Chapter 11, everybody! In which we explore the ramifications of the boys' actions….

So initially I had Granville down as the dean of robotics, but I've been rewatching season one and she's the dean of students so…oops quick fix.

Also it's worth mentioning that of all the Season One villains—and even a chunk of the Season Two villains—Big Hero Six is only directly responsible for Globby, and only from stealing Honey Lemon's chem purse; close second is Noodle Burger Boy being stolen and reprogrammed by Obake after Big Hero Six started being a thorn in his side. Everyone else had their own plans that they were putting into motion with or without Big Hero Six so…oops.

James the apple, thanks for the review! 1) it's coming, 2) he probably did ask and Tadashi shut him down ("we're not here about him, we're here about you"), 3) oh, it's coming….

Big Hero 6 © 2014 Disney

The rest of the summer went calmly enough, the boys working on perfecting the drone Baymax idea (still not calling it a Buzzmax) as San Fransokyo went into upheaval around them. Professor Callaghan turning up alive after having stolen Hiro's microbots and faked his death? Well that was a potent headline, but not one that really concerned people outside of certain circles. Abigail Callaghan turning up alive, after going through a portal and being lost, with no explanation as to how? Now that was a newsworthy story.

It was also one that intrigued Fred to no end.

"Think about it: lost daughter drove him to villainy, and then all of a sudden bam she's back from some alternate universe unharmed! This is so totally an awesome story it smacks of some superhero comic plot and I must know details," Fred announced after once again excitedly recounting the whole thing to the group at breakfast. Fortunately, Hiro had learned to keep his mouth shut, although Obake stomped on his foot under the table for good measure. Hiro elbowed him in response.

"Yeah I doubt we're ever going to get details," Wasabi said, as he had nearly every time Fred brought this up. "Government guys in suits coming in usually means details are going bye-bye."

"Which then brings up the question of are they with S.H.I.E.L.D. or Men in Black?" Fred mused. "And then—through a portal was what got out before everything got hush-hush swept under the rug—did she run into some alternate universe? Did some superhero team in some alternate universe decide to be helpful and send her back through?"

Technically yes, depending upon if Obake was leaning more towards alternate universe versus some time-travel shenanigans that day.

"Yeah, but…Professor Callaghan," Honey Lemon said. "What happens to him now?"

Obake and Hiro both shot surreptitious glances at Tadashi, who got stonily silent like he usually did when the topic was broached. The rest of the nerd herd simply assumed that he was taking the reveal that his favorite professor was slime poorly, which was fairly accurate—they, of course, did not need to know that Tadashi had already had the satisfaction of punching the man's lights out, nor did any of them need to know that Obake and Hiro had saved that clip, mostly for entertainment purposes.

"He goes to jail," Gogo said simply. "He stole Hiro's microbots, burnt down SFIT property, and faked his own death with the intent to do more theft, property damage, and potentially murder. He's not getting out for a long time."

"Which leaves the question of what happens when school starts," Wasabi said. "Seeing as how we're short a dean."

"No we're not," Gogo said, folding the paper she had been reading and showing them the article. "We've got a new dean of students—see here?"

Obake did, and he didn't like the bolt of ice that accompanied the sight of the picture she was showing. The picture, for the article, showing his old experiment on the desk of his old teacher.

"Professor Grace Granville," Honey Lemon read, taking the paper from Gogo and reading it. "She seems nice."

Ha—perhaps, once upon a time, before she had seen one of her students blow himself up. As before, he wondered at her reasoning for keeping his experiment, felt that perhaps he had gleaned the answer when he heard her talking to Hiro about why she was so insistent on limits—that dirty forbidden word.

But that could mean….

Shake that off, focus on the here and now. There was no point in worrying over a what-if.

Except…what if he did have more to worry about?

Hiro's first day at SFIT had him bouncing off the walls like a human gas molecule, which unfortunately resulted in Obake being awake sooner than he intended. It took a few cups of coffee before he could bring himself to pay closer attention to the whole Hamada excitement.

"But I guess that just leaves the question of you," Cass said, finally winding herself down to look at Obake.

"I'll find something to occupy my time with," he assured her.

"Uh-huh sure we'll find something for you to do," Tadashi said, ruffling his hair oi stop with the touchy business. "If I can get Hiro's skinny butt to school and doing something productive, I'm sure I can work you over."

"Get off me, you annoying nerd."

"Nope!" Cass said, buzzing by. "You're coming with, we're going to see the boys off and then maybe something fancy—breakfast," she added, handing them their plates. "Also lunch." This with bento boxes for the brothers. "And snacks, just in case—"

"Aunt Cass, you know they have cafeterias, right?" Tadashi asked.

"Yes but I know you boys you'll get on a tear and totally forget to eat—Baymax you're going to remind them, right?"

"I will set reminders for: breaks, and mealtimes," Baymax assured her.

"Good oh gosh what else am I forgetting I swear I'm forgetting something—"

"Your breakfast?" Obake asked drily.

"Thank you I knew I was forgetting something."

Excited buzzing wasn't dropping even after the trolley ride over and meeting up with the rest of the nerd herd—matter of fact, it went up, all of them yammering excitedly as they discussed their classes and took Hiro on the grand tour.

"Hey," Cass said, nudging him as the others surged ahead. "You seem down."

"I'm fine," he told her. "It only looks otherwise in comparison."

She gave him a wry look at that. "You sure it isn't because Hiro and Tadashi are going to be busy during the day and leave you by yourself?"

"Actually I'm looking forward to the quiet."

She huffed at that, gave him another evaluating look. "You know, after seeing what you boys did in the garage…you could go here too if you wanted to. Why didn't you try out?"

So many reasons, none of which he thought she really needed to know. Open his mouth to give her some bafflement answer, like it wasn't the right time—

"…I don't know."

Had to blink at this statement that came out instead, reflect on it—did he really want to bother himself with trying SFIT again, after how it ended last time? Perhaps, maybe, there was more going for attending again this time…but there were complications, such as Granville, and he really wasn't sure about the whole thing and when the opportunity had presented itself he had been preoccupied with other things still was preoccupied with other things he still wasn't sure what this was exactly—

And then what if—

Started at the sound of Granville coming over like she had been summoned by his thoughts, addressing the nerd herd and Hamada brothers, asking Hiro to come to her office later—

"What did I do?" Hiro asked blankly.

"Let's go with standard procedure for students that qualify as minors," Granville said—glanced over at Cass. "If the parental guardian wouldn't mind coming along and knocking this off the to-do list—"

"No problem," Cass said, waving—glanced over, blinked at the sight of Obake hiding behind Baymax, gave him a confused look when he waved her off. Watch as she left with Granville and Hiro, the rest of the nerd herd discussing this—

He had other places to be.

Slip off, feet finding the familiar paths, heading for the library. He was being stupid—the big obstacles were out of the way, he should be fine, maybe he should be trying for this big thing like Cass had suggested.

But…there was one thing he needed to check. Had to check. Some sneaking, worrying suspicion that kept nagging at the back of his head. Something that would confirm if he had gone back in time or sideways to another dimension or if he had completely lost it….No, come to think of it, this wouldn't confirm any of that at all.

What it would confirm was how much trouble he was in.

Finally found the yearbooks, started scanning for the right year—stomach filled with nervous icy butterflies as he pulled the right one down, went to the right level, the right section, started scanning through the A's….

Felt something much like his very last memory before waking up in this episode of The Twilight Zone when he saw the very thing he had been dreading: Bob Aken, under a picture of himself as a wide-eyed, naïve child.

There was already an Obake in this universe, this timeline—shelve the yearbook, go to the next one—please be there, please don't have—

Flipped through the whole thing, checked every possible page, sinking down to the floor as he searched…finally gave a dismayed gasp at a picture detailing the destruction and subsequent repair work to the labs.

There was already an Obake in this universe, this timeline, one who had gone and blown himself and a chunk of the campus up….

One who was probably already working his way to his planned endgame of the destruction of San Fransokyo. And he, genius that he was, had just removed the one obstacle to that goal.

"Oh," he gasped, curling in on himself there on the library floor. "Oh this isn't good."

They couldn't stay—they couldn't stay the city would be destroyed—but the Hamadas would never leave, and he could never explain it without implicating himself. He'd have to figure out a way to stop this—figure out a way to stop himself—

And he had maybe two months to do it in.