Switching Gears, where Satyavati’s oldest son survives (at least longer than before)?
(Doing an unofficial 5 things AU for this, because it worked better that way)
1. Chitrangad grows up tall and strong and stubborn, but when his elder brother lists reasons for him to stay behind and not accept the gandharva king’s challenge, he listens.
“Your mother will worry,” Bhishma warns, and Chitrangad laughs this off. Mother worries about everything; that’s what makes her so clever.
“Your people and your brother will mourn,” Bhishma tells him, and Chitrangad shakes his head.
“Better that than they take shame in my cowardice.” He takes up his shield; he takes up his sword; he will wait no longer.
“I will miss you,” Devrat admits at last, and at that Chitrangad halts.
2. Hastinapur has a king confident enough in his own strength to be tactful, and so Chitrangad sends out peace-envoys to ancestral enemies. These make their way even to haughty Kashi, and Chitrangad is invited to their princesses’ swayamvara where his brother might need to force his way within.
Amba has eyes only for Salva, Ambika looks ostentatiously away, but Ambalika, youngest and most open, smiles upon him; when he returns to Hastinapur, he does not return alone.
3. Vichitravirya marries late, as befits the younger brother of a King. When it comes time, after a leisurely search, he finds his bride in fiery Panchal, a fitting protegee to her distant aunt Amba.
He raises daughters, the pride of his race: dazzling, discerning, determined.
4. Chitrangad’s son is born fair-skinned, due to his mother’s distant ancestry rather than any sort of curse, and they name him Pandu. He grows up as fine a warrior as his ancestors, but with his impulses reigned in by a still-living father.
“Let me go hunting, Father, please,” Pandu begs, like a boy instead of the husband of two wives, but Chitrangad shakes his head.
“Not,” he says, “until you’ve learned something of collecting taxes.”
5. Bhishma’s hair has grown gray, but not so gray as he thought it once would.
And yet: his father’s throne is safe, his brother’s lineage guaranteed, his nephew a worthy successor.
“You’ve done your part, brother,” Chitrangad urges from Bhishma’s bedside, and leans forward to close his eyes. “Now sleep.”
