A/N-Like the Lakshman Storming Kishkindha chapter, this one isn't a favorite of mine, so I might not be able to convey it like you hoped. I was actually thinking of skipping this chapter, but apparently it's all important so I guess I have to.

"Often, the day is not the one to witness the worst things."

Jambavan whispered inaudible things, and Angad's smile faded as he whirled around. Ram was still a bright red, and Lakshman was still shaking poor Hanuman's hand vigorously as a thank-you for complimenting his brother, and Neel was just laughing, and nobody noticed the approaching threat. While all the greats of the vanar sena still sat in the tents, helping the healing and burying, the majority of the actual vanar sena still fought with the majority of the mediocre rakshasas who remained in the late afternoon as the sun beat down.

Meghnad approached in his flying chariot, his cackling voice echoing throughout the area. The loud roars and the fierce chattering of the demon and the monkey armies respectively made his laughter almost inaudible, fading into the gruesome background of battle, but there was absolutely no sound except the sound of silence in the army base as he approached, his weapons still sparking with lighting and his voice booming like thunder. Indrajit was fierce as ever, and this time, he would not be driven away.

But to Angad's great disbelief, the demon prince did not immediately target him. No, Indrajit seemed to have found a great interest in the vanar population, who, still succumbed to the adrenaline rush of war, and focusing greatly on crushing monsters and demons, had not noticed the threat right below their nose. Or rather, right above their heads, looking down on them with a queer, disgusting sort of interest.

Lakshman stood up immediately, black eyes narrowing, grasping his bow tightly, but Ram pushed him back down. "Stop," he hissed urgently, the only one able to cool down his brother's sparked temper. "Stop!" Lakshman stopped. "He may just want to keep us on edge, give us a false fear. You never know with people who wield not the astras of the Gods, not dharma and righteousness, but illusions and lies. You can never trust someone who bends the truth and warps the vision. He is unpredictable like the rain clouds he is named after."

But Angad, much like Lakshman, had stood up as well. "So what?" he exclaimed. "So what? Prabhu, with all due respect, your brother is an unpredictable fighter as well! And what use is prediction if you are dead by the time you have insight into the future? What use is our sight if we don't use it to our advantage! If we allow him to do what he plans to do, then Prabhu, we shall be killed!"

Angad actually didn't say any of that, he just thought it. What, you thought he'd say something as terrible as that to Ram? Idiots, the lot of you. Meanwhile, Indrajit had finally pulled his lips into a malicious smile and picked up his newly made golden bow, drawing the string back and threading it with a sharp, steel arrow. Lakshman's stealthy eyes followed his every move mistrustingly, but unable as he was to not follow Ram's commands, he stayed as still as possible and did absolutely nothing.

But Indrajit was not nearly as unpredictable as imagined, for as the sun was slowly pulled into the direction of the west, he released a simple steel arrow into a mass of monkeys. What was it going to do?, Lakshman wondered, finally at ease. Embed itself into the Earth, perhaps. What could it do? Well, he was wrong, as the arrow increases in magnitude each second, that one arrow became 10, became 100, became a 1000 sharp, steel, poisoned arrows headed towards the mass of monkeys. And right as they were about to hit, another arrow flew and created a dome-shaped, purple shield. Indrajit looked up with a snarl, to where Ram stood, hand suspended in mid air, pinched together as if he had held something just moments before, eyebrows furrowed together as the other held a bow in front of him.

But Meghnad was a warrior, and slowly, the greats were summoned out of the tents as he became deadlier by the minute. Nal and Neel were menacing with their maces, and quickly began to eliminate the rakshasas on foot who had arrived with their astras. Hanuman started to stomp on the demons with his large size as their elephants had done to his comrades. Angad flew this way and that, causing havoc amongst the great armies of Ravan. And Ram fought off ten rakshasas at once with his shower of arrows making the sky look grey and splintered with their greatness.

But one man had seemed to take a special interest in Indrajit, and that was Lakshman, who seethed with quiet anger as he drew his bow. There were indeed, many similarities between Indrajit and Lakshman. Both were second in command in their armies. Both had a bow and arrow, and yet often were seen practicing with something else. Both were ruthless, merciless, and loved the art of war. And both would serve their leader (Ravan and Ram) till the very end. Lakshman had already drawn this conclusion, and wasn't very happy about it.

But he didn't attack Indrajit. Ram bhaiyya had given him specific commands. "Leave Indrajit be, Lakshman." he had spoken sternly, his brows furrowed together. "Focus on other rakshasas, those who cannot trick with illusion." Ram knew that Lakshman could take him, if anyone, but in his heart, stored carefully and silently, was a cold sort of fright. A fright that with his illusions, if Indrajit took a specific interest in eliminating Lakshman, then he would. Lakshman could not wield illusions, and even if he could, he wouldn't under Ram's command.

-----O-----

Indrajit couldn't do much with the light of day making all of his actions clear and visible. Ram had made it his job to not only fight off now fifty demons at once, unleash all of his furious wrath upon the poor demons, but also deflect most of Indrajit's advances. The reason why it was "most" and not "all"? Because Ram was busy fighting off fifty demons and unleashing his furious wrath upon the poor demons. Come on, keep up!

Ram exhaled a breath as the sun sunk into the mountains again. The rakshasas retreated, having learned to respect the boundaries of time and war. But night did not fall quite yet. It was the almost drowsy light of dusk that masked Indrajit's furious approach to the tents of the monkeys. "I bet he ran away!" Angad cried proudly, flexing his arms, and Ram burst into laughter. Jambavan, again, noticed the prince first, but did not mention a single thing. Perhaps he thought that it was an illusion of his eyes. Perhaps he did not want to believe it. Perhaps he saw it, but it didn't register.

But it was. He was Meghnad, Indrajit, greatest song of Ravan, defeater of the King of the Gods, master of illusions, granted with the Shaktiastra, Bramhastra, and Vishnuastra. "Now I shall show you, Ram, what I can do!" he cackled. Vibhishan raced out, his eyes widened, and he quickly tried to usher Ram and Lakshman back inside, but they would not listen, stubborn and angry as they were. "Traitor! I mean, uncle, of course. How has it been, chacha? Decent living, giving away our secrets, you little snitch? Well, not a snitch, since you're not tiny and gold, and you don't have wings-ah who cares!"

Indrajit lifted his bow again, but this time Ram could not see. "Now you shall die. You and your brother too." He cackled and released the two arrows. But they weren't arrows. They were two snakes, fangs bared, and as the first one reached Ram first, it wrapped around his arms and legs and eventually pierced it's long, moon-like daggers into Ram's arms. The venom spread throughout his arms, turning his dark body a pale light purple and he collapsed with a sense of inevitability in his every motion that drove another dagger through Hanuman's heart. The vanar ran forward and shook Ram's body, but he was still.

Lakshman stepped back once, fists clenched as the second arrow reached him as well. His first instinct was to chase after his brother as well, but his mind clouded instead of remaining clear as it usually was when he was angered. He made no effort to fight the astra off, even as the arrow seemed reluctant to hit him; his eyes focused on his brother's pale, unmoving figure as it lay on the ground, motionless.

But the snakes which had wrapped around his arms and chest as well as they had done to his brother, dug their fangs into him. He wavered for a single second, his eyes still steadily trained on Ram, before drifting to Indrajit, piercing into his soul, before he too collapsed. It was only a second's wait before Indrajit high-tailed it out of there, his body still in shivers from the glare. That glare had promised retribution before his eyes glazed over from the venom.

-----O-----

Angad let out a screech, running towards the scene immediately. Where they lay, collapsed, was a few hundred feet away from the tents, open and where many of them had charged just hours ago. Indrajit had ambushed them without even ambushing them. Hanuman was still busy shaking Ram's body, his eyes clouding with tears. "Prabhu, Prabhu, what has happened to you? How could you just collapse like this when only moments ago you were fine? Prabhu, Prabhu!"

He lay back, his eyes flashing. Ram's bare neck beat with a faint pulse. His mouth still lay slightly agape with light shock. His hand clasped onto the bow that he would have used to defend himself. "Prabhu," Hanuman continued, letting go of his mace as the entire army crowded around the two bodies. "What use is this war if you cannot win it? How could you just leave us like this, alone. You swore that you would lead us to victory!"

On Ram's face, there was the ghost of the last smile he had taken at Angad's joke, which had reminded him of Shatrughan. What would befall Shatrughan, Bharat, his mothers, his family, without him? What would happen to the Ayodhya who had mourned for him, the Ayodhya which had starved even with full fields and steady rains? What would happen to the Ayodhya that longed for a glimpse of their beloved Raghav, only for their eyes to remain wanting as they saw only the ashes of their king?

-----O-----

Ravan had laughed, and laughed and laughed and laughed. "You have killed him!" he roared, setting his glass of wine down with such a thud that his entire court almost jumped out of their seats, before they too succumbed to the hilarity. "You have killed that hermit, and what is this-his brother too? I wonder what the monkeys do now? Perhaps they too will mourn, and eventually, in their mourning, they shall waste away, and then we'll have a feast indeed! We shall feast on the flesh of our enemies once more, and drink the blood that no longer flows on our battlefields!"

Devantak chewed his tobacco even more eagerly, before finally spitting the wad out into the side and standing up, beating his chest. "Blood!" he roared hungrily. "We shall drink blood, my dear comrades, and then our thirst shall remain appeased! Long live Indrajit, who has saved us all from a drought of wine and blood and feasting! Long Live Rajkumar Meghnad, who has defeated Indra himself. What are two hermits to him?"

The hall erupted with cheers, men holding up their goblets to Indrajit, who beamed proudly and bowed deep to Ravan, who waved his hands. With that, the son of Ravan strolled lazily out of the throne room as he had done so many times before, having killed his father's enemies and eliminated all their worries. And now he had to see his wife, who had promised to him his victory.

Flashback

"How?" he asked, his eyebrows curved up. "How shall I show my father that I am truly great! What was this that I did today? I should have thrown that Angad off of my chariot and onto the waiting upturned blades of my army, but I did not! Instead I retreated like a coward, like those cowardly monkeys and cowardly hermits who only showed up as the day was ending and the afternoon drifted into evening! I acted like a fool, Sulochana!"

Sulochana walked up to him and pulled him up into a standing position. "Angad was a fluke. You were too concerned with beating him the old-fashioned way. Use your astras! Why should you use your fists when you have weapons, astras, which can defeat any vanar! And for that matter, why should you use just any astra, when you could use a Naga Astra?" Indrajit leaned forward greedily as Sulochana brought forward two snake shaped arrows.

"When I kill those two hermits," Indrajit began excitedly. "The entire army shall mourn! They call him Prabhu Shri Ram, don't they? Well, I've already defeated a god, haven't I? So what is killing one? Yes, I shall kill their Prabhu Shri Ram and I will avenge my loss yesterday! You have made me very happy Sulochana. Marrying you was the best thing I've ever done. I'll kill those two hermits, and I'll make you proud!"

Present

Sulochana walked out of his room, fully decked out in bridal wear, looking exactly how she did the day they were married. Her sindoor was even more heavily put on, and her eyes made even larger with black kohl, a large red bindi on her head. She looked like a queen, a warrior queen. "Why do you wear this?" Indrajit asked as he led her into their room and she did his aarti dutifully. Sulochana set her thali down.

"Isn't this a day to celebrate? Our enemies are dead, the hermits are gone, you shall soon get to feast. I am proud to call you my husband, Meghnad, and thus my hair is adorned with the red of a married woman and I am wearing the clothes of a married woman lest no one remember. Your sorrow is my sorrow, and in this, your victory is my victory, is it not?" She smiled at him, her large red lips curling up into an alluring smirk.

-----O-----

It was assigned to poor Trijata that she should tell Sita of the bad news. And so she did, nonetheless very reluctantly. The demoness, setting down her club, walked up to Sita and bowed. "Devi." she began. "Word is that-that-" she paused, choking up. "That Meghnad has unleashed his Naga Astra and hit your husband, Prabhu Shri Ram, and his brother Lakshman. They have collapsed on the battlefield, injected with the venom of the cobra. They are presumed dead. Meghnad could not detect a pulse."

Sita was silent. Shock? Wondering Trijata. Did she not wish to mourn? Does she not believe me? "Is it not you that told me that I would feel it if my husband died?" Sita wondered airily. "And, Trijata, I must be honest, I do not feel anything. Ram may have collapsed, yes, and this time it's no illusion, but he shall rise again, and this time furious. For they have targeted his brother too, you see?"

Trijata paused, before starting her rounds again. "Wait, Maa Trijata." The demoness turned around, bowing down again to Sita. Sita did not look at her though, but a place beyond any of their sights. "If it does happen that Ram does not arise before the sun graces my face again, then the sun shall not graze my face at all, and ever again. If Raghav is truly dead, then light a fire, would you? It's my last request."

A/N-Dramatiiiiccc! Yeah, okay hi. You all are frustrated because I'm doing this very slowly. Look, here's the reason I'm doing this slowly. I'm going to make the entire Lakshman thing 3 whole chapters. 3. WHOLE. CHAPTERS. And now I'm trying to make that seem a reasonable size by making a lot of Yudhkand chapters. So-get it?

This one was a long one, 3000 words. You are welcome T-T