Sorry, no mid week chapter after all, but—hey! It's my week off and you still get this. Plus, like, last chapter. Reunions! I'm so nice. (ducks the angry shouting) ok, I'm nice-ish. ANYWAY.

To the Guest reviewer who was worried: And don't. This goes for all y'all: I have this story all plotted out and have even made arrangements in case something happens to me: It. Will. Get. Finished. We're at the endgame, some scenes I've been working with since December there is no way I'm quitting now. Plus I have sequel ideas. At least 3 of them. You can't get rid of me that easily!

Chapter Twenty-One: Courtyard Apocalypse

In the weak sunlight, stronger now that the morning fog was beginning to dissipate, Tadashi staggered, leaning heavily on Fred and Wasabi. Heathcliff had brought the helicopter down near the entrance, and Fred wasted no time.

"Hospital, we need a hospital, then home."

"No," Tadashi ground out, a hand tucked against his side where fire burned every time he took a breath. "No time for that, Callaghan—he's going to kill people, we've got to find him, he's got Hiro."

"We don't even know where to start, though, and you need medical attention." Wasabi put a large hand on Tadashi's shoulder as Heathcliff instructed everyone in a clipped voice to buckle up. The older man did not seem phased by the fact that Tadashi was alive, or that the group as a whole was ragged and bleeding.

"Krei," Fred said. "He'll either be going after Krei or that general dude, but I'm guessing Krei."

"That video clip you showed us," Honey Lemon mused. "Freddie, wasn't it about a new building? A lab, or offices, or something?"

"What?"

"When we thought it was Krei, you had a still from an interview, and there was stuff at the bottom about a new building."

"How did you even remember that?" GoGo asked as Heathcliff chimed in.

"The new Krei Tech Industries campus is opening today, Master Fredrick."

"I have a good memory." Honey Lemon shrugged.

"Oh, expletive," Wasabi murmured. "If it's an opening, that's a lot of people."

"Ok, Heathcliff, drop us there." Fred said, glancing at Tadashi in the seat behind him. He had Baymax's helmet in his lap and was fiddling with the wiring. "Then get to a hospital."

"No, 'm not going to the hospital, not—leaving you."

"Tadashi, you're hurt, and Callaghan—he's dangerous, you could get killed." Honey Lemon bit her lip.

"So could you," he countered, wincing.

"You don't have any weapons, or armor, hell, you don't even have shoes- you can hardly stand." GoGo spoke firmly. "We already had to bury you once, we're not losing you again. Do you hear me?"

"But, Hiro," Tadashi whispered.

"We will save Hiro, Tadashi." Baymax said, patting Tadashi's shoulder lightly. "It will be all right."

Tadashi leaned against the robot. The only thing he wanted more than to sleep, to escape the pulsing pain in his ribs and head, was his little brother. He'd failed him already, more times than he could count. Not again.

"The new Krei Tech campus is just up ahead," Fred reported. "There, the white one—oh, holy duck with a typewriter."

The buildings—one large one in the center of a curve of a smaller building, a courtyard between them—were engulfed in a tidal wave of darkness.

"The microbots—it's him, it's here." Wasabi said, checking the straps on his armor. "We need a plan, now. Heathcliff, take us down—no, land on that building, he'll be looking at the ground, and it'll be safer."

The chopper landed on the roof Wasabi had indicated, and the team wasted no time scrambling out, cramming helmets back on heads. Tadashi held out Baymax's helmet.

"I think the scanner's working. I did my best." He flexed his hand, as if unsure of his fingers, and swallowed hard. "Please, let me—"

"NO." The unplanned unison resounded. Fred fished in a pocket in his suit and pulled out a small white pellet.

"I asked Hiro to make me an extra com, in case something happened. I figured it'd come in handy, Murphy's law and all. You'll know everything we do." Tadashi accepted the com, his breathing still shallow and short. He opened his mouth to argue again, but the others we already climbing onto Baymax.

"Just stay here. You won't do Hiro any good if you're dead." GoGo said, her voice echoing in the com.

Leaning heavily against the warm metal of the chopper, Tadashi bowed his head.

"Just—hurry."

With a flare from Baymax's rocket boots, the robot was off, the others with him, though Tadashi could still hear their breathing in his ear.

"What's the plan?" Honey Lemon asked as they barreled through the sky towards Callaghan and the swarm of microbots.

"Baymax, scan for Hiro, we'll distract Callaghan while you get him and any civilians out." Fred said, thinking fast. "Then take your orders from Hiro, he's your priority, and he knows what you can do better than us."

"Affirmative." Baymax chirped. "Priority set."

Over the panicked screaming of the crowd they could hear Callaghan's bellowing roar, directed at someone clutched tightly by a pillar of microbots. As they touched down on the rim of the lower, curving building, they saw the captive was Alistair Krei, writhing in the black fist.

"You knew it was unsafe! My daughter is gone because of your arrogance!"

"Robert, it was—it was an accident, you know-what are you doing?"

"You took everything from me, when you sent my Abby into your portal. So now I'm going to take everything from you."

More Microbots, tens of thousands of them, arched skyward, piecing together curved chunks of metal.

"Professor Callaghan!" Honey Lemon shouted, her voice steady as she could make it. "Stop! Don't do this!"

The man shifted, the Microbots turning so he could stare at his former students, and even at the distance they could see rage in every line on his face. Baymax spoke, pitching his volume so that only the coms picked up his voice.

"I have located Hiro."

"Go, we'll cover you," GoGo hissed, launching herself forward and down the curve of the building. A wave of microbots tried to overtake her, but she zipped clear, weaving around ornamental shrubs and the litter of chairs left over from the opening. Thankfully, all the civilians seemed to have gotten to safety. Overhead, Baymax took off, crashing through a large window on the far side of the complex.

"Professor," Honey shrieked again. "Stop! This won't fix anything!"

"He killed my daughter!" Callaghan swung the Microbot pillar that held Krei violently.

"This won't bring her back," Honey Lemon forced her voice through terrified lips. "Would she want—this? For you to murder, and steal, and—and-" Stall. The longer he's talking to you, the more time we have to save Hiro, to keep the city safe, to stop him, Stall! Tadashi's voice echoed through the coms. Honey Lemon nodded minutely. "Please, just—stop. Doing this won't change anything."

There was a moment of silence—or so it seemed, as the screech of sirens muted out, as the screams and sounds of city traffic faded to white noise, and the microbots stilled. All there was was the sound of harsh, ragged breathing, angry, afraid, desperate, and the pounding of hearts. Nothing else seemed to move or matter, just heaving lungs, proof that no one was dead.

For one moment, in that peaceful, tremulous silence, hope flared flame-bright, the sun catching on glass shards and the last of the morning fog. And then, like windshields and windowpanes and conference center doors, the moment shattered.

"Listen to them, Robert, please," Krei gasped as the Microbots tightened further, the man's face red with the effort of breathing. "Just let me go, I'll give you anything you want."

"I want my daughter back!" Callaghan threw up his free hand, and the pieces of the Silent Sparrow portal the Microbots still cradled fit together with a spark and a ripple of pale blue and purple light. Instantly, roof gravel and tile began to float upward, pulled up and in.

"No!" Wasabi shouted as Callaghan directed a wave of Mircobots at them, crashing through the smaller building's roof.

The remaining heroes dove to the sides, then followed GoGo's lead, racing into battle. Callaghan slammed Krei into a sign, using the Microbots to shift and squeeze the sheet petal until it held the man in place, then turned his attention on the students.

"How many times to I have to kill you?" Callaghan growled, eyes narrowing.

As the Portal continued to pull dead leaves and glass shards and chunks of building up, GoGo swerved to avoid the debris, trying to get close enough that she could do some damage to the mask.

"Look out!" several voices cried in her ear at once, shrill. As she dodged Microbot tendrils, keeping her legs free, she had missed the larger picture, and the wave crashed down, a shell tight around her, cutting off all light. GoGo's breath grew shallow as panic filled her lungs like smoke. She could hear voices still, her friends fighting all around her, but couldn't see anything, helpless.

No.

Honey Lemon threw another chemical ball, encasing another pillar of Microbots in the gummy substance, hoping it would ruin them. From the way the remnants of the tendril detached, she hoped they had, even as she leaped back to avoid being caught. As it was, the tip of the black arm caught her cheek, glancing off the helmet but sending her sprawling. Two more of the fine tipped arms stabbed down at her, and she rolled to the side, scrambling up.

When three converged on her at once, she let out a panicked cry and typed in the quickest of her codes, two buttons to release an orange-rose capsule into her hand. With all her might she flung the sphere down at her feet and ducked as the emergency protection dome surrounded her. The world outside might have been muffled entirely if not for her com.

Fred saw red as he heard the professor's words, a mocking jab about killing them. There was some irony, he decided, in using flame to destroy the Microbots, charring them and their circuitry so they couldn't hurt anyone. He spun, blasting every dark speck he could see, glad for the mirror-bright glass windows and his Super jump. He aimed a blast at Callaghan, but couldn't quite jump high enough.

Fred saw his chance, leaping and springing off the side of a building, then aiming up. Callaghan dodged the spout of flame easily, and Fred hissed as he tried to duck out of the way of the avalanche of Microbots. He was too slow, and the bots grabbed him by the legs and arms, pulling him taught and down. Something in his shoulder popped, or gave, as he thrashed, trying to wriggle his way free. It did no good.

Wasabi stopped, frozen as he saw Honey duck into a ball of orange goo, GoGo enclosed in an ever tightening metal case, and the Microbots pin Fred. Where was Baymax? And what good could he do without the team? Think—we need a plan—no, no time for that! He ordered himself. Wasabi flicked the plasma lasers into their largest setting, then charged forward, slicing and hoping he could reach his friends before they got hurt.

"Status report, everyone, now!" he shouted into his com. Overhead, the portal hummed, pulling in larger and larger chunks of building. That distraction was all Callaghan needed to leverage to hunks of roof up around Wasabi and squeeze.

Everything was shaking. It might have been an earthquake, Hiro wasn't really sure what else it could be, except that nothing was swaying so much as shuddering—and shuddering up and down, not side to side. He hadn't been in many large earthquakes—mostly just little tremors he half slept through. In fact, it was almost…comforting.

It's an earthquake and a blackout and Aunt Cass and Tadashi are just in the next room, and they'll be here, and…He couldn't lie to himself, not even knowingly, not even to tell a story to calm his heart. But if it's an earthquake, that means people will be looking for—for people, and they'll find me. Just hang on. Breathe. Calm. He could see faint light under a door, it hadn't been there before, but maybe someone had opened a window or turned on a light?

Hiro's breath caught. What if it was Callaghan, come back to—to kill him, or threaten him, or tell him the others were dead? He closed his eyes, the deeper darkness terrifying but better than seeing that fate.

Please let them be ok, please, he thought desperately as the rumbling got louder and louder. This was no earthquake, it was lasting too long by far and nothing else felt right. It was growing stronger, curving upwards in power and nothing like the jolts he'd been in, like the earth taking in a deep breath. All of this was wrong and Hiro curled inwards tightly, rocking now with the steady pulse of the building, the pulse of his heart.

I'm going to die in here, aren't I? Something bad is happening, Callaghan was going to hurt people and he's going to hurt people and I'm gonna die, he'll kill me if this doesn't.

Through white-hot tears, Hiro heard the crash of plaster and sheetrock shattering into dust, and hid his helmeted head in his arms, then swallowed. Fear was like a stone in his throat, but slowly he stood, still shaking like a leaf on a stiff breeze, and faced what he thought was the door, fists half clenched inside the gloves.

The door was ripped from the hinges, and the pale light seemed as bright as fire. Hiro winced instinctively throwing up an arm and raising a shoulder in defense.

"Hiro."

"Baymax? " Hiro stumbled forward, and the armored robot embraced him awkwardly. " How did you find me, how did you—wait, the others, is everyone-"

"Everyone is here. There were no casualties on the island. I am instructed to get you away from here."

"What's going on?" Hiro asked as he clung to Baymax's back. "Scratch that—no, it's an expression."

Outside the remains. of a huge, modern white building, glossy with windows and steel, was a battlefield, torn to shreds. Hiro hardly had time to take in the scene, spotting Fred being nearly drawn and quartered, Wasabi pinned between two chunks of plaster and tile, and no sign of GoGo or Honey Lemon before Callaghan, high on his throne-pillar, turned on the boy and Baymax.

"Dodge!" Hiro shrieked a heartbeat too late, as the wave crashed down, knocking him off of Baymax sending him sailing. As the pull of the portal plucked at him, Hiro latched on to the only solid thing he could find, a heavy cable from an elevator, still attached to the building. Still, his fingers cramped, and he knew he couldn't hold on for long.

"Baymax! Someone!" he shouted, even as the Microbots swarmed over the robot, covering him entirely. Hiro tried to think, tried to see a way out, a way around, but his mind was blank white with terror. And then Callaghan looked up to face him, fingers twitching.

Tadashi screamed. He couldn't see much, couldn't see anything beyond chaos and movement, but he could hear it all. GoGo, Fred, Honey, Wasabi, all were in trouble, pinned and trapped, and he stood—sat—helpless to stop Callaghan, unable to do anything. Then a figure in purple flew through the air, clearly not under his own power, and the young man thought he might throw up, or pass out, because that was Hiro, clinging to something as the portal, the portal the he'd helped rebuild, tried to suck him in.

"NO! Hiro! No, guys—hang on, I'll, I'll think of something!" No time, no time! His head ached, and every inch of him felt tattered and bruised, but he had to think—they had to stop the microbots, they had to stop the portal…

"Guys, that's it—Not the mask, get the microbots—can you hear me? The portal, it'll suck them up, and—"

"Callaghan won't be able to fight," Honey Lemon finished.

"Easier said than done, it's a little tight here," Wasabi hissed in pain.

"Agreed," GoGo's voice was clipped and laced with pain.

"I think my arms are gonna—hey wait, it's a suit!" Fred crowed in triumph, and Tadashi saw a gout of flame from his direction.

Similar reactions told him the others had found ways free, and he let out a sigh as he saw Baymax rocketing upwards to catch Hiro just as his brother's grip on whatever it had been failed.

Tadashi leaned forward, trying to see better as Microbots filled the air between Ground and Portal, a rain of them, falling up, vanishing. Things seemed to be going well as mist billowed up from the ground, and he felt his heart slowing, his breathing ease. Then, high, near the portal, he saw something that made him stumble upright, ignoring healthcliff and the pain in his head, chest, leg, feet. All that mattered was getting there. He pulled open the stairwell door.

"Smoke Screen, coming up, on three, Freddie," Honey Lemon called, tossing blue balls into the air. Fred, hot on her heels, caught on as Baymax relayed the plan to Hiro, who nodded, wishing he had his own com working.

Fred lit the balls, releasing blue fog everywhere, obscuring most of the ground. Callaghan used the Microbots to soar upwards, scowling as he sought out his opponents.

GoGo was a streak of lightning, slashing out with her disks as Wasabi did the same with his green blades, sending swathes of the tiny robots helplessly up where the portal sucked them in. Honey Lemon and Fred joined them, Fred hacking with his now-flaming metal signs, Honey Lemon inserting exploding domes into the chinks and gaps in Callaghan's Microbot pillars.

Twice the man's support faltered, but he was fixated on Hiro and Baymax, swopping through every obstacle and dodging each new spike. As they passed each one, Baymax lashed out with only as much force as he needed to shatter the pillars, scattering the Microbots.

Hiro cheered, until seven fingers of Microbots, thin as vines but strong came up at once in a cluster, impossible to avoid. They tightened around Baymax, trapping the robot's arms at his sides, and then around Hiro, squeezing painfully tight.

"This ends now!" Callaghan shouted, flicking his fingers. Hiro cried out, expecting to be hurled back into the portal. Already the fog below was dissipating, the cover that had protected his friend would be gone in seconds. But nothing happened. Again there was a moment of utter stillness, as Callaghan raised his hands, trying to direct the Microbots. Hiro opened his eyes, and smothered a laugh.

"It's over, Callaghan," he wheezed. "No more Microbots." He wasn't sure if his voice carried, he was a fair distance from his old hero, but the professor seemed to understand. Baymax forced his arms out, breaking the bands around him, and surged forward, Hiro clinging for dear life. Callaghan flinched as Baymax stopped, fist out, inches from his face.

"It's over," Hiro said again, his voice scraped and raw with too many tears and too much pain. "You aren't going to hurt any more people. Never again." Blue eyes widened in fear as they met Hiro's own, red-rimmed and glossy with remnants of grief and shock and fear.

Baymax plucked the mask from Callaghan's head and crushed it, and the columns crumbled.

Hiro and Baymax landed some distance from Callaghan, to scrambled upright and ran. Hiro didn't bother following, because the portal, in all its glory, crashed down far too close for comfort, shining out with white, blue, purple, and pink light.

"It's unstable! The containment field is—there isn't one! It'll tear itself apart!" Krei's voice echoed across the still misty courtyard. "Go!"

Hiro turned to do just that, but Baymax stopped. "There are signs of life. A female. She appears to be in hyper sleep."

Hiro froze midstep, then nodded. "Someone—someone has to help," he said, aching.

Aunt Cass pushed through the crowd, ignoring the police officers and other emergency personnel. The mist-fog was melting away like spun sugar on a hot day, and she was glad, it meant she could see. I'm too late, she thought, realizing the Microbots, her Hiro's Microbots, used for something twisted and evil, were gone, that the hole in the sky was dozens of yards off. Too late for the fight, too late to protect her children, all her children.

She raced forward, scanning the rubble i=until she spotted a bright color and thrust the first aid kit at it.

"GoGo, where's Hiro?"

"Uh—what? Ma'am, I think—"

"Don't tell me I'm confused, I was not born yesterday," Cass snapped, her eyes bright with worry. "Where. Is. Hiro?"

"I—over there?" The yellow clad figure pointed, and Aunt Cass turned, racing forward, spotting a glint of red and one of purple against the swirling light of the portal.

And then someone was barreling into her, all in black. She stood her ground, kicking out, and her attacker fell back.

"You," she whispered, the color draining from her face. Aunt Cass felt as if she'd been stabbed with ice, the impossibility, the—"you." She managed again as she locked eyes with Robert Callaghan.

Fury overtook her as realization struck. In the heartbeat that she took in that this man, whom she had mourned, was alive, she understood. He was the man on the News, directing the attack, he had stolen Hiro's invention, he had-. "My. Children. You. Hurt. My. Children!"

He lunged at her, but Aunt Cass raised the portable baker's torch in one hand and the can of butter spray in the other, and squeezed. Fire exploded from her hands, and the man who had taken her family collapsed, shielding himself with his coat. She could smell singed hair.

Rage burned in her, and she lifted the can again. "Stay down." Her voice was as hard and commanding as any mother of willful children had ever had. "Or I swear on my sister's grave, I—Hiro!" she had glanced up at a flash of light, and the man at her feet didn't seem to be going anywhere.

Hiro, on the other hand, did. Horror struck, Aunt Cass screamed his name again.

"HIRO!" she shouted his name as the boy in purple vanished, as her last family member soared into a void, gone. Nothing else mattered, nothing else had meaning, not the wind, not the false fog, not the smoldering leather coat of the man who had taken everything from her. Hiro—gone. No, please, no, not Hiro, too, not all of them, please.

From behind her came a sound. She wasn't sure what, she didn't care what. They might have been footsteps, muted, drowned out by the distant roar of the portal and her heart, drum loud in her ears. Then a voice, echoing her own cry.

"HIRO! No!" It was an impossible voice, torn and raw, but familiar. It was as familiar as burn callouses on her fingertips from years of baking, as familiar as the cool weight of a malachite pendant at her throat, as familiar as the smell of smoke and sound of breading glass. It was the voice of a ghost. Slowly, Aunt Cass turned to look behind her, the last of the fog swirling away.

"No," she whispered, tears stinging her eyes, closing up her throat. "No, I—oh, God, no," she whispered through numb lips, her whole body trembling with shock. "I'm—seeing things, I—"

"It's…it's me, Aunt Cass."

It was Tadashi. His voice, his eyes—haunted and watery, but still, his eyes. He was pale and thin and ragged, but it was him.

She threw herself forward, half tripping over rubble rock, and wrapped her arms around him. She pulled him close, crying openly now, her makeshift weapons forgotten. She could feel his heart beating, mimicking her own, each beat resounding with that glorious message: alive, alive, alive.

"How?" she asked, putting a hand to his matted hair. "How? You're alive. Tadashi, it's—it's really you, you're—sweetheart."

He didn't answer, just leaned into the embrace, his own face wet with tears.

"I'm here," Aunt Cass whispered into his ear. "It's ok, I've got you, I'm here."

Song for this chapter is Courtyard apocoplyse from Harry Potter. Fitting.

So….capslocks party? Please make me feel better about my action skills or lack thereof. Also. That reunion scene? I been working on that for months, so I hope you liked it. Go Aunt Cass, amiright? Setting Callaghan on fire. Just a little bit. But. Dude deserved it. So much.

Yes, there are portable baker's torches. And yes, if you use one and some butter spray, you can make a flame thrower.

Anyway, I leave to go back to school in like five hours. A nice, 12 hour journey assuming no delays. So, like, flood my inbox. Capslocks party.

FIRE THE FEELS CANON, *BOOM*