Pagan PoV

Pagan was so excited to have Ajay and Lakshmana home finally. It was sad that it took the death of Ishwari to get them here, but he assumed that Ishwari hadn't really purposely left it till her death to send them here . No, she must've been preparing them to join him here and then fallen ill and ran out of time. He missed Ishwari terribly and would always miss her he guessed. But he was glad to have his children back. More than glad. He was thrilled.

He decided to interrogate the Golden Path assassin that had almost killed Lakshmana himself. He walked into the dungeon room slowly, pacing back and forth in front of the chained up assassin.

"So... Why did you think it would be ok to kill my daughter? No don't answer that. I already know the answer." he walked up and got in their face with a sharp looking knife. "You Golden Path fucks are all the same. Willing to ignore your own morals to see that your agenda is carried out. You should've left my daughter out of it." Then he did his best, with various objects, to make the prisoner scream. And scream they did. It was glorious.

"Now, I'm going to ask you to give me the locations of each and every Golden Path hideout you know. And you will tell me. You will." The prisoner was crying. "Shh. Don't cry. Don't cry. I haven't even really started yet."

After he was finished with the prisoner, he sent them to Durgesh. No one tries to kill his flesh and blood and gets away with it.
Later, he had a lavish dinner set out to celebrate Ajay and Lakshmana returning and also the beginning of the end of the Golden Path. Those things were definitely things to celebrate. Ajay and Lakshmana entered the room laughing with that...Bhadra girl. He still didn't know what to do with her. He couldn't just let her leave. Pagan put it out of his mind for the moment. He motioned for Ajay and Lakshmana to sit down at the table.

Lana/Lakshmana PoV

Lana, Ajay, and Bhadra were joking around a bit when they were approached by a servant, saying that it was time for dinner. When they walked into the palace dining room, Pagan was already sitting down waiting for them. He smiled at them and motioned for them to sit down. There was a lavish amount of food laid out on the table.

"I'd like to propose a toast." Pagan said when they had started eating. "To the imminent end of the Golden Path. And to family. Its good to have you home."

They raised their glasses.

"I hope you had a pleasant time exploring the grounds." Pagan said going back to eating.

"We did. It's beautiful here." Lana said.

"It is isn't it? I was wondering... Are you two planning on staying?" Pagan asked, looking a bit hopeful that they'd say yes.

"Well I hadn't really thought of that. We mostly came here to fulfill our mother's last wishes." Ajay said. Pagan looked a little disappointed.

"I wouldn't mind staying to be honest. I don't really have anything important going on back home in America. Just saying." Lana said.

"This is a big decision Lana. We can't just drop everything back home and not go back." Ajay said.

"Yes we can Ajay. It's not that hard. I just finished college. I don't have anything going on. And don't tell me you were overly attached to where we lived. Because you weren't." Lana said.

"Well whatever you decide, you will have a place here." Pagan said. "You two are important to me."

"Thanks dad." Lana smiled. Pagan beamed at being called dad.

A week later most of the remaining Golden Path members were rounded up on the information that the assassin provided. Some were executed, some were sent to Durgesh. Pagan threw another party to celebrate and had invited the lackeys closest to him. Paul showed up and was cheerful as always, chatting about his family back in the states. Ajay and Lana also finally got to meet Yuma Lau. Lana liked Yuma's attitude. Yuma didn't take any of Pagan's shit or at least it seemed that way. Yuma was initially rather cold to both Ajay and Lana for some reason but actually seemed to warm up to Lana a bit as the night wore on. Lana was fascinated with the local legends and Yuma was as well. She talked Lana's ear off about Kalinag and Shangri-La and Lana listened fascinated. Bhadra stuck by Ajay the whole time. She was still a little nervous of being there in the palace. Over all it was a fun night. Lana got drunk and it seemed as though so did her father. When Lana and Pagan woke up the next day, they were both very hungover.

As Lana had suspected, Pagan wanted to make it public that his daughter was back. He made a public speech about it.

"My loyal subjects. Something wonderful has happened. I know how I said my dear Lakshmana died but I only did it to protect her. Her mother took her away to keep her safe and I fully supported this decision. She has now returned to me. Your princess has returned to you, Kyrat. I now present to you my daughter, Lakshmana Min."

Lana walked up and waved at the camera and the assembled people. Lana was very uncomfortable, and not just because of the dress she had been forced to wear. She didn't hate crowds really. She just didn't like crowds that were all staring at her. She was just glad that her father hadn't forced her to say anything to the crowd.

Ajay wanted to go home to the states. He told Lana this one day as they were wandering the palace grounds.

"Why Ajay? We have a family here! Don't go!" Lana begged him.

"Relax Lana. I'm not going away forever. I just need to go take care of a few things and I'll come right back." Ajay reassured her. He needed to get a few mementos and such. He also needed to say goodbye to people properly. He had friends there. Lana might be fine just saying goodbye to her former life without looking back but Ajay needed to say goodbye to his old life properly.

"I'm so relieved to hear that. I was worried." Lana said.

"I also have to take Bhadra here to America with Paul. Paul's family said they'd take her in." Ajay said smiling at Bhadra when he said it.

"What? Really?! I get to go to America?!" Bhadra said excitedly. She went and hugged Ajay.

"Pagan took care of the details. Got you a passport and everything. Presumably once the adoption is finalized you'll be made an American citizen." Ajay said as hugged her back.

"Thank you!" She said beaming.

"Wow. This is great! I guess this way you won't have to worry about people looking at you like you're a reincarnated goddess anymore." Lana said happily.

"You have no idea what a relief that will be. And I finally get to see another country! Will they let me go to a school? I'd love to go to a school." Bhadra said excitedly.

"Don't worry. It's kind of required that kids go to school in America. And if you are going to the same school as Paul's daughter, then its most likely a posh private school. Those are a lot better than public school." Ajay said.

Bhadra couldn't look any more happy.

The next day, Ajay, Paul, and Bhadra left for the States. Paul wanted to give Bhadra a tour of the States so Lana and Pagan got several postcards from different states. When Ajay finally got back to Kyrat he told Lana all about it.

"Bhadra just loved Yellowstone. And Yosemite. She took tons of pictures with the camera that Paul gifted her. She met with Paul's family. They seemed nice. I do think that Paul's wife is cheating on him but he doesn't seem to mind actually. Ashley, Paul's daughter, seemed excited to have a new sister. Bhadra and her seemed to get along really well. Paul and his wife gifted Bhadra a ton of new clothes and they had a really nice room set up for her. They even gave her a new laptop. She seems really happy. I'm relieved she'll be taken care of." Ajay said.

"I'm relieved too. She deserves a better life than she had. Now she'll get to learn how to be a kid." Lana said.

"And I wont have to worry about someone here trying to use the Tarun Matara as a rallying point. It works out for all of us. Everyone lives happily ever after and yada yada." Pagan said walking up. "It's good to see you made it safely home, Ajay."

"It's good to be home." Ajay said.

They didn't quite live happily ever after but they lived their lives and enjoyed themselves. Pagan got to have the family he always wanted, and Lana and Ajay got the father figure they always wanted. Even if Pagan wasn't always the best role model. There were other resistance fighters ever so often and the three of them dealt with it together. Lakshmana, as she liked to called herself now, helped her father change a few things that were wrong with Kyrat. Well, more like she yelled at him, and even got into a physical fight with him once, till he listened to her and got things fixed. The people of Kyrat loved her for it and Yuma Lau actually started respecting her. Ajay got trained how to fight and took to it very quickly. He became part of the royal army. Pagan was very proud of his kids. When Pagan got too old he handed the country over to Lakshmana. Lakshmana Min became a very popular queen. Her people loved her. And Ajay protected his sister like he always did. He became her right hand man. Long live the Queen, motherfuckers!