"Hiro come on! Tell me one more story!" Fred yelled at the boy sitting beside him.

Hiro rolled his eyes, "Fred I have literally told you every story that I could."

"No you haven't actually," Fred pointed at the boy, "You could tell me about your personal stories."

Hiro glanced at the blonde. For the past few days the others had to prepare for their midterms, so that left Hiro and Fred alone most of the days. During that time, Fred dragged the boy around the city to get to know him. They went shopping, out to eat, watching movies, and played an immense amount of laser tag. Hiro always won laser tag and it drove Fred insane since he used to be the best at laser tag in the group.

Today the pair decided to stay in the mansion and watch movies, but that turned into Fred begging the boy to tell him stories from his own world. Specifically, stories of Big Hero 6 from his world. Hiro decided to only tell the good stories, ones where the team won easily without much trouble. He did not want to tell the excitable blonde about all the scars and terrifying experiences he had. Along with that, the boy refused to share anything that happened after everyone died. Those were incredibly dark times for the boy and he did not feel like sharing that with anyone.

"No Fred," Hiro shook his head, "I really do not want to talk about it. Too much darkness."

Fred frowned at the boy then returned to his seat. Of course Fred understood Hiro's reluctance to share the stories, but this is what Fred wanted to know. When he began to ask Hiro to tell his stories of his past Fred made many conclusions. First, Hiro was only telling him nice stories. Second, Hiro was leaving out major details. Third, Hiro was hiding a lot of secrets from him. The teen had hoped after getting to know this Hiro he would open up to him more. As of right now, Fred was the one to get closest to the genius, but he was still not as close as he would like.

"I don't care about that Hiro," Fred gazed at Hiro, "I want to know this version of you. Be it good or bad, okay?"

Hiro kept his gaze on the T.V. as Fred continued, "It might even make you feel better if you tell someone about it all. You don't have to tell me, but I think it would be good for you to tell someone."

Hiro turned to Fred, but the boy had already shifted his gaze back to the T.V. laughing along to the comedy on the screen. Hiro averted his gaze back to the T.V., but he was unable to focus on it. He was too lost in his own thoughts. Everyone told the boy to confide in others, but the boy did not want to. He did not want to expose the weight he carried on his chest everyday to anyone.

That night when the others came by to spend the night Hiro did not talk to anyone. He kept to himself on his spot on the couch watching movies in silence. He went to bed early that night only to sit on the bed thinking until he fell asleep.

"Fix it now boy or I will kill you!" The man spit in the boy's face on the floor.

Hiro Hamada sat on the cold concrete floor with determination on his face. There was no way he would help this monster. He did not care if it ended in his death; he would never help this man.

"Never."

The man yelled in fury and threw the glass container in his hand at the wall. The group behind the man flinched, but stayed in their position, "You really want to die then don't you!"

The man reared back then hit the boy in the face making him fall over to the side. Blood poured out of his nose and his eyes watered from the hit. The man pulled the boy back up to hit him again. This time he left the boy on the floor to walk over to a table with a knife on it.

"No one is coming for you," He twisted the knife in his palm, "That junkie friend of yours won't show up and neither will that girl."

He pressed the knife to Hiro's throat, "No one will save you."

Hiro looked at the man without fear, "I don't care."

The man responded by slashing the knife across the boy's cheek. Blood immediately flowed from the wound and ended up getting in his mouth. Hiro spat the blood into the floor, not once taking his eyes off his enemy.

"None of this would have happened if you just stood by me at the beginning!" The man screamed, "Why are you such a failure Hiro Hamada?"

"Maybe you should go look in a mirror and answer that yourself Renjiro," Hiro challenged back.

"That's it," Renjiro yelled at the boy once again, "Boy's get over here and teach him a lesson. I want him alive… barely."

With that Renjiro walked out of the room slamming the door behind him as he left. The group of men did not hesitate to follow the man's order and began to advance at the child on the floor. Hiro grumbled as he tried to weave his arms through the bonds before the men got to him. He was not fast enough. The first punch flew which hit the boy square in the jaw knocking him backwards. Several pairs of hands grabbed him and held him up. Another man in front of him began a barrage of punches. He hit Hiro in the face, chest, and stomach. Hiro tried to keep his cries at a minimum; he did not want to show weakness to these people, but as the attack continued it became harder to hide his pain.

The arms holding him in the air disappear causing him to fall to the floor hard. He laid on his side coughing blood onto the floor. For a second, Hiro thought the men had left him on the floor, but that was not true. Just when he thought he was alone the kicks began. Hiro tried to crumple in on himself. He felt a couple of his ribs give out after a few hard kicks delivered to his broken body. A hard blow to the head caused the room to spin around him and all he saw was red. When his vision was not clearing of the red, Hiro realized that it was blood in his vision. The blow must have broken the skin causing him to bleed and cover his vision.

"Sit him up," A man in brown ordered, "I wanna try something, maybe he'll be more accepting to helping the boss."

Immediately, Hiro was forced upwards which caused his head to swirl even more than it was. Once his vision cleared he saw the long rusted blade in the man's hand. A cold smile decorated his face as he approached the boy with the weapon.

"Lift up his shirt."

A cold breeze hit the boys back making him shiver.

The man in front of him handed the knife to someone behind him. After that the man got on a knee to be eye level with Hiro, "What did the boss call you? A failure, right?"

Hiro was unable to respond. His mouth was filled with blood and his head was too fuzzy to comprehend what was being said to him exactly. This angered the man so he seized Hiro by the throat, "Answer me when I'm talking to you! Did he say you were a failure?"

Black spots danced in the boy's vision, so he nodded his head in agreement to the man. He desperately needed to breathe. As soon as he nodded his head the vice around his neck disappeared. Hiro hungrily sucked in breath after breath.

"You got it boy's, he is a failure," The man remarked, "Engrave it on his back."

Hiro's eyes widened at the statement. The fight returned to the boy as he struggled against the hands holding him in place. However, the hands holding him were too strong. The man behind him began writing the letters on the boy's back mercilessly. Hiro screamed and thrashed against the hands holding him in place. His back was on fire, but he was powerless to stop it.

"Hiro!"

Hiro kept his eyes closed, unable to answer the voice calling his name out due to the pain he was in.

"Hiro! Wake up!"

The voice continued to get closer and closer, but it did not matter. The man behind him continued carving into his skin. Enjoying every time the boy cried out and tried to get away.

Suddenly a pair of hands held the boy's face and the pain disappeared on his back. No one was holding him down in place. It was only Hiro sitting on his knees with another person in front of him. Hiro looked up and saw the concerned look of his brother in front of him. Tadashi's hand was placed against Hiro's wet cheek from crying.

"Come on little brother, wake up."

After watching the Captain Fancy movie for a second time with Fred the group began to disperse to the rooms they were sleeping in that night. Honey and GoGo retreated to a room to themselves and Wasabi went to his own room alone. Tadashi grabbed a blanket to sleep on the couch everyone had previously been on until Fred stopped him.

"Why don't you go sleep in Hiro's room man," Fred smiled encouragingly.

"I don't know Fred," Tadashi rubbed his neck nervously, "He didn't really seem like he wanted to be bothered. Maybe I should give him space."

Fred did not listen to the teen and pushed him towards the door, "Tadashi he does need space, but he also needs to know that you are there. I noticed that he's been having nightmares and anytime I try to bring it up to him he shuts down. Use those big brother powers and get in there."

Tadashi frowned at that. Why hadn't Fred mentioned this to him any sooner? If Hiro was having trouble sleeping due to these nightmares then he wanted to help. The past few days were busy for the teen due to midterms and final projects, but now Tadashi was free for the next two weeks. The raven haired teen decided that he was going to make up that last time with Hiro the next few weeks.

Tadashi did not argue with Fred and continued walking down the hallway to Hiro's room. He entered quietly being careful not to make any sudden noises that could wake the boy up. He walked over to the side of the bed and sat on the couch next to the wall. By the looks of it, Hiro had passed out before he was able to get under the sheets. Hiro was sprawled everywhere on the bed. Arms extended off the bed as his legs were drawn close to his sides. The boy looked peaceful in his sleep.

Tadashi stared at the boy for a second then laid down on the bed and his eyes began to fall shut. If anything did happen, Tadashi would be there for his brother.

Tadashi arose slowly when he heard a rustling in the room. It was still dark outside and the clock beside him indicated that it was still very early in the morning. Tadashi brought a hand to his face to rub it. He wondered if Hiro had woken up and that's what that noise was. The raven haired teen glanced at the bed and saw no one there. Hiro must have left before he realized then. Tadashi laid back down on the couch to go back to bed but was interrupted when another louder rustling was heard. Followed by the rustling was a soft whimper.

"Hiro?" Tadashi rose to his feet.

Tadashi walked over to the bed, but Hiro was not there. He walked to the other side and almost tripped on something on the floor. Due to the darkness it was hard to see, so Tadashi turned a lamp on. The teen turned back around to see Hiro laying on the floor twitching.

"Hiro!" Tadashi dropped to his knees by the boy.

He grabbed the boy and tried to shake the twitching boy awake. His skin was cold and clammy.

"Hiro! Wake up!" Tadashi shook the boy even harder, but he did not wake up again.

The boy suddenly thrashed out of Tadashi's grasp and landed on the floor on his back. As if he had been burned, Hiro thrashed again trying to move away from the floor. Tadashi grabbed the boy and held him in his arms firmly with one hand holding a cheek softly. The older boy whispered that everything was okay in Hiro's ear as he held him closely to his chest.

As if a flip switched the boy stopped his thrashing.

"Come on little brother, wake up," Tadashi gently patted the boy's cheek.

Big brown eyes full of fear and pain looked up at the older boy. Tears leaked from Hiro's muddled eyes signifying that he was not fully awake. Tadashi pulled the boy closer to his chest to hold him. Not a minute later a set of arms wrapped around Tadashi as well.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Tadashi asked not letting the boy go.

"Not right now," Hiro replied, "Not now."

After that Tadashi held the boy until he tried to pull away. As soon as Hiro's arms left his body Tadashi released the boy as well. Hiro scooted back until his back was against the bed frame. When his back made contact with the bed he winced in pain.

"Did you hurt your back falling?" Tadashi moved closer to the boy but stopped when he placed a hand up.

"No, I am fine," Hiro stood up, "I'm going to the bathroom."

Tadashi stood in front of his brother blocking his path, "The bathroom that is in the San Fransokyo Park or the one in this room."

Hiro glared at his brother, "None of your business."

Hiro pushed past Tadashi, but Tadashi was able to grab onto his wrist before he walked out of the door, "It became my business when you were thrashing on the floor because of some nightmare."

"Now you either stay in here or I am coming with you wherever you plan on going."

Hiro glared at the hand holding him in place. He huffed out a breath of air then turned around not facing his brother, but not leaving the room. Tadashi closed his eyes and released his own breath. It was scary seeing his brother on the ground thrashing as if someone was hurting him. He only wondered if that was what the nightmare was about. Was Hiro having nightmares of when he had been hurt by someone?

Tadashi raised his head to question Hiro of his theory, but gasped instead. Hiro's back was covered in blood. It had soaked through the shirt around his shoulder blades.

Hiro turned around, "What."

Tadashi ignored him and pulled him to the bed, "Hiro you're bleeding. Take off your shirt."

"What no!" Hiro scrambled away from Tadashi, "I can take care of it myself."

Tadashi attempted to grab the boy, "You can't take care of it! It's on your back! Now come here."

Tadashi managed to grab a hold of the front of Hiro's shirt and pulled him onto the bed. Hiro thrashed under Tadashi, but he was weak. Tadashi's concern only grew due to that fact. This version of Hiro should have been able to out power Tadashi any day as he had before. Just as he was about to question him a small whimper escaped the boy. Tadashi looked at Hiro who was trying to hold in tears.

"Hey, what's wrong? Did I hurt you?" Tadashi immediately got off of Hiro, but he continued to lay down on the bed.

"Hiro?" Tadashi sat beside the boy that was now covering his eyes with his arm.

"You can't see my back Tadashi," Hiro whimpered, "You can't see any of it."

"Come on Hiro, talk to me," Tadashi moved some of Hiro's hair around, "What do you mean?"

The boy sprung forward and pointed a finger at Tadashi, "It means that you can't see it. I don't want you too, I can handle it on my own!"

Tadashi raised his hands, "Okay, I'm sorry I just wanted to help Hiro."

"You can't help Tadashi! No one can!" He yelled back.

"Hiro calm down the others are sleeping," Tadashi raised his hands up in surrender, "I won't help okay I promise."

Hiro stood there looking pale and sickly in the yellow light emitting from the lamp. His hands were shaking at his side in fear. The blood was beginning to drip down his back.

"All I'm going to say is this okay," Tadashi sat back down on the bed, "No one can help you if you don't let them. You have people that are wanting to help you, including me, but you have to trust us and let us help you."

The two stared at each other until Hiro turned away from Tadashi and walked to the door. Instead of walking out he simply stood there with his hand hovering over the door knob. Tadashi was right. The boy had these people here that wanted to help, but he was pushing them all away because he was afraid.

Hiro dropped his hand then turned back around to face Tadashi. He walked over to the boy and turned around so his back was facing his brother.

"You don't say one word about this," Hiro threatened, "I will leave if I hear of you talking about this to anyone."

Tadashi placed a hand on his brother's shoulder, "This stays here, I promise."

With that, Hiro slowly began to lift the bloodied shirt over his head and discarded it on the floor. Tadashi stared in horror at his brothers back. Scars littered the skin everywhere. Old faded ones and newer pink scars criss crossed over one another. Yet the thing that made Tadashi's stomach roll the most was the bloody section of skin between Hiro's sunken in shoulder blades. In between the blades was a bloody seven letter word. The word between his shoulder blades said failure. The skin around was red and raw.

"Hiro, what happened?"

The boy did not say anything in response and Tadashi realized that this time the boy would not say anything. Instead of staring at his little brothers marred back, he began to grab tissues to clean away the blood on his back. Once the bleeding had stopped Tadashi got up to grab Hiro another shirt. Hiro put the shirt back on quickly then laid down on the bed facing the opposite way than the couch.

"Goodnight Tadashi," Hiro's tone was final as he turned the light out and was silent leaving Tadashi standing at the end of the bed with a shirt soaking with his brother's blood on it.

Tadashi woke up to a light tap on his face and he swatted it away. The boy had finally been able to fall back asleep after sitting in silence staring at his brother in worry. The tapping on his face did not stop, so the boy reluctantly got up. His face met Fred who was smiling excitedly.

"Fred what are you doing?" Tadashi rubbed the sleep off his face.

"Big news my man," Fred grabbed the boy's arms and lifted him off the couch, "So, someone broke into Krei tech and Hiro wants to go investigate it and do some superhero stuff."

Tadashi followed Fred out of the room when he saw that Hiro was not in the room either. The blonde led him to a large kitchen where all of his friends were sitting. Everyone was eating breakfast and talking in hushed tones. The only one missing from the group was Hiro. When Tadashi noticed the boy's absence his heart rate began to go faster. All kinds of horrible scenarios running through his mind as to where the boy was at.

Suddenly, Hiro walked into the room on the other side of the room. He wore baggy sweats and his hair was still dripping wet. A sigh of release escaped the teen seeing his brother safe.

"Hiro! My main man," Fred put an arm around the young boy, "So what ya thinking for tonight?"

"Are we all going to break into Krei tech and raid Krei's office and make him tell us who attacked him last night!"

Hiro dipped out of the embrace to sit down on a chair. He grabbed a banana from the table then began to eat it ignoring the stares he received from the others waiting for his response.

Tadashi broke the silence first, "What happened at Krei Tech?"

Hiro simply grabbed a remote then the T.V came to life on a news channel where an anchor was reporting the break in.

"Last night around one o'clock in the morning Krei Tech was broken into by a group of robots. These robots were able to deactivate all security cameras in the building so we only have this short video of their presence at the scene. No one was hurt and Alistair Krei gave this statement this morning after the attack."

The screen switched to a video of Krei in his office sitting at his desk, "Regarding the break in last night, no one was injured in the attack and nothing was stolen. These robots simply broke into my office and searched for something on my computer, but said they were unable to find anything, so they left."

The screen switched back to the anchor, "No more details have been released yet, but as Mr. Krei reported, no injuries occurred in the event. I'm Lance Thunder, and you are watching Channel Seven news."

Hiro immediately turned the T.V off then turned to Tadashi, "That's what happened."

The genius turned back around giving the banana in his hand the rest of his attention. Tadashi frowned at the young boy. He wanted to check on his back and make sure that the bleeding would stop, but he doubted that he would get another chance to see it. Part of Tadashi did not want to see his brother's scars again, it was horrible seeing that sight on the boy; yet, another part wanted to see the rest of them. He wanted to know how he got all those scars, so he could help the boy in any way he could.

"So? No one was hurt and nothing was stolen," Tadashi argued, "Why does that mean we have to check it out?"

"I never said that we are all going to," Hiro stated, "Fred said that, and it's not true. I'm going there alone."

"Well, why are you going to check it out if nothing happened?"

The boy got up to throw the banana peel away, "I am going because I want to check it out."

"Come on Hiro!" Fred whined, "Let's all go it will be awesome! Our first team up!"

"This requires stealth Fred," Hiro sat back down looking exhausted, "I'm going alone tonight."

Everyone in the room fell silent, no one dared to speak against the male. Tadashi studied the boy from his seat. Hiro held himself stiffly in the chair. He did not rest his back on the chair at all. Dark blue circles made the boy look even paler than he normally did too.

Tadashi did not want his brother to go out by himself when he was hurt.

"No." Tadashi said firmly, he was not going to let his brother leave knowing he was hurt.

Hiro turned around to glare at the teen, "Excuse me?"

Tadashi did not falter at the dark eyes staring back at him, "I said no Hiro, you are not going there alone."

Hiro kept his glare on the teen, "Yeah, watch me."

"Hiro Hamada you are not leaving to go there alone." Tadashi stood up standing his ground.

Hiro's response was to stand as well and walk up to the other boy. He jabbed a finger at the teens chest, "You can't tell me what to do."

Tadashi stepped back a step as his anger rose, "Yes I can, and I will. You are still my little brother."

The younger boy growled, "I'm not your little brother," He turned away from the group ignoring their shocked faces, "Remember that."

"Now, if any of you feel the need to annoy me I will be in the lab working," With that the younger boy stormed out of the room needing to clear his head.

"Tadashi, are you okay?" Honey Lemon held a hand on his shoulder.

Tadashi shook his head and sat down. Why was this so difficult! Tadashi just wanted everything to go back to how it used to be. He wanted the same little innocent brother of his, but this version of his brother was nothing like that. This Hiro was headstrong and wouldn't listen to anyone if they tried to help. He always wanted to do everything alone.

"You know what," GoGo abruptly stood causing Wasabi to jump, "I'm going to talk to him and I am going with him tonight."

Tadashi began to shake his head in disagreements, but GoGo placed a hand in the air to stop the movement, "No, you figure out whatever is going on between you two and fix it, but for now I am going to talk to him and make him let me go tonight. If anything goes wrong you'll be on speed dial."

Tadashi smiled at the fiery girl, "Thanks GoGo."

The girl shook her head then walked out of the kitchen to find the boy genius.

As soon as the girl left the room Tadashi sat back down then dropped his head onto the counter. Tadashi did not know how to fix anything between himself and the older version of his brother. There were so many things that Tadashi did not understand or know about the boy and he couldn't figure a way out that would help Hiro realize that he wanted to help. Every method that used to work when Hiro was younger just backfired on the teen.

"Tadashi, have you just tried talking to him normally?" Wasabi spoke up.

"I do! I try to talk to him about all kinds of stuff, but he won't talk back! I don't know what to do, everything that used to work on Hiro doesn't work anymore!" Tadashi moaned.

"That may be part of your problem right there man," Wasabi frowned, he hated seeing his friends so upset.

"What Wasabi is trying to say is that maybe you need to try something new to talk to Hiro," Honey Lemon rubbed the teens back comfortingly.

"What else would I try Honey?" Tadashi sat back up, "I have tried everything I can think of!"

Fred sat in a chair beside Tadashi, "How about you stop trying to pry the information from him. Let him come to you on his own."

Tadashi turned toward Fred as he continued talking, "Just try to bond with him. Watch a game, play video games, just something other than grilling him on his past. Those things take time and trust dude. As much as you want this Hiro to be like the little brother you lost, it isn't the same. I don't know a lot about this Hiro, but he's not some little kid that needs their hand to be held every five seconds. He needs space and a friend, okay?"

Tadashi soaked the information in and felt guilty. Fred was able to bond better with the boy in a span of three days than his own brother was able to do in a week. The fact burned him, but he was willing to take the advice. Maybe, this way he would be able to get Hiro to open up to him.

"Video games," Tadashi thought out loud, "He used to like bot fighting, maybe we could have a little battle of our own here with us so it's safe."

"There you go Tadashi!" Honey squealed, "Oh, it will be so much fun!"

Tadashi smiled at the girl then turned back to Fred, "Thanks Fred."

"No problem my friend," Fred patted Tadashi on the back, "Now who wants to watch the second season of Captain Fancy while we wait for Hiro and GoGo?"

Anyone who found the reference in this chapter is a real one.