Chapter 65, everybody! Ohhh it's going to get intense we're at the climax chapter!
Tadashi's kind of quoting Guardians of the Galaxy there. Also Fred's conversation references the RayneAuster fic Ctrl-Z that inspired this fic—Fred figured the time-travelling Hiro out there too, and for the same reason. XD
In other news, I had been massively looking forward to the Obake VS Obake scene when writing and now I'm happy to share it. :D Also, Obake took Baymax along because he figures a robot will follow orders.
Juxshoa, thanks for the review! Yes! Finally! And of course—Fred's smarter than people (Obake) give him credit for. XD
Big Hero 6 © 2014 Disney
By the time the others returned, Obake had already sketched out the designs for the original Big Hero Six's armor and was busy arguing over whether to include Tadashi as the 3D printers worked overtime.
"No," Obake insisted for the umpteenth time. "No he wasn't involved the first time around we are not factoring him in now."
"You're going," Hiro countered.
"I have unfinished business."
"Okay you two—no arguing, we don't have time, yes, I'm going," Tadashi said, pushing them apart and glaring at Obake—everything from before erased, now nothing but distrust and anger, from all of them except perhaps Fred and Baymax. "Seeing as how I live in this city, I have a vested interest in saving it."
"By that logic you should invite your aunt along."
"Hey my dude which one is mine?" Fred asked, wedging himself in before either Hamada could counter. "DUDE is that one mine that one is totally mine you gotta walk me through all the fun stuff while Hiro gets the others going."
Obake narrowed his eyes at Fred, sensing the obvious attempt at stalling a fight…sighed and followed him when he realized he was right, as much as it galled him. Right now they didn't have time to be arguing.
Did have time for at least one question after he was done setting Fred up.
"I'm still confused on how you figured it out," he said to Fred. "How did you figure it out? When?"
"Like…fully convinced was shortly after the painting," Fred said. "I mean I had some questions before but when you basically predicted it getting stolen that was like, the proof for all my questioning. It's kinda why when villain-you showed up at the Shimamoto house I accidentally-on-purpose bumped into him and stepped on his glasses. Also, I'm telling you this because I know you'll appreciate it, you can be very scary—both before and after the whole redemption arc."
"Good," he said flatly. "Glad I have that effect."
"See? Knew it. Also, in case we like, totally fail and you get sent back on the feedback loop, for future reference maybe don't know where I live? Also actually react to my painting my dude you not even batting an eye at it was a major tipoff."
Oh joy, failure had a bigger penalty than death. "I can't do this a third time, Fred."
"Well I have good news!" Fred said, eagerly pulling out the cap to his costume. "We're going to rock so awesome that you won't have to! Fredzilla lives again!"
Obake rolled his eyes at Fred kissing the eye on the costume, looked away—
Maybe he wouldn't have to. These people were much better off, maybe. And after today, they definitely wouldn't want him around anymore.
My character probably won't survive this story.
Look at the helmet he had machined up. But it doesn't matter. What matters is stopping him no matter what. And if that requires sacrificing myself, well, then, so be it.
It's a small price to pay for everything I've taken.
Tadashi ended up joining them.
"So what's the plan?" he asked, like his presence there wasn't completely needling.
"Hiro and Fred are to get the kaiju," Obake said, pointedly ignoring him. "Honey Lemon is to start protecting against the tsunami. The rest of you start clearing out the shores and get ready for interference."
"And you?"
"You'll be needing a distraction," Obake said sternly. "Someone to keep the attention off the monitors long enough to get things done." Could see the brothers exchanging concerned glances. "I'll be needing to borrow Baymax to get to the entrance."
Tadashi's expression suggested that that, over anything, was the big sign that he was dead serious. If he had been avoiding Baymax for so long, then asking for him now…nod finally.
"Okay! Ooh wait we need to do like, a hand thing," Fred suggested. "Like we all put our hands together and say something awesome."
Oh good grief. "Leave that for after," Obake told him. "Give you something to look forward to if we survive this."
"If, he says," Gogo muttered.
"We will survive this," Honey Lemon insisted. "We can't afford to fail."
"And when the guy sends the killer robots, what then?" Wasabi demanded.
Obake gave him a flat glare. "You're smart kids, you'll figure it out."
Tadashi nodded, looked them over. "Any other questions?" he asked, causing Obake to twitch and glance at Hiro, unable to keep from thinking that the wrong brother was taking point.
"I feel like I'm going to be sick," Wasabi said.
"That's not a question, but okay," Tadashi said. Deep breath—look at Obake. "We're as ready as we're going to be, and everything else at this point is going to be dithering."
Grit his teeth at the callback, nod once. "It's been a pleasure."
And now, it was time to end this.
Hiro was vibrating with nerves as he and Fred retrieved the Kaiju.
"I don't know why I had to come on this one," Hiro said.
"Probably a combo of we did it like this before, you know how to run this better than most of us, and keeping you safe," Fred suggested. "That sort of thing."
Grit his teeth, beat back his conflicting feelings, the old rut of he's your friend but he lied to you having to deal with the whole two Obakes thing and whatever had happened to him he was so getting the full story when this was all over with—
"Okay I'm at the lighthouse," Tadashi said over the comms—Hiro looked that way as they turned the Kaiju towards the bay, could see Baymax flying away. "Hold on—got it! I'm getting out!"
Please work please work please work, Hiro begged as Fred pumped his fists nervously—Obake had said it wouldn't matter but they had to try—if they got there in time then—
A pinprick of light started over the lighthouse, started growing even as they watched, swelling in size—
"I told you," Obake sighed. "It has to be drowned."
"Well that's what we're here for!" Fred declared, grabbing the controls. "Come on, Hiro! It's Kentucky Kaiju versus Evil Star time!"
Hiro nodded, hunkered down, hands flitting across the controls, a different thought aimed skywards now.
Please let everyone be safe.
Obake knew, when they dropped Tadashi off with the admonition to disable the device and run, that hoping they had made it there in time had been a thin hope indeed.
Now, it was keeping him from stopping Hiro and Fred from drowning the star as the others did damage control.
Now…it was time to confront his past mistakes.
"You don't need to follow me," Obake told Baymax as he brute-forced his way through the elevator controls—all his old failsafes were in place, but there was no keeping someone out who had coded and wired the place himself.
"You will need assistance," Baymax insisted. "Leaving you to face this yourself would have a: negative, impact on your health."
"You know me so well." Deep breath when the elevator opened, square his shoulders and march forward through the halls of his nightmares—there was no putting this off, this had to be done. Motion for Baymax to hang back…make the turn.
"Well I can't say I didn't expect this," he said as Obake entered his old lair—turned to face him, hale and hearty and whole and not looking like a corpse festering in rubble and bay water.
Yet.
"But I must say the goon squad is a surprise," he said, leaning back on the console, jerking his chin at the monitors depicting the others fighting a sea of robots and beating back the microbots—Obake winced at Wasabi suddenly being pitched against Momakase, grateful that his helmet was hiding his expressions. Narrow his eyes, face flaring. "Now, you mind explaining yourself?"
Ah, what a question. "I'm your past and future, come back to haunt you."
"Oh I can't wait to hear this one explained."
"Can't you?" Rip the helmet off, glaring at him. "You know this plan is flawed—you know this will end in ruin. And I know you don't care," he said, when his old self opened his mouth to counter. "Because you lack the means to tell right from wrong, or so you've been told—brain damage from our little accident with the energy amplifier prototype. It's why we outsourced to that boy—either he succeeded and we got what we wanted, or he failed and the thorn in our side was gone."
"What is this we business?" he demanded, straightening up, fists clenched. "Whoever you are, whatever you are—at best you're a mistake, an aberration, something that shouldn't exist."
"Good, we agree," Obake spat. "And this we business is that I'm you—Bob Aken, the damaged boy who convinced himself that he was the man with the plan. I did just what you're doing right now and I failed—because of them," he added, jabbing a finger at the screens. "Big. Hero. Six. The boy that you used to make the amplifier refused to take the destruction of the city lying down. You were defeated by children."
"Excuse me?"
Obake stiffened his legs as the other stalked forward. "You were defeated by a group of children and when that happened you gave up. You sat right there—" Jab a finger at the familiar seat. "And waited for the end to come. Except when that happened I didn't die. I ended up like this, forced to relive this past year, forced to see that there's more to life than what we convinced ourselves of, that destroying it all isn't the answer. And now…I'm here to stop you."
"Pathetic," he spat, towering over Obake now, the side of his face glowing solidly as he glared down at him. "I'm supposed to believe all that nonsense?"
"I don't really care if you do," Obake said, looking up at him, reflecting on how he was once upon a time. "It happened once. It's happening again. You will fail, just as I did."
The other looked pointedly at the screens, hands laced behind his back, gave a snarling grin as he turned back to Obake. "Oh, I very much doubt that."
Obake did too—the others weren't holding up too well, waves upon waves of robots stopping them, the Kaiju nearing but not quite close enough to launch—
"So I'm to understand that you're me, come to tell me the error of my ways," the other mocked. "If that were such the case, then why, pray tell, have you been so helpful? Half of this I can attribute to your misbegotten actions."
"Actually all of it can," Obake said. "But it ends now. Been enjoying those microbots?" Return the snarling grin, enjoying the other blinking and flinching back at the sight of Obake's own face flaring. "Did you remember to harden them against a virus attack?"
Start, glance at the screens—
One of the things Obake had done while preparing for this altercation was rig up some fresh microbots, something that had gone a lot faster once he got Hiro's help on it—infected with a stronger, more aggressive virus for the occasion, rigged to spread much faster than the one he had used to infect Callaghan's microbots—
And while he had his helmet off, yes, the way he had been wearing his hair had been enough to hide the neurotransmitter until this opportune moment.
He pieced it all together too—lunged for him—
Obake swung his helmet around, clocking him in the head and throwing him off course—dropped the helmet and launched at him, scrabbling for his throat as the other used his height to leverage the other way, one hand squeezing his throat as the other grabbed for the neurotransmitter—
The first of the microbots seized his legs and yanked, sending him sprawling and knocking the wind out of him, Obake on top—
Just in time for them to see the Kaiju hit the water, creating a tidal wave to drown the star, sending a rumbling through the lair—
"I have no doubt you shored the place up after the thing with Steamer," Obake hissed. "So you won't mind if I change that."
Eyes wide in terror at the implications of that—at the sound of the first of the supports failing—
"Baymax!" Obake barked, risking glancing over his shoulder at the red-clad robot, once again in the green lighting of his nightmares, his last moments. "Go to him. Tell him…tell him we were brilliant together."
Baymax didn't move. "I cannot deactivate unless you say you are satisfied with your care."
Obake looked down at himself, at that dawning realization, understanding—at himself, who would never understand what he had learned, would refuse to understand, refuse to learn and better himself.
Himself, with whom the world would be better off without. Narrow his eyes….
"I am satisfied with my care."
