Kali, Magneto & Toad
Mandara Umale Bathuwell watched with confused eyes as she was dressed in her wedding gown. Again. Outside she could hear the relatives of her husband wailing, the women shrieking out their grief. What grief? No one had liked the old, bitter man. She wouldn't cry for him.
Not the man who had bought her off her parents for 12000 rupees and 5 chickens when she was 12 to be his wife. He beat her, raped her, and cursed her when her slim body remained stubbornly slim, no child swelling in her belly. No son for him. But also no daughter for her.
Mandara lifted her wrist so her aunt could slide the bangles on, feeling woozy and disorientated from the drink they'd given her. It had been sweet. But she'd started to feel so tired after it...
Soon her unsteady steps were following the procession, quiet musical tinkle of jewellery weighing her down. The funeral pyre was not yet lit and she swayed slightly, eyes half closed. Not understanding. When she really first began to understand was when they forced her up onto the oil soaked wood and made her embrace her husband. He still stank like alcohol and his teeth were stained from chewing betel nut. And then they stripped her of her jewellery before climbing off the pyre themselves.
Deathly afraid now, she started to clamber down, but someone lit the pyre, and someone else shoved a hunk of oil soaked cloth in her arms and pushed her backwards. She screamed as the flames licked upwards.
"Mother, no! Please! Oh, someone save me! I don't want to die! Motherrrrrr!"
And then the world exploded into flame.
She came to lying on top of cooling rock, feeling warm all over and as she sat up, she saw the stone cast figures of the people of her village. Covered in grey, cooling rock in attitudes of flight. And then a man drifted down to her, took her hand and lead her away.
Scorched sari drifting around her ankles.
"I'll help look after you now," Magneto said to her softly.
"After all, we mutants have to stick together."
Toad glanced backwards into the cabin of the helicopter before he took off. Right. Well, he wasn't going to be playing babysitter. That's for damn sure.
"What's your name, child?" Magneto asked.
Mandara thought about it for a moment, before she let Mandara die as she took a new name.
"Kali Jyotika."
"I think another fitting name for you would be...Magma."
New name, new life. She left India behind without a second thought. While Magneto explained her new life to her.