Matsya Pradesh [Six months Ago]

Hastinapur's massive army lay groaning in various stages of utter annihilation on the battlefield of Matsya Pradesh. 

Chariots were overturned, horses mangled, flags severed, elephants dead and men were strewn all around in mutilated parts, wheezing with dying breaths. 

The sky was lit in a brilliant shade of vermillion as the heat of the aftermath of the war, clogged everyone's breath painfully. The distant screech of vultures could be heard from the direction of the barren wastelands at the east, used primarily as a cemetery. 

Prince Uttar was leaning against his chariot's wheel, panting with breathlessness as he surveyed the horrific scene ahead with wide eyes. He still hadn't registered the fact that the woman whom he had pestered for stories of the enigmatic third Pandava prince would turn out to be that very man, himself. 

He still couldn't figure out how he was a woman, to be honest. 

Holy shit! Uttara's dance teacher was Savyasachi Arjun. 

That meant the Pandavas and their wife, Draupadi were hiding in their palace all these months?

The second thing which the young prince still couldn't process was that he had basically witnessed Arjun, who was still a woman for some incomprehensible reason, single handedly decimate the Kaurava forces. 

He himself had just been a paltry excuse of a charioteer. 

The unbelievable exploits of Vijaya had always intrigued and amazed the royals of Aryavarta and propelled many a prince and noble into hero worshipping and aspiring to be at least an inch worth of him but this... 

This, Viratanandan, wouldn't have even been able to conjure in his wildest dreams. 

Brihannala, as she still was, has routed the Bravehearts of Hastinapur, the entourage of the greatest super warriors of their era with hilarious ease and a rage which had been downright petrifying to behold. 

Her scream of fury brought Uttar's blurring attention back on his companion and he watched with rising panic as the dusky skinned slender waisted warrior dragged Dusashan's battered bleeding body by a fistful of his hair, through his scattered army, like the mighty Kaurava prince weighed nothing more than a sack of potatoes. 

Brihannala threw him with a characteristic graceful move, on the ground, in the clearing at front. 

The irony wasn't lost on Uttara's brother as he recounted the horrifying tale his mother had told him, of how the fiend had dragged the Queen Yagyasaini into the Kuru court by her hair. 

The war for protection of Matsya had ended long before.

This was pure vengeance. 

Uttar saw Duryodhan's and his cronies' filthy blood streaked faces paling with the same realisation. They were lying helplessly paralyzed by their rival's mystical weapons, struggling to move in vain as one of them was dragged into certain slaughter by the looks of it. 

The teen would later swear that he had seen lightening flash in Brihannala's silver prussian eyes for a second as she raised her bloody sword to point at the neck of the whimpering piece of shit, lying on the ground.

"How does it feel to be on the receiving end... cousin.", Arjun spat the last word with such vitriol that it made everyone flinch. 

"Arjun! Arjun you can't kill him. Remember Vrikodhar's vow, my child. You cannot make it invalid."

Maharathi Dronacharya, who was resting bound to the mast of his flagpole, beseeched his favourite student, half of his own face painted in red, armour split open and words shaking with the blood loss. 

"I am not your Arjun today Acharya! Neither am I bound by my morals. I am a woman today. And I am a husband too. This creature is a stain on his ancestors and I am going to do them all a favour and remove him from the face of the Earth. Don't you all worry, Bhrata Bhim wouldn't mind", Arjun shouted back unmoved, scathing. 

"I will kill you Arjun! You touch my brother and I will..", Duryodhan's rabid screams were shut off by a yell of pain as Brihannala motioned her hand in a gesture which coiled the invisible ropes tighter over his weeping wounds. 

"The world will curse your name Vibhatsu. You are of unflinching countenance! Don't sully it for a single moment of peace."

'Angaraj Karn, oh how the mighty have fallen!', Uttar mused. 

The great super warrior was lying stuck under a massive wheel of his own chariot, one of his legs bent in an odd angle as he bled profusely from the deep scars Parth's relentless arrows had left on his muscled frame. 

The addressal of his arch nemesis's particular name wasn't lost on Virata's youngest or anyone as it seemed. The way even his sworn rivals hailed Kunti's youngest for his unflinching honour was awe inspiring to say the least.

Duryodhan's bosom friend, who could hardly speak without spewing a ton of acidic sarcasm had only apprehension and a despondence in his tone which could only come from a resounding defeat. The proud warrior has been knocked right off his throne with humiliating ease this day. 

Not even Radheya, who was rumoured to have powers of Suryadeva himself, and an unbreakable armour, had been able to withstand Savyasachi's wrath. 

"Did you overindulge with the desserts yesterday, Angaraj. I have never heard such sweet words come out of that trap you call a mouth. Shame... such saccharine hypocrisy doesn't become you."

Brihannala's split lips curled in a cruel smirk which looked alien on her admittedly beautiful face, her words cutting a whiplash as sharp as the thin line of blood which she drew from Dusashan's throat. 

Her curly hair was long and flew open in the fast approaching evening winds reminding the defeated Kuru leaders of Agnisutaa's open locks blowing in the same way, that fateful day, in court. 

Maybe she had willed it that way, intentionally reminding everyone of a painfully ironic parallel. 

All of them dragged forcefully to the dirt, humiliatingly off their high horses, shattering their arrogance and emasculating them with scathing ease by who was technically still a woman. 

No less than what they all had deserved. 

Bheeshma still unable to catch his breath from where his chest stung mightily, he didn't know whether in pride or sorrow or that hidden well of immense love he had always had for Pandu's third one, joined his wizened hands towards this strange new avatar of his favourite grandson. 

"Have mercy my dear one...", the Kuru grandsire began. 

"Mercy!", Brihannala spat, eyes flashing murderously. She picked up the snivelling prince from the ground with a painful tug on his hair and shook him like he was a fluttering leaf. 

"You want me to have mercy on this scoundrel who almost disrobed your daughter in law in open court? Had it not been for Krishna...", she stopped for a moment, swallowing in distress for the first time that day. 

"Fie on you Gangaputra! I have no mercy left to give. I have nothing left to give. He is going to die. A memento for the upcoming war. You can bring him back to Maharaja Dhritarashtra and just maybe, his idiotic self centred dolt of a brother will gain some of his non existent sense back."

Her uncharacteristic shrill scream of aggression, out sounded the collective cries of dismay which her defeated enemies let out as she raised her blade high enough which had it landed on Dusashan's neck would have made his head literally fly off a hundred feet. 

"No! My Prince! No wait... please..", Uttar in an unexpected move had jumped from his place and clutched her legs, kneeling beside her in a desperate grip. 

Brihannala's fury which had turned her vision red, breathed low at the sudden contact. Uttar hid his face in the folds of her ivory dhoti, trying to remember the serene face of the court's head dance tutor instead of the crazed in rage, Jishnu in female form. 

Gone was her typical almost maternal expression which she had always worn on her intoxicatingly beautiful face whenever she would catch either his or his sister's gaze. There was no swan like grace in her movements anymore, no witty humorous anecdotes told in that husky mellifluous voice, no genteel softness tempered with an unknown grief which had been the elusive dancer's aura. 

Today at the battle, Uttar had witnessed the Mother Goddess Kali herself, in Brihannala. 

And it had been positively terrifying to the eighteen year old. 

Even now, having dared to stop her from the kill was akin to trying to come in between a lioness and her hunt. 

Uttar could feel the tremors of static electricity flowing under the heated skin beneath the silken fabric of her dhoti, making him almost certain of his doubts about the demigod lineage of the latter's from Devendra himself.

"Please Brihannala... uhhh.. Rajkumar Arjun. You.. you told me.. and Uttara that day about how.. the Pandavas.. you all, will go to war, for establishing dharma. It was you who taught it to me Prince. Justice not vengeance. Please calm down."

Uttar pondered for a moment that if Arjun strikes him down for this insolence, will anything of him remain for his mother to cry over. 

Then what felt a millennia but could have only been a minute, he sensed a hand on his head, long fingers carded through his hair for a moment and he felt his racing heart steady in reassurance. The air was no longer pressing in on him. The sun had gone down and brought the end of the war with it. 

He separated from Brihannala's legs to look up at her sheepishly and saw her face had adopted that serene look again. The Matsya prince could almost cry with relief. 

The dance of destruction had stopped for the day. 

Arjun threw the sword with such force at the ground that it shook with the impact of being stabbed into the dirt. The blade had been so near to Dusashan's face that it nicked a mark on his cheek. 

"Had I been wont to go down to your level, I would have spit on you. Leave and never come back. Matsya is under my protection. And next time, there may not be children in the vicinity to ensure your worthless existence anymore."

Arjun stormed towards their chariot and Uttar scrambled to follow and almost barrelled into her back when he stopped suddenly. 

"Rajkumar...", he began when she seemed to look up and stare at something intently on the rapidly darkening sky. A small smirk formed on her face again. 

"Uttar... your sister has been whining about the lack of clothes for her dolls again, hasn't she?", she asked slowly. Uttar looked perplexed at this strange new question which had no bearings to anything of the present. 

"Yes... but why do you ask?"

Brihannala's eyes twinkled in an unfamiliar expression all of a sudden. 

"Bring me all of the Kuru warrior's angavastrams"

The youngest Matsya Prince prayed then that he never falls into Dhananjay's bad books, ever in his life.

-----------------------------

They had reached the palace gates when Brihannala stopped the chariot abruptly. She had insisted on driving back and repeatedly instructed Uttar to let everyone believe that it had been him who had won them the war, ignoring his vehement protests.

"But why? Hasn't your incognito period ended before we fought?", he had asked perturbed. 

"Yes. But we have still not decided when to reveal our true selves to the Maharaja and the royal family. I have to confer with Jyeshta before anyone comes to know. So, keep it to yourself for some time, my prince."

Uttar had nodded unconvinced and climbed up the chariot hesitantly after they had tied back the Gandhiva in its scary place, atop the tree with the corpse. 

"Why did you stop Raj.. uhh Brihannala?", Uttar asked confused at the jerky movement. 

Arjun on the other hand looked like he had seen a ghost. But even after squinting everywhere for a minute, Uttar couldn't locate the reason for his mentor's unexpected behaviour. But before he could reiterate his question, he almost got a heart attack as he saw tears roll down the stoic prince's dirty cheeks. 

"My Prince...", he hissed to her alarmed, looking him over frantically. She was wounded all over but it had all looked to be superficial injuries at first. 

Has he been grievously hurt and Uttar had just not noticed?

"Madhav...", she muttered into the wind, her words shaky and almost inaudible.

"Who? Lord Krishna? Why are you taking his name? He is here? Has he come? Oh, will he reveal your identities... what happened Brihannala.. you..", he began. 

"He is here. Madhav is here", Arjun cut across him, speaking almost in a trance as tears continued marking tracks of joyful pain along his smooth cheeks. 

"Rajkumar... you have.... you are crying", Uttar whispered gently. 

Arjun jerked out of his trance at that and touched his own cheek. He looked at his wet fingers in open surprise like he has never seen his own lacrimal fluids before. Then he wiped his face with a single swipe of a hand, smearing the blood and dirt across his feminine features in a very unladylike manner. 

"Sometimes the pain is at the worst, not when you are stabbed, or when the sword remains plunged in your chest, but when you finally take it out. Fear not Prince. Madhav is here and He... He will make it all better."

Uttar didn't know whether the words were meant specifically for him or for Arjun himself. 

-----------------------------------

Krishna chortled in mirth, his tall frame shaking slightly as he embraced his sakhi's trembling body. He could still hear the Matsya King, Virata's hysterical apologies to a clearly flustered Yudhishtir, in the background. 

"I swear Dharmaraja, had I known who you were, I would never have had the audacity to strike you, or treat any of you the way we have. A thousand apologies..."

"It is quite alright Maharaja. It is all forgiven and forgotten. In fact you have our thanks for providing shelter when he needed it the most. Also, please forgive us for the deceit. The circumstances... well you know how they were.."

"Oh most certainly! I couldn't be more pleased that you all chose Matsya for the hideout."

Draupadi came out of her Govinda's arms reluctantly and smiled up at his beautiful face. She had missed the Yadava Prince like one would miss a limb. And in his arms, she had always soothed the sting of her humiliations, collectively heaped on her again and again.

"So.. Keechak.. that was.. Vallabh.. I mean, Yuvraja Bhimsen?", Virat asked uncomfortably. Bhim's face darkened at the mention of the lecherous former general of Matsya but before he could speak anything, Krishna intercepted on their behalf. 

As usual. 

"You should be grateful Maharaja. After all, Keechak was turning out to be a bigger political threat than ever. Everyone in the kingdom listened to him more than the king. Bhrata Bheem has made your job easier, hasn't he?"

Madhusudhana's eyes twinkled madly and Matsyaraja lowered his own guilty ones immediately. 

"But.. if you all are here.. where is the third Pandava? Where is Prince Arjun?" 

Queen Sudheshna asked, looking around bewildered, still unable to digest the fact that the ethereal beauty of whom she had always been envious, her enigmatic Sairandhri, Malini, was actually the Chakravartini Yagyasaini herself. 

"Ahh yes, that is my question as well. Where is he.. or rather should I say, she?"

Janardhan chuckled mysteriously as Panchali swatted at his arm lightly in a mild warning at his teasing tone. 

'Don't do you dare make fun of my husband', her glare seemed to say. 

Her Govind only raised his hands up in surrender even as his handsome features glowed in delight and an uncharacteristic anticipation. 

"But what disguise has Arjun taken up here? And rather, how had Shakrasuta hidden himself? With the sheer magnificence of his aura, anyone could have recognized him", the Matsya King voiced all his of courtiers' and family's unasked query. 

Only Krishna's crystalline eyes swirled in peacock blue and jade green, his very essence radiating divinity like a powerhouse attracting everyone present in the hall like they were bees having gotten a scent of ambrosia. 

"A fair question Virataraja. The tritiya Kaunteya is a lion among men, broad shouldered, tapered waisted, curly haired, lotus footed, a single look from his eyes can split the very skies apart like Lord Shakra's vajra. He travels with the scent of sandalwood and saffron, his essence can bring the damsels of Amravati down on their knees and his aura can frighten the living daylights out of his enemies. So indeed, how can one hide the brightest star in the night sky?"

Keshava's impassioned speech detailing Partha's physical description had mesmerised his audience so much that they felt like they could see the Pandava prince's bewitching form in front of their eyes. 

"Maharaja, who do you think could have defeated the invincible army of Hastinapura? Who do you think could have taken Devarata, Dronarcharya, Kripacharya, Ashwatthama, Karna, Duryodhana, Dusashana and their massive armies all alone and won?"

The Pandavas smiled, regretful that they had not been able to witness the havoc Arjun had wrought upon their enemies but jubilant in his victory. Draupadi, couldn't stop her beautiful face from breaking into a brilliant smile as Krishna recounted her dusky husband's valour proudly.

Only a single mention of his Parth was enough for Madhav to keep recounting the world of his friend's prowess. 

"Vasudev... you mean to say that it was Arjun who helped my son to battle Hastinapura today? But how? Where was he? Who..", Virata's face turned ashen as soon as he connected the dots in his mind. 

Krishna smiled knowingly and it didn't take long for either Sudeshna or Uttara to catch onto his meaning. Their faces were something the Lord of the Universe wanted to somehow record for posterity so that he can make his friend watch it and blush. 

"No! It can't be.. her.. but she is a... what..", Sudeshna began faintly when Uttar entered the hall. 

All the faces turned towards the prince but remained stuck on the person following him into the court. 

Brihannala was covered in bleeding scars, her strikingly attractive face a little dusty and stained with blood at one side, her long curly hair was open and fluttered in the wind, along her cheeks and down to her waist and her ivory dhoti was ripped in one knee a little and filthy with the dirt from the battlefield. 

But what was now unmistakable was the near electric aura radiating from the slender woman in spades. It seemed the static from her enraged state earlier was still present in little crackles at the ends of her hair. 

But her expression was what hit them the most. 

She was transfixed staring at the blue eyed Lord, standing just a feet in front of her. There were suspicious tracks made on her smooth cheeks, cutting through the filth and blood like gorges. And then she started quaking slightly, those silver eyes unable to move even an inch from Krishna's face. 

'Madhav!', Arjun's heart screamed in agonized delight. 

'Madhav Madhav Madhav Madhav...', his body started singing its familiar chant as he recalled the last time he had laid eyes on his peacock feather clad friend. 

His Kahna had hardly spoken to him more than two words, deservedly angered at him for his inability to save his beloved sakhi from those monsters in court. But what had hurt more was the disappointment stark in those beloved multihued eyes. Krishna had only curtly informed him to appease Lord Shiva with penance and obtain divyastras from his divine father. 

Arjun had tried to apologise a million times, falling on his friend's lotus feet, heart and mind crying for even a single acknowledgement that maybe someday he would be completely forgiven but had only received the cold shoulder. 

Then the Lord of Dwarka had taken his Subhadra and Abhimanyu with him and left and that had been that. 

Arjun had pledged to himself that he will redeem himself somehow. He had to. Madhav had left and taken half of his soul along with him. What was remaining inside, had scorched him to ash within these long years of struggle and penance. 

It may have been thirteen years for his Dwarkadheesh, but for Savyasachi, it has been an entire lifetime. Endless circles of devastation and guilt and an acidic regret culminating into an explosion which had befallen the Kuru forces this day. 

And now that he was seeing his beloved again, after having longed for him, yearned for him, craved his presence for so long, with only a few feet of distance between them, Arjun didn't know what to expect. 

What had he even achieved this past decade?

A curse?

Suddenly Brihannala looked aside sharply, swallowing down a rock sized lump in her throat which made her eyes sting painfully. She will not be able to bear another rejection. She will not be able to tolerate seeing that aching disappointment in those aquamarine depths. 

She will rather perish. 

While Arjun was planning on a swift escape, Krishna had covered the distance between them unbeknownst to him. Uttar had walked as fast as he could to move away from between them, feeling a massive crumbling almost magnetic force from the dusky complexioned Yadava. 

Everyone looked on amazed as Brihannala startled rather endearingly as Krishna took her hands which were shaking white knuckled and balled at her sides, in his own much bigger one in comparison. 

In his natural form, Arjun was as tall as Krishna, the latter being maybe only an inch or two taller which was much voraciously debated and argued by the two, but in his female avatar, Brihannala only reached till the turmeric clad God's chest. And she was taller than most of women are wont to be. 

Krishna turned her hands in his own and peered into her palms intently, brows furrowed in some unknown thought, silent in his comprehensions. Arjun had felt his heart jolt the moment Madhav had touched him. 

Then Krishna did something which made everyone gawk in utter shock. A sight never seen before. Something which the people present in Maharaja Virata's court will speak about for days. 

Something which will be written down in history as a testament to Arjun and Krishna's otherworldly bond.

Arjun looked on horrified as in the next moment Krishna had bowed his majestic head to the former's smaller palms, dirtied with dried blood and dust, chaffed by the ropes of the chariot, overlined by accumulating scars from a lifetime and.....then kissed them one by one. 

The wounds healed miraculously. 

And then the Lord of the three worlds, the Divine Preserver turned his friends hands in his own and touched his closed eyes to the backs of the latter's knuckles reverently. A tear had dropped on Arjun's hand from Krishna's closed eye which seeped into his skin immediately. 

"Madhav! My God! What are you doing... My God...", Arjun stammered frantically, his transformed high pitched voice breaking off in the middle, hands starting to shake badly in Krishna's gentle but firm grasp. 

"Asking for forgiveness. I have been unduly harsh on you", Krishna straightened but refused to let go of his hands. A melancholy had settled on his beautiful face. A stricken expression utterly alien on his typically cheerful countenance. 

Arjun looked up at him, shaking his... her head frantically, tears glistening in those soft orbs again. 

"What are you even saying Madhav? You are my God. You can't... you can't ask for forgiveness.. I don't... I can't.. I am sorry. I am so sorry. It is me who should ask for forgiveness. What I had done... I....please", Arjun broke off midsentence. 

"Please...I can't...forgive me please....", his face crumpled into misery the next moment and Krishna almost lifted him off the ground in a fierce hug. 

In his female form, Arjun was almost engulfed in his Madhav's long wiry arms, and he pressed his wet face into the latter's muscled chest breathing in his Krishna's lotus fragrance deeply like he was a man parched for eternities. He had no idea how hard he had clutched Krishna, his nails a little longer in Brihannala's form had dug into Vasudev's dusky back. 

Krishna could feel his chest getting progressively wet as his beloved shook like a twig stuck in a hurricane. But there were no sniffles, no gasps, no sound at all. 

His Parth has learnt how to sob silently. 

Krishna ached ferociously. 

A pain he didn't know Gods could even feel.

'Please... please... sorry... I am sorry... don't leave me again... please don't leave me again... please please Madhav Madhav Madhav Madhav...', Savyasachi's soul was chanting in mangled fervour, almost crushed inside the Lord of Mathura. 

Madhusudhan's heart shattered into pieces finally getting to hear the words and writhed at the floor of his fleshy mortal chest as Arjun shuddered weakly in his arms. 

He had pushed down all his pain, all his anguish and channelized it into pure rage at the battlefield today. 

Krishna had gotten the strong pungent stench of death on his Parth's womanly body. 

"Breathe, my dear one. Please my love... breathe", Krishna whispered in his obsidian curls gently, inhaling his sandalwood and jasmine smell intently. 

"There is nothing to forgive now. I had forgiven you the moment it happened. I was just helping you channel your inner strength and focus it into a single goal... the one I believe you have achieved today."

"Parth... please my dear.. forgive me. I think I may have overdone it this time."

Krishna looked up from where he had curled over his precious package protectively and caught the only other person present who could calm the distraught, Son of Indra down. 

Panchali's luminous golden brown eyes locked into Krishna's and the latter swallowed very visibly as he caught sight of the tears staining the former Queen of Aryavarta's cheeks over and over again like it had no end. 

He in his own agony had forgotten that Krishnaa was tied into the bond between him and their Parth. 

Her husband's pain was resonating in Draupadi's chest with a ferocious vengeance as well. She had been leaning a little on Yudhishtir who was staring at them with tears streaming down his face as well. 

The Pandavas, five bodies and one soul. They could all sense the havoc in their Phalgun's heart. 

In reality, everyone in the hall witnessing such a painful moment had been reduced to tears. Lord Krishna had never been seen like this before, and in all likelihood will never be seen like this again. Such open grief and such powerful love which was pulsating through them all. 

Draupadi advanced towards the duo and gently placed her soft palm on her husband's back in reassurance as Krishna kept stroking his long curls and had an arm wrapped tight around his waist. Finally as his flute playing God's heart beat a tattoo against his cheek for some time, Arjun could get his senses back enough. 

Krishna sighed in relief and pressed his own wet face a little tight over Brihannala's head and pressed a kiss there, which went unnoticed by everyone. 

But then, because he was Krishna and he could not be Krishna without cracking a horribly ill timed joke in the most inappropriate moment, he spoke again in a teasing voice. 

"My God Parth, I had no idea the feminine form will play such treacherously with your hormones. Now I think I know what makes all my wives behave so hysterically every time something goes wrong."

Krishna couldn't even fault his beloved when he almost got knocked off his feet with a lethal elbow to the stomach and complained whining amidst everyone's roar of laughter that something had definitely started bleeding inside. 

But the look of annoyed exasperation mixed in that dangerous glare on his best friend's reddened mess of a face was worth it. 

Because, for Arjun, everything was worth it. 

-----------------------------

Krishna jolted out of his trip back to the memory lane when the chariot stopped abruptly and he realised that he has reached Dwarka. 

And then he noticed his second wife standing like a sentinel at the doorstep. 

Satyabhama looked furious and the Lord of the Universe sighed internally. 

His battles have just begun.

To be continued

A/N:- This chapter turned out to be a mammoth. I tried to cut it in half to form two chapters, but honestly the flow was getting disturbed so... here it is. And yep, I am very confused with the use of pronouns for Brihannala and Arjun as I have changed the story so that Bri was a full woman, not a eunuch. So, forgive the discrepancies. I tried keeping Arjun as Brihannala's inner voice and vice versa, but it gets mixed. Also, please leave votes and commentsm guyzzz. It is very demotivating when you write like 4.7k words and not even get one in return. :(