Date: 06/01/2078
Karna's POV
Darkness.
But not the peaceful kind.
This darkness buzzed.
It hummed and hissed with unnatural light. Cold. White. Mechanical.
Not the afterlife I had imagined.
Where was the soft whisper of Yamraj's realm? The river of stars? The ancestral halls where warriors rested?
Instead...
> "Patient is stable. BP holding. Pupils responsive."
A voice echoed-female. Clipped, clinical.
> "He had no internal bleeding. Just a minor concussion. Miracle, really-should be unconscious for a day at least."
Another voice. Male. Bored.
I tried to open my eyes.
Blinding.
Not Surya Dev's warm glow-but square, fluorescent... sunlight imposters... lined across a low ceiling. A terrible smell invaded my nose. Bitter and sharp.
I flinched.
A wire was taped to my arm.
Some glowing serpent blinked red beside my bed.
I jerked upright.
Pain shot through my skull, but I didn't flinch.
Pain? I was the man who stood bleeding before Arjun and laughed in death's face.
This? This was a scratch.
> "Sir-please! Lie down!"
A strange lady rushed to me, her clothes scandalously... tiny. What armor was that? Did they wear silk in battle now?
> "Don't touch me, strange woman," I said coldly, pulling the wire off my skin. "What Maya is this?"
She blinked.
> "Maya-? Sir, you were in an accident! You're at Metro City Hospital!"
Metro... city... hospital?
Was this... some new kind of battlefield?
Another woman ran in, holding a thing with strange glowing markings on it.
I turned my head. A mirror caught my eye.
My reflection-
Who was that?
Hair flattened, no warrior's bun. A metal clip around my wrist. A blue gown-was this a shroud?
My lips twisted.
> "What kind of curse is this? Vasudev... what have you done?"
But I remembered.
I remembered it all.
I remembered dying.
The Anjalikastra. The void. Krishna's voice.
And then-
This.
Not heaven.
Not even hell.
Just... this glowing room and the scent of chemicals and metal.
> "I must be in Naraka," I muttered. "This is far crueler than I imagined."
The nurse tapped some device.
> "Dr. Jain, he's awake and-uh-talking about curses."
I sat up, pushing away the blanket like it was a dishonor.
My limbs moved slower, weaker-but the fire in my veins remained. I tore out the wire. The nurse gasped.
> "Sir! You've had a head injury, please-!"
> "You think this is pain?" I snapped. "I've fought with arrows piercing my shoulder! Stand aside!"
I stood.
Swayed.
Regained my footing.
And marched toward the door.
Chaos exploded behind me. Machines beeped furiously.
> "Call security!"
I didn't care.
This was a battlefield. And I needed answers.
I burst out into the corridor, blinking under more harsh white lights. People in long coats turned, jaws open. A man dropped his glass filled with a brownish drink.Someone whispered "What the hell..."
They wouldn't understand my situation.They are all using some kind of strange magic.
No one would understand.
Not until-
I stopped.
Across the corridor, near the waiting room, stood two young men.
One leaned against the wall, arms crossed. Hair tied up. Dark eyes narrowed in exasperation. Dressed in strange clothes, but somehow...
His energy.
His face.
Familiar.
And next to him, a boy with softer eyes and gentle features, nervously looking at a strange device. He looked up just then-and froze.
Them.
My feet rooted to the floor.
That face. That stance. That same tilt of the chin. That stubborn glint.
Arjun.
And Sahadev.
Not in name. Not in form.
But in soul.
The taller one-Arjun-locked eyes with me.
The world spun.
The floor rippled beneath my feet.
What cruel game was this?
For a brief second, I saw him not in those strange clothing, but in armor-Gandiva slung on his back, wind pushing his hair like a storm made him warrior.
I saw the brother who never knew me.
The rival who had every right to hate me-and yet hesitated before killing me.
Beside him, Sahadev-or whoever he was now-breathed in sharply. His hands trembled.
> "Bro..." he whispered. "He's... walking?"
I took a step back.
My head ached.
Memories collided-chariots and motorcycles, battle cries and ambulance sirens, celestial curses and broken helmets.
I gripped the wall. My knees buckled slightly.
> No... no, this can't... they can't be-
The hospital hallway quieted.
Even the air stood still.
None of us spoke.
The past had bled into the present.
And the three of us-brothers torn apart by time-could only stare.
Fate had begun again.
And I was having an existential crisis...
---