(A/N) Well...you all wanted this scene, so here it is. Believe me when I say that I have only just begun to torture our heroes. *mine is an evil laugh*
Love Don't Die Easy
Chapter 3: Fever Dreams
It wasn't difficult for Yokai to forget his failure at the warehouse. There was always a task his master had for him to focus on. There were targets that needed eliminating and scraps that needing gathering in order to complete his master objective. It was on a scrap run that very same night, however, that he came up against his target once more.
There were others with the boy this time, none of which were any particular threat. Then they just made it easier for him to kill them by all piling into a single car and attempting to run away.
Yokai didn't hold back this time. He put all of his efforts into crushing the vehicle. The target couldn't escape this time. He couldn't allow the boy to affect him anymore. The newly armored robot put up some resistance, blocking some of his more vicious attacks, but it was ultimately for nothing when he finally managed to force the vehicle off a dock and into the bay. When the car disappeared beneath the water and nothing resurfaced, the young mercenary stopped breathing.
Yokai fled the scene as quickly as possible, borne away on the wave of microbots, struggling every moment to draw breath and failing. When he couldn't focus enough to control the bots anymore, they collapsed and he was sent crashing to the ground in some dank, desolate back alley. His lungs burned with the desperate need for air, but no matter how hard he fought, he couldn't breathe.
You don't deserve to breathe! What have you done? You monster! What have you done?!
I did...what I had to, he reasoned as the world began to darken around the edges. I followed my master's orders. They had to die. There was no other choice.
There's always a choice...Tadashi.
Nii-chan, Nii-chan, Nii-chan, NII-CHAN!NII-CHAN!
"NO!" he screamed, bashing his head against the pavement. Nii-chan wasn't him. Tadashi wasn't him. This wasn't him. He was Yokai! He was a weapon to be used at his master's whim. Behind the door marked 'Tadashi'...there was only pain. He didn't want that pain. He wanted to be free. He was free.
With that determination, the cold snap of oxygen flooded his lungs. Finally able to breathe again, the young assassin slowly got to his feet, calling the microbots to him once more.
Tadashi, whoever he was, was dead. He was Yokai once more.
"Reporting. Mission objective interrupted. The target from earlier and others attempted to intervene. They have been eliminated."
"You're certain?" his master's voice sounded over the earpiece. "You're absolutely certain the boy is dead?"
"Yes, Sir. He is drowned."
"Good," his master said, his voice low and soft. "Very good. You have done well, Yokai. Continue with your mission objective."
"Understood."
XxX
Baymax was confused.
Granted, it was technically impossible for a robot to be confused, but it was the only adjective he could find that correlated correctly to his current state of cognitive dissonance.
He had scanned the man who was pursuing them. He still had his creator's scans on file.
Except for a difference in neural patterning, they were a perfect match. If he did not already have Tadashi's death certificate on file, he would say that the man in the mask was Tadashi.
He considered informing Hiro of this when he was telling him about the scans he'd taken, but when Hiro and the others started getting excited about being able to track the man and apprehending him, Baymax thought better of it. This inconsistency must surely be a malfunction in programming. It would be taken care of when Hiro upgraded his scanners.
There was no sense in risking Hiro's treatment over something that was almost certainly his own failing.
XxX
If someone had told Hiro Hamada a year ago that he would basically be living the bot fighting scene he was so into, he would have told that someone they were completely whacked. It was awesome, of course, but up until a week ago, he would have said it was totally crazy.
Well, he reasoned as he dodged another blow from the microbots, finding out your brother was basically murdered changes a kid.
He didn't really care if Krei was the one under the mask. All he knew was that this was the man who had started the fire and stolen his microbots. Whoever it was, this was the man who was responsible for Tadashi's death, and he was going to punish him!
Wasabi, Fred, and Honey Lemon were down, but GoGo managed to get in one more shot just as Baymax was blocking another wave of microbots. Hiro was knocked away from Baymax, but the backlash also knocked the man in the mask down. When Hiro saw his mask lying on the floor where it had fallen, he immediately sprang forward and snatched it.
"It's over, Krei!" he shouted. He was going to see this man rotted in jail for what he did to Tadashi.
The man quickly got to his feet, pulling off the hood that conceal his hair, as it had been singed by one of Honey Lemon's attacks. The man was still facing away from him as he brushed small bits of debris from his black coat, but Hiro still caught a glimpse of mussed black hair in the dim light. Maybe...maybe it wasn't Krei at all.
"Give me the mask," the man demanded harshly, still facing away from him.
"Did you not hear me the first time? This ends right now. Maybe I don't get what you're up to here, but my brother is dead because of it! I'm taking you down!" Hiro snarled. He was about an inch from jumping the man himself. He couldn't put his finger on it, but there was something unsettlingly familiar about the man's voice.
"Maybe you did not hear me. Give me the mask, boy!" the man growled as he turned to face him...and when Hiro saw his face, he felt something inside of him break.
The hair was longer, much scragglier, and there were scars that hadn't been there before. A particularly ugly one ran from the outer corner of his right eye along his cheek down to the jawline. His eyes both were and were not the same. They were still his eyes, but the warmth and humor and protectiveness he'd known was gone.
"T- Tadashi?" he whispered in shock, clutching the kabuki mask in white knuckles. Hyperaware as he was at the moment, he saw Tadashi stiffen at the name.
"Who the fuck is Tadashi?" his brother snarled at him, eyes narrowing in distrust. "How do you know that name?"
"You...you're Tadashi," he whispered, feeling his heart break a little more with each word this man who was and was not his brother spoke.
"No, I'm not. Tadashi isn't here. I am Yokai," he insisted.
"No. You died. You're dead! How can you even be here?" Hiro demanded, feeling tears start to pour down his face as he stared into his brother's eyes - eyes that didn't know him anymore.
"Tadashi...Tadashi is weak!" the thing that called itself Yokai spat at him, his face twisting into an ugly rictus of anger, a mockery of his brother's kind face.
"He is Tadashi," Baymax's gentle voice explained as the robot moved to stand beside Hiro. "I had thought it to be an error in my programming, but there is no error. They are perfect biological matches."
"Then what the hell happened?!" Hiro shouted, only briefly turning his attention to the healthcare bot before looking back to Tadashi. "How did you survive? Why have you been trying to kill me?!"
"Because that is the command of my master," he answered.
"Master?" Hiro heard Wasabi murmur in confusion. The others were all starting to regroup around him.
"Tadashi's neural patterning has been significantly altered. This would normally indicate head injury of some kind, but there is no sign of physical damage to the brain," Baymax continued to explain. "Unable to diagnose."
"Tadashi...what the hell, man?" GoGo tried to ask him, moving forward to rest a hand on Hiro's shoulder.
"I don't know how all of you know this name, but I am not Tadashi. He was weak. Tadashi is gone!" he snapped at them.
"Then we'll get him back!" Hiro shouted at him, swiping futilely at the tears streaking down his face. "No matter what it takes...I'm gonna get you back, Tadashi. I promise."
"Keep your promise. I have no use for it!"
"Dude, it's over. You can't control the microbots anymore," Fred reminded him, decidedly less enthused than he had been at the beginning of the fight.
Tadashi sneered at them as he drew a katana. "I do not require the microbots in order to eliminate you. That will be easy enough."
"Wait," Yokai suddenly heard his master's voice from his earpiece. "Don't attack them. I have something much...better...in mind. The boy has installed a subroutine in the robot's programming. The robot will listen to your commands, Yokai. You only need to repeat these words."
The small band of heroes didn't at first understand what was happening when the man they knew as Tadashi sheathed his blade. For several moments, he just stood in silence, almost as if listening for something. When he finally focused in on them again, his attention was on Baymax.
"Baymax, authorization code 246R1. Programmer override. Acknowledge."
"Acknowledged...Tadashi," the robot said, immediately going completely still.
"Run program S626. Delete primary programming. Acknowledge."
"Acknowledged...Tadashi," Baymax said slowly. Then he gave several beeps and whirs before falling devastatingly still and silent.
"Baymax? No! Baymax!" Hiro shouted, shaking the robot, beating his fists against it. Baymax remained completely unresponsive. "Damn it, Tadashi! What did you do?!"
"Engage subroutine R1N2L3R."
At this, Baymax gave an unsettling whir as he hummed back to life, eyes now glowing an eerie red.
"Tadashi, what are you doing? Stop this! Please!" Honey Lemon tried to reason with him.
"Baymax...destroy!" Tadashi ordered, pointing directly at Hiro.
"B- Baymax?" Hiro whispered in fear as he started to back away, knowing exactly what kind of subroutine he'd implanted.
"Destroy him!" Tadashi repeated firmly.
"Baymax...please," Hiro tried one last time.
"Hiro, run!" GoGo shouted as Baymax drew back a fist to deliver a crushing blow. Finally unfreezing, the younger Hamada took off, only just escaping having his skull bashed in.
Wasabi, GoGo, and Fred all banded together to try and stop him, but they were no match for the berserker robot. He pursued Hiro with relentless intent, and Hiro ran for his life, terror and horror both beating in his blood.
Tadashi set Baymax on me. Tadashi is trying to kill me!
"Tadashi, please! Call him off. You've got to stop!" Honey Lemon pleaded, going to Tadashi to try and stop him picking up the mask Hiro had dropped, but he pushed her back easily.
"This isn't you! This isn't the Tadashi Hamada I met two years ago! He wouldn't do this! Please! He'll kill Hiro, Tadashi! You've got to stop him!"
"Why should I stop the robot?" Tadashi asked, shooting her a cold glare. "The boy is nothing to me."
"That's just not true. He's your baby brother! Please, Tadashi! You've got to remember! Hiro means the world to you! Nothing could make you hurt him!"
"Brother...?" Yokai repeated slowly, feeling the flicker of pain he'd buried before start to prick at the back of his mind.
The others tried to stop Baymax, but it was no use. He was throwing them off like toy soldiers, gaining on Hiro all the while. Finally, when there was nowhere left to run, Hiro turned to face Baymax, frightened beyond all reason, but ready to face what he'd done. He had introduced this subroutine to his brother's creation, after all.
"Tadashi...I'm sorry. I'm so sorry," he whispered as Baymax bore down on him. He wasn't sure how he knew, but he did, just the same. Tadashi had been hurt because of him. This had happened because of his microbots. This was his fault!
"Hiro!" Fred screamed as GoGo clawed desperately at the access port.
"Hiro?" Yokai whispered, a faint memory sparking to life...a toddler with sad brown eyes, holding his hands out, asking to be picked up.
Nii-chan...
"TADASHI!" Hiro screamed in terror. Yokai looked up just in time to see Baymax deliver a crunching blow to the boy's midsection.
Hiro didn't cry out as he was sent flying across the room. He flew several feet before landing hard on the concrete. When he coughed, he felt indescribable pain in several of his ribs, but that wasn't even the worst of it. When he looked at the floor beside his head, he faintly realized he was coughing up blood. It hurt so much to breathe. Something was horribly wrong.
"HIRO!" Honey Lemon shrieked as she ran to him. Wasabi and Fred weren't far behind. GoGo had finally managed to get the port open and remove Hiro's programming chip, leaving only the useless, erased primary chip in the port. Suddenly devoid of a core program, Baymax immediately shut down, collapsing and partially deflating.
"Oh, God, oh, God, Hiro!" Wasabi cried out as the four friends gathered around the fallen boy. "What can we do?"
"Stay with us, Hiro. Please hold on," Honey Lemon pleaded with him.
"Hiro, can you hear me?!" GoGo shouted at him, fighting to get his attention.
"Come on, little man. You can do it. You can pull through," Fred encouraged as he pulled the head off of his battle suit.
Hiro wasn't really aware of any of it. All he knew was pain...pain in his ribs...and deeper inside...something was broken. Breathing hurt, staying awake hurt, and through all that pain, all he could see was Tadashi, staring at him in numb shock.
"N...Nii-chan," he whispered, tasting blood on his lips as he struggled to hold a hand out to his big brother, but that hand fell limply to the floor as consciousness finally slipped through his fingers.
Yokai didn't hear any of what was happening...didn't see the others. All he could see was the boy reaching out to him...and the word as it formed on his lips.
Nii-chan...
Hiro!
"NOOOO!" he shrieked as he fell to his knees, a sound of such utter anguish and despair it caused the others to turn to him in fear.
At Tadashi's breakdown, the microbots seemed almost to react on their own. They swarmed up around him, easily imprisoning him within their grasp. He tried to fight, but he was no match for the near endless supply of bots. Before anyone could really do anything, he was bound and swept away on the wave of microbots.
"Tadashi!" GoGo shouted, trying to go after him.
"Wait!" Honey Lemon argued, grabbing ahold of her wrist. "We have to get Hiro out of here now. He needs help."
"Don't worry, I'll call Heathcliff," Fred told them. "He'll be able to get us some help."
XxX
Yokai was dragged, screaming, back to his master. When he was finally released from the ball of microbots, a handful remained behind to keep his wrists and ankles bound.
"You disappoint me, Yokai," his master chided, his voice deadly quiet as he appeared to him out of the darkness. "First you let them take the mask from you. Now this."
"Hiro...Hiro..." he mumbled helplessly, not really seeing the man before him. Angered, his master reached out and slapped him hard across the face.
"Look at me, Yokai," he growled, forcing the young man's head up to look at him. "What is your name?"
"I...I..."
"Say your name!" Callaghan snarled, shaking him.
"Yo...Yo- k..."
"Say it...or you will be punished."
Punishment didn't compute in the young mercenary's head. There was pain enough in his own heart...a fire that wouldn't go out, no matter how hard he struggled to smother it. Hiro...his little brother...and Callaghan had tried to murder him...using his hands.
"I...am...Tadashi!" he screamed, his struggle against the microbots holding him renewed. Callaghan sighed before pulling out a hypodermic needle, jabbing him in the neck and quickly emptying its contents into his veins. As the drug slowly took effect, he looked up at Callaghan with dazed eyes, realizing he was wearing a neural band.
"No, you're not," Callaghan said firmly. "Tadashi doesn't exist. He's gone. I should have known, though, that you'd never be able to destroy the boy. I expected too much of you. That's why I thought it best to engage your creation. After all, it's basically the same thing as you killing him yourself, isn't it," he said, sneering cruelly at him as he watched his struggling slowly weaken, succumbing to the drug in his system.
"Baymax," he said quietly, feeling something disgusted and unsettled in the pit of his stomach. He didn't fully understand why, but he knew what had happened was wrong. Baymax was meant to help people, not...not this.
"Really, the boy's done an excellent job with your project. Baymax might actually be a threat to me if he were still operational, but he's out of my way now...along with the boy."
"No, he's not," Tadashi hissed.
"What was that?"
"He's not dead!" Tadashi shouted. "He's not! You can't make me hurt him!"
Callaghan glared at him as he drew closer once again. "Oh, I seriously doubt that, Yokai. Do you even remember who he is?"
"He...he's Hiro," the young man said with more conviction than he felt.
"And who is he to you?"
For several moments, the young mercenary struggled to remember; he knew he'd just had it. For one brief moment, he'd been holding that precious memory in his hands, but then it was gone. Now it was just a name and a face with nothing attached to it.
You're precious to me. I know you are. Who are you? Hiro...
Nii-chan.
"I don't know," he finally had to admit, his head slumping to the ground. The microbots didn't need to hold him anymore. He couldn't move on his own.
"That's right...because he's not anything to you. No one is anything to you. You belong to me, Yokai. You have no past," his master snapped at him before starting to move away.
"You're wrong," he dared to whisper.
His master didn't turn to look at him. For a moment, he just stood, staring at the far wall.
"Excuse me?"
"I said you're wrong," the young mercenary spat at him. "Just because I can't remember...doesn't mean this isn't real. I'll find the answer. You cannot stop me!"
His master sighed as he turned to face him, a pitying smile moving across his face. The look slowly shifted into a sneer as he moved back toward him.
"It seems to me you've forgotten your place here. I'll just have to remind you," he snarled as he knelt beside Yokai's unmoving body, seizing him by the collar and lifting him up. "Have I been too generous with you? Have you forgotten that I can tear you apart and put you back together? We won't have anymore of these glitches, Yokai. I'll bury your heart so deep, it will never come to light again. Nothing Hiro Hamada does will be able to save you this time."
XxX
(A/N) So...was it heartbreaking enough for you? Ready for more?