Disclaimer: I don't own Heroes. Tim Kring teases me about it. Seriously.
Summary: The next AU one shot for my When The Smoke Cleared series. This one is for Ando's POV, with, again, major AU-ness and a little bit of OOC. In fact, forget the Ando you know. This Ando is a whole new animal... Also, there's a little easter bunny waiting for you at the end, and I actually have a companion piece to go withit, except that's only going up after I finish my (count with me now) Nathan, Peter, Matt, Daphne, Heidi, Sandra, HRG, Hiro, Tracy and Barbara one-shots. Same drill, angst and grimness galore, read and review. Please?
Onwards!!
What Was There Left, When The Smoke Cleared?
-Ando Masahashi-
When the smoke cleared, Ando was still alive.
Hiro had been so sure that the blast would kill him, and to some point, Ando wished it did. He surveyed the damage around him, debris up to his knees and fresh blood staining the walls around him. Or what was left of the walls. Hiro was gone, sans his sword, probably because it was still the only object that kept Ando pinned to the room he was left in. Ando could still smell the ash in the air, and the prickly feeling of fire and heat still wafted in the breeze and against his skin.
He reached down to the sword that was lodged between his ribcage, and promptly tugged at it with a wince and a groan. The blade slid carefully, an inch at a time, from his midsection, and he dug his nails into his free hand to redirect the focus he had on the excruciating pain. Finally, the tip of the weapon emerged from the mass of blood and flesh, deeply stained crimson from the severity of the wound. Ando cursed under his breath, and reached up to feel the cut. The ugly, potruding flesh moved awkwardly against his fingers, before finally sucking themslves back into place, and realigning as if the wound wasn't even there to begin with.
No, Hiro did not know this about him.
In fact, when Ando woke up to find he had received superhuman powers somehow, he knew quite well that Hiro didn't know how it happened either, but it still didn't stop him from assuming Ando had requested for the powers himself. For Hiro, the silly, manga loving otaku to call him a traitor and right off ASSUME that he wanted these abilities just to be on level with him - was just plain stupid. No, scratch that. It was infuriating. He, Ando, who had been on this journey with Hiro since day one, always the one with a level head and the one with some sense of reality left in him, always the one who was the sole driving force behind Hiro's mission, the guy who pulled random Star Trek facts out of the air just to keep Hiro in line and focused on the big picture - he, a traitor?
Fuck you, Hiro Nakamura, I have known you since you were ten years old and claiming that aliens were real; WHY, pray tell, would I betray you NOW when it would have been so much easier to do so back when you were stupider than a 100 yen at the bottom of a pool?
Ando gathered himself and shook the monologue out of his head. He blinked excessively when the first few steps sent dust flying around him, and with a flick of a wrist, he powered up a small orb of red energy in his right palm. The glow illuminated his surroundings a bit, but not enough, since the blast had torn away the walls of 27th Floor, Yamagato Industries completely away, although with a stroke of luck, the one wall that was untouched was the one he had been previously pinned to. The light continued into the dark, unable to reflect, disappearing until Ando could see no more, somewhere over what was probably left of Tokyo.
Ando reached into his pocket and felt for the cellphone he kept just before he confronted Hiro. Acquiring it, he noted disdainfully that it been burned to death by the blast, and nothing more than a piece of scrap rather than a communicative device. Again, he cursed, and wondered loudly how he was going to get down from this place.
That bastard Hiro, he thought. Even when he was gone and thinking he had killed his best friend, he still had the last laugh by leaving his supposedly dead best friend stranded on top of the 27th floor. Not even Daphne or Matt could get him down, not without messing up some seriously unstable foundations. Already he could feel the concrete give way under the frailty of the remaining pillars. Ando struggled to find an exit for a moment, before eyeing the faint outline of a nearby building just a a floor or two lower than Yamagato's. He moved slowly towards the window, and peered out into the dark below.
And man, was it really dark. The whole of Tokyo looked like it had been plunged into an ocean of ash, and when the light of his orb shone outside the vicinity of the broken down office, all merit towards its existence was laid to waste and all anyone saw was the pinpoint of red, and nothing more. The smoke, and the ash, and the darkness swallowed up the light.
Ando looked down. He couldn't see the bottom. He couldn't see where the darkness ended. For some reason, the unending inkiness made the realisation of it all come to a head over him, and he found himself stumbling back, scooting away from the edge, holding the orb close to his chest, panting heavily.
He was alone. He was alone and the world had just gone to hell. What the fuck was he still doing there?!
He could scream. He could shout. He could call out to the world and he was more than positive that no one would answer. The orb in his hand began to fizzle as his mind began to fill up with the possibilities of him being stranded up on this precipice, no one to help him, no one to come looking for him. Panic, yes. That was it. He was panicking now - all sense of gratefulness at being alive slipping away along with his hopes for seeing a new future. Hiro did this, he thought. That bastard did this!!
He hated him. HE HATED HIM!!
The burst of lightning that surrounded the broken down floor was as bright as it was brief. Ando took another deep breath before he calmed the dancing tendrils down. Slowly, the red light grew softer, and before he knew it, he was once more surrounded by the dark. He dragged his fingers over his face and felt tears on his cheeks, even though he was sure he didn't remember crying. This feeling. Abandonement. Loneliness. That was what Hiro and his mounting quest for 'destiny' had made him feel three years ago. Suddenly, after thinking he had finally gotten over being unimportant and sidelined, just as easily he was thrust back into the spinning mess that was he and Hiro's friendship gone wrong. Except now the stakes were higher and he, Ando, had actually put something on the line. Something he cared about.
And Hiro couldn't take that, could he. Damnit, the little kisama just had to go on his pathetic quest of ridding the world of villains the moment he found out who Ando was sleeping with. Sleeping... No. He loved her. It wasn't just sleeping. Ando loved her.
And as evil as Hiro wanted to believe she was, as many sins as she'd committed in the last three years - no one knew her like Ando knew her. No one. No one saw the young girl inside who was still trying to escape the sins of the father, the crimes of a family that left her wondering if she was truly good or somehow, born to be this cruel to the core. Ando was there when she confessed her fears, and he was there the morning after to assure her that they would never return.
But one look, Hiro, one look. And you had to think that things never changed, huh? You, and your sick formula that would neutralise them. Us. Everyone like us. All the specials. You and your pathetic speech about how you were willing to give up your 'destiny' in order to stop the chaos. TO HELL WITH DESTINY!! There were more important things in life than the power to shoot lightning or travel time. You were just jealous that I had found that, weren't you, Hiro?
But all the same, the little worm won in the end. Ando had done his best, and worked the worm hard enough to dislodge the formula before Hiro could use it on that crap-ass machine, but Hiro managed to reveal that there were others. Four more, to be exact. Before Ando knocked him out, he managed to reveal that somewhere else, there were other vials of that hypocritical weapon, and Hiro wanted him to know that this wasn't the end.
Ando was too tired to think about that, so he made his mistake. He turned his back as to electrocute the machine. He turned his back on Hiro-fucking-Nakamura.
Then, he was being stabbed through, just as he had been working on disconnecting the machine by, well, frying the controls. He was stabbed, and the pain filled his head like a freaking overload. The worm was so sure that Ando was done for after that, that he managed a half-burnt apology that was more of a lament, all the while looking down at Ando, formula in hand. Ando could read it in his eyes.
Sorry, Ando. You were never meant for this.
Ando would have electrocuted him further if not for the blade drawing the dark curtain over his eyes, agonizingly slow. The last he saw, Hiro was leaving, and Ando could hear the blast from the roof eight floors up.
Hiro, you bastard. You have no idea what you've done to me. What you've taken.
But wait, Ando suddenly realised. He was still with his powers. He could still heal. That meant... Hiro failed. That meant...
She was alright!! Ando looked up, just as the faintest trickle of light slipped through the dark clouds. Ando's chest felt like a burden was taken off, and a sudden determination filled him up inside. There was hope. He could still find her and be with her. He had to get off this...
The shaking ground alerted him out his thoughts, prompting him to stop and hold on to something. Unfortunately, the ground began to tilt, and he was falling - everything was falling. Shit, he thought. Damnit!! He watched almost fascinated, as the rubble began to move away from him, and gravity was growing heavier and heavier around him. No, he thought, he couln't let this happen. He had promised to find her again after he was done. He was not the kind of man to go back on his word.
But the foundations continued to collapse and before Ando knew it, he was free falling into the darkness, air crashing against his face, gravity holding onto his limbs. His angel... His sweet, dark haired angel...
The whole of Tokyo rang with the sound of the collapse of Yamagato Industries.
His fingers came back together. His head pieced together its shattered chips. His insides twisted in an almost artistic fashion, before settling in place so the skin could reconvene, and forget the gaps and blood on his clothing. Darkness was the same when you're dead, but when you're alive again, you can tell. And Ando could tell. Dust, debris, rocks and rubble. The dark was there as deep as it was for a blind man, but Ando could tell he wasn't blind. He could see. He was alive.
As he stood up, he struggled to find his footing amongst the masses of stone. A part of him was frustrated at the dark. The other was glad he was still able to feel every crush and roll.
When the smoke cleared, Ando was still alive. And though a part of him was still angry that he had failed his mission, sort of, he was aware more than ever that he had a second chance.
He had to find a way to get back to her. She was still out there, waiting. He needed to tell her, that the fight was over. For himself. No more Hiro. No more formulas. All he wanted was to be with her. She was waiting. He needed to put her worries to rest.
When the smoke cleared, Ando was still alive, and he was still here.
He could only wish that Claire was still there as well.