A Change of Fate

The Friend Who Appeared as an Enemy

Author's Note:

I'm sorry for breaking my promise to update monthly. As I have already stated I was in an accident and was bedridden for several days. I got my cast recently done because of a compound fracture and recently started writing.

Anyway, thank you to everyone who waited patiently for this story. 

But I have to warn you that this will be a lot darker than the rest of my chapters. Karna will be a bit unhinged in this.  I know I stand the risk of pissing off most of my reader base. My friend HopeMikaelson2009 has warned me of this and yet I decided to go ahead. 

Karna will be a bit of a villain in this chapter. And I'm not really in a good frame of mind when I wrote or posted this. Still I wish you would enjoy.

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

"You did promise Parameshwara to always follow Dharma. You also said that any Dharma you missed in past lives, you'd make up for in this one," Krishna reminded him, his voice steady. Vasusena nodded, his gaze drifting to the horizon where the sun began its descent, casting a golden hue over the land. The air was thick with the scent of earth, mingling with the distant fragrance of blooming flowers. Birds chirped their evening songs, a stark contrast to the simmering anger brewing in Radheya's heart.

"Then why aren't you standing with your brothers, who are linked to you not just by blood but by their just cause?" Krishna's words cut through the tranquil afternoon like a blade, sharp and unyielding, leaving the air heavy with their weight.

Vasusena's expression shifted, the simmering anger that had fueled him moments before giving way to incredulity. He mouthed the question to himself to make sure it had really been asked and he had not just hallucinated it—Was Krishna being serious?

As if the answer wasn't already clear?

He hated the principles of Yudhistira more than the adharma caused by Suyodhana. His very nature went against what Yudhisthira was. Everyone who knew him well knew this as a fact.

Had anyone else posed this question, he would have understood their perspective, dismissed it even. But Krishna himself posing this question made him wonder if the Pandavas too frequently grappled with the urge to declare the dark-skinned lord their Court Jester.

The last time they had crossed paths, the Prince of Yadavas had sought to shatter his very soul, to weaken him so that his eventual death would be but a formality.

So what was Keshava planning now? What new game was he playing?

Most might call him paranoid, but Vasusena knew better. He had seen too much, lived through too many futures to dismiss his gut instincts. And in all the futures he had witnessed, Padmanabha never interfered with the choices and decisions of those who had returned from the brink of death and was reincarnated by the power of Pashupatastra.

Keshava had always remained a distant observer, never intervening in the actions of anyone be it Mahamahim Bhishma, Guru Drona, Ashwatthama, or any of the others. His role had been that of the silent watcher, not the meddler.