1 Fate

A small boy of Five, who was wearing a traditional dhoti while the divine breastplate and earings were shinning on his still growing body, was running around on a dark planet with several accretion disks revolving around it.

To say that the golden glow radiating from his person was the only light on the planet would be an understatement as in the complete darkness of the night on Saturn, one could easily spot his aura from Saturn's moon without any difficulty.

Just like the Sun was the embodiment of his father himself, Saturn, was also the embodiment of his half-brother "Shani".

Shani, worshipped and revered by the humans for being the God of Karma and Justice was looking at his cute little half-brother with great love, while sitting on a drifting throne from one of the accretion disks. It was almost a shock to his lovely wives "Manda" and "Neelima" that the dense deity could actually love anyone else apart from his own children "Manthi" and "Kuligna".

Karna, right now, was trying to run in the extreme gravity of Saturn while his breastplate was getting increasingly heavy by the second.

Saturn was one of the gaseous planets in the Solar system, due to which running on it was extremely dangerous as one could easily sink in the semi-solid ground from the extreme gravity.

"Remember Karna! If you die here, no one will save you. Not me, nor your father and sure as hell not your brother." Suddenly came a thundering voice of Lord Shani himself which brought a thunderstorm on the gaseous planet with it.

"Crap! Now I'll have to be even more careful" breathed Karna with a pout at his brother's antics.

He knew that it would soon rain diamonds on the damm planet and he didn't liked the idea of running on a gaseous planet while getting constantly barraged by the raining diamonds.

Manda and Neelima both suddenly paled at the doing of their beloved husband.

"Swami! What is this? Are you actually trying to kill our little sun!?" Asked both of his wives with a frown which instantly stopped Shani's giggling.

Suddenly the atmosphere on Saturn became clear and the rays of sun reached it's horizon, making all the diamonds on Saturn shine with lush!

Shani didn't reply any of his wives' question and just stepped down from his throne, which was levitating with him on the accretion disks, while both his wives too, stepped down from their respective thrones, situated at his each side.

Karna by now was trying to get his leg out from the diamond heap while making sure not to sink in the ground when suddenly Shani appeared before him with both his wives, almost startling the young boy.

"What? Today you are pretty light on the training their big brother. Something happened?"

Asked Karna seeing the sudden appearance of his brother with a serious expression.

"Karna….Today, on your fifth birthday, Father finally sent me your "Janam Kundli"(birth chart). And I have to say, that what I have seen in it is not pleasant!"

The temperature of the planet flared as Shani's eyes went red with anger! Manda and Neelima, both went to his arms and tried to calm him down while Karna got serious and asked

"What was in it, brother?"

"Come with me" was Shani's reply as they all disappeared and with a flash, reappeared in Shani's Manor, located in the very core of Saturn."

They were all standing in a black room which had star and planet charts all around it. There were many mirrors of a different color in the hall playing the life of many humans and cracking a little everytime the human in their projections sinned.

Down the hallway, there was a chamber from which black smoke was coming out but Shani had never allowed Karna to go there, and Karna also never tried to force his brother as he knew that whatever Shani was doing, it was for his own sake.

Shani went up to the giant center table of the hall where a golden large birth chart was placed.

The birth chart was personally made by The Sun God Surya himself and Karna was in awe while looking at all the planets and stars moving in his birth chart.

"Karna, What do you know about Vishnu?"

Suddenly asked Shani with a stern voice. The lack of the word "Lord" before the name "Vishnu" and the anger in his voice while saying that name was not missed by Karna in the least.

"Lord Vishnu is one of the three most Supreme Deities of "Brahman", The Ultimate Reality! His Brother Lord Brahma is the Entity of Creation, who can create everything from nothing, his other brother Lord Mahesh is the Entity of Destruction, who can destroy everything and nothing while Lord Vishnu is the Entity of Balance, always keeping the flow of time, creation and destruction in check."

Shani listened to the answer and gave Karna a nod before continuing

"And do you know about Vishnu's avatars in the human realm?" to which Karna was about to say something but was interrupted by an agitated Shani.

"One of his Avatars called Krishna! Do you know what he did!? He bound your fate to die like an abandoned animal in a worthless human war!"

Karna became confused at this revelation but kept his mouth shut as he knew that right now his brother was angry enough to destroy planets.

"According to your birth chart, he would have humiliated you by calling you a son of Chariot when you'd go to marry Draupadi, the daughter of Drupada, while fully knowing that you are the son of Surya! He would let Indra, the god of Heaven take your breastplate and earing so that you won't be immortal anymore and kill his favorite Paanch Pandavas, your half brothers born from your whore of a mother Kunti!"

The entire atmosphere of the Saturn went even worse from before as Shani almost spat at that last name.

Karna already knew what his mother had done, being the Demi-God himself, he had awareness since his birth and remembered her mother throwing him away in a basket and dropping him in the river.

Ever since he was brought to Saturn by Surya, his father had told him about everything. Surya had also mentioned about his apparent fate in the Battleground of Kurukshetra, which he didn't understand at that time but now he started to piece everything up.

Manda and Neelima came up to the little Karna to see if he was worried or something but to their surprise, he just smirked and said

"What does it matter now, brother? Father had already placed a fake puppet in my place so that Krishna won't suspect anything till its too late! Anyways, Now that we are on this matter, is this the reason why I was kept here in secret? So that our sisters Tapat and Yamuna won't know anything about me?"

Shani smirked at his brother who at least had some presence of mind, unlike many people he knew and with a chuckle, he replied

"Yeah, SInce Yamuna is one of the Consorts of Krishna, she is bound by Pativrata dharma to tell her husband the truth. But that is only one of the reasons. The other being that you still cannot stand the temperature of our home, Sun. Do you know? Hanuman almost ate our home when he was your age. *hmpf* and here are you, who cannot even go near it."

"Oh please" replied Karna with a defensive stance, "Hanuman was blessed by All the Gods of Heaven and Earth, including the Three Supremes, while I was born just to be a puppet and die in a stupid war just as you mentioned. The Only blessing I have were by Father, You and brother Yama, the God of Death!

And now that I've mentioned him, where is he? He promised that he'll take me to the underworld on my fifth birthday."

As soon as his words completed, A very eerie and dark figure emerged from the chamber down the hallway which was always leaking a black cloud of gas.

"What is the impatience for, my little brother? Lets first discuss about how you are going to survive the fate threads that still binds you to Krishna's manipulation." said the figure as it walked towards Karna from the hallway with a voice which sent a shiver down the young boy's spine.