Chapter Twenty One: Truth

GoGo yawned as she entered the command room. The first thing she noticed was that Baymax wasn't there. Then she realized Hiro wasn't either. Feeling a bit stiff, she moved further into the room and found she was the only one in there. Honey must have gone to bed at some point, she reasoned. But where was Hiro?

Still sore from the battle, she sauntered back down the hall. She could think of a few places Hiro might be hiding. The first place she looked showed an empty room, movie projector still playing horror movies from the fifties. She continued on, reasoning that he might have decided to find something to eat. It's what she would have done.

On the way, she ran into Wasabi as he came out of his guest room. "Morning," he yawned. As usual, he was in a fresh pair of clothes. The man was prepared for most anything. They'd teased him about it many times before, but it left him in clean clothes and smelling good.

"Hey," GoGo answered as he followed her down the hall. "You haven't seen Hiro, have you? I know Honey's still out for the count. Not sure where Fred or Baymax are either."

Wasabi shrugged. "Who knows? If I were him, I'd probably find a place where no one could find me."

GoGo had to give him that one, because she'd do the same in his shoes. Well, almost the same thing. She'd probably be off on an adrenaline inducing adventure, trying to get the images of the battle out of her head. She hadn't gone down, but she'd seen too many fall to either a bullet or a flamethrower. And she didn't even know any of their names.

The closer they got to the center of the Manor, the harder it became to ignore the sound of voices. When they'd entered the foyer, GoGo put out her hand, stopping Wasabi in his tracks. "Do you hear that?" she half demanded. "Sounds like the Doctor and Rose." She turned towards the direction of the sound.

"Is that Fred's voice?" Wasabi asked as he took a few steps closer to the open door across the way. "But if so, why are they all up here and not back in the command room?"

GoGo signaled for him to be quiet as she tiptoed towards the room in question. Wasabi was right. If they were back, they should have met up with everyone in the back room, instead of lollygagging around up here.

"It's kind of hard to explain," she heard Fred say as she paused just next to the door frame.

The door sat about a foot open as she carefully inched closer, trying to not get caught. For all she knew, they were talking about something they didn't want others to hear. But if that were the case, they'd surely have shut the door. Besides, what could they say that the whole team didn't need to hear?

At that moment, Hiro's voice called out, though it was muffled. With eyes narrowed. GoGo decided it was time to find out what was going on. She pushed the door open, Wasabi right behind her.

Both crime fighters stopped halfway through the doorway, mouths hanging open as they saw who all was in the room.

"Hey, guys," Fred waved from his chair. "Guess who's not really dead."

The two continued to stare as Captain Harkness stood from his seat across the room. "Welcome back," he said, smiling a bit at their expressions. "I know what you're thinking. Hiro saw me die. But, as you can see, I'm not dead!"

GoGo broke her silence first. "Just what is going on here? How did you get here? Why aren't you dead?" she asked in rapid succession.

Wasabi made a funny kind of noise that was almost an uneasy scream. "Please don't tell me you're some kind of zombie."

Turning to face her friend, GoGo gave him an incredulous look. "A zombie? Seriously?"

"It could happen," Wasabi hedged, his expression seemingly frozen between confusion and fear.

"It's totally cool, guys," Fred broke in. "See, Jack's like one of those characters from my comic books. He can't die. The only down side is he's not some kind of alien or mutant with supernatural powers."

"That's the only downside?" GoGo looked at Fred like he was some kind of fungus. "Are you serious?"

Fred shrugged. "Sure. Why not? I mean, he's obviously here. Why not just go with it? The Doctor tried to explain it to me but it was a little above my head. Something about genetic manipulation by some force living inside the TARDIS or something. Not really sure what he meant by that though."

The Doctor gave a nonchalant shrug of the shoulders. "It's all a bit wibbly wobbly," he offered.

"I heard Hiro's voice," GoGo remembered as she moved into the room, looking around. It wasn't hard to spot the giant marshmallow of a robot that was Baymax. And just past him, unconscious on the couch, was Hiro. "What happened to him?" She knew the stance the robot had taken. It was the same stance as the previous incidents when Hiro had passed or zoned out.

"We're not really sure," Rose spoke up. "Well, the initial reason was the shock. You know, from seeing Jack alive. But we think the alien entity might be trying to communicate with him. At least that's what we're hoping."

"We?" GoGo looked around, realizing Ms. Smith was among the party. "What's Krei's secretary doing here?"

Ms. Smith stepped forward, adjusting her glasses. "I am here on behalf of UNIT, the Unified Intelligence Task force. We're investigating the alien life form Hiro encountered from the asteroid."

"Among other things," Jack quipped, earning him a bit of an eye roll from the female officer. "They're also looking into the matter of those exoskeletons."

GoGo didn't look convinced as she eyed everyone in the room, one hand on her hip. Her attention, however, focused on Hiro, who seemed to be mumbling in his sleep. "Is he okay? The last time didn't go so well."

Baymax looked up from his observations. "I am monitoring his vital signs," he announced. "In the event that they become unstable, I am prepared to call for further medical assistance."

"That's a relief," Wasabi said, though he looked a bit pale under his skin as he leaned against Fred's chair for support. "This is all still a bit weird," he admitted. "It's going to take some getting used to."

Rose gave him a wry smile. "It took me a while to get used to, too," she admitted.

GoGo found another chair to sit on and turned to face Ms. Smith. "Okay, since you all have obviously been talking, care to bring Wasabi and I up to speed? What exactly is this Unified Intelligence Task force? What do you do? Who's in charge of it? And why are you interested in us?"

The Doctor exchanged glances with Ms. Smith, something GoGo didn't miss.

"Well?" the dark-haired girl insisted. "Are you going to tell us what's going on or not?"

Jack took a step towards the middle of the room. "Since neither of them are going to answer," he gave both Ms. Smith and the Doctor a look, "I guess that leaves me to answer for them. UNIT was created to help monitor alien activity. The man in charge is none other than the Doctor," he pointed at the man. "Basically speaking, he's kind of like the president of the whole world."

"Am not," the Doctor retorted as he gave Jack an incredulous look. "I mean, yes I was there when UNIT was created, but that doesn't make me president of the whole Earth. That's just ridiculous."

Rose gave him a wry look, trying to suppress a smile. "Could have fooled me."

"Not you too," the Time Lord complained in a bit of an incredulous huff. "Okay. Fine. What Jack said, except the president part. I'm just on the payroll. UNIT helps keep the planet safe from hostile aliens. And, sometimes from hostile civilians trying to use alien tech to further their agendas, which is more the case this go around."

GoGo nodded. "With you so far. So, what about us? Why so interested in us?"

"It's more him," Rose spoke up, pointing at Hiro.

Wasabi's eyes widened as he thought about what was going on. "Okay, what about Hiro is so important that a world-wide organization would want to keep tabs on him? I mean, you've had your eye on him since the showcase. Don't think I didn't see you point him out to Krei. Speaking of which, what does Krei have to do with any of this?"

"I would also like to know," Honey Lemon spoke up from the doorway. She adjusted her glasses as she walked into the room, her expression one of concern as she looked around. Registering Jack's presence, she immediately looked towards Hiro to see how he was taking this news, but her eyes widened when she saw him sleeping on the couch, Baymax by his side.

Ms. Smith looked at Honey, her arms now folded. "Krei has nothing to do with this, unless you count him using alien tech to create that portal your friends went into several months ago. That and the initial creation of the exoskeletons."

This time even Fred's eyes went wide. But it was Wasabi who spoke up first. "Say what now?"

"Oh it's very true," the Doctor continued. "Alistair Krei was working on a prototype when it, and its inventor, went missing. We believe both are now in the hands of whoever is behind this. According to Ms. Smith's intelligence, they're fairly similar in nature."

GoGo couldn't help but rise from her seat. "So you're telling us that one of Krei's little toys got jacked and is now being used to possibly cause mass destruction all over the place? And we're just now hearing about it?"

At that moment, Hiro suddenly sat up, flailing. "Get them off! Get them off!" His chest heaved as he screamed.

Before anyone could do anything, though, Honey Lemon rushed across the room and took him into her arms. The faint memory of Tadashi telling her about Hiro and his childhood nightmares came to mind. The older Hamada had confessed, once, that Hiro would wake screaming like this. She wasn't sure why he'd told her at the time, but now felt glad he had.

Pulling him into her arms, she smoothed his hair. "Shh," she crooned, as though he were still a small child. "It's all right, Hiro. They're gone. The snakes are gone. They're not going to get you. It was just a dream."

Eyes still closed, Hiro sobbed into her chest. "They were so real. Tadashi, they were so real. Why? Why do I keep dreaming about them?"

Wasabi and GoGo exchanged confused looks. Perhaps it was just as well that Honey knew what to do. Maybe Tadashi had told her something that helped in these situations, because she seemed to know what was going on.

Still smoothing his hair, Honey shook her head. "It's okay, Hiro. They're gone."

Finally opening his eyes, Hiro pulled back a bit as he realized who was holding him. He sniffled as he wiped at his eyes, feeling suddenly foolish. "S-sorry about that," he stuttered. "I haven't had that dream since… since I was a kid."

The Doctor moved closer, bending down to be at Hiro's eye level, just as Tadashi had in his dream. "Hiro, listen. This is very important. We believe the alien entity was trying to communicate with you while you were asleep. Can you tell us what you were dreaming about?"

The boy's eyes widened a bit at the idea, his heart still racing. He purposely didn't look at Jack. "All of my dreams? Because I've had a lot of strange ones lately."

"That would be helpful," the Time Lord admitted.

Everyone got comfortable, Honey now sitting next to Hiro on one side. Baymax stood on the other, just by the armrest. Ms. Smith moved to close the door as Hiro began to relate all the dreams he'd had since the earthquakes began.

Thomas signaled to his men. Since they didn't know how that one force had found them, he'd thought it best to move to the secondary facility. So, under cover of darkness, they did.

Something bothered the man, though. Having looked through the footage, he couldn't deduce much about the red-clad robot or its rider. Part of him felt certain the rider was young. The duo had only appeared on camera a few times, which made it hard to tell. Whoever he was, he hadn't participated much in the actual fighting.

Then there were the other odd ones in their brightly colored outfits. They stuck out like a sore thumb among the more somberly dressed military types. Something told him they were all part of the same group, not party to the ones they'd slaughtered.

"I want to know who those freaks are," Thomas demanded. He felt sure he'd seen something similar before. He just couldn't remember where.