Disclaimer: All rights belong to Disney and the respective creators of this film.

Prelude: Unscathed

He woke up to the white flash of an alabaster ceiling, all dull and monotonous and he wondered vaguely to himself where he was. There were objects, things, surrounding him; all jumbled into an indiscernible portrait of silhouettes and colors that he could not comprehend from the haze that met his sight. The lights had been blinding and his poor eyes tried desperately to readjust to the brightness of it all, but to no avail however. Quickly now, he shut his eyes to escape the offensive light and retreated back to his refuge of darkness and pure nothingness.

From a distance, he heard voices, whispering, murmuring, words of distress - to what he had deciphered from the strange mixture of sadness and anxiety that laced their voices. What were these voices, moreover what was wrong with anything... everything? What was...? The thoughts that he was trying so desperately to piece together were scattered and dwindling as if they were now broken pieces crumbling through his fingers; like dust in the wind or perhaps ash... Wait, ash?

"...blinking...I think... he's awake..." he suddenly heard a voice, the voice of a woman. It sounded so familiar and sweet, with its melodious tone that practically dripped with honey... Wait, Honey? Or was it Gogo? He was not sure.

"Tadashi!" He heard the voice of a child, no, older than that and the voice itself had evoked a small twinge of sentimentality within his core.

"Tadashi!" He felt himself shift on his side on whatever he had been lying on and the crinkling of linen sheets reverberated throughout... wherever he was.

"Tadashi!" He felt his hands twitch on their own accord as he forced himself to open his heavy eye lids, but the lights were blinding, oh so, blinding.

"Tadashi!" With what little resolve he had left, he had forced himself to open them and ignoring the light, a flash of white had bombarded his senses.

He felt himself blinking continuously so as to adjust to the bright lights and when his poor eyesight finally did adjust to as much as it could, Tadashi was stunned when he realized that a group of people had been surrounding him - all with eyes reflecting deep concern.

Amongst the middle of the group was his little brother who had found his way on top of the bed he had been lying on, only to come rushing at him in a hurried embrace. He immediately felt pain upon the warm contact, however, he had winced it away to weakly wrap his own arms (which now seemed far heavier than they had ever felt in his life) around Hiro.

"W-What h-happened?" his voice came out croaked and feeble and it surprised him greatly – never had he felt so foreign as he now did when he heard himself speak.

It was as if someone else's voice had been coming out of his throat, all unfamiliar and outlandish.

"The fire, Tadashi, you went back to save your Professor and... A gas pipe had leaked and the whole building exploded. You were caught in the flames and..." his aunt Cass had appeared by his side to divulge the information since Hiro had suddenly became oddly quiet.

The rest of the words she had been spewing fell upon deaf ears as Tadashi had blocked it all out in order to concentrate on the intricate binding of gauze that had now had been wrapped carefully around his arms. He reached out slowly towards the white blanket that had been covering the lower half of his body, but the simple act itself proved far too strenuous for him to do.

Sensing his distress, Wasabi had tentatively pulled the sheet up for him, revealing two long legs wrapped with layers of white binding and gauze. He tried to shift one of them slightly, but the pain that shot up from his leg and through his thigh was too overwhelming, so he had opted on leaving it alone for the time being.

"S-So, what's the damage?" He croaked out.

"Two broken legs and a shattered collarbone from the impact of the explosion, third degree burns that required a skin graft, a fractured arm and... no hair... no hair at all..." Gogo had taken the oppurtunity to speak now.

"Though quite clichéd, the doctors said it was a miracle that you even survived that explosion. You're one of the lucky ones they say," Honey finished sadly as her hand reached towards Tadashi's own bandaged hand to gently squeeze it in reassurance.

He tried to squeeze back, but his hands would not listen to him no matter what he tried, so with a a sigh of resignation, Tadashi, to the best of his ability, twitched his hand as he leaned back into his pillow. "Why can't I move anything?" He was frustrated now.

"Atrophy," Gogo said simply. "You haven't used your muscles in a while."

"How long was 'awhile?'"

"Two months, dude. You've been out for a pretty long time..." Fred replied. "I'm surprised you haven't like gotten paralyzed or something like that... I think?"

"Fred!" Honey and Gogo had admonished at the same time.

"What?" The redhead questoned obliviously as he pulled down his beanie to scratch his scalp indicating his genuine confusion.

"Never mind." Fred was a lost cause anyway.

"I'm so sorry, man. If I knew that night that, that's where you and Hiro were headed... I would've dragged you to my car myself," Wasabi supplied, trying to diffuse the awkwardness in the air.

"...Appreciate the gesture Wasabi, but... Too late now, huh?" he replied in a weak voice as he blinked his eyes away from the light.

"I'm so sorry..."

"It can't be helped, really... It's not your fault..."

"I should've tried harder to pull you back Tadashi, I shouldn't have let you go," Hiro said with watery eyes. "I'm so stupid!" The younger boy had banged his head on the bed railing in frustration.

"...It's okay buddy. No need to beat yourself up over it. I'm okay Hiro, I really am."

"No you're not. You can't even move..."

Tadashi blinked once more and his eyes had suddenly become heavy again, as if someone had literally attached weights on the tip of his lids. As he blinked away the heaviness, a haze had overcome his eyesight and his thoughts had become scattered again. It was all a puzzle that he could not piece together.

"I'm tired…" he felt himself murmur into the blurry haze of white monotony and silhouettes of his friends and family.

Flashes of black seemed to become more and more comforting until he was overcome with that perpetual darkness that beckoned him to the land of the unknown, where thoughts were more imaginative and scenes were more vivid. He thought he saw images, ones of fire dancing in an ancient cycle of death and rebirth and emerging from the flames came the image of his beloved little brother, then his parents and finally the face of his professor. He was not sure why, but upon dreaming of the man with his withered face and cerulean eyes, a small sense of burning anger had overcome his senses.. but, he could not remember nor did he understand why the thought of the man seemed to incite such a burning anger...

"We'll see you when you wake up Tadashi," were the last words he heard before he succumbed to the dark abyss of sleep.

Author's Note: I wrote this after stumbling across this Big Hero 6 fanart in the tag on Tumblr where Tadashi had survived, but had become more darker in terms of characteristics from wanting to seek revenge from Callaghan. Not sure if I should make a continuation of this story, so I'm wondering what you guys think and if you like it or not? If so, I might continue it off with some brotherly bonding, Tadashi love and maybe some future romance.. perhaps with a certain purple haired shortie *cough cough* Gogo? I just love her so much you know?

Anyways, Questions? Comments? Tell me what you think by leaving a review down below.

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And I love you all too!