Arjuna and Karna - Before Their Final Battle

The battlefield stilled around them—not peace, but a pause. Soldiers on both sides drew back, recognizing what was about to happen. This was the fight they had all been waiting for.

Karna's chariot faced Arjuna's. The distance between them was nothing—an arrow's flight, a breath, a lifetime.

Karna: "Finally,"

Karna said.

Arjuna: "Finally,"

Arjuna agreed.

Karna: "Seventeen days I've waited for this. Years before that. Decades."

Arjuna: "Since the tournament."

Karna: "Since before the tournament. Since I first heard of Arjuna, the perfect prince, the flawless archer. Before I knew your face, I knew I would have to destroy it."

Arjuna: "Why? What did I ever do to you?"

Karna: "You existed. You existed as everything I could never be, no matter how hard I worked. Prince. Legitimate. Loved by teachers who would never love me. Born into the world that rejected me."

Arjuna: "I didn't reject you."

Karna: "Your silence did. When Kripa asked my lineage, when the crowd laughed, you stood there. The great Arjuna, who could have said anything, said nothing."

Arjuna: "I was a boy. I didn't understand—"

Karna: "Neither did I. But I learned. I learned that the world has places for people like you and walls for people like me. And the only way through the walls is to tear them down."

Arjuna: "Is that what this is? Tearing down walls?"

Karna: "This is revenge dressed as war. This is hatred given a righteous cause. Don't pretend otherwise. You're fighting to restore your kingdom. I'm fighting to take from you what the world took from me—the sense that you belong."

Arjuna: "You could have belonged. Krishna offered you—"

Karna: "Krishna offered me a throne I didn't earn and brothers who don't know me. He offered me Draupadi, who rejected me at her swayamvara because of my birth. He offered me charity. I don't want charity. I want justice."

Arjuna: "And killing me is justice?"

Karna: "Killing you proves I was always equal. That the only reason I wasn't acknowledged was prejudice, not capacity. That Drona was wrong to refuse me, and Bhishma was wrong to dismiss me, and everyone who ever looked at my charioteer father and saw my limits—all of them, wrong."

Arjuna was quiet. The battlefield waited.

Karna: "I understand,"

he finally said.

Arjuna: "You can't understand. You've never been refused anything in your life."

Karna: "I've been refused you. As a brother. As a friend. We could have trained together. Fought together. Instead, we've spent our lives preparing for this moment. That's a loss too."

Arjuna: "Sentimental."

Karna: "True. I've known who you are for days. That you're Kunti's son. That we share a mother. That if one thing had been different—if she'd kept you—we'd be fighting side by side."

Karna's arrow wavered. Just slightly.

Arjuna: "She told you?"

Karna: "Krishna told me. After he failed to convince you. He wanted me to know what I was about to destroy."

Arjuna: "And now you know. Does it change anything?"

Karna: "It changes how I'll feel when I kill you. It doesn't change that I will."

Arjuna: "Because you're sure you'll win."

Karna: "Because if I don't win, everything I love dies. My brothers. My wife. My kingdom. My son is already dead because of this war. I have nothing left but victory."

Arjuna: "Abhimanyu. I... I was there. When they surrounded him."

Karna: "I know."

Karna: "I didn't strike the killing blow. But I was part of the circle that trapped him. A boy. Your son. Our... our nephew, I suppose. That's not the war I wanted."

Arjuna: "But it's the war you fought."

Karna: "Yes. I have no defense. No excuse. I wanted to hurt you so badly that I didn't think about who else got hurt. That's who I've become. Is it so different from who you are?"

Arjuna: "Maybe not. Maybe we're both monsters by now, and the only difference is which side of the field we woke up on."

Karna: "Then let's finish it. One of us dies today. The other becomes the version of himself he'll have to live with."

Arjuna: "Brother—"

Karna: "Don't. Don't call me that now. Call me enemy. Call me obstacle. Let me die as what I chose to be, not what I was born as."

Arjuna raised Gandiva.

Arjuna: "As you wish."

Karna: "One thing."

Arjuna: "What?"

Karna: "When you tell the story—if you survive to tell it—don't make me the villain. I made myself the villain. But I was something else first. Something the world wouldn't let me be."

Arjuna: "I'll remember."

Karna: "That's all I ask."

The arrows flew.