Summary: What if Honey Lemon hadn't made it in time to put Baymax's original chip back in? What if Hiro had been ok with that? What if they had found Tadashi but he was in a coma?
I DON'T OWN THE CHARACTERS IN THIS STORY. The rights go to their official owners. Additionally to that, the plot has been my idea.
As always, there will be no scheduled updates, but I am glad to announce that we are caught up with where I had started to do my rewriting. NEW CONTENT YAY!
This year started off a mess, it's still going on but I'll try to keep writing where I can.
I also have a Beta reader now! So some updates might not be so new in content in the future.
Cass sat on the couch rubbing her forehead, a possible headache must be forming.
"Hey, Aunt Cass." Hiro walks over swiftly trying to remain calm.
"Oh! Hey honey! I'm glad you made it back! I'm so sorry about the headband, I didn't even know it had any machinery in it!" She holds out the offending object to him.
Smiling he takes a look at it, yeah it was toast. "Wow, you really did a number on it huh?"
He looks to her face to see it waver a little, crap had he said something to tip her off?
She smiles again, "Sure did! I was surprised that it had any wiring in it! I didn't even notice! But what's all those wires for?"
A momentary panic started to form in his chest, he hadn't perepped a cover story, he didn't think he would need to! "Uh, its… a prototype! I haven't finished all of the testing for it yet and I wanted to see how it would do with regular use as if it were a normal headband! You sure helped me out Aunt Cass! Did it hurt you? It looks like it burned or something!"
Speaking fast wasn't really a good idea but it might work in his favor if he could just think fast enough.
The small frown on her face made his heart drop, "No, it didn't hurt me, luckily Sam and Hannah got the fire put out before any real damage was done. They said it started to spark and lit up like a firework as soon as it got wet."
He nods filing away the information, "I'll have to improve on that then. I can't believe I didn't think about making sure it was waterproof."
They share a laugh at his seemingly light humor before Aunt Cass stands from the couch, "Well, I hope you're not too mad about it, I still feel awful that it broke."
Hiro shakes his head waving it off, "No big deal. I'll just make you another one."
She huffs at his reply before hugging him tightly, "You're such a sweet little kid! Teenager now."
He is almost startled by the hug, slowly hugging her back as the words sink in. Sweet was not a word he would use to describe himself, in fact it would probably be one of the last on the list. A wave of emotions were gathering at the side of his mind, waiting to be let out but he squashed them before they could do any damage.
"I'm going to go work on another headband for you!" He pulls back, hoping it doesn't seem suspicious, "Are you taking the rest of the day off?"
She shakes her head and puts on a teasingly stern look, "Nope! Back to work for me! I don't even remember heading to work this morning and it's Friday! So have fun kid! Sorry again about the headband."
He waves as she leaves the room, "It's really no problem Aunt Cass."
Once he hears the door to the bakery close his face falls to it's now natural frown, he has no idea if she was completely fooled, the chances that she won't suspect anything are about 50/50 with her faith in him.
"UGH!" He takes his communicator out and presses it to his ear, "Baymax!"
A robotic voice sounds on the other end, "Yes, Hiro?"
"Update. Now."
"I have followed the tunnel to the end, it seems it was an old sewage rout from the lab, the closest outlet that would could be accessed by humans is in the middle of a major road before continuing into more recent tunnels. The next closest outlet is 10 minutes away from the first."
Hiro frowned at this. That was far away, does it really have that bad of an access?
"I need a map of all the sewage systems in the city." Walking quickly, the teenager makes it to his personal lab before flicking on a computer. "Come home Baymax, we have things to do." He hears the soft confirmation before taking the com out of his ear.
Flicking his hair out of his face he starts to type out the searches he needs, maps of all electrical systems, sewage systems and finding an older map of the city in general and plugging in what he has into a program.
20 minutes of internet searching go by before Baymax finally arrives outside of the back door, getting him in through the garage doors and plugging him into the computer.
"I want every map of this city from the past 10 years downloaded into the 3D program, then I want updates and changes to the city marked in different colors based on year."
Baymax nods before doing as he is told.
This is going to be a long process, even with his best computer and programs. He's going to have to get some better software, possibly create a new way to process large amounts of data and crating a live holographic feed of the city with minimal delay. Maybe he could-screeching his own thoughts to a halt, something he's never had to do until now. Gripping his hair and shaking it hard he tries to focus on the task at hand. Headbands first, the rest after.
Pushing away from the first computer, he slides up to his laptop and starts going over his brainwave notes, he should be able to fix the problem soon if he is fast, a couple of hours at most. What was it, the middle of the day? He should have a solution by the time Aunt Cass finishes with work.
Staring at everything he slips lower in the chair to the point of him only resting on the top half of the seat, his neck supported painfully by the back and his stomach supporting the computer, he would probably regret this position later but he found it was helping him focus better. Snapping his fingers at the sudden idea he hops from the chair and sitting on it backwards before setting his laptop on the floor behind him then proceeds to put his legs up on the back rest and lays upside down.
"Heh, look at it from a new angle. Tadashi would be so proud." He smiles at himself before sadness drowns him in waves.
He looks at his computer screen upside down but his vision blurs dramatically, "I… I don't understand. Why. Why am I crying?" he sniffles softly before letting the sorrow win, "Why did… why did Callahan just… let you die?"
Covering his eyes and rubbing them with his hand he tries to stop the tears from coming and all the emotion along with it. Trying to sit up he misjudges the movement making the chair roll to the side, in his slight moment of panic he over corrects himself and goes tumbling onto the floor with a thud. Grunting as he hits the ground, but as he goes to sit up, he changes his mind as frustration mixes into his feelings. Dropping back onto his side he curls up and hugs his arms, crying harder now as his emotions mix together painfully.
It takes a long time before he finally sits up to stare at his computer, the screen dim from being left idle. Scooting the foot or two over he picks it up and tries to distract himself from his break down. He had too much work to mourn the loss of his brother now.
Hiro immerses himself fully into his work for the next few hours, working with brainwave testing, searching his programs for better paths, finding and correcting any errors he finds. At some point he is informed that Baymax had finished with his end of the work and had switched over to the map when he hit too big of a wall to continue on the head bands.
He has only a few thoughts that don't involve his current work and he tries to keep them as far away as possible. What would have happened if his brother hadn't died? What would they be doing now?
By the time he hears Aunt Cass call his name, he's finished the headbands. These ones are improved so they won't cause any lasting damage on the wearers brain, to top it all off, since they worked much like his microbots, he can give commands without speaking out loud.
"Coming!" Standing quickly Hiro takes the headband with him as he goes to meet her.
She smiles at him when he comes into view, "There you are! I just finished up with work. How are you?"
He smiles back at her before lifting the headband so she can see it, "I fixed the headband. Been working on it since you left."
Positively beaming his aunt pulls him into a tight hug, "Aw, that's so sweat of you! You know you didn't have to do that today."
"It's nothing really. You helped me a lot with this." He pulls back from the hug to help her put it on.
"Anything for you hunny." She leans forward, giving him easy access to her head.
He gets it behind her ears and puts his hands in his pockets when he is done, waiting to see what she thinks, "You don't understand, you helped me find a ton of flaws in my design. You've helped more than you could ever remember."
She walks over to the bathroom and looks in the mirror, she seems so happy with her gift, "Interesting wording there kiddo! But you're probably right. I can't remember most of this week! Can you believe it? It's like life is passing me by as I don't even know it!"
Hiro rips his hands out of his pockets at that, they don't remember. They would never remember anything if he kept the headbands on all the time. Their lives would literally pass them by. How could he never have thought about that? How could he just destroy their lives this way? This was worse then what Callahan did! And he was stealing a teleportation device!
"Haha, yeah…" he stores the thought for now. He just needed to test it a little. He can figure out the details later. Putting his hand back in his pocket he flicks the switch and waits.
She's quiet now, probably waiting for something. "Aunt Cass?"
"Yes, Hiro?" She responds immediately, no delay.
He walks in after her and sees she is still admiring her reflection, "Do you like it?"
She nods before replying, "I love it honey."
Flicking the switch again he sees her jump a little while looking at him, "Wow you move fast. Didn't even see you there."
He asks his question again, "Do you like it?"
She smiles this time while nodding, "I love it honey."
He smiles back but this time it's sadly, she didn't remember anything. He couldn't do that to them. He can't be that monster but he still needed them for his plan to work. So he'll have to just alter the plan a little. Not much, but enough to consider that his friends still have lives, they still had things to do. Even if his own life is over and now he's just picking up the pieces.