Chapter 64, everybody! Oh my goodness we've only got four chapters left climax time!

So I said this on Tumblr but I was expecting the season finale to be more of a beast—turns out all the setup is out of the way and we get to go full-tilt action once it starts. Obake's quoting Ted Danson from The Good Place, by the way, and Tadashi's quoting Marty McFly from Back to the Future Part III. And no, Wasabi, that's next season.

Juxshoa, thanks for the review! Yeah that's pretty much how Obake handles it.

Big Hero 6 © 2014 Disney

The morning of the expo dawned with Obake dragging himself out of bed by sheer force of will, doing his best to stick near Hiro even though Hiro's anger felt like a repulsing magnet. Eventually he had to settle for having Tadashi between them and taking the brunt of the heat, something which annoyed Tadashi to no end.

"I swear, you two are going to talk this out or so help me," he griped as they entered SFIT.

"My dudes! All four of you for once!" Fred greeted, gesturing excitedly. "How's things?"

"Don't ask," Tadashi groused.

"Oh," Fred noised, reading the room. "So maybe Obake hangs out with Gogo today."

"Do you mind?" Obake gritted.

"No but you can check out the cool bike she's been working on," Fred said.

"Yes, you go with him," Tadashi said, shoving Obake at Fred. "And you," he said, rounding on Hiro. "Will you chill?"

Obake hesitated, wanting to say something to Hiro…eventually let himself be led away by Fred when he saw how Hiro was still looking at him.

"My dude, my advice is to just bite the bullet and apologize," Fred counselled as they made their way through the expo. "Like, he's mad, you're mad, but if you don't, you know, say something it'll just fester and continue to give off bad vibes. You feel me?"

"Fred, stop talking," Obake said, barely focusing on his surroundings. It all smacked too closely to the expo he had crashed, too similar to how things had gone before—

"Honey Lemon, Wasabi, my dudes, I'm not sure how to break it to you, but the whole victrola thing has already been invented."

What?

"We know," Honey Lemon said as Obake looked up sharply. "But after the whole thing at SFAI cooled off I was helping with the cataloguing and found this wax cylinder and that's how they used to record things so we restored it. Granville okayed it so…are you okay Obake? You went really pale."

He did, because he remembered this all too clearly, had eavesdropped when they played it, walked by and given comment as they were still reeling from the revelations etched in that wax—

"Wonderful presentation, Honey Lemon—very enlightening."

"I have to go," he managed—bolted through the expo, scanning the rows frantically for the Hamada brothers—

"HIRO!" he yelped, running for him—Hiro looked up, expression darkening as he registered him.

"Oh. You," Hiro said, enough venom in his voice to be lethal as he turned back to working on his setup. "What do you want now?"

"What project are you presenting for the expo?"

"Uh, hello?" Hiro asked, gesturing at the diorama. "You would know this if you paid attention, which, by the way, you don't—"

"And is this the only project you've been working on the past week?"

Hiro's hesitation might as well have been a knife to the gut. "Hiro—"

"Oh shut up!" Hiro barked, slapping away his hand as he tried to grab for Hiro's arm. "You don't get to suddenly act interested now!"

"Hiro answer the question."

Hiro blinked, staring at him, at his face—he knew he had gotten so far past panic that he wasn't able to keep that in his face tamped down but this was serious—"HIRO."

"I—just some bonus project the Robotics majors got assigned," Hiro said, waving him off and scrabbling for his indignation. "Designing an energy amplifier—"

Those two terrible words.

Everything came crashing down at once, roaring into his ears, screaming to a halt—Granville would never assign such a project, not after his own disastrous attempt—he had done this—in trying to keep Hiro out of all this he had put the boy right in his crosshairs—

"Hey wait—Obake!" Hiro barked as he ran around him, pelting for the Hamada brothers' lab—"OBAKE!"

The sheer terror in that last bark made him look back, see Hiro looking up—follow his line of sight—

The crashing, the roaring, the screaming—all of that had been happening without him realizing, as blackness swirled and surged through the shattered windows, vicious battlebots and drones leaping down from the darkness and landing to cause mayhem—all of it a blind to hide him—

He was torn—run back to grab Hiro or run forward to get the device—bolted for the latter when Hiro started running, if he got the device then it was all over—down the hall—the door was open—no—

He had been feeling ill the moment he stepped onto SFIT grounds that day, had it stagger him when he rounded the turn and slammed into that feeling so hard that it winded him, falling back against the wall in horror—

He turned around, energy device in hand, triumphant as he sneered down at Obake sliding down the wall to land with a bump on the floor.

"So. You're the little toerag that's been snafuing my plans," he said. "I must say, not impressed." Arch an eyebrow when Obake couldn't manage anything around his tight throat—"No matter. I did have plans for you, but I suppose I'll have to settle for the quick death. By the way, Mr. Hamada, I have to thank you for your prompt response," he said, saluting Hiro when he froze in the doorway. "I wouldn't have been able to do it without you."

"What—" Hiro managed to get out—yelped as Obake did when the microbots blasted in, swirling around him and blowing the window out, him ducking a little and giving a jaunty wave as the microbots lifted him out—

Hiro's scream snapped Obake out of his stupor.

"NO!" he yelled, lunging for Hiro's arm as the microbots dragged him past—caught him, Hiro clinging tight in panic—tried to pull back, couldn't—was yanked onto the microbots as well—

Someone grabbed a fistful of his hoodie and hauled back.

"Hold on dudes we gotcha!" Fred hollered as Obake looked back—Tadashi got both hands hooked in his hoodie as Fred hauled back on Tadashi, Wasabi and Gogo hauling back on him—Obake tightened his grip on Hiro as more microbots slithered out—

All of them went crashing back, Hiro crushing Obake between himself and Tadashi, who crushed them both in a panicked hug when he realized they had succeeded—Hiro had lost his shoes, but that was a small thing in the whole grand scheme of it—

Because by tonight none of them would be here.

"What was that?" Tadashi demanded. "Why—those were the microbots WHY."

Hiro was looking at Obake with distressed confusion—dropped his head so he didn't have to meet that stare, the one that was its own sort of accusing. "We need to talk," Obake muttered, hating it.

Because he had failed—he had failed in every single way possible and now—

And now only Big Hero Six could really save the day.

"So what are we talking about?"

Obake swallowed hard at Gogo's demand—they were in the common room of the lab, everyone, robot included, facing him as he fidgeted by a station, several of them sitting on the couch and hovering around Hiro protectively. He didn't want to do this—he really didn't want to have to do this, there had to be a better way around this—

But he had run out of time, had been outwitted or outmaneuvered at every turn. Unfortunately, there was now no other recourse but for this.

"Ah…know that I wouldn't be telling you any of this if I had any choice," he started.

"Choice in what?" Gogo asked—was cut off by Fred suddenly exploding.

"Wait you mean we're doing it?" Fred asked, practically vibrating with excitement. "You mean it's finally happening? YES my dude FINALLY I finally get my kaiju costume!"

Well at least everyone was staring at Fred instead of him now. "Fred, what?" Wasabi asked.

"Oh right sorry dude I know you probably want to be the one to explain—I knew we'd get to this point though, just saying."

"What point?" Gogo demanded.

"The point where we FINALLY do as we did in the original timeline: experience our origin stories and BECOME SUPERHEROES!" Fred declared, perching on the back of the couch dramatically.

There were several long beats as everyone took their own nonplussed moments at that declaration.

Obake, sad to say, broke first.

"Fred figured it out? Fred?" Sagged as this sank in. "No I was wrong—this is the new low point. This one hurts."

"Dude," Fred noised.

"Don't you 'dude' me WHEN did you figure this out?"

"Sometime around the beginning of the semester."

"What?"

"Figure what out?" Tadashi asked. "Because I'm pretty sure I speak for everyone when I say that neither of you are making any sense and WHO was that guy in our lab?"

And this was the part he really didn't want to do. "Me. Technically."

Everyone except Hiro and Fred exchanged glances on that. "Is…this when we find out that cloning technology actually progressed that far?" Wasabi asked. "Because I'm pretty sure they haven't started with human testing yet."

"Actually it's like a time-travel thing but don't worry he's getting to that part," Fred said.

"Fred, stop. Talking," Obake hissed, no matter how much he'd rather have Fred blurt it all out so he could sink into the floor unimpeded. He was fully aware of what this looked like, that these children still saw him as someone younger than them, because the truth was too fantastical to believe.

"Well someone had better start talking," Gogo demanded. "Because what I just saw was a problem. That guy had Hiro's microbots and a swarm of battle-bots and he stole—what did he steal?" she demanded of Hiro.

"An energy amplifier," Hiro muttered. "It was for an extra-credit project for the Robotics majors."

"First I've heard of that."

"That's because it was a sham," Obake said, staring at their shoes—shoes didn't have judging expressions. "It was needed to generate enough energy to power Shimamoto's star machine, the blueprints of which were behind City Rises and the rest of it in her journal."

"So...death machine instead of national treasure," Fred said. "Ooh wait did she make a death ray?"

"Fred, stop making less sense," Wasabi said. "Because as it sits none of this makes sense! That guy had Hiro's microbots and he stole a—how did you make an energy amplifier when did you make an energy amplifier—"

Tadashi whistled sharply. "What does this have to do with us?" Tadashi demanded. "What is that guy going to do?"

"Make a star just off the coast of San Fransokyo," Obake said, still not looking up. "And when he does, it will destroy San Fransokyo and take out most of the surrounding area for good measure."

Dead silence.

"Dude, harshness," Fred said.

"So…we run," Wasabi suggested. "We evacuate the city—"

"You saw how evacuating the city turned out with Steamer," Obake countered. "And it's far too late to run now. This is happening in the next few hours…and unfortunately, you all are the only ones who can stop it."

Dead silence.

"No," Wasabi said, standing up and making sharp cutting motions with his hands. "Nuh-uh. We are not going up against crazy dude. No."

"When you say you all, do you mean everyone here?" Tadashi asked. When Obake nodded: "Then I'm with Wasabi on this one this is a bad idea."

"I mean, if you want to get technical we've already done it," Fred said.

"Fred," Tadashi said flatly. "No, we haven't."

"My dude, chill, you're just not thinking fourth-dimensionally."

"Yeah, I have a real problem with that."

There was no point hiding anything else anymore, he supposed. "You should stay," Obake told Tadashi. "You weren't in the picture last time."

"Okay, firstly, no," Tadashi said flatly. "I don't care what kind of crazy you're cooking up Hiro is not going in there by himself!"

"Uh," Wasabi noised, catching the drift Obake was trying to make. "Why was Tadashi not in on this originally? NOT that I'm saying I buy any of this, but—"

Obake gave Tadashi the levelest glare he could manage. "The night of the SFIT fire," he said. "What happened?"

Tadashi flopped a hand, rocked back on his heels a little, like he couldn't believe Obake would dangle this over his head now. "I did a stupid and tried to run into a burning building—happy?"

"Originally you succeeded."

Dead silence reigned in the lab. Obake dared a glance at Hiro—

Hiro was looking struck, like the full weight of past events had hit him hard.

"T-Tadashi died originally?"

"It was why you made the little superhero team," Obake said, gingerly, knowing he was treading dangerously. "You did it to go after Callaghan and kept at it afterwards."

"Dude," Fred breathed. "Dark origin story."

Tadashi finally sat down hard on the floor.

"You can process this later," Obake told him. "Right now we don't have the time."

Which was when Gogo, apparently, had enough.

Obake went down hard to a blow to the side of his head, did his best to scramble away from Gogo, who was doing her best to throw off three of the other kids.

"So you're telling me," she spat, freeing up a hand to point at him. "So you're telling me this whole time—this whole time—you've been that same guy who is right now trying to BLOW UP the city!?"

"It wasn't my fault!" he protested—ugh that sounded weak. "I have no idea how this happened or even if it's really happening as far as I know this is just—this is just me dying and my brain trying to come to terms with that!"

"Do you have ANY IDEA how STUPID that sounds? Why should we believe ANYTHING you say!?"

She shouldn't—they shouldn't—somewhere he had gone from Tantalus to Cassandra and they'd all die here arguing about it—

"I believe him."

Dead silence as attention shifted to Hiro, who had finally looked up. "I believe him," he repeated.

Gogo shook Tadashi and Wasabi off, elbowed Fred in the gut. "I, for one, need some concrete proof before I buy into—I can't even say it."

"It's not that we don't believe you, Obake," Honey Lemon hedged. "It's just—"

"The wax cylinder you were going to play," Obake interrupted. "Have you played it yet?" She shook her head, looking startled at the abrupt change in topic. "Go listen to it. It's Shimamoto's confession, where she admits to creating the first star machine and destroying San Fransokyo with it—that's what caused the Great Catastrophe. She hid all evidence of it so no one else could recreate the machine."

Honey Lemon didn't seem quite convinced—glanced at the others before heading out, Gogo and Wasabi following, Tadashi hesitating before going with them…Fred looked things over, steered Baymax away. "My dude give them space."

Obake curled up, burying his head in his arms—everything had gone so, so wrong—and now here he was involving literal children. This wasn't them at the end of a year of staying on their toes and steadily getting sharper, becoming a more viable threat—this was them scrambling, going into this untested—they were doomed to die and Obake was proposing leading them to slaughter. Maybe—if only he could convince them to leave the city to its fate, if they at least could survive—

"This is why you've been acting the way you did."

Sluggishly look up to see Hiro still there, sitting crosslegged in front of him. "Why are you still here?"

"Because I'm pretty sure the others are going to come back and say that cylinder said exactly what you said it would," Hiro said, expression still stern and full of hurt. "What was all this, then? What—we let you into our house."

"After today you'll never have to see me again."

Hiro exhaled deeply. "I know you're going to tell me we don't have time, but you can give me the highlights. What do you mean, you died?"

"You saw how I was before, standing in your lab," Obake said, not fully looking at him. Hiro nodded. "In a few hours, you and your friends stopped me, drowned the star. My base was collapsing, and I…stayed. I didn't want to live with my failure. Instead all of this happens, and now I get to watch myself destroy it all again."

Hiro bowed his head a little…looked back up, determination etched on his face, scooted forward.

"No you're not," Hiro insisted. "Because we're going to stop him. Now what do we do?"

Look at him, searching his face…there. No experience, raw emotion…but that was the steel that had laid Obake low the first time.

Here was hoping it would carry him through a second time.

"First, we need to get you suited up."