browngirl

Written for

choc_fic.

Title: Wider Than the Sky
Fandom: Heroes
Rating: PG
Warnings: Alternate Universe: see prompt at end.
Summary: Kimiko brings Shanti a warning and Simone an answer.
Disclaimer: These characters and their settings do not belong to me.

"Your research sounds fascinating, Dr. Suresh." Simone smiles carefully at the earnest professor sitting across from her; it really was interesting, or at least would have been as a book or something, rather than -- well, it sounds ridiculous, but apparently it's actually the truth. "But I still don't see how I'm involved. I'm not one of these people with, with---"

"Abilities," says Dr. Suresh, her accent lending the word an extra lilt. "And how often must I ask you, Ms. Deveaux, to call me Shanti?" Shanti smiles, leaning forward, and Simone finds her own smile trying to flare into something rather more careless. "I know you have one, regardless of your absence from my father's list."

"How?" Simone tries to sound skeptical, to keep her voice light. "How can you tell? You haven't run any tests on me, have you?"

"The only one that matters." Shanti's smile is wide and eager, her dimple creasing; she may have a doctorate, but she looks guileless, younger than Simone herself. "I can see it in your eyes."

Then why haven't I ever done anything out of the ordinary? Simone wonders. "Then what is---"

That's when the woman falls through the ceiling.

Or, not through; when the woman appears in midair with no more sound than a gasp, Simone's gaze flicks up to her and past to the ceiling, which is the exact same flat paneling it was before, no holes or damage or open trapdoors. She watches, faster than she can react, as the woman falls face-down towards her coffee table, black hair streaming, dark fitted clothes ruffling, eyes and mouth wide with shock, but--- she's not screaming, she almost looks---

Simone doesn't have time to figure out how the woman almost looks before she vanishes again, and Shanti exhales loud and fast. They both stare at the air where the woman was falling into Simone's living room, until they can pull their gazes from the spot to stare at each other. Shanti's eyes are huge and brown, as wide as the woman's were; she looks terrified, and triumphant, and she really was telling the truth about these special people, and who the hell was that girl anyway, and just as Simone's about to ask---

The woman reappears, calm and smiling and still, sitting demurely on Simone's coffee table.

"What the hell," Simone says involuntarily.

"Hello!" says the woman, no older than Simone or Shanti, dressed in a fitted little business suit with her shiny black hair neatly arranged around her smiling face. She stands, and Simone presses back in her seat, wondering what else this unexpected visitor can do, trying to decide if she can reach anything at all she could use to defend herself. But the woman bows, deeply and respectfully to Simone, so deeply to Shanti that Simone doesn't know how she doesn't fall. "Professor Suresh, I have found you!"

Her accent is Japanese, Simone thinks, as she stares at the woman who just appeared out of nowhere -- twice -- in her living room, who's greeting a completely shocked-looking Shanti. Good English, Japanese accent. "My name is Kimiko Nakamura, and I have come to warn you! You are in great danger, Professor Suresh!"

"Danger? I--" Shanti swallows hard, visibly pulling herself together. "I thank you, Ms. Nakamura. Thank you for coming to warn me, but danger from whom?"

"The man who seeks all powers," Kimiko replies, turning to Simone. "I am sorry I did not greet you before, Ms. Simone." When Kimiko bows again, Simone manages a jerky nod of her head. "But my message, I had to give it first. Still, hello, and thank you. It is good to see you again."

Simone is quite sure she's never seen this woman before in her life, but New York is a pretty big city. "Um, you're welcome," she says slowly. "Whatever I did."

"Not did," Kimiko corrects with a smile. "What you will do, when you help me give myself this message for Professor Suresh."

That was in English, perfectly good English, and Simone doesn't understand it at all. "What?" she asks just as Shanti sits forward.

When Simone glances over Shanti's eyes are gleaming with discovery. "You gave yourself a message, Ms. Nakamura?" she repeats. "You can travel through time?"

"I can!" Kimiko's smile widens joyfully for a moment, before she gets it back under control, just like Shanti made Simone want to smile. "I came from -- well, she came from the future, the woman I will be, with Ms. Simone's help. She told me to prevent your death, that another would prevent the cheerleader's, and that Ms. Simone was in danger too for her strengthening power."

Isaac had painted a cheerleader, just before the last time Simone went to see him, a frightened blonde girl running from an ominous figure. Simone remembers that, and blinks, wondering what her 'strengthening power' could be, just as Shanti asks for her. "What is Simone's ability, then, if time-travel is yours?"

"Strengthening," Kimiko repeats, a little crease between her eyes. "She strengthens those with powers."

"Amplification!" Shanti looks at Simone triumphantly; Simone tries not to pout. So all she can do is amp up other people with abilities? 'Hooray', she thinks, and rolls her eyes.

Then another memory stops her in mid-eyeroll. Isaac, eyes desperate, telling her he couldn't paint without her, couldn't go on without her. "Then forget the drugs," she'd told him, and she'd left, because she couldn't bear to watch him turn into a junkie, but now she wonders if maybe his words had meant something more.

She thinks of asking Shanti if Isaac is on this list of hers, but Shanti and Kimiko are chatting on past that point. "I'm glad to find out what Simone's ability is, and I'm sure she is too," and Shanti's smile is almost mischievous, "but what danger do we face? Who is this man who seeks all power?"

"All powers," Kimiko emphasizes. "I do not know his name. But the me who will be had one more message; she says he is the one who killed your father."

Shanti's bright eyes close tight as she winces. "Oh, God, I'm sorry," Simone babbles. "I'm so sorry. Did you---"

Shanti nods. "I knew. That's why I came to America. I came to find out why."

Kimiko nods too, face gone solemn, and now she looks even younger, and she's still standing there. Simone gets up, shoves the table over, and pulls over a folding chair. "Sit, please," she tells Kimiko, then turns back to Shanti, wanting to reach over to her. Her eyes are open, but she's looking down at nothing, and Simone remembers when her father died, the gaping bereavement that drove her into Peter's arms, and was that ever stupid of her. She pushes that memory away, thinks 'hell with it' and takes Shanti's hand, and Shanti looks up again, smiling gratefully and sweetly.

"Thank you," Shanti says, and squeezes Simone's hand. "I-- I hadn't actually believed my father's research, even though I'd been a good daughter and a bad scientist and hadn't criticized him for it. I believed it only when someone was willing to kill him for it. Mohinder doesn't --- he's my brother, and he has a doctorate too, so between those he thinks he knows everything."

Kimiko smiles, nodding. "My young brother, he has no degree and he thinks he knows everything too."

Shanti grins, and Simone imagines them for a second, Shanti and her brother, bickering the way only family can. "Little brothers," she says warmly, then continues. "He still thinks our father was wrong, that we should bury him and go onwards, but I... I want to know. And I want to know even more, now that you've brought me this message, Ms. Nakamura. I want to know how to stop this man who seeks powers, in my father's name."

"Here I came, to warn you and to assist you." Still sitting, Kimiko makes a little bow, hands folded over her chest. "Together we can stop him."

"Well, good luck," Simone says, a little dazed. If they're going up against a power-hungry murderer they'll definitely need it.

"Oh, but Ms. Simone, you must come!" Kimiko is even more earnest than Shanti. "We will need all the strength, we will need yours too!"

"There have to be other battery pack girls," Simone scoffs, folding her arms. "People who know more about this kind of thing than I do. I'm an art dealer, I can't stop bad guys."

"What is 'this kind of thing?', Simone?" Shanti is smiling, leaning forward, and even Simone's folded arms are no protection.

"This, this world of people who can fly and turn invisible and, and appear in midair! I don't live there, I run an art gallery! I don't understand any of this!"

Shanti closes her eyes. "The brain is wider than the sky." And begins to recite what's evidently poetry. "For, put them side by side, The one the other will include, With ease, and you beside." When Shanti opens her eyes Simone is shaking her head already, watching Kimiko smile from the corner of her eye, because she doesn't even know where they're going, but she knows she's already lost. "Come with us, and we will figure it out together."

"And there is safety in counting," Kimiko adds, and Simone has to laugh, and give in, and nod.

"Safety in numbers," she corrects Kimiko, as all three of them smile.

Heroes, Shanti Suresh & Kimiko Nakamura & Simone Deveaux: the AU version of the show where *they're* actually the main characters (gen, any pairing or threesome) - "I can't explain why I don't belong to the same world / I don't fit in and I will not stay" I love this prompt so much. I hope I did it some little justice. OTOH, if I didn't,