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Chapter Text

"For the great Sivagami's daughter-in-law? A little temerity is expected," the Rajamatha smiles, and Baahu sees Devasena smile back, relieved. He feels as if a weight has lifted off of his chest, but to be honest he hadn't been too worried. His mother would never go wrong anyway. 

"Now come and stand next to your future husband, and let the citizens of Mahishmati decide." 

Devasena begins to climb the dais towards Baahu, and suddenly the throne room is full of murmurs and shocked whispers. 

"Devasena!" Sivagami shouts, startling her. "What are you doing?"

"I'm doing what you told me to, Rajamatha."

In the confusion, Kattappa hurriedly goes and prostates himself before Sivagami. "Aiyyayyo, the mistake is all mine, Devi," he pleads, and explains how he had told Baahu that Sivagami had sent the marriage invitation on his behalf. 

Sivagami sighs, and then beckons Baahu over. Heart pounding, he stands in front of her. "Amma?"

"Do you love her, Baahu?" 

Baahu nods. "I have already promised her I will keep her company until death, Amma."

She sighs again. There is complete silence for almost a whole minute, with Baahu glancing nervously at Devasena the entire time, standing rigidly with her eyes downcast, recognizing the signs of rage lined into her face. He feels awful about the situation, vowing to protect her at any cost if necessary. 

"I have not raised a man who takes back a promise, especially one he has made to a loved one." She glares at Devasena. "Fine, girl. I accept you as my daughter-in-law. Prepare yourself and your people for the wedding." 

Sivagami glances back at her older son. "Bhalla, I am afraid this mother has failed you. It is I who made the mistake of promising a girl to you without consulting the girl first, and without checking to see if she wished to marry another man."

Bhalla looks like he's holding back insults. Baahu thinks it's because just like himself, Bhalla too didn't understand how Sivagami would want to force anyone into marriage.  

"As punishment, you may take my position and advise your brother as his senior after his coronation. I am stepping down."

This declaration stuns everyone in the room. 

"On an auspicious day, Baahu's coronation and wedding will happen. This is my final word, and it will be law."

Baahu and his wife ascend the throne as Amarendra Baahubali Chakravarthi and Maharani Devasena. There are celebrations in the streets for months to come, and they are greeted with much love wherever they go. Soon after, little Mahendra Baahubali is born, and the kingdom rejoices yet again. Their king can do no wrong, they decide. 

"Baahu, your soldiers arrested one of my men the other day," Rajamantri Bhallaladeva states to his brother over the dinner table.

The new king furrows his brows. "What did he do?"

"That's the problem. He didn't do anything; Sethupathi was just falsely accused by that woman. She's known to be an attention seeker all over town."

Baahu sighs. "This is the fourth time this month you've come to me with something like this, anna." 

Bhalla tenses, sure that his brother has finally seen through his act (although a part of him thinks, finally). 

But Baahu only straightens and gives the order to Kattappa and his new senadipathi Krishnamurthy that Rajamantri Bhallaladeva now has the authority to pull anyone out of punishment. "I'm sure my brother knows who is innocent and who is not, mama," he sternly reprimands a protesting Kattappa. 

"Thank you for your confidence in me, Baahu," Bhalla smiles down at him, all the while internally gaping in disbelief. 

"Anytime, anna," Baahu grins back. 

They are discussing the expansion of the kingdom to the east. Bijjaladeva turns to the little brat.

"I can have that done and ready for you in the next few years, maharaja. I would just need..." Bijjaladeva thinks. Realistically he'd need about a few thousand gold coins. "I would need one million gold coins to build it up to your standards."

His nephew nods, almost absent-mindedly as he watches little Mahendra play in the dirt a few yards away. Bijjaladeva sneers, then carefully schools his expression into one of utmost humility when the bastard spawn looks back. 

"Whatever you want, Bijjala garu. I'll send a note to the treasurer. Let me know if you need any more than that."

Damn. He had been listening to his son boasting about how easily the new king could be fooled, but this was the first time he attempted to do so. 

"Wait," the brat calls as Bijjaladeva turns to leave. He grits his teeth, and turns back.

"Maharaja?"

The boy looks bashful. "I have a request, will you fulfill it for me?"

Fighting the urge to roll his eyes, Bijjaladeva responds, "Anything, maharaja."

"Can you not... call me that?" At Bijjaladeva's blank look, he hurries to clarify. "Ever since I was little, you've forbidden me from calling you mama, and the one time I tried out nanna, well, let's say it didn't go very well." Oh, Bijjaladeva remembers that day too well, when Bhalla had to restrain him from actually strangling the bastard child. "But you are family, and whatever misgivings you've had about my adoption at birth, I think we're past them now? So... can you call me Baahu? Or alludu? Anything is fine, really."

Bijjaladeva's eye twitches, but oh well. He can pretend along for a million gold coins. "Alright... Baahu."

The brat nearly breaks his face with his smile. "Can I call you mama?"

Bijjaladeva just nods, not trusting his words. Oh god, are those tears in that boy's eyes? The next thing he knows, Bijjaladeva is pulled into a bone-crushing hug, and he wheezes. The bastard pulls away instantly, realizing his discomfort. "Sorry, mama, but I'm so happy! I'm getting everything I wanted since childhood!"

Ok, it's time to leave. Bijjaladeva says his excuses and practically runs away. What he wouldn't give to see his nephew's corpse in the near future.

"I don't trust your brother," Devasena says flatly in their bedroom, Baahu laying in her lap. 

He sighs. "Deva, I know you don't like him. But he's my brother. He would never do anything wrong. You must not have your information correct." 

Just like that, Devasena knows the conversation is over, and she resists the urge to strangle her husband herself. No matter how many times she tries to tell Baahu about the crimes his brother has been doing behind his back, it's like talking to a brick wall. Baahu always staunchly defends his brother. No, not just his brother. Bhallaladeva. Bijjaladeva. Sethupathi. The many others those three are affiliated with. 

Devasena loves Baahu, she really does. He's caring and patient and funny and a great father to Mahendra and so much more. But her dedication to justice, to punishing the guilty, drives her even more. She hates having to walk into the marketplaces and hear the whispers. The rumors. 

They say Baahu is in on it, that he's grown power hungry, that he cares more for the throne more than the citizens he commands. That he's a changed man now. Devasena, the poor thing, is the only one that doesn't know. 

They have it all wrong. 

Amarendra Baahubali doesn't have a single clue what's going on behind his back. But he refuses to listen. Would that make him automatically complicit? She wonders. 

Sivagami dies six years into Amarendra Baahubali's reign. She had passed in her sleep, and the royal astrologer tells the grieving king that it had been foretold in her stars that she would die an early death, and that she had gone peacefully with no regrets. The palace doctor confirms that it was a natural death, and Baahu accepts it. He holds her hand until the very end, until she is placed onto the pyre, and lights it himself. Baahu mourns for months after that, but consoles himself over the fact that it was predestined. 

Mysterious sums of money make their way over to both the astrologer and the palace doctor.  

More years pass. The joy that fills the faces of the commoners as they see their king changes to frustration, but no one dares voice to protest out loud. Baahu, after the Rajamatha's death, is more reserved and retreats from palace politics often to spend time with Mahendra. Devasena, now alone in court, is outmembered by Bhallaladeva's allies, and spends most of her time arguing with them. She alone is not enough to stop Bhallaladeva from enacting strict, cruel laws on the citizens. 

Baahu just claims to have a headache every time she tries to talk to him about it, and it frustrates her to no end. Surely the man has to see that something is wrong? Devasena doesn't trust what they told her about her mother-in-law's death one bit. In the days leading up to it, Sivagami had been acting different. More fearful, more regretful. She had been hinting at feeling like she was a bad mother in her conversations. Devasena would bet anything that it had to do with her older son. 

It is fifteen years later, when Mahendra "accidentally falls" off a cliff of a neighboring nation they had been visiting (apologies maharani, your son had been riding his horse too fast for his guards to catch up, and when we caught up we just happened to find his body at the bottom of the cliff, so sorry) that Devasena snaps. Fuck everyone, she decides. 

Kattappa slides the sword through Baahu's unprotected back as Baahu drops his in shock. He looks down, at the wound, then falls to his knees. 

"Maa..ma?" he asks, stunned. 

"Maharani's orders," Kattappa sobs. But even he knows this was for the best. The sword had pierced through his heart, so Baahu didn't stay alive for much longer. Time to enact the plan.

"Citizens of Mahishmati, listen to me!" The queen orders from the balcony of her palace. The commoners below listen, transfixed.

"The Rajamantri, Bhallaladeva, has murdered his brother!"

Gasps, wails of shock fill the air. "What?" "Why?" "How?"

"Him, his father, his allies, have all been manipulating the king for years! Last night, my husband found out all about their schemes and their lies! He was preparing to have them all hanged in public, and they have decided to murder him instead!"

The crowd swiftly changes their opinion of Amarendra Baahubali, as people often do when people die. "He was a great king, of course he didn't know!" They nod to themselves. "He was trying to protect us all in his final moments."

"Citizens! The atrocities of Bhallaladeva extend to the royal members as well! He was the one that murdered the great Rajamatha Sivagami Devi, and also my son!"

This causes an even greater uproar as the commoners think of their beloved late prince, still a teenager when he had been murdered. 

"Don't you want to take revenge?" Devasena shouts, and the commoners don't have to be told twice to storm the palace with torches.

She feels feral, like she has been hanging on by a thread ever since she ascended the throne and is now in free fall. She regrets the murder of her husband, but it had to be done. The day Mahendra had died was the day Baahu's fate fell into place. He loved his son as well, she reasons. He would be okay with being the start of that monster's fall if he knew that it had been Bhalla who had arranged for Mahendra's death. 

That night, Bhallaladeva, Bijjaladeva, and all of his allies are trampled to death by an angry mob. The maharani watches and laughs and laughs. 

Chapter Text

Everywhere she walks, the maharani sees ghosts. 

When Devasena looks into the courtyard, she can see her son practicing his swordplay. She can hear him flirting with the girls his age. 

When she walks into her room, she can see her beloved husband eagerly awaiting her kisses. "I've had such a stressful day, and only my Deva can make me feel better," her imagination's version of Baahu teases her. 

When she looks into the mirror and sees grey hair and wrinkles, Devasena thinks about her mother-in-law. The way she had stood firm and tall on the first day she had met her, the way once they had gotten over their egos Devasena realized the woman had a sharp sense of humor and a loving heart. The way the great Sivagami Devi had looked almost withered in the days before she passed away, the responsibility of failing her sons and her kingdom overwhelming her. Devasena understands how that feels now.

The maharani sees those she doesn't mourn as well. 

She sees traces of her dear brother-in-law in every poverty filled neighborhood, every law in the book that she is taking the time to painstakingly reword or remove. She can also sense that old creep's fingers in the royal treasury, almost depleting their resources for his own personal luxuries. 

Devasena revels in the fact that they're never coming near her or her family again. What family? a voice asks, and she pushes it down. If she had the choice those two wouldn't be able to set a foot near Baahu and Mahi even in the spirit world. 

The servants whisper about her to themselves, thinking she can't hear them. They speak of how she talks to the air, how her moods swing like a pendulum, how sometimes grief overwhelms her to the point where she can't even eat for the day. 

It's okay. It doesn't bother her. Devasena thinks she really is going insane. They'd be right.

Completely changing the politics of a nation is hard work, but now that Bhallaladeva's allies in court are gone, she has a much easier time implementing her decisions. She makes Kumara her minister, and Kattappa her commander-in-chief. Once she realized that was basically Kattappa's role anyway, Devasena formally removes Kattappa from the responsibility of the promise his ancestors made. At least one of them will be free, she thinks bitterly. 

It's ironic, how she had imagined her life to be as a young girl and how she's living now. 

Devasena had never thought she would marry out, even though her brother was technically the Kunthala ruler and would always be. Her maids joked that she wouldn't get married in this lifetime, since she was so stubborn and argumentative. But then Baahu happened, and all of her plans changed. Now she's rewriting the constitution of a nation ten times the size of her birth nation. 

The people adore her, of course. To them, she's a vengeful goddess that protected them from the evils of Bhallaladeva and his father. She's heard of smaller towns worshipping her as an equal to Kali Matha. 

Which is why, when she announces the end of lineage-based monarchy, the people only look confused and worried rather than outright angry or fearful. They still trust her, Devasena thinks with a pang in her chest. They should never find out.

Devasena can't do this on her own for much longer. She's tired, and there isn't a day when she isn't grieving the two most important people to her. 

On a casual stroll through the marketplace, she notices one of her soldiers harassing two teenagers. Furious, she begins to make her way over when she's stopped in her tracks by the older girl. As Devasena listens from the corner, her heart warms from the fierceness and determination that the girl possesses. She's an extraordinarily good speaker, and has great knowledge of a few of the maharani's most recent law changes. She chastises the soldier and tells him he has to do his duty to make Mahishmati a safe place for everyone again. To Devasena's surprise, the soldier looks abashed and apologies before leaving. 

After Devasena gets back to the palace, she thinks of the two girls she had talked to. The older one's name was Avantika, and apparently saw Devasena as a great role model. She had gushed about how lucky she felt to get to talk to the maharani herself, and that she agreed with every change Devasena was making. 

She smiles to herself when she realizes exactly why she had felt such a connection with the girl, Avantika. 

She reminded Devasena of Mahendra.

Fifteen years later, the former maharani announces Avantika as the new maharani and retires to live with her widowed sister-in-law in Kunthala, now run by her eldest nephew. She knows she has trained Avantika well enough in the last decade to not repeat the mistakes of her predecessors, and feels relief in finally being able to hand the reins of the kingdom over.

I'm free now, Devasena thinks. She hopes Baahu will be able to forgive her when she sees him again.