A/N: Wow! You guys are blowing me away with your kind words! Thanks so much for all the reviews—I tried to read and respond to every one that I could. It really makes my day. So for all my anon reviewers and the ones that I couldn't message: thank you so much for your support! I promised big things once we got into Hiro's perspective again, and I hope I can deliver on them. Hope you enjoy this one!

ALSO: There are some hints of Tadahoney in this… Fan service (and I ship it). Nothing heavy-handed but it's there if you read into it.


"How do you know he's telling the truth, Hiro? He's a criminal," Wasabi emphasized the word with a frantic look in his eyes. He'd been a superhero for a year and he still couldn't get over his fear of confrontation.

"I agree with Wasabi, Hiro," Honey Lemon spoke up gently. "We were on the island before and there was no sign of Tadashi." She rested a slender hand on the boy's shoulder. "I really miss him too, but what if all you find there is pain?" Her green eyes were watering up behind her pink-framed glasses.

"But what if he's there?" Hiro countered quietly, shoulders slumping with a growing sense of defeat. "What if we missed something?"

"Tadashi's our friend, guys," Fred spoke up from his place on the beanbag chair in Hiro's garage. "Sure Callaghan could be lying like always. But what if this time he's not?"

"I can't believe I'm saying this but I agree with Fred," GoGo said. "If Tadashi's alive, then he needs our help. Isn't it at least worth another look?"

Hiro's eyes lit up as the two spoke on his behalf. "So you'll go?"

"I'm in," GoGo affirmed.

"Rescue mission!" Fred cried with elation.

"Guys?" the boy looked at Wasabi and Honey Lemon.

"We're a team," the blonde spoke. "And if you're going to look for Tadashi, then we're all going to look for Tadashi, right Wasabi?"

"Uh, yeah…yeah I'm coming too," he answered after recovering from the shock of being put on the spot. He cleared his throat. "I'm in."

"Baymax?" All eyes turned to the inflatable robot standing quietly in the corner.

"I am your personal healthcare companion. Wherever you go, I will go."

Hiro could feel a surge of relief course through him. He wanted to cry for joy. There was a chance that his big brother was still alive and now his friends—the greatest friends in the world—were going to help him find Tadashi.


The island appeared to be in similar shape to what it was when the team last saw it. In a state of disrepair, parts and pieces of long-abandoned projects strewn about, barbed wire, warning signs they had learned to ignore last time.

"It's so big…where do we start?" Honey Lemon asked as Baymax landed in the center of the complex.

"Baymax, can you do a scan for any life forms on the island?" Hiro asked.

"Why certainly," the robot replied, activating his sensors. The group waited with baited breath. "My scan indicates that there are no life forms matching Tadashi's physical traits anywhere on this island. I am sorry, Hiro."

Hiro's face fell. "What? No, that's not possible. Callaghan said Tadashi was on the island. Check again!"

Baymax repeated his scan. "I am sorry, Hiro, but my scan has still come back negative. There are no human life forms anywhere on the island."

Hiro felt his knees give out from under him, slowly sinking to the ground. He could feel the tears gathering, stinging at the backs of his eyes. His face twitched and he felt strangled as he barely suppressed a sob. Tadashi's here. He has to be! He had gotten his hopes up so high. Could Callaghan really be so cruel? Was Tadashi really…dead? No. No, Tadashi can't be dead. No! Tadashi had promised to always be there for him. Ever since their parents died, Tadashi had been the only link he had to them, to his past. He was the only consistent person in his life besides Aunt Cass. He was his big brother, his idol, his hero. Tadashi was his best friend. And he thought he would die of loneliness, of grief this past year without him. He didn't want to face the prospect of having to live without his brother for the rest of his life. He had to be here. He had to be alive.

Honey Lemon placed a hand on the boy's shoulder gently. "I'm sorry, Hiro," she whispered. There was a hint of a tremble in her voice. Hiro refused to turn to look at her, afraid that seeing the pain undoubtedly written across her face would break him down to the point of crying. He had to stay strong. "I was really hoping he would be here too."

The team was silent, unsure of how to proceed.

Hiro stood, a determined look crossing his features. "No. Tadashi is here. He has to be. I know it! Maybe…maybe something's off with Baymax's sensors. He has to be here!" He kicked a pebble in frustration and sent is scuttling across the ground. "We just have to look."

"Hiro, I know you're hurting, man. But you heard Baymax. There's no human life here besides us," Wasabi said quietly.

"Wait, guys, wait," Freddy spoke up. "What if he is here and Baymax just can't sense him. What if he's in a super, top-secret dungeon where no one on the outside world can find him. Classic villain move. There's probably a secret door somewhere." The blue-costumed hero dropped to his hands and knees and began frantically scratching and searching the ground.

Honey Lemon sighed sadly, her tall frame wilting. "Freddy…"

"No," GoGo stuck up a hand. "I can't believe I'm saying this again but Fred's right. What if Callaghan hid Tadashi someplace where he thought no one could find him? Baymax's sensors are strong but there's always a chance they aren't strong enough, right?"

"But even if that's the case, how are we gonna find Tadashi? This island is huge," Wasabi questioned.

"We should split up," Hiro suggested. "We can cover more ground."

"Split up?! That's the exact opposite of a good idea! Haven't you ever seen a horror movie? Don't you know what happens whenever the group splits up? One of them falls into a pit and gets buried alive. And another one gets locked in a room and the walls do that thing where they start to move together until one of them gets crushed to death. And then the ax murderer starts stalking them and—"

"Woman up!" GoGo interrupted him. "You're a superhero, not a super wimp. Wasabi and I'll go this way," she told the others, dragging the tall, green-clad hero with her.

"C'mon, Freddy," Honey Lemon said, taking Fred with her.

"Guess that leaves you and me, big guy," Hiro turned to Baymax. "Let's check around the lab where we found Callaghan the first time." Baymax deployed his wings and Hiro scrambled onto his back, locking himself into place. I'm coming to find you Tadashi.


"Man, I hope we find him," Fred turned to Honey Lemon as the two investigated a dusty, dark corridor.

"Me, too," the blonde answered, her normally bubbly nature completely sapped out of her.

Fred took out a match, using his fireballs to light it and illuminate the way. The corridor appeared to have been used for storage. Boxes covered in dust cloths and sheets lined the walls and the whole place smelled musty.

"Tadashi?" Honey Lemon called. "Tadashi?" Silence.

"Hey, Tadashi? Are you in here?" Fred joined. He let out a shriek as something scuttled across his feet.

"What is it?" Honey Lemon asked, startled.

Her companion shined the light of the match towards the ground, revealing a pair of beady red eyes a large, dark-colored creature scurried away. "R-r-r-rat!" Fred screamed, hopping from foot to foot. "Get 'em off, get 'em off, get 'em off, get 'em off!"

Honey grabbed her cell phone and turned on the flashlight feature, shining it across the floor and along the walls. "I don't see anything," she said. "Let's keep looking."

"Remember that road trip we took? To the National Park? The week after orientation?" Fred asked.

"I remember," she answered, a ghost of smile passing over her lips. "I remember how we all met, too."

"You guys thought I was a student till Callaghan pointed it out," Fred chuckled. "Turns out I'm just the greatest mascot ever."

The chemist didn't hear him prattle on. She was lost in memory. She had first met Tadashi on the day of orientation, when all of the science majors were introduced to the lab and to Dr. Callaghan, among others. He had been standing right next to her and casually struck up a conversation, introduced himself, asked what her major was. And he had offered to help her out if she ever needed anything. Tadashi was her first new friend at SFIT and losing him had caused her to lose sleep, feel sick. He was, above all, a kind person—the kind of person that reassured Honey Lemon that her faith in humanity was well-placed. The last year had felt like a dream. A bad dream that she was floating through. Hearing Hiro retell his experience when he confronted Callaghan had filled her with hope for a brief moment, but she was guarded against getting her hopes up now. Losing Tadashi once was bad enough. Losing him again? She wasn't sure she could tolerate that.

"…and then Tadashi goes 'dude, that's not a tree squirrel, that's a possum' and the thing goes crazy in my arms and tries to rip my face off. Best. Trip. Ever." Fred concluded his story about the road trip with a slight chuckle. It was completely atypical for the jokester, who usually cracked up every time he retold his memories of the trip and when Honey Lemon looked up at him, she was surprised to see that he was crying.


"Find anything?" Wasabi questioned as GoGo sped past him, completed a final lap of the room, and returned to him.

"Nothing," she answered, somewhat dejectedly. "He's got to be here somewhere," she insisted. "Tadashi? Tadashi where are you?"

Wasabi shoved a heavy crate out of the way, rearranging the abandoned laboratory that appeared to have become a storage room. "I got nothing," he sighed in exasperation. "All these crates are full of old science equipment."

"We have to keep looking," GoGo replied, making ready to head off another lap of the corridor. Wasabi reached out, grabbed her shoulder to stop her. "Let me go!" she demanded.

"What if we don't find him?" he asked bluntly.

GoGo put her hands on her hips and stared at her friend defiantly. "What do you mean? Of course we'll find him," she answered testily, masking her own concerns.

"But what if…I don't wanna say it but what if…Callaghan was lying this whole time. What if Tadashi's not here? What if he…well you know…" he questioned. "What then?"

"Callaghan wouldn't lie about that. What good could come of it? He emotionally destroys Hiro again? What does he have to gain?" She asked the questions but she could feel her own doubt starting to creep in. What if Tadashi really is gone?

GoGo didn't want to consider that reality. She had never had an easy time making friends. Sure there was Honey Lemon, who she had known well before college and who was nice to everyone, but aside from that, most girls seemed to be put off by her hardened demeanor and most boys were intimidated by her. She was used to being alone. And when she met Tadashi Hamada at orientation, she had expected him to treat her like everyone else. Instead, he'd been friendly to her, interested in her industrial engineering ambition. No one had every shown interest in her hobbies. And when she found out he wanted to trade his moped for a motorcycle soon, she decided he was an acceptable friend to have. Over the course of the next week, they had quickly accrued a dysfunctional family of friends, Tadashi becoming the glue that held the group together. She had never felt more accepted in her life. Tadashi had never abandoned her. And she wasn't going to abandon him now. He had to be alive. He had to be.

"I don't know," Wasabi shrugged. "But there's a lot about him we never knew." The pair moved on down the hall to the next room.

It wasn't that Wasabi didn't want to believe Callaghan was telling the truth. But everything he had believed in—everything that had given him security—had been tipped upside down in the past year. Professor Callaghan, icon, legend, mentor, had turned out to be a vengeful villain. A truly bad guy. Responsible for Tadashi's death. So Wasabi had a tough time believing him. He had always had a tough time trusting people anyway. Most people would come into his life, stay for only a bit, and then become put off by his neurotic tendencies. He couldn't control those tendencies, but it didn't stop people from rejecting him for them anyway. So when Tadashi had first started talking to him, Wasabi was afraid that their friendship would end up the same way. Instead, Tadashi had been more than receptive of his hyper-organization, and even respectful of it. The third day of class in the lab, he had needed to borrow a screwdriver. Wasabi was amazed when Tadashi returned the tool, carefully laying it down in its labeled spot, point sticking out to match all of the other ones. As the group grew, Wasabi found himself becoming less self-conscious of his OCD. He felt respected, not judged, and he felt safe with these people. He owed it all to Tadashi Hamada. So if Tadashi was alive, he had every intention of helping to find him. But Callaghan had betrayed them once already, making it that much harder for the applied physics major to put stock in anything the man said.


Hiro was getting frantic. "Tadashi?! Tadashi?!" he was calling his brother's name over and over again as he and Baymax proceeded down the hall from the test chamber, now torn apart and littered with rubble. The narrow corridor was illuminated in an eerie red glow from the emergency lighting. It was the only part of the complex still powered.

"Tadashi, please," the boy was practically begging now. "You have to be here. You have to be."

He remembered how he felt when his brother was out late—usually cramming for finals with his friends in the library. Even though it was a temporary state of affairs, he still felt worry whenever Tadashi was out late. He didn't really know his parents—he was so young when they died—but Tadashi was always the one to tell him about them. He was some combination of a big brother, a best friend, and a father. When he was being bullied in school, he could count on Tadashi to comfort him, make him feel a little less stupid for being smart. When he had a bad nightmare, he could always count on Tadashi to make space in his bed and let Hiro crawl in to sleep beside him. He never felt judged. And he had felt so empty without him for a year now. He was afraid of what it would mean if Tadashi was really gone forever. Forever was such a long time.

"Please," Hiro begged again, barely above a whisper. They had searched high and low without any sign of his big brother. A tear dripped down his face, got caught up in his helmet. Then another. "Guys," he activated the communicator to speak to the rest of the team, "please tell me you found something."

"I'm sorry, Hiro," Honey Lemon's dejected voice came through.

"We searched the entire south and west end of the complex," Wasabi spoke. "Nothing."

"We're heading over to you now," GoGo added.

"There's no sign of Tadashi anywhere," Wasabi told Hiro glumly once the group had reconvened in the hallway outside the testing chamber.

Hiro nodded and sniffled, trying to hide how badly it hurt.

"Hiro, I wish we could help more but we're tired. I want to stay and look but I can't keep moving at this speed," GoGo admitted.

"We can't give up now," Fred insisted. "This is the part where everyone feels like it's hopeless but a hero convinces them not to quit." He leaned against a wall and let out a loud cry of surprise when part of the drywall gave way behind him, revealing a set of steps. "Whoa, awesome," he whispered in amazement, peering down the dark flight of stairs.

"What is that?" Wasabi joined him.

"Stairs," Hiro suddenly looked much livelier. "Maybe they'll lead to where Tadashi is!"

"Hiro," Honey Lemon warned, fearing the boy wouldn't be able to take anymore disappointment, "don't get your hopes up too—"

But the boy was already dashing down the stairs.

"Secret passage! This rules!" Fred cheered, following Hiro down. The others quickly followed, with Baymax bringing up the rear, shuffling stiffly down the steps.

The stairs led to a bunker, fortified with thick, concrete walls. "The walls are so thick," the boy genius observed. "That must be why Baymax's sensors didn't pick up anything. Baymax, scan for Tadashi again!"

The robot activated his scanning protocol again. There was a brief pause, then suddenly, "Tadashi is here."

Hiro's heart skipped a beat. Tadashi? It was true! It was really true! His brother was here, somewhere! An impossible combination of emotions—relief, elation, confusion, and above all love overwhelmed him so that he was tearing up again. Tadashi's loss had been so rough on him and now Baymax was telling him what he had been hoping all along—he wouldn't have to live without his big brother forever.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Wasabi intervened. "Just a few minutes ago Baymax's sensors weren't picking up anything. Are you sure it wasn't a mistake?"

"Tadashi is here," Baymax repeated, asserting himself. He moved toward a metal door that presumably led to an inner room of the bunker and indicated it. "Tadashi is here. In here."

Hiro could barely contain himself. He couldn't believe it. "Baymax, rocket fist!"

The robot activated his weapon and directed it straight at the door. Nothing happened. The boy let out a sharp cry of disappointment.

"I am sorry, Hiro. The door is too strong for my rocket fist to break through."

"Stand back," Honey Lemon approached the door, a determined look on her face. "Baymax's rocket fist might not work, but I bet this door won't be able to stand up to hydrofluoric acid." She keyed in a few components on her purse and carefully extracted an orb, which she promptly hurled at the door's lock. The orb burst, dripping the dangerous acid all over the metal. The acid began to eat into the door's metal, breaking the lock straight off.

Hiro gingerly pushed the door open and was confronted with a fully-powered, well-lit room. The bunker must have its own power source. Remnants of the teleportation device were strewn about everywhere—blueprints, discs.

"Tadashi's vital signs indicate he is in a state of hyper-sleep," Baymax informed helpfully.

Hyper-sleep? Hiro's eyes scanned the room until he spotted an enclosed cell similar to the one they had rescued Abigail from. "The pod!"

The six rushed to the white, shuttle-like vehicle. Hiro approached the glass windshield carefully, his heart racing and a lump quickly forming in his throat. He wasn't sure what he was expecting to find as he slowly pressed his head against the glass and peered in.

Tadashi!

There, in the pod, was his brother. He was restrained and completely unconscious, being kept barely alive by the hyper-sleep ability. But he was there. The tears of joy and relief and wonder and…some other indescribably happy emotion streamed from his eyes before he could do anything about it. He had believed. He had hoped. But seeing his big brother there was the confirmation he needed.

"He's here," he whispered softly as the others crowded around to see with their own eyes, each feeling his or her own version of relief and joy. "We need to wake him up," Hiro added, his sense of amazement giving way to an intense desire to see his brother, to speak to him, to hug him, to feel his skin and hear him breathe and speak just to verify that this wasn't some dream he would wake up from. That Tadashi was real and really here.

"You should do it, Hiro," GoGo looked at the boy with a sense of awe that was unusual on her normally stoic features. "We'll wait outside. You two need a moment alone."

Hiro nodded gratefully. "Thank you," he spoke in barely above a whisper, hardly able to keep his composure. His friends left the room with Baymax in tow. Slowly, Hiro approached the pod and activated its emergency release. A light mist emanated from the machine, making him cough. He watched Tadashi lie motionless for a moment, fear taking hold as he quickly cut his brother out of the restraints and hoped he would awaken. If Abigail had been in hyper-sleep for a number of years, surely Tadashi could have made it, right?

"Tadashi?" he whispered softly as the older Hamada began to stir. "Tadashi!" Hiro cried with joy, warm tears blurring his vision to the point that his brother was just a blob of color.

Slowly, groggily, Tadashi sat up in the pod. "Hiro? Hiro is that you?" he asked.

"It's me! It's me!" Hiro answered, throwing his arms around his brother, feeling his heartbeat and ascertaining that he was, in fact alive. "It's you," he said softly, unable to control the tears that were freely flowing now. Not that he wanted them to stop. "It's really you."

Tadashi gripped his younger brother tightly, held him close. "Hiro," he whispered. "Am I—am I dead?" he questioned, suddenly very confused.

Hiro pulled back from the embrace enough to look his brother in the eye. "No," he answered, tears still streaming. "No, you're alive! It's you. It's really you and you're really alive!" He threw himself back into his brother's arms, reveled in the feeling of having his big brother hug him back almost too tightly.

"But, how…?" Tadashi began to ask.

Hiro didn't pull back this time, just let himself hang there over Tadashi's shoulder and soak in the first physical contact he'd had with his brother in far too long. "There's a lot I have to explain…later."

For now, all he wanted to focus on was the fact that Tadashi was back. Hiro's big brother, his best friend was back.


A/N: You were all clamoring for a reunion. I hope this did justice to your expectations. Was it what you were hoping for? Please let me know in a review. I also really tried to add some depth and background to the others' relationship with Tadashi. I felt like that aspect wasn't explored enough in the movie. Did you like that part? This is the second-to-last chapter. Next chapter will be the epilogue to tie up loose ends. In the meantime, please leave a review and, once again, thank you all for your kind words that keep me going and encouraging me to write!