All Rikki Jade remembered about what happened in the burning building was dying. Death and rebirth. That's what it had felt like. Smoke had filled her lungs, choking her, scorching the inside of her throat and searing her gut.
Fire. All she remembered was fire. A storm of it. Storm . . . why did she remember a storm? Not an actual storm . . . just the word ringing through her head over and over again. Storm, storm. Then, she remembered. It hadn't been a word it had been a person. Of course she remembered Johnny.
Rikki felt herself dying, felt herself being carried in the air then woke up. Was this rebirth?
Then Johnny walked in (or should I say Stormed in?) and saw me lying on the hospital bed. "Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry, Rikki." he immediately said.
"How bad are the burns? Am I scarred for life or something?" I asked.
Confusion filled his gaze. "Actually, no. Y-you're fine. Not a scratch on you."
"It didn't feel like that."
He laughed. Johnny "The Human Torch" Storm was Rikki's boyfriend and he must have been the one to get her out of there.
"I know my fire and I'm telling you everyone said you should've died under those circumstances." his blue gaze was still concerned as he explained this to her.
Rebirth. You don't die in a rebirth. You reincarnate. So much fire . . . an endless, endless storm of fire.
When she woke up again she was in the Fantastic Four HQ. The FF were eager to discover if she was okay. "I feel fine, guys, really." she reassured them.
Rikki spent a lot of time in the building in general. She remembered how it had felt to fall in love with the Human Torch and for him to fall in love with her and it was real love too. Burning through their chests and scorching the other one. He blanketed her in fire that never died but never harmed her either.
Rikki liked to believe that that was the same fire that had made her reborn.