How am I Going to be an Optimist about this?

Hiro's Journal

Hiro Hamada – Captivity: Day 65

I made a gross miscalculation. All the evidence was before me and I still missed it. I guess I was so busy trying to figure out what the space within the portal is that I missed the obvious facts before me. The stabilizer I designed doesn't really work as expected. It does allow me to enter the portal without being torn apart but it doesn't actually allow me to step through it. The actual timeline the portal links to is completely irrelevant at this stage. The stabilizer doesn't allow me to enter into it. The moment I step into the portal, its behaviour changes and I think I've figured out why. I left out a vital parameter. That parameter is… Me.

My calculations did not take my presence, and the potential impact of my own lifespan, into account. The stabilizer prevented the portal from tearing me apart when I entered it but in doing so added the complexity of my existence into the formulas that run the portal. The portal reacted and sent me into the space between allowing me to travel only within the bounds of my own lifetime.

The answer was there, staring me in the face all along and I didn't see it but it doesn't matter. I'm not going to modify my stabilizer to counter the complexity of the human lifespan. I'm not going to hand over the power time and I'm not going to tell Inquisitor I made a mistake. I'm going to take advantage of it. I'm going to continue to help Tadashi find me in the other timeline and once I've accomplished that I'm going to turn the dream I had the day I decided to go back in time to see Tadashi, into reality. I'm going to bring Tadashi back.

Tadashi closed the journal in his lap, the last words in the entry still echoing through his mind, a tragic reminder of the sacrifice Hiro had made in order to save both Tadashi and himself. The complexity of the events that had come to pass was proof of how small humanities true grasp of the intricacies of the universe really was and an echo of the true power of faith.

Hiro had done it. He'd managed to defy the limits of space and time in order to create a new reality that hadn't existed before, in order to escape the reality in which he took his own life. He'd fought hard for it, bled for it and sacrificed for it only to end up in hospital, hovering on the brink of death. It wasn't right but it wasn't over either.

'That depends on you.'

Those four words, uttered by a version of his brother that technically shouldn't exist, were the reality Tadashi chose to cling to. Four words filled with promise, filled with choices, filled with hope because they meant there was something Tadashi could do to fix this.

"Hiro Hamada?" Tadashi's leapt out of the chair he was seated in and rushed towards the doctor's side, desperate to hear that Hiro would be alright but something within him already knew this time was a lot worse than the time that had become before. Slowing his forward rush, Tadashi took a deep breath in order to compose himself before crossing the rest of the distance at a more sedate pace. "I'm Tadashi Hamada." He introduced himself upon arriving at the doctor's side. "Hiro's brother."

The look in the doctor's eyes confirmed Tadashi's worst fears. "Are you his legal guardian?" Hiro was not ok. The doctor wouldn't be asking that question if he was.

"In the absence of my Aunt, yes." Tadashi replied, trying to prepare himself for the worst.

"We need to talk. In private." The doctor said, turning to head out of the waiting room. "Come with me."

Tadashi followed, each step heavier than the one that came before. He knew his own life was not in danger but he felt like he walking towards his own execution and the final steps into the doctor's office were the worst. The doctor closed the door behind him before indicating that he should sit, stepping around Tadashi to take the chair on the other side of the desk. "How much do you know about Hiro's injuries?" The doctor asked, placing Hiro's file down onto the table in front of him.

Tadashi licked dry lips, taking a moment to gather his erratic thoughts before responding hoarsely. "The prognosis doesn't look good. Baymax… my healthcare robot… informed me that Hiro had sustained injury to his…" Tadashi paused taking a deep shaky breath before continuing. "… his back." And there it was, the truth he'd been trying to ignore from the moment he'd first heard Baymax say it. There was a reason Hiro had been transported to this particular hospital to be seen by this particular doctor.

"Baymax?" The doctor glanced down at his file with a frown, flicking through a few pages before glancing up again. "Is that the medical robot that refuses to leave Hiro's side? I've never encountered technology quite that… persistent though I have to admit, his medical database is very impressive. We wouldn't be having this conversation right now if not for him."

Tadashi's heartbeat skipped a beat, his breath catching in his throat at the doctor's words for they could only mean one thing: Something had gone wrong during Hiro's treatment and Baymax had caught the error before it could cost Hiro his life. "Hiro… is he…" Tadashi's words died on the tip of his tongue, the dreaded question refusing to slip past his lips.

"He's alive." The doctor confirmed, closing Hiro's file once more. "Thanks to your healthcare companion." The expression on the doctor's face showed that the admission had not come easily. "He should regain consciousness soon and is expected to obtain functional recovery."

Functional recovery. The doctor had used the term functional recovery instead of full recovery. There was a distinct difference between the two. A difference Tadashi was intimately acquainted with. Hiro was not alright and he probably wasn't going to be alright for a long time.

'That depends on you.'

Suddenly those four words took on an entirely new meaning. "What is…" Tadashi licked his lips again closing his eyes against the truth he already knew. "What is the main injury Hiro needs to make a functional recovery from?"

A moment of silence followed his question. Silence in which Tadashi could feel the doctor's scrutiny before he confirmed the truth Tadashi's mind had been trying to dodge all night. "Hiro has suffered a Flexion Lumber Spine break. His spinal cord suffered some damage. This could result in complete or incomplete paraplegia. We'll be able to make a more accurate assessment when the swelling goes down and he wakes up. Either way, he's going to have a difficult road ahead of him. Irrespective of what the final prognosis is, he is going to need a lot of understanding and support if he is going to get through this."

There is was. The truth Tadashi had refused to face was staring him in the face, confirmed, undeniable and real. Hiro had broken his back. His hyperactive, energetic little brother was going to wake up and find out he could probably no longer walk. His little brother was going to come out of this alive but shattered and it was going to be up to Tadashi to pick up the pieces.

'That depends on you.'

"I understand." Tadashi said softly, meeting the doctor's gaze with determination in his own. "I promise... I will do everything I possibly can to make sure he overcomes this as well as anything else life chooses to throw at him."

- BH6 - BH6 - BH6 –

shooting2stars: Yup... I'm a sucker for dark and tragic. The majority of my fiction is that tone. Tadashi does have a lot to deal with but he's strong. He's always been strong. As for Hiro, he had to discover that inner strength after dealing with Tadashi's death. He always idolised his big brother and I see Tadashi as the source of Hiro's strength irrespective of whether Tadashi is alive or dead. "You appear to need a hug..." *Big white arms envelope you in their vinyl comfort and warmth *

Guest: I'm glad things are making sense now. Was a bit worried they wouldn't even though I put a lot of thought into the logic. I would love to offer this story to Disney as a script for a sequel but don't think that is actually a plausible possibility due to the following factors: 1) How would I even go about it? 2) Since there is already discussion of a sequel online it is likely they already have a story board 3) This story may be a bit too dark to be turned into a disney movie. Consequently having my story used as inspiration for a sequel will have to remain a flight of fancy that I harbour in my imagination.

NotShort: That pretty much sums it up! Well done! I don't think I will write this story from the original Hiro's perspective. This story already reveals a lot of what happens to him and the bits that are not revealed are dark and painful. He continues to get tortured, hides what he is actually up to by pretending to have fits, slips through the portal only long enough to leave the clues and ultimately dies... :(

Ern Estine 13624: Current Hiro is in hospital being looked after by the doctors and Tadashi was waiting for news.

CrazyBlueOwl: Yay! I managed to be more confusing that Dr Who! The plot of this story kind of ran away from me fairly early on. I then ended up having to weave the disparate pieces back together in a manner that allowed all them to interlink and still make sense as part of a greater picture. That was the challenging part but I really like how it all came together in the end.

Rosycat: Favoriting is not meant to send you notifications when the story is updated. That's what the follow feature is for XD. Now you see why I couldn't promise that Hiro doesn't die because technically there is a version of him that does :D

Kiki Anderson: YAY! I've succeeded in making another reader cry! Good. I also struggle with the emotions of the story even though I'm the one writing it. For some reason I also react to them. Hope I didn't make you reveal your secret emotional side to your classmates.

Dreamer: I'm glad you feel I managed to put what you were trying to describe cleanly into a chapter! Victory! Hiro wasn't doubting himself when he told Tadashi he (as in Hiro) shouldn't exist. that comment is a referrence to the time paradox and the fact that there are two Hiro's in the same place when there should in actual fact only be one. Future Hiro is saying that he (as the future version) should not exist which is why he accepts his fate to die in Tadashi's place.

I'm glad you liked the second journal and its place in the story. I thought it was important to reveal what the second version of Hiro was thinking and going through in order to explain his eventual actions.

In answer to your question... you are over complicating things a little. This story isn't really based on more than two timelines. It is however, based on possibilities. When Hiro first enters the portal he sees his past as already decided and the his future as a bunch of possibilities all represented by threads. His decision to interfere with the past, however, changes this scenario creating possibilities in the past as well. Hiro then sets out to make one of those past possibilities reality in order to achieve his goal, only he needs to do things backwards in order to do so. Him going back in time to die in Tadashi's place is his last action thus cementing the posibility that was created when he subconsciously made the decision to save Tadashi.

You are correct in assuming future Hiro knows how his various timelines end. He knows this because he followed several of the possibilities to their end before deciding which one to influence. He found out that he only had a chance of survival when he added Tadashi to the equation which is one of the factors influencing his decision to push Tadashi through the portal. Hope that makes sense. PS: Good luck tying all the loose ends together ;)