(A/N) And here we'll finally see some action. Hope you like.

Love Don't Die Easy

Chapter 8: The Watcher of the Eternal Flame

Cass knew that Hiro would have preferred her to wait at the Lee mansion until it was all over. There was no way of telling just how much of the café was bugged (which was a horrifying thought in and of itself; she found herself jumping at shadows as she moved through the day), but she did have a business to run.

At the moment, it was best to just go on like nothing was happening. She tried to behave like normal, explaining away any noticeable nerves to curious customers by saying that Hiro had been in an accident. Not entirely untrue, so it was believable enough to deflect people. While she worked, she kept an ear tuned into the local news, waiting for anything that might be happening. The only one who could really understand what she was going through was Suri, who had decided to wait with her.

The young surgeon was sitting near the front of the café, mindlessly sipping mocha after mocha while she kept her attention on the TV. They didn't speak to each other, just exchanged meaningful and worried glances whenever Cass brought her a new drink. It was just a little before the lunch rush that Suri's worried voice called her out of the kitchen.

"Cass?" she called loudly, saying nothing else. That was all the near distraught aunt needed to hear in order to know something was happening. She stepped out of the kitchen, eyes immediately zeroing in on the television, where a reporter was delivering a breaking news story.

"This just in. We are receiving word of some sort of terrorist attack on Krei Technologies."

"Oh, God," Cass whispered, eyes riveted to the screen, along with half the café. She didn't see Suri approach her, but when she felt a hand slip into hers, she gripped it without thought, the two women standing together to witness what fate was in store for the people they loved most in the world.

XxX

"Those setbacks made us stronger and set us on the path to a bright future."

Those were the words that finally pushed Robert Callaghan over the edge. Here Alistair Krei stood in success – stood on the ruins of so many lives, and that meant nothing at all to him. He probably didn't even notice that his own cousin was dead. Yokai knew what to do. It was up to him to proceed.

"Setback?!" he demanded harshly as he emerged from the crowd gathered before the business magnate. "Was my daughter a setback?"

"C-Callaghan?" Krei whispered, eyes wide with shock, as if he'd (dare he think it) seen a ghost. "You…you're dead."

"What about Tomeo and Marie? Or were they just bugs on your windshield?" he snarled as he moved up onto the platform. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see a security detail moving toward him, but they would have their hands full in another moment.

"What- what are you talking about?" Krei asked, stepping back as Callaghan bore down on him.

"Oh? Don't remember how Silent Sparrow just fell into your lap? You'd better remember like your life depends on it!"

As he spoke, the campus began to fill with microbots, swarming all along the pristine white buildings. When Yokai appeared in the midst of it all, controlling them, the other guests began to scatter, screaming as they ran for cover. Yokai didn't go after them, though. There was only one person he was interested in. Before Krei could make a break for it, one of the swarms had seized hold of him, pinning him in place.

"Callaghan, please!" Krei begged him as the former professor began to circle him, all while Yokai stood off to the side, manipulating the microbots.

"You have a nasty habit of that, don't you!" Callaghan snarled, signaling to his weapon to tighten his grip on the businessman. "Conveniently forgetting about the dead bodies you walk over to get where you are. You don't even remember my little girl's name, do you."

"You- you're daughter, that…that was an accident. I didn't-"

"Abigail!" he shrieked at the other man. "Her name was Abigail! And you didn't care enough about her life to make sure your stolen calculations were correct. You knew the project wasn't ready. All you cared about was your damn contracts. My daughter is gone because of your arrogance."

At this, Yokai began to manipulate several more streams of microbots, all of them coming together to reconstitute the failed Project Silent Sparrow.

"What are you doing?" Krei asked, eyes impossibly wide with fear as he watched the portal come together overhead.

"You murdered my best friend. Then you took everything I had left when you sent Abigail into that machine. Now I'm taking everything from you," he explained, unable to help the small sneer that spread across his face.

"No. No, you can't!" Krei cried out, finally understanding what was going to happen.

"You're going to watch everything you've built disappear, and then it's your turn. This ends today. You will never hurt anyone again!"

"Callaghan, stop!" a new voice suddenly joined the fray – a voice he would have rather not heard here, but really, he should have known. Hiro and Tadashi really were Tomeo's sons.

"I thought I told you to stay away, Hiro," he said quietly, not turning to look at the group of would-be heroes.

"And I'm pretty sure I told you I was gonna save my brother, no matter what it took," Hiro snapped back at him. "Wouldn't you save Abigail if you could?"

"Of course I would," he said, glaring at the boy out of the corner of his eye. "But it's not that simple. Abigail is gone!"

"She might not be."

"What are you talking about?" he asked, finally turning to face his former students.

"Ruby Krei sent a message before she died. She believed that Abigail might still be alive. There might be a chance to save her. You can still stop all this."

For several moments, Callaghan just stared at the boy. There was still a very small portion of his heart that wanted to believe it could be that easy – that all these years of suffering could be over just like that – but he wasn't capable of that kind of hope anymore and he knew it. The hurt ran too deep to just be cast aside like that. Shaking his head, the former professor let the glare return to his face.

"You're lying. It's just a trick to distract me…to save this money-grubbing piece of filth, and I can't imagine why you'd want to protect him. He's the reason you have no parents."

"You don't know that. You said it yourself. You don't know who ordered the hit. He should stand trial for what he's had a hand in, not be executed for something someone else might've done. This won't make anything better. Callaghan…please…just let it go."

Sighing heavily, Callaghan turned his attention back to Krei and Yokai. "It seems we're not going to agree. I warned you, Hiro. Yokai…destroy them," he ordered harshly.

XxX

Upon being commanded to enter the fight, Yokai immediately slammed Alistair Krei against a far wall, easily pinning him in place with a few pieces of twisted steel, out of the way and easy prey for later.

At first, he tried for a total annihilation approach, sending waves of microbots down in an attempt to crush his targets. They did eventually figure out ways around the crushing attacks, though, and he noticed when they began to focus their own attacks on the microbots instead of him. At that point, he opted for a stealthier approach. While allowing his opponents to think they were taking out the microbots, he continued to call them back before they could pass through the portal, keeping them in reserve, pending just the right moment.

He kept the brunt of his attacks focused on the boy who seemed to be their leader, pursuing him and his robot across the increasingly treacherous battlefield.

"Come on, Tadashi! Think you can keep up with me!" the boy challenged, and Yokai couldn't quite help sneering beneath his mask. He was about to show this little brat just how well he could keep up. As the boy drew him closer and closer to the portal, he pulled a feint, pretending to be unable to summon any more bots.

"Oops. Looks like you're out of microbots, bro."

That's what you think.

That moment of triumphant distraction was all Yokai needed. With the speed of a thought, he easily summoned up a battering ram of microbots.

"HIRO, LOOK OUT!" someone below screamed, but it was far too late. The fresh wave of microbots slammed into the boy with such force, he was separated from the robot. While one strand kept the robot imprisoned, another thrust the boy beyond the reach of the portal, sending him plummeting toward the earth below.

However, at the last possible moment, one of the other targets leapt up and caught him – the one in the lizard suit.

Feeling a brief spike of irritation, Yokai quickly pursued them. No sooner had the lizard set the boy safely on the ground than he was assaulted by a new wave of microbots. The lizard was slammed impossibly hard against the concrete, his head giving a loud crack as it impacted, and when he didn't rise, Yokai felt a small flare of satisfaction.

"FRED!" the boy cried out in horror. Before he could go to his fallen comrade, Yokai moved swiftly past him, drawing his katana to make a decisive end of the target.

"Tadashi, no!" the boy cried out.

Yokai ignored the cry, raising his blade for the strike, but before he could deliver the blow, a chem ball burst near his head. The blast knocked him sideways, the resulting material hardening almost immediately and cementing his arm to the ground. Turning to look over his shoulder, he saw the pink clad target readying another chem ball. Large-scale attacks clearly weren't working on these targets. More subtle tactics were called for.

He couldn't twist far enough to use one of his throwing knives on her, but he did have thousands upon thousands of tiny projectiles at his disposal. All it would take was one. None of them would notice.

He summoned the microbot from overhead, calling it down with the speed of a bullet shot from a gun. It moved with such force it shot straight through her, piercing just above the break in her chest armor and exiting through her lower left shoulder, breaking through her armor.

She didn't cry out. Her mouth just opened wide in a silent scream of pain as she collapsed. But before she hit the ground, the yellow-armored target raced to her, catching her in her arms and gently lowering her to the shattered concrete. Blood was already smearing red against the shorter woman's armor.

"G- Go…Go," she whispered, reaching a hand up to touch the other woman's face.

"Just don't move. Don't move. You're gonna be fine," she repeated several times, panic evident in her voice.

"GoGo…it hurts," she whispered, trembling as she clung to her comrade.

"Stay with me, Honey. Don't you dare die on me!"

Yokai might have killed them both then and there had the robot not suddenly moved to stand in front of them, having escaped Yokai's hold in his moment of distraction.

"Pressure must be applied to the wound in order to prevent blood loss," the robot explained calmly. "If you will permit me, I will administer treatment."

The woman nodded faintly as she passed her fallen comrade into the robot's care. For a moment she seemed dazed, but then she slowly removed her helmet, letting it fall beside them as she stood to face Yokai. Quickly summoning up a small stream of microbots, he easily broke the hardened substance that held him to the ground. Sneering beneath the mask, he dropped into a battle ready position. This was a rematch he would admit to looking forward to. Her gaze was almost as unhinged as he knew his own to be.

"TADASHI!"

XxX

Almost all activity had ceased in the café as the patrons watched the images pouring in from the Krei Tech campus. The footage was rough, but the two women who knew what they were looking at could understand the battle they were witnessing. Cass had had to look away when Hiro had nearly fallen to his death. When Suri had seen Fred and Honey Lemon go down, she couldn't just stand back and watch anymore. She knew what she had to do.

"Cass, they need help. I've got to go to them now," she explained, quiet but fierce.

Cass' first instinct was to tell her there was no way she was letting her go, that she'd get herself killed, but she also knew Suri was right. Hiro and the others needed her. Nodding, she led the way out of the café and down into the garage.

"You'll have trouble getting the car down there with everything that's happening, but the moped just might be able to make it through," she said, retrieving the keys and Tadashi's helmet. "Do you know how to drive it?"

"Yes," Suri said as she put the helmet on and took the keys, starting the moped up.

"Bring them home alive," she said as she opened up the garage door.

"I will," she promised before gunning the little bike out onto the street.

XxX

GoGo wasn't fully aware of the world around her when she threw herself at Yokai. All she knew was that he'd tried to kill Honey Lemon and she was going to make him suffer for it.

"TADASHI!" she screamed as she advanced, flinging her discs at him. He easily redirected them with a few streams of microbots, but she kept coming at him, not leaving him time to redirect microbots. He had to stay focused on her.

She could hear Wasabi and Hiro shouting at her, but she didn't let herself hear what they were saying. She just kept going at her former best friend.

Tadashi, I swear, if you take Honey away from me…

She didn't let the thought finish. She couldn't. It was too painful. She just threw herself into the fight, body and soul, giving everything she had to stop Yokai's rampage. When one of the discs finally struck true and clipped the mask, knocking it from his head, she didn't let up for even a moment. She kept going at him as the microbots rained down all around them. She hardly even noticed when the portal crashed back to earth. Instead she felt a small spike of glee when she knocked the katana from his hands and drove him to the ground. Springing forward, she seized the fallen weapon and drove it into his shoulder, straight through into the ground, pinning him in place. Then she proceeded to beat him without mercy.

"GoGo, stop!" Hiro's voice was the one to finally break through to her when he seized her shoulder. "We got the mask. It's over."

"No. It is not over," Yokai snarled, using the moment of distraction to actually pull the blade from his body. He then shoved GoGo away and rolled clear of her, easily getting back to his feet. Immediately, he launched himself back at GoGo and the two former friends continued their fierce brawl.

"Hiro!" the young team leader suddenly heard Callaghan calling out to him. He turned to see the former professor moving toward him across the destroyed campus. "Give me the mask."

"Forget it," Hiro snapped, taking a step back. "It really is over this time. We're gonna get this thing shut down."

"That won't be happening any time soon. The magnetic containment field is failing. It won't be long before the portal tears itself apart and Krei will be going with it. One way or another, this is going to be finished."

"Hiro," Baymax suddenly called out to him. "My scanner is indicating signs of life coming from within the portal."

"Ruby was right," Hiro breathed in amazement as his gaze shot to the destabilizing portal.

Callaghan felt something in his chest tighten as his gaze followed the boy's. His first thought was that Baymax must be lying, but he also knew that was impossible.

"Abigail?" he whispered.

Making a snap decision, he seized the mask from Hiro.

"Yokai, hold!" he ordered sharply. His weapon immediately tossed his opponent away, snapping to attention. Callaghan tossed the mask to him before Hiro could snatch it back. "Enter the portal. Get my daughter back!"

Yokai snapped the mask back on, quickly summoning up a fresh wave of microbots.

"Tadashi, NO!" Hiro screamed, but it was already too late. Yokai had ridden the wave of bots straight into the dimensional gateway. He didn't even need a moment to choose. He already knew what he had to do. He'd watched his brother race headlong into certain destruction once. He was not going to stand back and let it happen all over again. "Baymax!" he shouted.

The nurse bot responded to him at once, leaving Honey Lemon and Fred with Wasabi. As Hiro climbed up onto Baymax's back, GoGo slowly moved toward them, bleeding from several small wounds.

"Hiro, what are you doing?"

"I have to go after him. I can't let him do this alone. Not this time."

"Man, that thing's collapsing. It's not gonna stay open much longer. What if you don't make it out?"

"Then I don't make it out. Not much I can do about it if it happens. Tadashi might not be able to get back. Somebody's gotta help them," he said firmly. "Tell Aunt Cass I'm sorry," he said before spurring Baymax through the collapsing gateway.

Passing through the portal was like – well, there were really no words to describe what it was like, because it was unlike anything he'd ever experienced before. Gravity was more of a suggestion than a law and there were pieces of debris drifting all over the place. Up ahead, he could see Tadashi proceeding carefully through the field of junk, borne on his wave of microbots. If he had to guess, he'd say his brother might have been having trouble controlling the bots in this unearthly environment.

"Baymax, do you have a bead on Abigail yet?" he asked as they jetted carefully through the debris.

"Yes. I have located the patient," he said, nodding his head in a direction somewhere up ahead – at least if that designation could properly be used here. When a large chunk of building finally drifted past, Hiro could see the pod from the security footage floating at the far edge of the field.

"Tadashi! Over here!" he called out to his brother, hoping he would follow them in the direction of the pod. He didn't look to see, but he felt a sense of relief when he heard the familiar clank of the microbots drawing closer. By the time he and Baymax reached the wayward pod, Tadashi had drawn up beside them. Reaching forward to wipe grime from the glass, he looked inside to see Abigail sleeping soundly, still strapped into her seat. Ruby hadn't been wrong after all. Her pod had kept Abigail safe.

Looking up at his brother's masked face, he hesitated only a moment before suggesting, "We can steer the pod if you can move debris."

Tadashi simply nodded, taking up a position beside the pod as Baymax began to jet back through the debris field, pushing it along. With Tadashi cutting a path with the microbots, they were able to make a straight shot back toward the portal – right up until the moment Tadashi didn't notice the oncoming glass.

The section of broken window came at them almost out of nowhere, and unnoticed until it was nearly too late. When Tadashi did see it, he threw himself in front of Hiro without thought, holding him against his chest as the glass shattered against them.

"Tadashi!" Hiro shouted as he looked up at his brother, just in time to see some of the glass shards tear the mask from his face. He was clearly in pain, but he didn't make a sound, just kept Hiro from harm as the last fragments of the now blood-stained glass moved past them.

"Tadashi?" he repeated fearfully as he continued to look up at him. Then he opened his eyes, and for a moment – just a moment – he thought he saw his brother.

"Hi…ro…" Tadashi whispered brokenly, fear and confusion in every line of his face.

"Nii-chan?" he whispered back, but then Tadashi's grip on him suddenly tightened, almost as if he meant to crush him.

"These efforts are useless," he hissed, voice dropping back into Yokai's harsh, unfeeling tone. "I am only a shadow of what was."

Hiro might have said more, except that was the moment Baymax carried them back through the gateway, crash landing the pod in a pile of crumbled concrete just as the portal completely ripped itself apart.

"HIRO!" he heard the others shouting, but he wasn't fully aware of what was happening, as Tadashi suddenly shoved him off the pod, using his katana to break through the glass and pull Abigail out. Hiro fell to the ground before Baymax could catch him, dazed when his head struck the concrete.

"Good work, Yokai," Callaghan said as he moved toward them, leading a bound Alistair Krei. "You take him. I'll carry her. We need to leave here now," he said, shoving Krei at Tadashi's feet so he could take his daughter in his arms. Hiro couldn't be sure, but he thought he saw a second neural band around Callaghan's forehead. As they made their switch, the former professor summoned up what few microbots hadn't been trapped beyond the portal, creating a small wave that quickly carried the four of them away. All the while, Krei was screaming for help.

"No!" Hiro shouted, struggling to get to his feet, swaying for only a moment before Baymax came to help him.

"You should not move too much. You have a mild concussion," the robot explained in his normal soothing tone.

"There's no time to worry about this," Hiro snapped faintly, fighting to stay standing on his own. "We have to go after them."

"Hiro!" he heard a different voice join in with Wasabi's and GoGo's. He looked up just in time to see Rosie ride up on Tadashi's moped as the other two ran toward him. "What happened?"

"They got away," Hiro groaned. "But…Rosie…he knew me. It was just for a second, but Tadashi knew me. I've got to go after him."

"Hiro-" Baymax started to protest.

"I'll be fine, Baymax. It's shaking off already. I'll be fine by the time we get where they're going."

"We're going with you," GoGo said right away.

"GoGo, you shouldn't-" he started.

"If I can still stand, I can still fight. We've gotta stop this before anything else happens."

"Go ahead. I can stay with Fred and Honey Lemon," Rosie said as she pulled out the kit she'd brought with her. "But I do expect an extended hospital stay for all of you when you bring Tadashi home."

"Right," Hiro said with a tiny nod as he climbed back onto Baymax. GoGo and Wasabi joined him without question. "Let's do this!" he shouted, spurring Baymax off in pursuit of their fleeing targets.

One way or another, this was going to end tonight.

XxX

(A/N) Yup. I'm really gonna stop there. You really are gonna have to wait until the next chapter to finally see that epic showdown we've all been waiting for. *guilty sideways glance* Sorry, not sorry.