He woke up with his head throbbing with pain, with no idea of how long he had been knocked out. Stumbling in the pitch darkness of the cave, he suddenly fell into what seemed like an endless pit. In a desperate attempt to save himself, he caught on to a crevice and managed to pull himself into a small cave near a ledge.
Quickly he walked towards the bright light at the end and came out in the mountainside surrounded by the lush greenery. Amarendra breathed in a sigh of relief, as he saw Mahishmathi palace in the distance. With a big bruise on his head, he cursed the cattle thieves whom he was searching for in the cave. They must have escaped another way. He would have to take care of them later.
There seemed to be a huge crowd gathering outside the palace. Worried, Amarendra fastened his pace to reach the Mahishmathi palace . The guards did not seem to recognize him probably due to the blood and dust on his face. Amarendra was astonished at how the whole kingdom seemed different now. Apprehensive about just how long was he unconscious, he asked one of the members in the crowd, "What happened, why is everyone here?" The man with tears in eyes replied, "Our beloved Baahubali is dead!" Shocked Amarendra tried to explain that he was not dead, this was a misunderstanding. Before he could speak, Bijjaladeva walked out to the crowd, and spoke loudly "We have confirmed with our spies that Baahubali was indeed killed while returning from his rescue mission." A huge cry of grief echoed through the crowds as they lamented for Baahubali.
Amarendra was trying to get Bijjaladeva's attention, when he suddenly noticed Katappa at a distance. He started running towards Katappa when he crashed into a soldier near a fountain. The soldier lost his cool and started to push Amarendra around. "What do you think you are doing? Can't you see?" Even as Amarendra stopped him and demanded to meet Katappa, the soldier knocked him with his staff causing him to trip and fall into the fountain.
Emerging from the fountain, Amarendra wiped the blood and dust from his face as the soldier starred at him in disbelief. "Baahubali!!" the soldier's scream reverberated across the courtyard. Joyous screams of "Baahubali is back" rang everywhere while Bijjaladeva looked on with incredulity in his eyes.The soldiers escorted Amarendra to the palace. He was swiftly taken to a royal bedroom and after a quick bath, he stepped out in his royal clothes. Katappa and Anila, his loyal guard walked to him, saying " I am so glad that you are alive. You look so different with a beard. Thankfully your wife didn't hear of this fake news in Kuntala desham"
With a million questions running through his mind, Amarendra asked "Mama, why have things changed so much here. You are all looking so old. Why is Devasena in Kuntala kingdom. She had refused leave me and go to there for delivery even though her brother insisted so much."
Katappa was taken aback hearing this. He stammered "Mahendra, are you ok? I was referring to Avantika who is there till she delivers the baby"
"Mama, why are you calling me Mahendra? I am Amarendra. And Who is Avantika?"
Anila looked concerned, "Majesty, looks like the injury on your head has affected your memory. I will get a doctor immediately to examine you." He turned to step out, when Amarendra stopped him and told him "Nothing is wrong with my memory. I clearly remember it was only yesterday that I asked you and Kumara Varma to take care of Devasena while I go in search of the cattle thieves. I fell into large pit and somehow to get back here in one piece. Meanwhile looks like all of you thought that I died."
Katappa sat down in shock as realization dawned on him, then softly muttering "This is not possible, this is. oh gosh it must be a miracle." He looked up with shining eyes and said "Our prayers were answered though not quite as we thought. We were all praying that Baahubali should come back, but never thought it would be the older Baahubali, not the younger"
Seeing Amarendra's confusion, he explained that Amarendra must have stepped through some time glitch in the cave which led to the future. Just before he could explain about Bhalaladeva's treachery in getting Amarendra killed, there was a knock on the door.
Bijjaladeva walked in an unknown man. Bijjaladeva looked suspicious as he said "You seemed to have changed a lot, Mahendra. You are looking so much like your dad, with this beard. Am just glad that you are alive. " The unknown man stepped out from the shadows saying, "Now that Baahubali is back, I think we should have a celebration." Even as he smiled, his eyes narrowed dangerously to slits, like a snake gauging the prey.
Anila exclaimed that this has been a long day and Baahubali must be tired after all the travelling. Having sent everyone out, Katappa narrated the story of how Mahendra had been smuggled out as a baby and came back to kill Bhalaladeva and become the king. Then he had restored it to the prosperous kingdom it once was. People were happy, and Avantika had become pregnant. Sanga, Mahendra's foster mother, and Devasena had offered to take her to Kuntala kingdom which was being rebuild, till the baby was born.
Then one day a messenger arrived from Aslam Khan asking for help from Katappa. Though Katappa wanted to take some of the soldiers and set out to help Aslam, but Mahendra had forbidden him to travel due to his age. He had offered to help Aslam himself. Despite knowing that there were lot of perils in this mission, Katappa had no choice but to let Mahendra go.
With tears streaming in his eyes, Anila exclaimed that it was God's answer to their prayers that Amarendra had reached at the right time. "How so", demanded Amarendra. Anila explained that initially Katappa was supposed to be temporarily in charge of the kingdom's affairs. However, Bijjaladeva had surpassed his power and appointed his close acquaintance, Aditya Varma as the Prime Minister just after the King's departure. Aditya was the man who had accompanied Bijjaladeva little while ago.
When the news of Baahubali's death arrived, Aditya had immediately claimed that since his kid was not born yet, Aditya would rule Mahishmathi as Regent till the heir grew up. If Amarendra had not arrived, Aditya was going to be the next unofficial king. And there was no limit to the harm he would do to the kingdom.
Amarendra arose from his seat having understood the gravity of the situation. He needed to play his son's role while he determined what happened to his son and get him back. They all agreed that they needed to keep things smooth while planning to retrieve Mahendra. Amarendra's first suspicion was on Aditya, with his overt enthusiasm / preparedness to take over the kingdom. They decided to spy on Aditya and Bijjaladeva in the hope that they might lead them to Mahendra.
The next day, it was bright and sunny even as Amarendra ascended towards the throne. Katappa and Anila had tears of joy watching the rightful King finally take his place. They were overwhelmed with emotions as they realized that he never adorned the throne despite his capabilities and qualities but was now doing it as someone else.
Despite his apprehensions on sitting on the throne which he had rejected earlier, Amarendra managed to handle the kingly duties very well. He would be bogged down with the issues which citizens reported to him and meetings with his ministers. He immediately issued an ordinance to remove any reference to religion and caste in any schools, official documents. He also brought strong rules to ensure that education was made free for merit students no matter they pursued. He even setup strong laws in true Baahubali style, to deal with molesters, rapists - instant execution once guilt was proved. The entire kingdom was singing his praise on his efficiency, governance and fairness as a King. He would lend his ear to the tiniest issue which was reported, be it domestic fights between brothers or even an old senile lady complaining of ghosts in her house.
One day during the spying expedition on Aditya, Amarendra followed him as he entered a decrepit hut outskirt of the city and slowly crept near the hut. He heard Aditya screaming at another guy "I gave you one task of killing Baahubali. And you messed it up, Sukra. Do you know how much efforts it took me to find out when he was returning back? If you had done your job properly, I would have been the King by now. Now I give you a final chance to redeem yourself. Go to Kuntala kingdom and kill the next heir. It must be curse of their family as none of the fathers get to see their sons."
"But what about Mahendra, my lord" Sukra exclaimed
"I have already made arrangement for getting rid of him. I have bribed the royal cook to poison his food today. He will be dead by the time he gets to the dessert. I am planning to go to my home town to get some of my troops so that they can handle Katappa and the rest" Aditya gave a smirk and left.
Sukra took off in the direction of Kuntala Kingdom on his horse, with Amarendra following him. He soon managed to leap onto the unsuspecting Sukra from his horse. A massive struggle ensued by end of which Baahubali had Sukra tied up with his turban and bleeding excessively. Finally, Amarendra learnt that Sukra had attached Mahendra in the night near the river. Though it was a tough fight, luck changed its tide when the teenager who was with Mahendra tried to escape to the river, and Sukra tried to shoot the teenager. Mahendra had thrown himself in front of the kid and ended up with arrow in his chest. Sukra's men shot arrows continuously at him, making him clutch on the kid while he fell helplessly off the bridge into the raging waters of the river. In anger, Amarendra cut Sukra head off and threw him in the river.
Now he had to take care of Aditya and Bijjaladeva. He hurriedly rode back to the palace and convened with Katappa and Anila on the events. Katappa calmly told him "Baahu, you leave this poison matter to me, you and Anila should go and check the shores of the river to see if there is any clue on Mahendra's whereabouts. " Baahubali and Anila left for the river leaving Katappa in the palace halls.
Katappa sat down at the royal table and waited for the food to be served. As the servants started serving the food to Katappa, Bijjaladeva walked in and screamed at the servants "How dare you give food to a slave before royalty? Do you expect me to eat what this dog has left behind?" "My lord, I was hungry, that's why I decided to have food early. You know Baahubali has always made me eat food with him. So why do you still have a problem with me" said Katappa with a hurt look.
Bijjaladeva laughed and said "That fool Baahubali is not here to pamper you the way he does. So today is my day. You watch while I eat. If you are lucky, I might throw you some leftovers." Haughtily Bijjaladeva started to eat the sumptuous food laid out in front of him. And just as Aditya has predicted, Bijjaladeva started to choke even before he finished the main meal. He fell on the floor and pleaded to Katappa, "Help me...". Katappa said in a calm voice "That's why you should let the dog eat the food first". He next stormed into the kitchen and killed the royal cook while gathering the troops to the main entrance.
Meanwhile Baahubali and Anila who reached the river, decided to search on opposite sides of the river starting from the bridge. They went around the houses asking if anyone had seen an injured person or a teenager around since a week ago. But no one had. Just when Baahubali was about to give up in despair, he came across the old lady who complained that her house was haunted. She caught his hand and said "My son, please help me. I keep hearing strange sounds in my house though I am all alone. The soldiers that you sent to help me last time, just searched a little and then told me that I must have been dreaming. Please only you can help me."
Baahubali decided to help the lady before going on with his search. When he searched the house, there seemed to be nothing out of ordinary. That's when he noticed a smudge of dry blood on the walls almost close to the ceiling. It almost looked like a print of a hand. Curious, he asked the old lady what was in the roof. She mentioned that there was an attic which was never used, because the ladder to go up had broken long ago. Baahubali went outside the house and stealthily climbed up to the roof. He broke through the roof and jumped right down into the attic.
Coughing up a lot of dust, the attic was dirty and filled with junk and spider webs. Just as his eyes got used to the darkness around, someone hit him with a log. He fell but managed to get back on his feet before his attacker could swing at him again. He blindly threw his whole body at the attacker and pinned him down on the floor. "Leave me. Don't hurt me. I was only trying to escape. I didn't want to hurt you." a small voice of young man pleaded. Pulling the attacker up, Baahubali was shocked to see that he was a very young scrawny boy, maybe 14-15 years old.
He heard a shuffling sound at the very end, and even as he rushed there, he was taken aback to see a man sleeping on the floor with bandages around him. The man looked oddly just like him, with a slight hint of a beard. "Mahendra!!" screamed Baahubali as he rushed towards him. The boy then revealed that he was the boy that Mahendra was trying to protect near the river when Sukra had shot him. The boy had managed to save Mahendra from the river and taken shelter in the lady's attic. He did not know who to trust, so had refrained from contacting anyone, till Mahendra recovered. Amarendra patted him and said "That was a good decision. Very brave of you to take care of him in such young age and attend to his wounds. I will take of him from here"
Carrying the unconscious Mahendra on his horse, with the boy on the back, Amarendra headed back to the palace. As he had planned, Katappa was waiting with the troops. Amarendra swiftly took Mahendra to the palace summoning the royal doctor immediately. Then took the boy aside to enquire about who he was and what he was doing with Mahendra. Zain said "Sir, my name is Zain Khan and I am Aslam Khan's son. I was studying for medicine while my father's rival had me kidnapped to get some weapons information from my father. King Mahendra managed to find my kidnappers and rescued me from them. He was taking me home when we were attacked by unknown assailants and he was wounded trying to protect me. Thankfully with my knowledge of medicine, I managed to treat most of his wounds. I had given him a sedative for his pain, that's why he is still not awake"
Amarendra thanked him for saving the King's life and expressed his intention to return him safely to his father after dealing with some internal issues. Then he walked out to the main entrance of Mahishmathi and waited for Aditya's return.
Aditya who was smiling as he led his people towards Mahishmathi, stopped short when he saw Amarendra with his full troops. He knew there was no match between both the troops. Yet he didn't give up. He smiled treacherously at Amarendra "So looks like you don't have the confidence on yourself and need your entire army behind you. Do you know who I am. If your father is Baahubali, my father is Marthanda. Yes, the same Marthanda whom Sivagami had murdered. I have been waiting for an opportunity to ruin the kingdom where my father's blood was shed. And this is my chance. If you really are the great Baahubali, show your strength directly, not through your army. Let us have a one to one fight. If you win, I will surrender and if you don't, then I will take over Mahishmathi."
Amarendra got down from his horse and pulled out his sword, in full readiness for the man – man combat. Aditya picked up his mace and walked up to Amarendra. A colossal fight ensued between the two, both getting injured, but not ready to give up. Finally, Amarendra sensed a chance when Aditya was swinging his mace and slide down to hit his leg, causing Aditya to lose his balance and fall on Baahubali just as Baahu raised his sword and held it straight so that Aditya fell right on top of it. He coughed up blood continuously and then fell on his back. The Mahishmathi army cheered as Aditya's men dropped their weapons.
Katappa helped Amarendra back to the palace, for the doctor to treat. After the doctor assured that Mahendra was also out of danger and should be conscious soon, Amarendra gave a grateful smile and took a promise from them all that this would remain a secret. No one can know that it was not Mahendra who was ruling them last few days.
He had Anila escort Zain back to Aslam Khan and bid good bye to Katappa. With a heavy heart, He crept into Mahendra's room, to look at his son. The son whom he had never held as a baby, never played with. He touched Mahendra's face and said slowly "I know I was not there for you when you were growing up. Maybe that's why I got this chance to actually do something for you." When he was opening the door, a small sound from sleeping Mahendra caught his attention, "Father... Father... " The most beautiful words that Amarendra had ever heard.
With tears of joy, he rode off towards the mountain where his adventure had started, this time with a cloth around his face to hide his identity. On the way he heard a baby crying and stopped. A carriage was standing on the road, while some royal servants appeared to be carrying a crying baby. He got down and enquired as to who they were.
The servants replied "Sir, we are coming from Kuntala and this is the royal prince, son of Mahendra. When our queen heard that the king was injured, she rushed to Mahishmathi immediately, but ended up delivering the baby on the way. She is still not conscious, so we had to take care of the baby. But it is so difficult to get him to stop crying."
Amarendra's eye lit up as he asked, "Can I try?" "Yes sir. Of course, if you can get him to sleep, that's all we need." Picking his grandson in his arms, Amarendra smiled at the tiny tot who seemed to sense his family and stopped crying. He settled down and slide into a deep sleep. Handing back the sleeping baby to the servants, Amarendra set off back towards his timeline, with contentment.
Finally, he got through the small cave and climbed up the huge pit to reach back to the same cave. As he came out, he realized that he was back to his timeline. He found his hut where he found his pregnant Devasena waiting anxiously for him. Hugging her tight, he whispered "We are going to name our kid as Mahendra Baahubali!"