Vibhishana's Defection - Brother Against Brother

Vibhishana: "Return her."

Ravana laughed. The sound echoed through the golden halls of Lanka.

Ravana: "Brother, your cowardice never fails to amuse."

Vibhishana: "It's not cowardice. It's foresight. Rama is no ordinary prince. He killed fourteen thousand demons in Janasthana. He killed Khara. He killed Dushana. And now he's built a bridge across the ocean. He's coming."

Ravana: "Let him come. I am Ravana. I have ten heads, twenty arms, and boons from Brahma himself. No man can kill me."

Vibhishana: "No man needs to kill you. Your arrogance will do it. You abducted another man's wife. You violated the most basic law of hospitality, of marriage, of dharma itself. And now you sit here pretending righteousness is on your side."

Ravana: "She came with me—"

Ravana: "She was taken. Everyone knows it. The guards know it. The ministers know it. Even Mother knows it. Return Sita. Apologize to Rama. End this before it ends us."

Vibhishana: "And look weak? Let the world say Ravana surrendered to a mortal?"

Ravana: "Let the world say Ravana recognized his mistake. That takes more strength than stubbornness."

Ravana rose from his throne. All ten heads were angry now.

Vibhishana: "You side with the enemy."

Ravana: "I side with survival. With dharma. With our family's future. Our brothers are dead or dying because of this woman. How many more? How many demon widows? How many orphaned children? Is your pride worth all of Lanka?"

Vibhishana: "Leave."

Ravana: "Brother—"

Vibhishana: "I said leave! If you love Rama so much, go to him. Betray your blood. Become the traitor you've always wanted to be."

Ravana: "I don't want to be a traitor. I want to save our people."

Vibhishana: "You want to rule Lanka when I'm dead. That's what this is really about."

Vibhishana stared at his brother—this brilliant, terrible man he had worshipped as a child. This scholar who became a tyrant. This devotee who became a demon.

Ravana: "If that's what you believe, then you don't know me at all."

Vibhishana: "I know cowards. I know traitors. I know men who dress self-interest in righteous clothing."

Ravana: "And I know blind men who call vision cowardice. I'll go to Rama. Not because I hate you—because I love what Lanka could be. What you could have been."

Vibhishana: "Go. And when Rama dies on my spear, remember that you chose the losing side."

Ravana: "When you die on his arrow, remember that I tried to save you."

Vibhishana walked out of the palace, out of the city, across the battlefields where his nephew's blood was already drying.

Rama received him with open arms. Made him king of Lanka in advance—a throne he would inherit over his brother's corpse.

History would remember him as a traitor.

History would forget that he was also the only one who tried to prevent the tragedy.

But Vibhishana knew. Every night, for the rest of his immortal life, he would know:

Sometimes the right choice looks exactly like betrayal.

Sometimes love and loyalty diverge.

Sometimes you have to lose your family to save your people.

And there is no comfort in being right. Only the cold satisfaction of survival.