Skyfall

by Tadashinfj

Sequel to Until All Light Fades! WWIII continues, and Hiro and Tadashi have been separated by a series of unfortunate events. Unimaginable trials befall the team, and they must learn how to stay strong more than ever before as North Korea gains the upper hand in the struggle of the war. It's our heroes' job to keep holding out hope and try to stop North Korea...until the sky falls.

2. Chapter 2

hey y'all! here is chapter 2!

sorry I've taken so long! i typed this all on my phone and had to transcribe it onto this computer...but it got here! i hope you enjoy!

thanks silvie and disneymagic for your feedback!

please review everyone! thanks so much!

peace out!

—TADASHI—

"We have to go," Momokase whispers. "This is our chance. Soon enough, the North Koreans will come to get their patients back. They won't think we're able to escape."

"But we're not!" Callaghan argues. "You and Tadashi shouldn't even be out of bed, let alone running through the streets! And there's no way we'll make it to the café before morning!"

"He's right—we've got a lot of adrenaline right now," I tell Momokase. "That's why it feels like we can just run away as fast as normal. But once that wears off, which will be soon, you're going to want to die."

I turn to Callaghan. "But she's also right. This might be our only chance to leave—I really think we should try and get back to my house."

Callaghan sighs. "I know. It looks like everyone else is leaving, too, so maybe we should go now."

I look around to see that most of the people who were in Sycorax are fleeing the scene, disappearing into the shadows cast by the firelight. It does appear to be a good time to leave.

"We should take the streets first," Momokase decides. "If we see any North Koreans, or the bombing stops before we get there, we'll head into the greenbelt. If Hiro and Megan got away through there, I think we can, too."

"Well, then, let's head out," I declare, suddenly realizing that I must have jerked my IV out at some point in our desperate dash to safety. Whatever—I can take painkillers when we get back home.

Momokase leads the way forward, limping heavily. I offer to help, but she of course responds with "I'm fine, Hamada."

After only a few minutes of walking, my head is really starting to hurt. I know I have a pretty bad concussion, since I was out for at least a day. The adrenaline has started to wear off by now, and every muscle in my body protests my walking this far. How am I ever going to make it back to the café?

We walk in the shadows near buildings, trying to stay out of sight—though of course if one of those buildings is hit by a bomb, it won't matter if no one can see us.

I look up at the smoky night sky, wondering if Hiro is safe. I hope he hasn't gotten hurt. I hope he's okay.

My knee starts to throb as we continue on, and I press forward with a steadily increasing limp. By now, I feel really dizzy and kind of sick. My concussion is rather unhappy right now, I guess.

After about an hour of limping along in silence, I lean against the side of a building, exhausted. "I don't think I can walk anymore."

"Too bad. We have to keep going," Momokase growls, although she's limping too, clutching her side. I try to recall her diagnosis—pneumothorax? That probably hurts.

"We should at least rest first," Callaghan argues. "We can go into the greenbelt. No one will see us."

"Sounds good," I whisper, rubbing my forehead. "We'd better hurry."

When we reach the woods, I press my back against a tree and slide down it with a soft groan. My head is killing me and my knee really hurts. My injured arm isn't so bad, since I haven't been using it, but it still aches a little. I'm exhausted, too, so I can't stop my eyes from closing.

"Don't you fall asleep, Hamada," Momokase snaps, and my eyes fly open. "We need to keep moving."

"Let him sleep," Callaghan soothes. "You get some rest too, Momokase. I'll keep watch. I don't want to hear it," he adds when Momokase starts to protest. "You both need to sleep."

"I'm not your student anymore, Callaghan. I don't have to follow your orders."

Callaghan smiles. "Once my student, always my student. That goes for both of you."

"You went to SFIT?" I ask Momokase, slightly more awake.

"I did," she confirms. "I majored in chemistry and received my degree in carbon fiber construction—specifically in weaponry, which is why I prefer to use graphene blades."

"Why—why did you become, you know, a thief?" I ask, then hurriedly add, "You don't have to answer that if you don't want to."

"I wished for revenge on certain individuals," Momokase says, shrugging. "I did not do it mindlessly, nor for any kind of payment. As I've said before, I have never robbed someone who did no wrong to me. I simply possess what could be called a twisted sense of revenge."

"Well, I'm glad you're helping us now," I reply, giving her a small smile. "So...yeah. Thanks."

We lapse into silence after that, and my eyes start to close again. I try to stay awake, but my headache is pretty bad right now. Before I know it, I've faded into unconsciousness.

The faint morning light wakes me, and I slowly open my eyes, realizing that I must have slept for several hours on the muddy ground. I sit up, wincing slightly as my head throbs. It does seem to be better, but I should probably rest it more. Even so, we'd better get moving—the North Koreans could return at any time.

"Get up, Hamada," says Momokase from her position in a tree. "I haven't seen any guards yet, but that doesn't mean they aren't there."

I pull myself to my feet using the tree, gingerly testing my weight on my injured knee. It twinges slightly, but I can walk on it. We probably don't have too much farther to go, anyway.

As soon as we start walking, though, it appears that we have at least three more miles until we reach the café. I want to collapse just thinking about it, but I force myself to limp painfully through the broken streets as the dusty sunlight beats down on me.

I look around at the devastation as we walk, taking in the crumbling buildings and cracked streets. Some small fires still smolder in the ruins, and I can hear faint cries echoing through the still air. My heart feels like it might tear in half when I realize I can't help anyone—I don't have my first aid kit and I can't really carry anyone to safety. And Big Hero 6 can't do anything either—they might not even have gotten out of prison, and even if they have, then the North Koreans are surely looking for them. We have to stay in hiding to be able to take down North Korea, but that comes at the expense of what could be the lives of innocent civilians.

After several long, hot, heart-wrenching hours, we come to a stop in front of the café. I realize I've been holding my breath, terrified of what state my home could possibly be in, and let out a relieved exhale. The café's windows are all pretty much shattered, and a lot of shingles have fallen off the roof, but nothing looks badly damaged.

"Is Hiro inside?" Callaghan asks. "He probably would have come here with Megan after escaping."

"I'll check," I whisper. "Be ready to run if anyone else comes out."

I cautiously step up to the garage door and tap our secret handshake on it—hit the door once with my palm, once with the back of my hand, fist bump, then drum my fingers on it. I hold my breath again, ready to run if it's not Hiro inside.

And then the answering pattern of knocks comes back, and the garage door swings open to reveal Hiro's surprised face.

"Get inside!" he hisses, and when we've done so, he shuts the door and padlocks it to the ground, a feature it didn't have before—probably a precaution against enemy soldiers.

Hiro straightens up and turns to me, his wide brown eyes full of disbelief and exhaustion. "Tadashi?"

"Hiro," I whisper, and my baby brother flings himself at me, wrapping his arms around my waist and burying his face in my chest. I sink to my knees and put my free arm around Hiro's shoulders, hugging my little brother as tightly as I can.

Hiro pulls out of the embrace, and then I can see the effects of the ordeal he's been through. Hiro's hand and wrist are encased in a large quantity of my splinting wrap, and his battered face is scratched and dirty. He's changed into his signature purple hoodie and cargo pants, so he looks a little better than if he were still in his camp clothes, but still...Hiro looks terrible.

"Are you okay?" I whisper. "Did you get caught in the bombing? How did the escape go?"

"I'm fine," Hiro assures me. "The escape was fine, and yeah, we were in one of the explosions, but...yeah. Um. So..."

"What?" I ask. "What happened?"

"Honey," he whispers. "She...she lost an arm. GoGo and Wasabi finished stitching on some artificial skin and fusing the prosthetic I made about an hour ago, but she hasn't woken up yet."

"She lost an arm?" I gasp, my eyes widening. "In the bombing?"

"Yeah," Hiro mumbles, staring at the floor. "It was really bad. She lost a lot of blood, and I don't know if she'll make it. Obviously GoGo and Wasabi don't have surgical training."

"Can I see her?" I ask. "Where is she?"

"Basement. You know, maybe you guys should all just come in..."

Hiro opens the door to the café and leads us up the stairs, and I'm greeted by the battered faces of Fred, Megan, and President Cruz. They all look tired and pretty beat up, appearing to have splinted themselves with everything in my spare first aid kits.

"Tadashi! My man!" Fred bellows, leaping up off the couch and shaking my hand vigorously. "You are not dead!"

"Did you think I was?" I ask, breaking into a grin.

"A little bit, yeah," Megan admits. "That was a pretty bad crash. Maybe you guys should sit down."

The couch looks very welcoming, and I sink onto it with a sigh of relief, rubbing my forehead. Callaghan and Momokase sit down on either side of me, the latter pulling out her graphene blades and looking around warily with her uncovered eye.

"Hey, it's okay," I whisper. "No one's gonna hurt you."

"I know," she replies. "But it's always wise to be prepared. The North Koreans could attack at any time."

"Where did you guys go?" Hiro asks, leaning against the wall. "After the crash?"

"We went to Sycorax," I tell him. "The North Koreans converted it into some kind of hospital. Then the bombing started and the lawn caught fire, so we got out of there right before the building collapsed."

"Wow," Fred breathes. "It's like when—"

"Anyway," Megan interrupts, cutting off what is sure to be one of Fred's comic book tangents. "Tadashi, we know you're tired and all, but do you think you could look at some injuries? You're the doctor."

"I'll do that," I agree, even though all I want to do is collapse into my bed and pass out. "Who's first?"

"Well, we think Hiro's wrist is broken..."

By the time I'm done looking at all the injuries, I've found a number of broken bones, a few sprains, and several nasty cuts and scratches. Hiro's wrist isn't badly broken, so I just find a proper brace from when I sprained my wrist in eighth grade and strap it onto his. Megan's talus appears to be fractured, so I bandage her ankle with splinting wrap and then take a look at her injured shoulder. Upon inspection, it's not broken, only sprained. Either way, she'll need a sling, so I fashion one out of a large triangular bandage. Fred and President Cruz both have some pretty bad cuts, some of which I have to stitch—with one hand. That I know I can't do, so GoGo and Wasabi are called upstairs, with a considerable amount of surprise when they discover I'm back. After hasty greetings, Wasabi does the suturing while I supervise and make sure he doesn't stab anything he isn't supposed to. He and GoGo are able to properly bandage themselves, so I just look them over quickly and tell them what they need to do. Wasabi has two sprained fingers and three broken ribs, though those seem to be healing, and GoGo needs a cut on her forehead stitched. Both are easily treated, so I leave them in charge of themselves and go downstairs to see Honey.

My girlfriend is passed out on a makeshift bed of sleeping bags, gauze taped over the right half of her bloody face and her long blond hair strewn over the pillow. The worst part is, of course, the prosthetic fused to the stump of her arm. I'm really glad I trained Big Hero 6 to perform basic sutures and lasering—the stitching is pretty good, and Hiro's prosthetic is amazing, sleek and light and exactly the right size. But it still tears my heart in half to see my beautiful girlfriend in thie state.

It's only a few minutes before Honey's eye—the one that isn't covered by gauze—flutters open. It immediately fills with terror and she lets out a gasp, her left hand reaching for the stump of her right.

"Hey," I whisper, gently taking her hand in mine and pressing it to my cheek. "Calm down—it's okay. How are you feeling?"

"Tadashi?" Honey says weakly, her eye filling with tears. "What happened? Are you okay?"

"I was forced to be a spy for the North Koreans," I say with a faint smile. "I crashed the jet on the way back from the White House so Hiro and Megan could get through the wall of the labor camp. They went to get you guys and I went to the hospital, then escaped during the bombing. I'm so sorry I couldn't be here for your surgery."

"Surgery?" Honey whispers, turning her head a little to the side and wincing in pain. "Why..."

"Don't panic," I soothe, hoisting an encouraging smile onto my face, trying to soften the blow I'm about to give her. "Honey...you lost an arm in the bombing. But Hiro made you a prosthetic, and GoGo and Wasabi stopped the bleeding. You're going to be alright, and the prosthetic will work just as well as a normal arm."

"I thought—I thought it was a dream," Honey says quietly. "But...maybe it won't be that bad. I can adjust."

"It's okay if you can't at first," I whisper, brushing Honey's hair out of her face. "I'll be here for you, I promise. Do you need anything?"

"Water," Honey rasps. "And food...we didn't eat at all in prison."

"What?!" I gasp. "Oh my gosh! Hang on just a second, let me go get you something!"

I jump to my feet, wincing as a jolt of pain shoots through my head. I really need to go take some painkillers as soon as possible. Nonetheless, I drag myself up the stairs and into the café, grabbing several pastries and two bottles of water.

I'm just turning back to go into the basement when I see Aunt Cass's apron on its hook, covered with dust and hanging sadly. My heart breaks yet again at the thought of my sweet, kind, caring aunt locked away in a labor camp or a dark cell. We need to make finding her a priority—I wouldn't put it past Jeong to use her as leverage to get me and Hiro to do what she wants.

Heading back downstairs to Honey, I set the various delicacies down on a napkin and hand my girlfriend a water bottle, then help her sit up. Honey downs almost the whole bottle of water, then slowly eats a donut. I quietly drink my bottle as well, only just realizing how thirsty I am. The muffin I select is slightly stale, but I don't care. I'm just happy to have enough food for once.

I rake my gaze over Honey, frowning as I take in the cuts and gashes all over her body. They look like they've been there a while, but they're not healing. I should probably get some bacitracin on them as soon as possible.

"Honey, I think some of those cuts might be infected," I tell my girlfriend. "Is it okay if I put ointment on them?"

"Yeah," Honey says. "I haven't been able to treat them since the battle—you should probably look at the rest of the team too."

"Already did. They should be fine, I think," I reassure her.

I pull a tube of bacitracin out of one of the first aid kits, then painstakingly pin it to the floor with my leg and unscrew the cap with my free hand. Picking it up, I gently dab the ointment on Honey's wounds.

"Sorry I can't put Band-Aids on them," I tell her when I'm done. "I can't open them with a broken arm."

"It's broken?" Honey asks worriedly, looking at my immobilized arm as she lays back on her pillow. "Does it hurt? And what happened to your head? You might have to recap the story for me."

"Hiro, Megan, and I got taken to a labor camp," I tell her. "It wasn't as bad as I thought, but I didn't have a really time-consuming job. I had to be a spy."

"Why?" Honey gasps, her hand over her mouth.

"I'm not proud of it," I admit, rubbing the back of my neck. "The North Korean leader—Jeong—threatened to kill Hiro and Megan if I didn't sneak into the White House for her. I can't explain it, Honey, but I knew it was the right choice. I didn't feel good about the spying, but I had to keep Hiro and Meg safe."

"You risked millions of lives for two people?" Honey whispers. "Tadashi, why?"

I sigh, staring at the ground. "I really think they could be the key to stopping this, Honey. Hiro is brilliant, and Megan is so brave and strong. Together, I think they could really make a difference in this war. And I know I'm selfish, but...Honey, I couldn't lose them."

Honey doesn't reply, so I plow on. "I flew to the White House with Momokase and Callaghan—they were spies, too. They're actually upstairs right now. Anyway, we broke into the White House and took a ton of nuclear plans and stuff—don't look at me like that!" I yelp as Honey's face twists into a furious glare. "Wait 'til the end of the story! We actually ended up getting caught by some security guards, and they chased us out. Callaghan was shot in the leg, so I got him to the jet while Momokase fought the guards. We got all the plans back to the jet and took off, and Momokase flew the jet while I got the bullet out of Callaghan's leg. Then we put all the papers we got on the dashboard and flew our jet right into the labor camp wall."

Honey's face is pretty much death-white, and her glare has abated somewhat. "Why on earth would you do that?"

"We broke down the wall so Hiro and Megan could get out," I explain. "I asked Momokase and Callaghan about it first, though—I wasn't about to let them get killed if they weren't willing to risk their lives. They both agreed, so we crashed the jet. It knocked down the wall and destroyed all the evidence we took from the White House—so now we're all here, safe, North Korea doesn't know what America is planning, and America can't hurt North Korean civilians. I know it was wrong to break into the White House, Honey, but pretty much everything has worked out. The plan accomplished everything we wanted it to."

"Tadashi Khachaturian Hamada," Honey whispers. "You are such an idiot. Brave, and smart, and amazing in general, but still an idiot."

"I know," I mumble, my hand drifting to my neck again. "It could have gone really badly wrong. But it all worked out in the end—well, almost."

I take Honey's hand in mine. "Hiro and Megan escaping provoked North Korea to bomb San Fransokyo. Hiro made a deal with Jeong that he would supply her with microbots, which were supposed to put bombs together. But I don't think those got very far, since Hiro only made them for a few days. And Jeong can't use the microbots, either—Hiro took the neural transmitter with him when he escaped. Still...Honey, I'm so sorry. You'd still have your arm if I hadn't crashed that jet."

"I understand," Honey murmurs, moving her carbon fiber hand to rest to rest on top of mine. "There were a lot of good things that came out of this plan. And I know you'll always try to do the most good for the most people. You couldn't have known what would happen to me."

I can tell her eyelid is starting to droop, so I whisper, "Do you want to go to sleep?"

"Yeah," Honey admits. "You should sleep, too, Tadashi. You've been through a lot. Go upstairs and take a nap."

"But I need to stay here with you—"

"No, you need to rest. Go take a nap."

I smile and gently kiss Honey's forehead, then retreat up the stairs, realizing that I am indeed exhasuted. Crossing the living room, I head toward the stairs, but President Cruz stops me before I get there.

"I wanted to thank you," he whispers, putting a hand on my shoulder. "For getting my daughter out of that place. You were a hero, and I would have done the same thing in your situation. Under normal circumstances, you'd be prosecuted and quite possibly subject to the death penalty for treason. But I think your brave actions outweigh your decision to comply with Jeong's request, and so I pardon you of all war crimes. Really, Tadashi, I cannot thank you enough."

The president reaches out and wraps me in a hug, and I return it one-armed, surprised. "I'll submit to the law if I have to, President. I know spying for North Korea was wrong."

"But you saved two brilliant people from a labor camp, and now we might be able to take down North Korea altogether," President Cruz says, stepping back. "You made the right choice, Tadashi. I promise."

I give him a smile and head upstairs, exhausted. Finally, I can sleep without fear of North Korea attacking. At least for now, anyway.

I curl up in my bed, noting that it's already been slept in—but I don't care. I'm too tired to care about anything now.

Sleep takes me quickly, and I sink into dreams of explosion, bombs, wars, and heroes being born.