November 1st, 12:23 p.m. New York; 2:23 a.m. Tokyo

Kimiko Nakamura did not enjoy being woken up by an angry phone call in the middle of the night. She especially did not enjoy being told that she had to be on a plane back to the U.S. in less than one hour when she had just returned to Japan. Luckily she was still officially on 'vacation' and already had somebody covering her divisions. Otherwise she would have had to argue with her father that she couldn't go, and arguing with Kaito Nakamura never really ended well for anybody.

So Kimiko had hauled herself out of bed, packed some necessary things, and had herself looking wide awake and presentable by the time the car arrived to take her to the airport. It was raining and thundering in the distance, not very good flying weather.

Kimiko wondered what the emergency was this time. Her father had sounded furious on the phone and all he would say about the situation was that a colleague in New York had called about Hiro and that they needed to leave immediately. Kimiko didn't think her brother was hurt; her father likely wouldn't have sounded so angry if that was the case. Hiro likely had got himself into some sort of unimaginable trouble. Kaito would go handle it because he was Hiro's father. Kimiko would go because Kaito didn't know how to really handle Hiro.

The wind had picked up considerably during the ride to the airport and a full blown storm raged as Kimiko boarded the aircraft. The pilot was looking anxious; it was plain he couldn't take off in such weather. Kaito wouldn't be happy.

Without saying a word Kimiko settled into her seat. Outside, rain pattered against her window. Kimiko closed her eyes and bowed her head, tired but concentrating. The wind blew more violently for a moment, so hard the fuselage shook. Then the sound of raging thunder faded. The storm split and blew off in four directions. The rain slowed then stopped altogether. The clouds rolled away and the moon shown palely just as Kaito Nakamura boarded the plane.

Kimiko opened her eyes and raised her head in time to catch her father's eye. He offered her a small nod and Kimiko smiled in return. It was nice to finally be able to share her secret after all these years.

Halfway around the world, Molly Walker sipped at her chocolate milk happily before returning to her drawing. It was a crude representation of the world, covered in happy faces and frowny faces. The happy faces represented people who Molly wasn't afraid of, people she knew instinctively that she could trust. The frowny faces were people she wasn't sure about. New York had another symbol, a giant black 'X'. That was the bad man, the man who had killed her parents and tried to get her. She never wanted to run into that man again.

Ignoring the other symbols for the moment, Molly picked up a red crayon and drew a happy face on the squiggly form marked 'Japan.' Then she drew an arrow out over the ocean, towards the United States. There were other people coming as well, but Molly wasn't sure what to make of them. They got red frowny faces.

The door to her room opened and Mr. Thompson came in. Molly smiled at him as he sat down next to her. He'd be wanting to see her pictures and there were some new people that Molly had found since his last visit.

'Absolutely incredible!' Mohinder Suresh exclaimed, circling Hiro and making him acutely uncomfortable. 'You can actually bend time?'

'And space,' Hiro muttered. He looked at Ando pleadingly.

His friend was seated on the couch with his arms crossed, the comic face down on his lap. He hadn't said a word since Mohinder had invited them in. Now, however, he stood up.

'We didn't come here to talk about Hiro's ability. We came to see if you knew where Sylar is.'

Mohinder frowned at him, but stopped circling Hiro. Hiro sat down on the couch with a sigh of relief.

'The man is a dangerous lunatic,' said Mohinder. 'I have no idea where he went when he left here, and even if I did what makes you think that you can stop him?'

'We got this from the future,' said Ando, handing Mohinder the comic. 'It tells us what Hiro has to do.'

'You told me what I have to do,' Hiro piped up. 'In the future! You said "go back and stop Sylar." So here we are.'

'You actually brought this back with you from another time?' the professor asked, walking around the messy apartment and flipping through the pages. 'This is Issac Menez's work.'

'Yes, yes, Mr. Issac! He paints the future.'

Mohinder sat down on his desk, still engrossed in the comic. 'This doesn't look like a very bright future.'

'That's why we have to stop it,' burst in Ando. He was exasperated. It seemed like all they were doing was rehashing the same information over and over again and not getting anywhere. 'If Hiro stabs Sylar, that will stop it.'

'Yes, but how do you know that for sure?' Mohinder asked. 'Stabbing Sylar could very well cause an even worse future, and that's assuming you can even accomplish it. Sylar steals people's powers. If he got yours it would be disastrous.'

Hiro paled slightly. Ando suppressed the urge to scream. What was this man doing, frightening Hiro and destroying his confidence in one fell swoop?

'That won't happen,' said Ando firmly. 'Hiro can do this. His future self did it. It just didn't work because Sylar had the cheerleader's power. But now the cheerleader is alive and Sylar doesn't have her power. So if Hiro stabs him, then Sylar will just be...dead.'

'I feel sick,' Hiro mumbled.

'I feel tired.' Ando sighed. 'Can I use your bathroom?'

Mohinder waved him in the bathroom's direction without taking his eyes off of the comic book. Ando picked his way over splinters of wood and glass and shut the door behind him. The faucet clanked loudly when he turned it on, but the water was cold and felt good when he splashed it on his face. In the other room, Hiro and Mohinder were talking again.

Ando looked at himself in the mirror. He hardly recognized himself. He was dirty and exhausted looking and it seemed that he'd lost weight. A slip of white peeking out of his pants pocket caught his eye: the page that Future Hiro had passed him. Tearing his eyes away from the mirror, Ando sat down on the edge of the tub and pulled the paper out. It was bloodstained and felt unnaturally soft, as if it had been folded and refolded many times. Curious and somewhat apprehensive, Ando unfolded it.

His eyes grew wider and wider as they roamed over the paper. The more he looked, the faster his heart beat, until the room seemed to spin and he couldn't seem to catch his breath. Ando shook his head, wanting to look away, but he didn't seem to be able to.

'Ando-kun?' There was a knock on the bathroom door.

'Hiro...' Ando whispered and quickly folded the paper back up and slipped it back into his pocket, out of sight.

'Ando-kun, are you alright?' Another knock and then Hiro just walked right in. Any other time Ando would have yelled at him for his lack of respect for privacy, but this time Ando saw him and wanted to cry. His ears were ringing. Why on earth was his heartbeat so loud?

'Ando! What's the matter?' Hiro's voice echoed in Ando's ears and he was vaguely aware of Hiro rushing to his side. 'You're so pale! Are you sick?'

A hand, blessedly warm, pressed against Ando's cheek and forehead. Ando leaned into the touch, wanting to tell Hiro to calm down and stop being so dramatic but unable to form the words.

'Hiro, I...need to...'

'I can't hear you, Ando-kun, you have to talk louder.'

'Stop shouting,' Ando murmured. Dizziness assailed him, forcing his eyes shut. 'Hiro, I'm going to faint.'

The last thing he heard before doing just that was Hiro's panicked voice shouting for help.