Disclaimers – This story, of course is property of Disney/Marvel, and I claim no ownership to the characters and story therein. Also, if there happens to be any correlation to other BH6 fanfics posted on this website, it's purely by happenstance. In the event that I am consciously using an unique idea from someone else, I will be sure to give credit!

Chapter 3

"If you are going through hell, keep going." – Winston Churchill, on perseverance

Black shapes were shifting, chasing, and suddenly blacking out his vision. Panic set in when the bright explosions become more frequent in the confusion. Falling through the dark swirling shapes mixed with contrasting flashes of flame caused Hiro to wake up with a start. The distraught teen rolled over to his back with a gasp. It was just a dream, just a crazy, stupid dream... he told himself.

The faint early morning light erased some of the cold darkness from his room. He pulled his blankets back over his head and curled up on his side. Sleep would not come back. In an effort to forget the nightmare, he tried to redirect his thoughts on how to go about rebuilding Baymax again. That was when more questions came, questions he had no solid answers for.

Eventually, the young teen groaned and sat up in his bed. He wrapped the blankets around his shoulders against the chilly morning air and then hugged his knees. His gaze settled on his Tadashi's side of the room in thought. No doubt about it, he was going to have to look through his stuff to find out. Hiro sighed, laid his head on his knees, and closed his eyes.

Neither he nor Aunt Cass had really done anything yet about his brother's belongings after the funeral a month ago. The clothes were still in the drawers, Tadashi's books and things still sat on the shelves. Hiro did end up unplugging his brother's alarm clock to keep that from going off every morning. It was one thing whenever Tadashi happened to miss coming home a night or two because he was pulling an all-nighter, or staying at a friend's house, but this time, there was no Tadashi coming back.

A part of him wanted all of Tadashi's stuff moved out so it didn't remind him anymore, but then he wondered if the empty space would just make him feel worse. Nothing seemed to make the hurt go away though. Was he ever going to get over feeling like this?

Hiro looked over there again. Despite the paper screen now blocking most of the view, he spotted the books and document boxes on and around Tadashi's little desk. He remembered hearing the others say they did not completely clean out Tadashi's lab, because he should have the honor to have it next. But his interest about the Institute was not the same after the accident.

Hiro honestly didn't think too much about what he would specialize his major in after getting into SFIT. He just wanted to work on robotics projects with his brother at an awesome school. Or something like that. He still wasn't sure what he wanted to do with the rest of his life either. All that Hiro really wanted was to take a break from school for a while. Everything was just moving too fast, really. But no...

He closed his eyes once more feeling the frustration build. Why did his brother have to be so heroic? Why did he have to be so worried about a professor who apparently could take care of himself? Why? Why did he have to have such a responsible brother? Sure, Tadashi had always managed to be there for him lately, being his rock. Guiding him, encouraging him, even saving his butt from god knows what – but, how come he couldn't convince his one and only brother that he had a bad feeling. Was it because everyone still thought of him as a child... because he took Tadashi too much for granted?

He just.. never gave up on me... Hiro rubbed his eyes with his palms, and then ran his hands through his hair in an effort to fight back the emotion. His aunt already told him hundreds of times it wasn't his fault. It wasn't, but he still wished he tried harder to hold him back. That he just did something more.

"I'm sorry… Tadashi. So sorry... especially about Baymax… about everything. What am I supposed to do now?" Hiro whispered, hoping maybe he was somewhere, listening.

He pressed his fingers to his temples, swallowing, trying to regain his composure. It was then that small, quiet voice reminded him again. Try harder, always try harder. Don't give up... you can do it.

Hiro stared at Tadashi's side of the room once more. He couldn't blame Baymax for his sacrifice though. He was just a robot following his primary directive. A robot he also could put back together again.

Giving him a start, Mochi jumped up on his bed, meowing once, then ran his body alongside Hiro's legs. "Oh.. hey, Mochi," Hiro stroked the curious cat's head in return. He decided at that moment to finally will himself to get out of bed and walk over to that side of the room.

The young teen pushed aside the paper screen, then knelt down to lift the lid from one box on the desk. It was full of spiral notebooks and other report like documents. Looking through a few more boxes, more documents in files, or rubber banded, or clipped, and text books. They looked like raw code, others like litigation, or research printouts about healthcare topics and research. So much literature, and so much reading. This didn't look very encouraging. Hiro had to admit at that point he really wasn't into reading books and reports as much as his brother was.

Then he came across a box that had a blue SFIT hoodie sitting on top. It was new with the tags on it. Hiro noticed the size on it. No... You didn't. He held the hoodie up, confirming that the sweatshirt was for him. He finally set it aside, then looked in that box. It had more odds and ends, pens, post-its, stuff from a desk essentially. And finally, there was a couple media storage devices and a tablet. He wasn't sure if that was it. Hiro didn't see anything that resembled Tadashi's lab computer around here. Did they leave that there? That's what he wanted to look at the most to see what programs were on it.

Trying to stay positive about this, Hiro picked up the thin tablet in a black, scuffed, polycarbonate case. His brother carried this around with him everywhere, so it had to be his next best bet to finding some insight.

Well, after he cracked the passcode lock. Hiro's first few guesses didn't work, and the tablet temporarily locked up to prevent him from trying anymore attempts. He swore under his breath and tossed it to the bed.

"Okay, think, think, think... It has to be something totally crazy," Hiro muttered while walking around the room in thought. Mochi stayed on his bed, watching him pace. He was briefly distracted by Aunt Cass saying something at the base of the stairs about getting breakfast ready, but this was too important right now.

Something else caught his eye on the back cover of a magazine. It was an auto insurance ad, but the phone number was written with words, not numbers. This clue made him think about when he and Tadashi were younger. He had thought it was fun how to make words using the numbers on a dial pad. It wasn't long before they started to write their own encrypted messages using a similar idea. This also had been one of the games they had played during long road trips.

Hiro grabbed his favorite hoodie to put on, and sat down on Tadashi's bed to get the tablet. After the second try of four letter words encrypted as numbers, he was amazed that he figured it out. "My name. My name... really?" Hiro said it out loud. It was flattering, but also kind of creepy at the same time.

Mochi wondered what was going on and jumped up onto the bed with Hiro. He sat watching the teen quickly swipe and tap at the holographic floating images zooming in and out of the black tablet.

Hiro noticed the usual assortment of general apps but a lot of healthcare related apps. Some featuring robotics, foreign language instruction, and SFIT specific ones on classes Tadashi had taken.

Hiro decided to look in a doc file tab to see if he had some data and video files stored. His search for 'Baymax' produced a lot of interesting results, many of the files falling under a subsection called Journals. If Baymax had that one video, surely there would be more like it.

Even after cooking quite a bit last night, Aunt Cass felt compelled to cook a big breakfast as well. Closing the café on Sunday to take time and have a nice brunch-style breakfast with her small family was something she vowed to do earlier that year. She felt with the boys getting older, that Sundays could be the one time they could all still eat together, no excuses!

This was the first morning since Tadashi's loss that she felt this tradition should continue. If anything, it was more important than ever for her to retain her relationship with Hiro. Her heart ached so much just thinking how hard it must be for him. She lost her sister, his mother, in a way that didn't seem to make sense either, ten years ago. It was through her interactions with the boys that helped her cope. So many of Tadashi's and Hiro's antics, interests, and personalities often reminded her of what her dear sister and brother-in-law had been like. Tadashi did take after his dad, but Hiro was more like Abigail, head-strong and not afraid to take chances. She often got into a lot of fights with her sister because of that.

Aunt Cass also liked cooking anyway, as it was very cathartic for her. She had been turning the sausage links when her cell phone rang. The ID just said Maldonado, and it took her a moment to remember who it was. She had forwarded Tadashi's number to her phone earlier, with the intent to discontinue his number completely once she felt enough people knew. Honey Lemon, being Tadashi's almost-girlfriend, was among the first to know she had done that, but why was she calling her this way, now?

"Hello?"

"Hi! Is this Ms. Cass?"

"Yes, it is,"

"Hi, it's Yadi. After what had happened yesterday, I thought I should call again and see if Hiro was feeling any better today." She explained with the utmost sincerity.

"Oh, yes, thank you Yadi! I appreciate your thoughtfulness. Hiro hasn't come down yet, but I know he's up." She did agree that everyone had looked really shaken when she first saw them after the incident yesterday. "Are all of you guys also doing okay?"

"Apart from being bruised, yeah. I'm okay. We all are. The armor Hiro designed for us really helped. But... I think the hardest blows were more emotional."

"I could imagine! Finding out that that this was staged by your professor must have been a real shock."

Honey Lemon hesitated before responding, "Did Hiro tell you what also happened yesterday, by chance?"

"Ehm, tell me... which part? Was there something more about his microbots, or Baymax?" Aunt Cass stopped what she was doing to think. It was still a huge leap to fathom everything they went through. Was it always this exciting for Tadashi to keep the younger Hamada in line?

"Well, Hiro was so shocked that Yokai was Callaghan, he took out Tadashi's healthcare chip from Baymax, and then ordered him to 'destroy' him." She spoke softer, "And Baymax responded."

"God, no... He did?" Aunt Cass wasn't sure how to react to that.

"Hiro also put a Bot Fight chip in Baymax, which was programmed so that he would respond only to Hiro's commands. We could not stop Baymax, and Hiro... he wasn't listening to us to make him stop."

"Oh no... no, I'm really sorry that happened!" Aunt Cass had to keep from talking too loudly. Now this was also making more sense as to why the police wanted to keep Hiro afterwards. But thankfully, no one had been reported dead. They just advised her to be careful with the Baymax box. "What happened...? Something must have."

"Callaghan did manage to get away. I also was lucky enough to get Tadashi's chip back in Baymax. He stopped after that, thank god!" The sound of relief was evident in her voice too.

"Wow, he did not tell me..." Aunt Cass subconsciously stabbed a sausage from the plate and started eating it hastily. She also remembered to turn the burner off under the pan.

"Yeah, it took awhile for Hiro to cool off, but he did. Baymax did something to center him again."

"Good, good," Aunt Cass took another sausage to eat.

"I just keep thinking about that moment when Hiro saw that it was Callaghan, Ms. Cass. Hiro must still be having a hard time-"

"Yes, I have been worried about him too. He does not want to eat, he sulks," Aunt Cass interrupted, pacing the kitchen. "Y'know, just the other day when I was doing some cleaning, I noticed his letter from the Institute in the trash can. Full ride scholarship and he wants to throw that away!" She took a few more hasty bites to keep her voice down.

"No... He did? We were starting to wonder..."

"Yes! And after he had told me he was going to the Institute to get started," she paused, "but from what I understand after last night, he hasn't." Aunt Cass decidedly went into her bedroom so that she could vent without fear of Hiro hearing her.

"Yeah, Hiro didn't say anything about going to SFIT. He only talked about finding out who took his microbots."

"That's it. I should take Hiro to a therapist at this rate," she sighed audibly. "I'm at wits end here! I really don't know what would be the best route for him."

"I wish I knew what to say, I'm really sorry," Honey Lemon's sweet soothing voice did at least keep her from completely going on a rampage. "But it does sound like he needs to talk someone."

"Absolutely," Aunt Cass agreed. She still felt hurt about how Hiro no longer saw her as his favorite aunt anymore either. "I'm having no luck. He's gotten to be as tight as a clam around me!"

"Yeah, that's no good," Honey Lemon did her best to hang in there for Aunt Cass's sake now. "Just be patient, Ms. Cass, hopefully Hiro will open up to you when he's ready. Go- eh, Soomin said she got him thinking about SFIT again, if that helps. "

"Okay, good... That's a relief," she sat down on bed. She touched her fingertips to her forehead to calm herself. She admitted to herself again how much she appreciated, and truly missed, Tadashi's willingness to take charge and be responsible for Hiro.

"Are you going to be okay?" She had thought to ask after Aunt Cass had not said anything more.

"Yes, I will be. I am sorry about the outburst. But, thank you for your advice."

"That's okay. You've been through a lot," Honey Lemon responded in kind. "Well, all of us agreed to meet up at your cafe tomorrow to see Hiro. Is that okay?"

"Yes, that'll be great! Oh, before I forget, can I give you my cell number?"

Hiro was propped up on his elbow, laying on Tadashi's bed as he skimmed over one of the documents in the Tablet. He shut down the holographic feature on the tablet and sat up when he heard Aunt Cass coming up the stairs.

"Hey, good morning," she said, glancing around briefly. "Sleep well?"

"I guess," he shrugged.

"How are you feeling?" Aunt Cass sat next to him on the bed and rubbed his back.

"Better," he glanced at her, noticing how she was looking over the open boxes.

She then looked at him with a look that seemed to expect something more than short answers.

"Just looking for something about Baymax," Hiro explained, with some hesitation. "Except there's nothing about the programming here."

"Hey, that's okay to do. It's a start, right?" She smiled. "Oh, we also put the bigger things down in the garage."

"Oh, yeah," Hiro realized that too. However, he also remembered those and knew nothing that resembled a computer was there either. "But.. I think what I am looking for is still at the lab."

"All the more reason," Aunt Cass used that lead to also remind him. "Besides, you have until this Wednesday to register for this semester."

"Yeah," he looked down at the tablet.

"Since I'm free today, I can help you take some of this that you need back to the lab today."

Hiro was silent for a long second or two before looking over to her. "The letter… I'm sorry about that, Aunt Cass." He did notice the letter was gone from his room last night, and wondered if she saw it. What he just heard from her phone call had confirmed it.

"You heard?" The look Aunt Cass gave him in return was almost equally priceless, however.

"Just that part," he bit his lip, bracing for the worse.

Rather than make a further issue of this, she surprisingly hugged him instead. "Oh, I'm sorry too, Hiro. But I'm glad.. glad that you will go!"

He managed a smile, when she released her embrace.

"Hey, breakfast is getting cold. Let's go eat," Aunt Cass stood up and tugged on his arm.

AN: Yes, I just had to give Aunt Cass more attention in this chapter. Working on making these chapters longer as I gain more understanding about these characters. Thank you for reading!

I also will wait until next chapter to let on just what those journals/documents were about.

In lieu of my disclaimer, sorry to those who believe that Tadashi tracked Hiro with GPS trackers. I don't think he did that. College boy already has enough on his plate!

P.S. Mochi also needed some love too. XD