Comparing your Past to My Future

"Your heart rate is elevated. I recommend you take deep calming breaths."

Tadashi ignored Baymax and continued to pace across the garage, absently playing with the bracelet around his wrist. What was taking his friends so long? He needed the magnetic readings he'd asked them to take in and around the locations of the strange phenomenon. He was hoping to uncover a pattern of some kind. A pattern that could perhaps reveal Hiro's possible location.

The squeak of vinyl filtered into his awareness and he was suddenly confronted with a large white marshmallow. Baymax stood before him arms stretched out to prevent him from pacing further. "Allowing yourself to get agitated it not good for your health." Baymax informed him.

"Baymax, I don't have time for this right n…" The sound of footsteps cut him off. Someone was here. Tadashi rushed over towards the stairs, body tensing in anticipation only to droop in disappointment. "Hey, Aunt Cass."

Aunt Cass stepped into the garage, a worried look on her face. "Can we talk?" She asked softly.

Tadashi sighed running a hand over his face. "Sure, Aunt Cass. What's up?"

Aunt Cass looked nervously around the garage. "Let's go upstairs. I'll make you a cup of hot chocolate and we can sit down and talk."

Tadashi nodded and headed towards the stairs, his Aunt in tow. "Baymax, please keep an eye on things down here." He called back, knowing his aunt likely wanted some privacy. They made it to the upstairs kitchen. Tadashi sat down at the kitchen table and settled to watch his Aunt as she proceeded to make the hot chocolate she'd promised him.

Aunt Cass moved efficiently around the kitchen, remaining silent until the hot chocolate was done. She sat down across from Tadashi sliding the gourmet hot chocolate complete with whipped cream, chocolate chip sprinkles and tiny marshmallows his way before speaking. "We need to talk about your future."

Tadashi blinked, holding the mug midway between the table and his lips. "My future?"

"You can't keep living like this. Locked away from the world. SFIT is going to be accepting applications soon. Maybe you can submit one and finish your robotics degree?"

A rush of mixed emotions coursed through Tadashi at the mention of his degree. He'd been so busy trying to find Hiro and trying to come to terms with everything that had changed in the three years that he'd missed that he'd never even thought about going back to school to finish his degree. For all intents and purposes his life had been placed on hold, indefinitely but he wasn't sure he was ready to press the play button again.

Aunt Cass continued to speak when Tadashi made no move to respond. "You were nearly done and even though it's already been three years I'm sure SFIT will let you back to complete your final year project and the courses you're still missing. Hiro still has Baymax."

And that was the crux of the problem. Hiro may have kept Baymax but Baymax no longer belonged to Tadashi. His project had grown and changed without him. Hiro had also clearly made some modifications to Baymax. It wouldn't be right to present him now. Not with the possible issue of copyright infringement and certainly not when Baymax had so obviously become more than just a final year project. "Aunt Cass, I can't…"

"I know you're waiting for Hiro to come back but we've already gone through this. You can't stop living. I know it's hard. Besides Hiro wouldn't want you to waste your life just because he's missing."

Aunt Cass's words hurt. They hurt a lot but Tadashi knew she had a point. He shook his head. "It's not that. I just…" Tadashi floundered, trying to find a way to give voice to the conflict coursing through him. "I don't think I can go back to SFIT. I don't belong there anymore. Honey Lemon, Gogo, Wasabi and Fred have all graduated. Hiro's using my lab and I don't know anyone else there. It's… It's just…"

Tadashi fell silent when Aunt Cass placed a hand on his shoulder in understanding. "It doesn't have to be SFIT. It doesn't even have to be right this minute but I want you to think about it, ok?" She dropped her hand once more moving to pick up her own cup of hot chocolate.

The two of them drank in companionable silence.

Tadashi only managed two sips when he was startled once more, this time by the sound of the café bell ringing. Standing he headed towards the staircase and peered down to see Fred shaking rain out of his hair. "Yo!" He greeted Tadashi bounding up the stairs using leaps that were far too energetic for that time of night. "The rest of the gang are on their way. They're just…" Fred glanced at Aunt Cass, "fetching a change of clothes."

Tadashi nodded. Turning he gave Aunt Cass a kiss on the cheek. "We'll wait for them in the garage." He informed both his Aunt and Fred before heading back towards the garage. He grabbed hold of Fred's wrist as he walked past.

"I'll bring you guys some sandwiches and pastries, later." Aunt Cass called after them.

"Yes! Free food! There's nothing better than free food!" Fred exclaimed stumbling after Tadashi. "I want an invisible bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich, please!"

"There's no such thing as an invisible sandwich." Tadashi dragged Fred into the garage. Fred's words brought to mind a similar moment that had occurred what to him was not all that long ago. "We keep telling you, it's not science."

"But it could be, you know." Fred insisted. "Turning me into a fire breathing lizard wasn't 'science' either but Hiro managed it. I'm telling you now, it's only a matter of time before invisible sandwiches become a thiiiiing." Fred bumped into Tadashi's back, not having expected Tadashi to come to sudden complete halt. "Hey! Tadashi! My man! Are you trying to get me to run you over? Don't just stop like that for no reason." Fred peered around Tadashi, looking into the garage. Nothing appeared to be amiss.

Tadashi suddenly burst into motion once more. He headed straight for Hiro's PC and the note that was pasted on the screen. "Yo, man? Everything alright?" Fred asked in uncertainty.

Tadashi ignored him. He pulled the note off the PC, turned and headed straight towards Baymax. "Who left this here?"

Baymax titled his head to the side, appearing to examine the note. "Unknown."

"What do you mean you don't know? You were here, weren't you?"

"There appears to be a glitch in my system." Baymax titled his head to the other side. "I am missing five minutes of data."

"How can you be missing five minutes of data?" Tadashi demanded, beginning to panic. "The tests I ran on your hardrive came back clean! Was your camera still functioning."

Baymax remained silent for a moment running the necessary diagnostic tools before responding. "No malfunction has been detected."

"Play back the video corresponding to the missing time in your memory banks!" Tadashi stepped back intending to watch the video that should be returned by the command.

"File is inaccessible."

"Then decrypt it." Tadashi growled.

"The File is not encrypted. The File is inaccessible." Baymax repeated, his response only serving to raise even more questions. What were the chances that Baymax would lose both his memory and access to the recording of what occurred in the exact same span of time? The only explanation that came to mind was deliberate interference but who could possibly interfere with Baymax?

Tadashi raised the note to read it. The note was, as usual, handwritten in Hiro's messy scrawl.

You need strong emotion

~Hiro

- BH6 - BH6 - BH6 –

CrazyBlueOwl: There is a reason this story is called 'I will not be Broken.' XD

Ern Estine 13624: :)

Rosycat: Well done! I have used snippets from the following three songs in this story. Centuries, Pompeii and Immortals as these are my three go to songs when I'm writing this. I have also included quotes from the movies and have linked some of the scenes in this story to things that either happened or were mentioned in the movie. Thanks for the compliment regarding Hiro's decent. Working really hard on living up to the story's title.

Anony mouse101: Things have really picked up. You starting to make the connections yet? XD

shooting2stars: The first part of the previous chapter did really happen. The second part of the chapter after the break was the dream and there is a reason it was so intense ;). Don't worry. Hiro hasn't given up hope just yet.