The mark of your ignorance is the depth of your belief in injustice and tragedy. What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the Master calls the butterfly.
Richard Bach.
l.
Hiro had only one thing to say as he stood on the threshold of the fate of his city.
"Why?"
At first the teen thought that he had not been heard, but, when Hiro tried to approach Gogo's aunt from behind, suddenly a stream of magenta light shot directly at him.
Hiro's first fears was that Baymax had found him, had really turned on him, and than he was mortified that he could ever come to that conclusion.
He raised his arm then in a weak attempt to block the assault when something blue shot down into his gauntlet and shielded the boy from the intense force which still had the power to push him back, sliding on his heels.
Barely managing to hold his own, Hiro looked out from under his arm to see the silhouette of his best friend shimmering down in circuit form along his wrist.
Hiro ground his teeth together, suddenly found the strength to rise up on his feet completely and then pushed his way towards Keio.
Her eyes flashed with determination as she kept up the assault but someone was approaching her, someone who found the courage to take the full brunt of her attack...and leave her stunned.
The teen then threw off her violet wave like it was nothing, sending the magnetism down the way of the hangar and short-circuiting all the lights and charge ports which resulted in a multitude of blackouts.
She turned to watch this and then back to Hiro as he walked towards her.
"You and I are going to talk," he said as he approached, eyes narrowed on her own sunburst ones.
…
Wasabi let out a shaky breath, panting hard as he let Honey slide in first and then plop down himself.
"Anxiety... not adrenaline, anxiety," he managed to get out, his hand resting on his rising chest.
"First Gogo, now Hiro. And for some reason Baymax's communication is overlapping his, so at least we know they're together but Freddie is just so close to the danger, I just can't-"
And suddenly Wasabi laid a hand on her shoulder and looked at her with gentle brown eyes.
"What would Fred say right now?" he offered.
Honey took a few breaths... which Wasabi copied.
"Don't worry about a thing," she said and then they both laid their heads back against their seats.
"We'll be back in San Fransokyo in less than 2 hours." He smiled assuringly. "A 40-minute flight, 20-minute drive by car and a 10-minute shuttle back on a craft."
"Bi," she looked down at her phone and switched it around for him to see.
"All of the RRC District crafts in the area have been rendered defunct?"
The two looked at each other, squeezed hands and then settled in to wait out their trip back to where they were needed the most...
Home.
…
Hiro Hamada and Keio Tanaka stared at each other across the way; the woman with abated breath.
"Well, isn't this the part where you finish me off?" she said. "A real-life K.O."
The boy lifted his brows. "Why would I do that?" He said in sudden confusion.
Keio just shook her head. "You're here to finish me off after everything I've done," she clarified.
"I have no idea what you're talking about," Hiro said as he walked over to her. "Look, I came here to see if you could help me stop your crazy husband from taking over the city... You wrote the book, so that's why I'm asking the author."
Keio, dressed down in the black suit that Hiro vividly remembered as the dark dragon armor he had created a year earlier, straightened fluidly.
"My crazy husband had nothing to do with the decisions that I or anyone else made in this city."
Hiro sighed. "Look lady, I've dealt with bad guys before and I don't think you're a bad guy; I just need to know how to stop Jinsu Tanaka before things get out of hand... Well, even more so."
She tilted her head to one side, now the one confused. "Or what? Are you going to kill me?"
The look on Hiro's face was impossibly hurt.
He couldn't even joke.
"I'm not a great person, but I can't believe you'd come to that..."
She tensed, features sharp.
Hiro approached her slowly, his hands out flat. "I'm not going to hurt you," he said gently. "All I want to do is-,"
"Keep away from me!" she edged back, her dark heel tapping toward some type of escape hatch on the floor.
Hiro's eyes rounded and he held up his hands now, trying to talk her down. "Keio, come on now, what's going to happen to Gogo and your sons if-?"
"You really don't understand anything, do you?" she accused, her eyes stricken as she slid the bottom back. "Even if I wanted to take them into consideration, there's nothing more that can be done. My plans are ruined and when Jinsu gets here, all is lost..."
Hiro clamored over to her quickly, trying to stop her from moving any closer. "Come on, that's not true," he said as he saw what she had been hiding all along.
The woman looked up at him and held out her hand, motioning for Hiro to come to her.
Hiro, shaking, did as he was told. He felt some kind of odd inclination even though he was frightened.
Suddenly, though, her foot slipped and Keio fell through the porthole. Hiro, screaming, dashed over to her but found that she had grabbed onto the last lower half of the circle brim.
"Please!" he reached out to her, seeing Gogo suddenly.. "Please, I can't let this happen to you," his white panelled, black gloved hand was almost to her.
There was something new in her eyes as the wind threaded strings of her bangs across her face and she look up at him, the two drifting lazily over San Fransokyo.
"You look so much like your father," she said quietly, bemused, as she reached up with her human hand, removed Hiro's helmet and ran her fingers through his dark hair.
Tears collected in Hiro's eyes unexpectedly and somehow the ones that looked up at him reflected his own.
"There was a reason why I took Baymax..." A warm fire was in her eyes, her husky voice as she smiled at him. "There was a reason Gogo stood with me, as opposed to the rest of you..." she explained this in a gentle voice. All at once, Hiro's lost friend was here, and gravity was floating... the air was electric and breathing wasn't possible. Keio looked at Hiro and somehow it was with love. "Like I said to you before you left the turbine that day, we all wanted to get to know, Hiro Hamada."
Hiro shuddered under her palm as she cradled his cheek.
Love was still in Keio's eyes and voice.
"I couldn't be more proud of you or Baymax or any one of your friends... or your other cousins or brothers, if I had raised you myself."
Hiro's entire world shifted.
"You thought I was going to kill you."
She sighed. "Your brothers would never have forgiven you."
"I only have one brother," he managed to say. "Four if you count-"
'You have three biological brothers," Keio told him and there was apology as well as love in her eyes. "I'm sorry... I wasn't there," She started to slip from his grasp.
"No," Hiro said as his world started falling away from him, again, and he tried to catch her metal hand again in his own but she detached it or it snapped off and Keio Tanaka plummeted from Hiro's grasp... The boy watched, screaming as his mother fell from the turbine.
Something caught his shoulders, forced him back before he, too, fell out. Hiro fought Baymax's magnetic hold, trying desperately to rip apart to get to her but the form his friend took stopped him as he held him close.
Hiro, his entire being struck open, saw his best friend in the magnetic essence. The anti-mag fell off of him and he allowed Baymax to bring him close, feeling his best friend around him in every inch and it was the purest love he had ever truly known and this essense came from his best friend.
By the time he realized that the love he was receiving was real, but he had just let his biological mother go, Hiro plunged back to the opening, away from the love that encircled him. He grasped at the rim of the portal.
Someone did approach him from behind but Hiro was staring out, down at the ground after the only living parent he had... Had.
Whoever was there waited for him to turn around, waited for him to acknowledge his presence, but Hiro did not.
After what seemed a whole minute or one entire eternity, someone else grabbed him and yanked him around. Suddenly, Hiro saw he was staring into the eyes of someone who knew him but he absolutely did not know.
"Hiro," Ji-Min stared firmly into his eyes. "Come on, we've got to go."
"No!" He shrieked. "Your mother, she-,"
"I know, I know!" the twenty-four- year old acknowledged as he pulled Hiro away. "We got to go, it's not safe here any-"
"NO," Hiro cried to his face, shaking, grabbing onto him. "We have to save her! We can't just let her-"
"She's gone, Hiro," Ji-Min shook his shoulders, centering him down like an older brother would do ... Knew how to do. "She's gone now. She made her decision and there's nothing we can do."
"Okay, okay, you're-" He looked around now.
"Hiro," Ji-Min sighed.
"Baymax!?" The teen realized. "Where's Maxie? We can't just leave him. Where is he!?"
Ji-Min squeezed his arm. "He left dude. Where? I'm not really sure."
"But Maxie, he could be hurt! We can't just leave him. Oh God, no, he thinks I hate him! My buddy! I can't... PLEASE, tell me where he is!"
"I don't know, Hiro." The man looked at him impatiently.
"What do you mean you don't-?!"
"Hey," Ji-Min shouted, holding the boy firmly in his hands. "You made your choice, all right? And Baymax made his. I'm sorry... I'm real sorry, but, you got to accept your decision, man."
Hiro slowly grasped what he was saying.
"Max," Heartbreak was still in his voice. "He thinks I-"
"He knows you love him, Hiro, he knows you love him and he loves you, but, you both chose different sides and now you got to stand by what you've both decided."
Shaking, but realizing without a shadow of doubt that Gogo's cousin was right, that his best friend was on a different side now, Hiro nodded and the man pulled Hiro out of the room.
Away from the top of a hangar, down to the very bottom of the turbine and then out an emergency exit in what Hiro realized was a tilted mass of black blimp.
The entire turbine was set to crash into the ocean.
"Lindenburg," Hiro muttered and then he looked up at his relative.
"Take care," Ji smiled.
His little brother managed to nod at him as they parted ways.
...
Huan wandered up to the front door when he heard the chime of his Aunt Cassie's chime bell.
"Huan-y!" His mom sang-song from the kitchen, where she was making bread.
The normal, pleasant activity added a nice ambiance to the otherwise looming chaos outside.
"Yes Mama?" He called back.
"Make sure you invite them in for lunch."
"Okay!"
Huan Hamada-Yu flipped open the silver, green-glowing insta-lock and revealed a very-much deflated Baymax. He blinked, wonky, up at the stairs and then down at the surprised little boy.
"Beemax?!" Huan said.
"Huan..." The botman reached out for him, hesitated, then said. "I am... sorry, I did..."
He blinked. Huan just stared wordlessly.
"You were hurt," Baymax managed, head flopping sideways.
The little boy made a sad face. "Come on, Beemax, time for charger..." he led him inside.
"Huany, please tell your Aunt Dian to get some wet wipes from the nursery. I'm almost done with the souffle..."
"Kay, Mama, no loud noises," Huan said as he nearly had to drag a limp Baymax upstairs.
"What do you-? DOH!"
...
The expanse of white stomach over stubs was a promising one as the botman felt himself inflate on the standard charger he hadn't been using. Blinking, he shook his half-moon eyes and wondered if he had dreamt up the last month. Baymax recovered himself then and pressed back his belly to reveal his little boy clutching needfully at his fully-inflated, marshmallow self.
"Huan," he crooned in his whirring voice and immediately plucked him up into his arms.
"Beemax," the boy grasped back onto his chest.
"Are you all right?" Baymax stroked his hair back. "Are you..." They met eyes. "Mad at me?"
There was only love in the three-year-old's orange-red eyes.
"Auf course not, Beemax."
The two embraced again.
"I am so sorry, Huany," Baymax cradled him close. "These have not been good decisions, as they have not ensured your safety," his sigh was meditative. "I really wish I could still scan you..."
"I really wish I could have a muffin!" Huan almost laughed, but he was resigned.
Baymax blinked.
"You can have five, no, sixteen muffins!" The botman cradled him close, rocking him, and the boy laughed loudly at the exuberance in his voice. "A rocket ship. It does not matter! I am just so glad you are safe," Baymax tossed him gently in the air and held him so close that he could-
"Baymax," Mei appeared in the doorway.
"Mama," Huan fled from his arms, only in excitement, and grabbed her hand. "Mama, Mama, it's okay. It was only a ... um, another miss-un-der-standing. Beemax didn't mean all that."
The botman looked at him. "I did, Huan." He said. Huan blinked in doubt. "I did mean for you all to be transported out of the city... without your knowledge," he met Mei's hesitant eyes. "For the deception, I am sorry. Hiro was right and it was wrong not to be upfront with you."
Mei's heart was in her eyes... she just couldn't find the words-
"It was wrong to take our freedom, Baymax," Dian stepped around them and faced him. Her eyes and voice were gentle, her arms loosely crossed. "The decisions you made... weren't right."
Baymax nodded at her. "I understand what you say, but some I believe were not wrong."
Dian nodded back.
There was understanding.
Fully charged, Baymax picked up his red port. "I will go now," he conceded.
"NO!" Mei seized it back but he did not relinquish. Huan held onto her leg and tried to reach around to Baymax. "No, Baymax, you are a member of this family and we are honoring-,"
Baymax touched her head, situating his charger football style. "Mei, what Dian says is right. I have made poor choices without my chip; the results of which prove I am not suited to assist you further."
Huan almost cried.
He blinked and stroked the boy's head.
"Baymax," Dian laid her hand atop his shoulder. "What we might say is one thing..."
The charger was removed from under his arm.
"But what we do is another! And I'm the one who made their escape accessible." She fell into chest and he hugged her close. Mei and Huan were immediately accepted into his other. Then, right there, Dian became their mother. "And in this house, there's no home without you."
Huan looked up at his Beemax, teary-eyed.
"We love you, Beemax," And his love was unconditional.
The botman blinked, looking at them all with his true heart.
A heart he had never fully known until now.
"And I love all of you," He embraced his family.
...
The sky was beautiful; the perfect shade of crimson melting over the gold-orange flames of sunrise.
Gogo looked over and saw eyes that reflected this, the eyes of someone she hadn't seen in years.
His face was so vivid in the suit, his smile so kind as on that first day they had met at SFIT, she didn't notice at first when his face abruptly turned into someone else.
For a moment Gogo was startled to see Shou Yu, his red eyes glaring, but then as the sun fully rose she only saw Hiro…
The young woman felt the normal pang of love for him, but his hand reaching toward her was not one that sought out her comfort.
It was for something else, he was trying to take the place of someone else, and Gogo knew that like years before she would have to surrender-
"Do you remember that cold, December night a five-year-old without a home and a Social Worker showed up at my doorstep?"
Leiko Tanaka met the man's cold eyes, eyes that did not take in the breaching of the third barrier underway.
She took a breath to quell her shudder, her eyes leery but not frightened. "Yes," she said curtly.
He really looked at her.
" 'Oh, please, Jinsu, she's family!' "
Gogo was still locked in his gaze as she had always been; always the one he wanted, the genius engineer in the family… always the target of his expectations.
"I looked your Aunt Keio straight in the eyes," Jinsu continued heavily, pointing, "And do you recall what I said to her?"
Gogo nodded slowly,
"I expect this debt to be paid in full someday."
He nodded back. Then, smiled unexpectedly, "And you've been paying it wonderfully!" He gestured widely. "But it is only paid off when I say its paid off," he shot a signal to her new suit SharpWatch. "Your new assignment… like you said, Leiko, the boy did resist Baymax's attempts to smuggle him and his family out."
Her eyes were stricken with horror.
"I'm not so much interested in Yu's children, considering you also disclosed the true lineage of the Hamada boy, but, it gave me an idea…"
Gogo met his malevolent eyes.
"It is time to prove your loyalty…"
She held his gaze, unable to look away…
And, Tadashi Hamada fell away…
"Yes, sir." Leiko said very quietly.
He took Gogo with him.
…
"How ya doin', little brother?" Ji-Min called out to his left.
Ha-Jun raised a hand back.
The two were flanking the entrance to the city with three-thousand, seven-hundred-remaining members who hadn't vacated or surrendered.
Both brothers were atop air- propulsion, half-egg pods; similar to the escape pods but smaller.
"Good idea converting the failed Care Bot Expansion pods into escape pods," Ha-Jun called back.
Their father's huge turbine steered right for them, skyscrapers and the Golden Gate bridge a backdrop.
"Not so good!" Ji-Min joked back, the air catching his voice. "You got out."
His younger brother laughed. "We get through this and Dad doesn't kill us, I'm trapping YOU in one."
The shorter man chuckled diabolically. "We get through this, you're gonna have to be a lot nicer to your new little brother."
"HEH!?"
"Me, Baymax and Hiro just discovered today that the kid is half-Korean."
Ha-Jun blinked incredulously at him and then they both straightened up to both welcome and be on guard as the first fleet of RRC HQ entered the district-locked city.
...
"We really thank you for taking us in, Mr. Krei." Mei beamed, bowing once.
"Considering Baymax wouldn't let us stay at home," Dian mumbled under her breath.
"It is my express pleasure, girls," he said, fingering in some ice cubes in his chai gin. "Anything else I can get you and the boys…?"
Mei shook her head politely.
"I really like the reflective black stuff," Her son looked about themselves.
Huan held his little brother on the other side of his mother, rocking him slowly back and forth.
"Honestly, it's the very least I can do after everything Big Hero 6 and the Hamada family have done for me in the past."
"You do have quite a bit of past," Dian met his eyes with knowledge.
Mei noticed how her sister did a sweep along the admittedly upscale amenities that were at their disposal.
"You seem to appreciate this lifestyle," Krei's own eyes took on a look of familiar acquisition.
When Mei tried to speak up, Dian sat right on her hand. "You'll have to forgive us, we actually did grow up in more affluent accommodations."
Mei's eyes burned like wildfire and she muttered angrily at the woman in Chinese, "How could you say that?!"
Guilt was plain in Dian's own eyes now.
"I love the cafe, don't get me wrong, Mei," Dian spoke back to her in Chinese. "But think about the boys... in the future, think about how we have been living off of Aunt Cass's charity and that how even though she says we aren't, it still looks that way."
"How something LOOKS isn't always how it is!"
And the two were arguing back and forth before long, bringing the man's sudden interest in Hiro's extended family at a standstill.
"Mr. Krei, I don't think you're really a bad guy, but, why doesn't Hiro like you very much?" Huan asked.
THIS brought the two up short.
Dian was ready to slap him when…
"Correct Bot," he gestured to the last-remaining one that had went into stasis when you "didn't do anything necessary to correct".
Huan stared at the limp, unmoving machine in the dark corner.
The man steered his drink with a long stick, then shrugged. "I suppose that depends on your definition of what's good and bad, young man. Some would think that money is the root of all evil…" he picked up the picture of him cutting the ribbon to the first Tadashi Hamada Memorial building and the girls suddenly remembered their duties at the park.
"Oh, no!" Mei balked. "Today was our-"
"Well," Dian grabbed her sister's hand. "We can't just let the memory of our family die… of the Hamada family or what Big Hero 6 stood for."
She met her sister's eyes and then to Huan, who nodded with a smile at his aunt.
Mei and Alistair Krei looked at each other.
"What was that you had left at the bottom of my penthouse, Miss Yu?"
The woman smiled determinedly. "Something that I believe would make Big Hero 6 very proud of us."
To be continued…
A/N: The entire team returns and "reunites" next chapter. Thank you for reading!
And I do mean the final confrontation occurs.
...
I also never intended to do Hiro's back story like that; it just short of made sense all of a sudden.
Also, Hiro and Gogo are half cousins and Taku Hamada is Hiro's biological father.