CHAPTER 1 – THE REBIRTH AND HISTORY

MC POV

My name is Rudra, or Ryan Angelo. This is my second life, and things have just turned bad for me. I was just informed of the death of my parents.

You see, I had a loving family. My parents were researchers in the bio-engineering field, and because of my rebirth, I was seen as a genius. I was homeschooled for the most part, mainly in the field of medicine. I was taught because of my interest and my parents' love for it.

But two weeks ago, I found out that I am in the Marvel World when my parents told me about their lab being acquired by Oscorp and them shifting under their new boss, Norman Osborn. These words rang alarm bells in my head, as I used the internet to research history and found out about Captain America being a thing.

And two weeks later, I was informed my parents perished due to being hit by stray bullets because of a gang war between some thugs, and you know what? I call it bullshit!!

You see, my parents were the type of people who knew every gang near here and would never go in their vicinity; they even had me memorize the map with such hazardous locations. So, bullshit; they were probably murdered and planted at the given location.

When I received this news, I felt my whole world come crashing down. At the age of 10, I am now an orphan again. I still have grandparents from both sides of the family, though I don't know where my maternal grandparents live as my mom had escaped from home.

I thought of finding my parents' murderer, but I found myself incapable. You see, I was smart both in my previous and this life. In my previous life, I lived in the slums of Mumbai, INDIA.

I was left outside a rundown colony of born transgender people in 1999 who adopted me and many others. It was my birthday for me. From them, I got my first sum of money and I invested. I self-studied stocks, and by the age of 17, I was financially stable enough to improve our lives, refurbish the colony, and buy a car. I died on my way to get my new car as the train I was traveling on went off rails, and the next I knew I was a baby again.

But back to the point, I knew my efforts in searching for the murderer would be futile, so I opted for the next best option: to improve my power and connections and look for clues.

I know in this universe, destruction of earth events happens bi-yearly, but you see, I didn't care anymore. All I wanted was to find the one responsible for the death of my parents. But the first thing was to get myself to safety, so I booked a flight to my grandparents in India as I felt the fire of vengeance consume me.

My grandparents were already informed of my parents' death, so they arranged everything for my travel. My grandfather was an American who married my Indian grandmother, and they both lived in India. So I packed my bags and departed to Rameshwaram.

After two years of living with my grandparents in the state of Tamil Nadu, where I spent every day planning and preparing revenge, my grandmother could not take my current way of living anymore, so she decided to take matters into her own hands.

You see, in the past two years, I registered a company with my grandfather's help under his name. As I spent most of my time busy holed up in my room, my grandmother couldn't take it anymore. So she packed our bags, and we traveled to Rameshwaram temple to live in an ashram (monastery).

After living there for two years with my grandma, where I left most of the company matters to my grandfather, I think I have come to accept the death of my parents.

In the last two years, Tony Stark became Iron Man, and I became rich by investing in shares of Facebook, Google, Apple, and Stark, almost boosting my bank balance to a billion dollars in shares.

After losing most of my rage over the last two years, my life became directionless, so I asked my grandmother for help. You see, she used to be a priestess in the temple of Rameshwaram, and she is one of the wisest people I know, so I talked to her.

(All dialogues are in Hindi.)

Rudra came to his grandmother; she probably saw the forlorn look on my face and couldn't help but ask, "What got you feeling so down?"

"Amma (grandma), what should I do with my life? I feel empty inside." I finally asked the question that had been eating me from inside.

"Why? What happened, my child?" (Grandma)

"I feel no motivation in my life. I realized it was the rage that kept me going... but now, I feel like I lost my purpose." (Rudra)

She smiled at me, like it was the best news of the day, and said, "It is a good thing you are no longer blinded by rage."

"You see, my child, revenge should be no good purpose of life. You can have justice, vengeance, or retribution on those that harm you, but do not make that the purpose of your life."

"Because if you live your life guided by thoughts of harming others, you will fail to see the most beautiful thing in life."

"And what is that?"

"Life, my child."

"It is better to protect something than destroy something else because the one that protects is always greater than the one who destroys." (Grandma)

"Does that mean we should never use violence?" (Rudra)

"No, my child, the Geeta tells us that non-violence is the greatest moral law, but violence used to protect innocents and righteousness is always greater than it." (Grandma)

As I pondered over her words, she asked me, "Do you know who named you 'Rudra'?" (Grandma)

"My mother told me it was you who named me." (Rudra)

"Do you know what it means?" (Grandma)

Though her question sounded awfully random, I answered dutifully, "It's some kind of fruit or seed which is made into prayer beads and lockets?" (Rudra)

And so I came to know the origin of my name.

"No, what you are talking about is Rudraksha. You see, the word Rudra in our culture is associated with an avatar of lord Shiva. The Rudra avatar is mostly associated with storms, upheaval, might, fearsomeness, and righteous wrath." (Grandma)

Though that sounds great and all, it didn't really answer my question. I couldn't help but ask, "That is kind of amazing, but why 'Rudra' of all names?" (Rudra)

"You see, names have power and purpose in our culture. We have this life chart (kundli) of a person, made according to the time of birth and other factors."

"In association with the position of celestial bodies, which gives us hints about the life trajectory of a person."

"And we name them according to the letters derived with conjunction to this chart."

"I am one of the best chart readers here, so your name was derived by me from your life chart." (Grandma)

"But how does that answer my question?" (Rudra)

"You are asking for your purpose in life, my child, and life does not give answers. It gives challenges for you to overcome. You succeed, you find your purpose in life. You fail and find defeat, or worse. And as your name dictates, you will face upheaval in your life. For that, you shall prepare, and pack your bags; we will be leaving tomorrow." (Grandma)

After saying what she wanted, she left me alone to contemplate on my newfound knowledge.

(And so it begins.)