Sand at the Bottom Half of the Hour Glass

"Baymax!" The purple-clad figure cried out, reaching desperately towards the camera. The scene seemed to slow for a moment, a breath in which the Hero appeared to hang in mid-air, weightless and then gravity caught up with him and he began to tumble down after Baymax. He never made it that far. A black swarm rushed forward enveloping the Hero and then the recording went black, cut off as the camera was buried beneath a pile of debris.

You could hear a penny drop in the silence that followed the video, breath, thought and life suspended in the aftermath of revelations and realizations. The group of gathered friends watched each other, afraid to move, waiting for someone to bring them crashing down back into reality. That someone was, unsurprisingly, Tadashi. "There never was another guy, was there?" He asked, far too softly. The others had to strain in order to hear him. "They didn't kidnap Hiro and the leader of Big Hero 6, did they? Because," Tadashi turned to pointedly stare at Wasabi, Fred and Gogo, "Hiro and the leader of the vigilante Group that's been running around saving lives are one and the same."

The words echoed in the room between them, the implications weighing heavy in the room. No one dared to respond to Tadashi's statements. What could they possibly say, after all? They had kept the truth hidden from Tadashi. Some of them had lied to keep the truth hidden and the rest had remained silent and allowed it to happen. They each had had their reasons but reasons meant nothing when faced with the sheer pain in their friend's eyes.

"What on earth was he thinking?!" Tadashi exclaimed suddenly leaping out of his seat to pace across the garage in wide aggressive steps. "The bonehead, the knucklehead, the IDIOT!" Tadashi growled tugging at his own hair at the sheer frustration of it all.

"You appear to be distressed." Baymax interjected. "Might I suggest deep breathing exercises and meditation?"

"Not now, Baymax." Tadashi growled before continuing his rant. "What part of being a vigilante hero sounded like a good idea?! It's reckless, dangerous and stupid! Oh wait, this is HIRO we are talking about. Of course, he'd think it was a good idea. I don't know why I didn't make the connection sooner! If there's one person in this world crazy enough to form a super hero team to fight crime, my bonehead brother would be it. Wait a minute…" Tadashi swivelled around to glare at his friends. "You weren't cosplaying as Big Hero 6 members." He growled at Fred and Wasabi. "You're all part of my knuckleheaded brother's boneheaded scheme! What were all of you thinking?!"

Fred stood and carefully approached Tadashi, arms raised in surrender. "Tadashi, my man, you really need to calm down."

"Don't tell me to calm down!" Tadashi snarled not giving Fred a chance to say anything more. "Not when you kept this from me! Not when you lied to me. I thought you guys were my friends. Why would you keep something so important from me?"

"Because it's not our place to tell you." Gogo snapped. She marched up to Tadashi and began to poke him in the chest in fury. "This is your brother's secret," poke, "He's the one that came up with the concept," poke, "and the suits," poke, "and everything else. He's the one that manages the team and he's the one that decides who has a right to know about it," poke, poke, poke, "We didn't tell you because we promised him we'd stay together, fight in order to keep your memory alive and remain in the shadows. Because keeping our identity a secret is part of what allows us to do what we need to do and because he's not here to give us permission to tell you. So get off your high horse and look at this from our perspectives for a minute before condemning us for our actions."

Tadashi, stared at Gogo, jaw slack in shock. Her words echoed through his mind and he took a moment to analyse what she was telling him. He was hurting, bleeding on the inside and the feeling of betrayal remained, even though he was beginning to understand the reasons behind his friend's choices. They should have told him this sooner… It might have helped them find Hiro and that was the real reason he was struggling to simply accept it at face value. "Why did you suggest I fix Baymax?" Tadashi demanded. "Why now?"

"Because we're running out of leads to investigate and you deserve to know." Gogo replied, aggressively blowing and popping a pink bubble. "We've exhausted all of our resources in our search for him. We need a new angle. Hiro was always the driving force behind our fresh angles to existing problems." Gogo took a moment to pop yet another pink bubble before continuing. "He learnt that from you."

He learnt that from you.

That single statement was immensely profound and brought with it a new surge of pain, along with a deep sense of pride. Tadashi still was an integral part of who his brother had grown up to become and that realization meant more to him than words could ever express. Tadashi cleared his throat and turned away from Gogo. Wiping a stray tear off his face, he made his way back over towards Baymax and his seat. He sat down and turned to face his friends once more. "Ok. If we're going to do this, we're going to do this properly. No more secrets. I want you to fill in all the gaps. You need to clue me in on all the major events I've missed in the last three years. Tell me everything."

A sense of relief coursed through the gathered group. They knew they were by no means off the hook but Tadashi was willing to listen and that fact brought them one step closer to a new plan. "It all started when Baymax followed one of Hiro's micro-bots to a warehouse…" Fred, ever the story teller, launched into the tale.

- BH6 - BH6 - BH6 –

Alexissenpai: Yeah, he is not a very nice man though he likes to pretend to be 'civilized'.

Rizard13: Yes, Hiro doesn't know Tadashi is alive and there are more surprises than Hiro's secret to Tadashi. If there weren't I'd have no way of keeping my readers on their toes, right? XD. I also missed typing a reply to you in the last update. I've gotten rather accustomed to your theories and playing with them :P. I'm glad you liked the passcode. Considering how hard it was for me to pick it, it turned out to be surprisingly perfect and deep. Tadashi is experiencing moments of depression. He is dealing with a lot and it's only natural that he'd struggle with it. As for your name not being in the responses... I've already planned a future chapter that will be dedicated to you and your love of Fred. Hope that makes up for it :P

shooting2stars: You're review gives me the impression that you do like the fact that I'm giving you both Tadashi's and Hiro's views but wish that I hadn't switched at that point in time in the story as you were actually waiting for this chapter :P. I also can't wait for the brothers to reunite though it likely won't be a smooth transition. There is too much going on and too much between them for it to be.

PinkiePieHamada: Welcome! Hiro really appreciates the cookies and juice and the love with which they have been donated.

Dreamer: Creepy? Really? :(. I'm going for dramatic and angsty and a roller coaster of emotions with a touch of darkness but not creepy. Oh well. Glad you like the passcode. I struggled to find one that expressed the depth of emotion I was going for and absolutely fell in love with it when it occurred to me that I should use those words. They worked remarkably well! Your assumption would be 100 percent correct but let's keep it between us. Well us and everyone else that reads your review as well as my response to it that is :P. As for the picture: It's unlikely he'll notice any discrepancy in the photograph. The human mind has a strange way of interpreting things in order for them to make sense. Unless we are looking at children where the change is usually rather drastic, we as human's don't really notice how people age. Everyone in the photograph looks exactly how Hiro remembers them so his mind is unlikely to try figure out why the photograph doesn't make sense.