Entanglement With Fate (Part 2)

16. The Twice Lived

"I always have. I always do. I always will." She answered. She rested her head on his. Offering her honestly, love and belief to him when everyone jeered at him.

"I never meant her to die, Jayanti. I didn't." He cried. Although the cold unfeeling exterior of Shukra, Jayanti knew that from the inside Shukra always felt deeply. She rested her forehead against his. Her husband who always stood as tall as a proud Bhargava, today broke down into piece. "Once again I lost. Why do I keep losing, Jayanti? I never encourage asuras to ever take the path of adharma. I even try to tell them to correct themselves but they do not correct themselves. All I feel that I have achieved is a pile of failure. Every single student of mine that I think will bring me glory ends up dying."

Jayanti patted his back, "All still isn't lost, swami," she said. Shukra looked up in confusion.

"What can we do?"

"You have sanjeevani vidya. It is still possible to bring her back to life. This can absolutely not go to Virat. He has always wanted to kill Alaknanda. I always kept warning you of it. Asuras have no history of upkeeping their promises, swami. Least of all, Virat can keep his promises. Besides all the bitterness, you too know that Vishnu kills them because they refuse to stand by dharma. Five daityas are staying inside the Gurukul. Mayura, Videsha, Kanika, Yashasvi, and Kururpa but have they been killed by Vishnu? No. Instead, Vishnu himself provided for the education of Yashasvi."

"But..." Shukra was a bit scared. He knew mrit sanjeevani vidya but he needed the body of Alaknanda and someone who can offer her some blood to compensate for the loss of blood.

"I know what you're thinking. Take her to Sri. She is Alaknanda's own mother. We, as a custom, store umbilical cord blood. This will help the compensation of blood that she needs. We just have to find that umbilical cord blood that was stored for her. We both know that the news which reaches Gurukul will reach Swarga and Swarga has Virat's spies between them. The moment Virat gets to know, he will once again try to kill her. What we have to do is keep her in secret and get her healthy again. Until we presume that Alaknanda is strong enough to stand against Virat himself, we have to keep her hidden."

Shukra looked and Jayanti and smiled. He hugged her. "Surely, you are my fortune, Jayanti. Without you, I wouldn't have ever been who I am today. I do not know how to thank you for always being there for me even when I am falling."

Jayanti smiled. "I took a promise to share your happiness and pain the same when I took the saptapadi with you. How can I abandon someone who is another half of me?"

She hugged him and rubbed his back to give him courage. 

"We have to find a way to get the body out of there and then replace her body with anyone that will resemble Alaknanda exactly."

Shukracharya tried to get his gears working and plan it. He couldn't trust any rakshasa or his students for this. Who else can help him?

Shukra and Jayanti walked out towards the nearest village where he could get some network and dialled a number.

"Oh... what a surprise. Long time, no hear, brother.

"Alakshmi, I need your help. You have come over to Gurukul right now."

"What? Now? Have you gone crazy? I'm busy."

"I don't care what you are doing, Alakshmi. Drop everything and come here right now. Right now. It is important."

"Alright. Alright. Calm down your fire armpits."

Shukra would have retorted about the language but he decided to ignore it for the sake of planning it. Using a portal, Alakshmi showed up.