Mahabharata OS

Fate

A/N: And I am back with another prompt folks! And this one was given by nakuulfan. It does deviate slightly in the case of the brothers showing anger and the feels but.. I tried my best!

Prompt: What if Arjun was killed in the war instead of Karna and then when other 4 brother get angry on Karna Kunti tell them the truth plzz show brother emotions

The fight had been intense. The fight had been fair. But it was all a stroke of luck... and that ended up with Karna killing Arjuna just as the sun set. He hadn't actually wished for it to happen... He'd thought that he would be the one to die at the end of the day. But fate was also a strange thing, and it had decided that Arjuna should die that day.

The 4 brothers, Krishna, Draupadi along with the remaining family sat close together, trying and filing to at least fill up the void called Arjuna a little.

"Was the fight worth losing our brother?" Yudhisthira asked as he glanced around and knew he probably asked the wrong question, judging from the incredulous looks pointed at him.

"You really have gone nuts" Bhima muttered. "Arjuna knew the risks he was taking when he went to fight Karna today. He knew that only one of them will come out of it alive. And he believed in the cause we are fighting for. Lowering your morale and doubting what we set out to do will only make the sacrifice go in vain. Are you going to let Abhimanyu's sacrifice go in vain? What about all the kings that rooted for you? Are you going to let that go in vain? Did you just come this far to lose hope and surrender?" Krishna asked calmly.

"No. But..." "I know. We are all mourning here but we must move forward. This war must end soon" Draupadi said, her voice devoid of emotion. "I agree with my sister. We must try and end this war tomorrow, else it will be a catastrophe" Drishtadyumna agreed.

"Arjuna asked me to convey to you all that if he were ever to fall, you must not lose hope but instead move on and fight till you win. He didn't want his death to go in vain." Krishna conveyed.

"Alright. What is the plan of action?" Nakula asked, eyes laid on the game board. "Right, current status, we are down one major player. So there is currently no one to match Karna incase he goes all out. Apart from that we have the king of Madra, the king of Gandhara, Ashwattama, Kripacharya and Duryodhana as their strong points. In our side we have you 4, myself, my sister and my father as your strong points. So we need to plan wisely" Drishtadyumna concluded.

"It won't be advisable for you brothers to target Karna tomorrow." Krishna said as he raised his hand to stop the oncoming outrage from the brothers. 

"I know that you want to get revenge from him but now is not the time. I know that he left you all scott free once and I don't think he will do that again. Don't make me be the one to inform Aunt Kunti that you died because you wanted to avenge Arjuna instead of concentrating on finishing the war" Krishna warned and Bhima let out an exaggerated sigh but complied.

"What do we do then? What should be our strategy for tomorrow? Brother Bhima will go after Duryodhana for sure but the others..." Sahadeva trailed off.

"If my guess is right, the protection around Duryodhana and Karna will be the strongest as they will expect us to attack them. So, it will be the best to misdirect them and attack the others... not that I am asking you to completely ignore Karna... Ok, so here is the plan" Drishtadyumna started and an hour of discussion later they came to an agreement and parted to get rest. The next day was crucial and they needed to be in the best shape as possible.

(insert the Kaurava planning and the Gandhari Duryodhana scene as I am a bit lazy and tired
And I am just gonna summarise the 18th day cuz I am a bit tied up and don't have much time to elab on it)

Bhima goes off to face Duryodhana with Nakula having his back, Sahadeva goes after Sakuni while Yudhisthira faces off Shalya. Drishtadyumna takes the task of distracting Karna while Drupada faces off Ashwattama. The fight goes on until Bhima signifies the end of the war with his conch, conveying that he had killed Duryodhana.

There was a day of mourning in between (And thankfully, the massacre that Ashwattama planned didn't happen due to Karna's intervention) and then came the flood of people, all mourning their fallen loved ones and assembled to take care of the final rites.

Karna had been the first one to meet Kunti in the hopes that the meeting will be quick and to secure a promise. "I know that you will want to reveal the secret to your sons mother but I will rather let it be a secret as if they ever came to know about it... They won't take it well. I kept up my promise to you. Now I ask you to keep this secret buried, this is the only wish I ask you as your son, mother. They should not come to know about it" Karna said in determination.

"Secret? What should we not know? And what promise?" Yudhisthira asked and the two of them froze before turning to face the 4 brothers, who were standing there in shock.

"How much did you hear?" Kunti asked. "We heard enough to know that you wanted to hide something from us, something major and that it involves the Anga Raja" Bhima said stonily and Kunti sighed in resignation, knowing that it was inevitable.

"Karna is your brother. Your eldest brother" she said bluntly, without any preface, leaving the four of them shocked while Karna glared at her. "He... he is our eldest?" Yudhisthira repeated in disbelief, not wanting to believe it as if this were the truth... there were a lot of things that were just... it was huge.

"I didn't know of it before the war" Karna said, looking for a way to escape from this situation. "So you killed your own nephews knowingly?" Nakula asked. "It was war and we were on the opposite sides. And before you ask, that shot that killed Arjuna was a lucky shot, it could've been avoided but Arjuna chose not to escape it. I know you wouldn't want me anywhere near you and hence, my decision to retire to the forest" Karna added hastily.

"Oh god! Why this complication!" Sahadeva muttered as Yudhisthira turned to Kunti. "Explain, from the beginning" he demanded and Kunti poured the story out, from Karna's birth and how she abandoned him till the last time they met and Karna's promise to Kunti.

"So Krishna also knew about this?" Sahadeva asked. "He was the one who actually told me the truth first. Mother came to me much later. Now I shall take my leave, I don't want to cause any more troubles" Karna said and turned to leave.

"Wait" Yudhisthira said as he took a deep breath. "You don't need to leave... We won't be able to forgive you for what you did, at least not right now. But I think we all are willing to try."

"Plus... you just took one brother away from us and now leaving yourself is not fair. It will take some time for us to forgive each other as we both have wronged each other but... I don't think abandoning us will be fair." Sahadeva said.

"But... if this gets out... the people, the kingdom... Especially since I was on Duryodhana's side" Karna asked hesitantly. "Officially, we are only 4 brothers, unofficially, we are 5.  Let this be something that is just between the closest family. No one needs to know" Nakula said.

"You won't replace Arjuna, ever, but we... I think we are willing to take the chance. We can't forget our past deeds but... we also have to move forward. And as the king of Anga, you still technically come under Hastinapura..." Bhima said, addressing the unsaid dilemma in Karna.

"But Panchali..." "We will take care of that when the time comes. But right now... the funerals remain. We must take care of that first" Yudhisthira said and the mood turned somber again. Yes, the past actions won't be forgotten, nor will be forgiven easily. But when fate is at play, one must go along with the flow and if it is destined to accept Karna as their brother, so be it.

A/N: Hopefully this satisfied the prompt bro! I couldn't bring in as much of the brotherly feels but... yeah. Hope you all liked it! All comments and criticisms accepted and appreciated! Prompts are welcome!

Thank you all for reading!!!!!!!!!!!

Rasnak signing off :) ;)

UPDATED ON 11 AUGUST 2020