Saint Joseph School

((This is some background and recap of past events, in order to shed some light on Renn's history. Enjoy!))

Prologue: Dragon Town

Renn had always assumed that should she ever feel the need to burn a room to cinders, she would at least need to use a lighter, or at least a match. She had never in her wildest dreams imagined that she would pick something up and both it, and she, would go up in flames. But here she was, in a hotel suite high in a Hong Kong skyscraper, halfway around the world from the place she was born, literally on fire. Somehow, she had always expected it to hurt more than it did.

She had also expected that if she ever found herself on fire, she'd have the presence of mind to roll on the ground and try to put it out. Even without the benefits of a public education she knew the concept of "stop, drop, and roll," after all. But her first attempt to put the fire out had caused the carpet to catch on fire; now she just stood there, frozen, as the fire alarm continued to scream. She didn't know what to do; the firefighters she'd met had never talked about "what to do when your body spontaneously creates a aura of flame," during the day she visited the station to learn about fire safety.

A maid rushed by, on her way to escape the building, most likely, and noticed Renn standing petrified through the open door. She shouted something in Cantonese, a language Renn didn't understand, and motioned for her to come out of the room. Renn shook her head, terrified, and didn't move an inch. The maid stiffened, paused, then seemed to gather her resolve and ran into the flaming room. One arm was thrown across her face, to protect her eyes from the intense light and heat. The other reached forward blindly, hoping to find Renn.

Her hand brushed Renn's arm, and tightened on to it. She tried to tug Renn out of the room, but the teenager watched in horror as the maid’s arm started to smolder, then burn. The smell of burning flesh was unbearable. "Just go! Go!" Renn shouted, panicked. The maid seemed to understand, or maybe it was just a reaction to what must have been unbearable pain. Either way, she dropped Renn's arm and ran out of the room, coughing heavily from the smoke.

Renn sank to the ground, and cried. Her tears spattered and steamed as they hit her skin. She sat there while the fire spread out to other rooms, and her life crumpled to ash.

What's happening to me? she thought, terrified, as the smoke finally overrode her body’s attempts to keep it out of her lungs, and she blacked out, sliding effortlessly into a strange, dreamless oblivion.

She wouldn't remember how, only a few minutes later, a group of firefighters would burst into the room to find her slumped on the floor, apparently untouched by the blazing inferno around her, skin cool to the touch. She wouldn't remember being carried down flights of stairs to a waiting ambulance, wouldn't remember the tense, hurried ride to the hospiital, when paramedics struggled to keep her failing body alive. She wouldn't remember her father showing up, looking frantically for her, hours later. And she wouldn't remember how he forcibly discharged her from the hospital, less than an hour after she was stabilized, despite the doctor's threats to call the police, or at the very least a psych ward, on him.

In fact, for five days, she wouldn't remember anything at all. All she would know was that dreamless place. And for the first time in her sixteen years, Adrienne Haven would sleep.

Chapter One

She felt like she was swimming through tar. Her mind, long used to consciousness, startled awake at the sound of low conversation and familiar voices; her body refused to move, even the slightest bit. After a minute of stuggling to lift her eyelids, she relaxed back into the pillows and let the voices wash over her.

"Is she going to be okay?" A familiar voice, her father's, and a hand brushing gently against her arm.

"We have her heavily sedated, Mr. Haven, it seems to be keeping the thermal anomalies under control."

Where was she?

"Where is Doctor Hesse? I'd like to speak with him."

"Of course, sir. I'll go find him for you." Clacking heels hurried out of the room, and all Renn could hear was the whirring and beeping of machines, and the faint breathing of her father.

She had no sense of time, swimming in darkness like this, but it couldn't have been long before a heavy set of footsteps entered the room. The bed lightened as her father stood up.

"Thanks, Stefan. I hope I wasn't pulling you away from something important."

"Right now the only thing of any importance going on in this lab is making sure Adrienne is safe, James." A long pause. "I'm just glad you brought her here, even though it's a very long flight from Hong Kong. Why did you, anyways?"

A long silence.

"I trust you, Stefan. And if there's anyone who I can think of in this company who can get us through this disaster, it's you. After all, you designed her."

"It's not the end of the world, James."

"If word of this gets out, it will ruin me! What's happened to her?"

"I don't know yet. We are still running the preliminary tests. It'll probably be a week or more until we have some hard answers for you. Right now, we are struggling to keep the anomalies under control...it's very expensive to rebuild a lab, so we'd rather that Re--ahh, Adrienne, didn't burn this one down." Renn could hear the smile in his voice.

"Look," her father's voice sounded angry. "I have other work that needs to be done. Damage control. Fix the problem, Stefan. I'm making this your number one priority."

"It's my pleasure. Take care, James."

Renn struggled to open her eyes, they still felt like led weights, but she needed to see her father. She managed a sliver, and through blurred vision she watched him walk brisquely away. She heard a rustling off to the side as someone fumbled with the machinery.

"I'm sorry you had to hear that, Renn." Stefan's voice sounded concerned and weary.

"You knew?" The effort involved in moving her lips was almost too much for her, but she needed to know.

"I've known you since the day you were born, and a bit earlier than that. You weren't designed to sleep. And...your vital signs were starting to return to normal, so it wasn't too much of an assumption."

"Did he notice?"

"Probably not. It's been years since he's spent any amount of real time in a lab. Besides, he has other things on his mind."

"He's angry."

"He's not angry, Renn. He's just stressed."

" 's...embarass...?"

There was another long pause.

"Why would he be embarassed? He's so proud of you. You are his little darling, Renn."

She let her eyes relax shut.

"Renn, just...try to get some rest. Hopefully we'll be able to take you off the extreme sedatives soon. We just need to find another way to control this." His hand brushed against her face.

"Hang in there, Renn. I know you can do it."

Time passed. Renn wasn't sure how much, exactly; confined to a windowless lab and once without sleep to break up the endless hours, it was easy for her to lose track of time. A constant stream of scientists and technicians, the best that Haven Biogenetics' research teams had to offer, moved in and out of the lab at almost all times of the day, taking a seemingly endless collection of samples and measurements.

They were making progress though. After all, she was able to sit up and walk around and talk. She still was having a problem with setting things on fire, but she was pretty sure she was getting it under control. She felt constantly light-headed amidst the whirl of activity going on around her. Stefan showed up fairly regularly, and his face, while stress-worn and tired, never showed anything but hope.

Her father never came back to the lab after that last conversation with Stefan.

She had asked about him, at first, but after awhile she couldn't bear to see the awkward and nervous looks on people's faces. No one wanted to be the one to explain to her that her father wanted nothing to do with her anymore. So she stopped asking. It didn't matter anyways. She knew. It hurt.

Worst of all was the sheer boredom. Before these strange abilities had started ruining her life, she traveled everywhere with her father, and there was always something to do: places to be, people to meet, and sometimes simply exotic sights to see from outside the window of the hotel suite. Not to mention her lessons every day. Here there was none of that, and she was about to go stark raving mad from staring at the same wall for hours on end.

"I need to get out of here," she muttered, to no one in particular. One of the technicians gave her a pitying look, and shrugged helplessly before returning to whichever monitoring device she was in to check this time. Renn slumped back against the pillows, restlessly waiting for this round of proddings to be over. A few minutes later, and the technician patted her firmly on the shoulder before leaving the room.

She was about to get up and begin yet another circuit of the room when the door opened yet again. This time it was not one of the people she had been seeing constantly. Instead, a svelte, smartly dressed brunette walked into the room. Her father's personal assistant, Eva.

She met Renn's eyes very briefly, before staring arrogantly past her, speaking to the wall.

"Your father has enrolled you at Saint Joseph's School in Paragon City, Rhode Island. We have fabricated a story to explain your extended absence to the society pages, and your presence at the school will not be advertised more than absolutely necessary. You are not, under any circumstances, to do anything that will bring embarrassment to Haven Biogenetics. This especially includes anything that will make your...condition...known to the public."

Renn tried to speak up, but was stopped by an imperious look from Eva.

"You will remain at Saint Joseph's until further notice. There is no room for discussion in this."

"But....public school?"

"Not at all. Saint Joseph's is a private Catholic school, with a long tradition in dealing with other children such as yourself."

Renn stared hopelessly at Eva.

"Think what you will of me, I'm just the messanger. Do not disappoint us any further." With that, Eva turned and walked out of the room, leaving Renn sitting there, alone and very small.