THE FIRST PLACE.

Also. Frankly speaking, I legit felt like I had forgotten to write. For almost three weeks, I stared at the screen with barely over 700 words written. And then over the past three days I managed to take it over 2000 words.

Tell me what you thought of the Madhav-Paarth relationship in this chapter. As always, @bleedblue2011 is my inspiration on how to write their relationship!

I hope the chapter flowed nicely. If something seems weird, please let me know.

It's still a slightly shorter chapter than you might be used to getting for this story at this point, but I don't think I could have ended it at a better place.

Now that I've finally gotten this chapter out, I can finally peacefully and guiltlessly study for my first set exams in just less than two weeks lol.

A belated Subho Bijoya and Happy Dusshera to all of you!