Inescapable

"Would you look at that, the shrimp actually managed to get away from his guard dog." Gogo's dry remark met him the moment he stepped off of Baymax's back, the thrill of finally being in the air once more, still coursing through his veins. It had been a long time since Hiro had experienced the freedom flying gave him and he was only just beginning to realize how much he missed it.

"Yeah, I finally made it." Hiro agreed walking over towards Gogo, his purple armor gleaming in the sunlight. He chose to let the shrimp comment slide, not really willing to argue a point that was in essence true. He was, and always would be short, after all. "And you wouldn't believe how hard it was to get away." He added with a scowl. "Tadashi has been watching my every move. I go to the kitchen to make a sandwich and he conveniently develops a craving for coffee. I try to work on projects in our room and he suddenly wants to lie down and rest. I decide to sneak off to the garage and he decides he's left something there that he urgently needs. And if all of that wasn't enough, he even follows me to the toilet! The toilet, I tell you, the toilet! He pretends to straighten picture frames that are already dead straight. Dead straight, I tell you!" Hiro exclaimed, waving his arms about. He was rambling. He knew he was rambling but he didn't care. He'd been struggling to get away for days and really needed to vent his frustrations. "It's crazy!"

"Hiro…" His name rolled smoothly off of Honey Lemon's tongue and just the sound of it was enough to calm a small portion of his frayed nerves because he knew her next words were probably going to be filled with her usual wisdom and understanding. "I know you're frustrated but you need to put yourself in his shoes. You've both just lived through a very traumatic event and he's just worried about you. Just give him some time to deal with it all."

Honey Lemon was right. Hiro knew she was right. However, time was something they didn't really have a lot of at this stage. Callaghan was out there, intent on vengeance and each minute that passed only brought him closer to fulfilling his plan. "Yeah, but he should be resting." Hiro grumbled. "He's the one currently nursing a bunch of burn wounds, not me. My only injuries were some smoke inhalation and a bump to the head and he's acting like he's worried that I'm going to disappear on him."

"Maybe, that's because he is."

"What?" Hiro blinked, his brain grinding to a standstill. Honey Lemon's words threw him off guard and it took him a moment to process that she was disagreeing with him.

"He's probably watching you so closely because he is worried you're going to disappear on him." Honey Lemon clarified misinterpreting Hiro's confusion. She obviously thought he hadn't understood her statement and was working really hard to bridge the gap only he had understood what she was saying. Well, the individual words made sense. What didn't make sense was the why of it. Why was Tadashi afraid that Hiro was going to disappear when he hadn't lived through the traumatic events Hiro had? Or, more accurately, didn't remember living through any of them.

"But... but why?" His confusion slipped out before he could do anything to stop it, his now rather infamous mind to mouth filter so broken it may as well not exist. Wait… maybe it didn't exist? All this time he'd thought it was a software issue when in actual fact it may have been a hardware issue all along. Go figure.

"Okay, so let's break things down." Honey Lemon calmly switched tactics, clearly intending to guide Hiro to the conclusion she had already reached. "Tadashi doesn't know about any of this, does he?" She pointed at the team that was now gathered on Akuma Island, fully decked out and ready to battle. Although a bit dented and scratched following their altercation at the SFIT showcase, their armor still managed to shine, Gogo's yellow complimenting the green in Wasabi's and Fred's suits and Honey Lemon's pink serving as an interesting contrast.

Hiro shook his head, the gears in his mind already turning. He suspected he already knew where Honey lemon was going with all of this but decided to remain silent, carefully processing the information she was giving him.

"He doesn't know that you've decided to form a super hero team. He doesn't know that you've dragged us into it. He doesn't know that you've stolen and reprogrammed his final year project and he doesn't know that you've decided to hunt down some kind of super villain. So it's a little unfair to expect him to understand where you're coming from, don't you think?"

Honey Lemon's words stirred a flash hurt within him triggering a defensive reaction that in turn spurred an objection. "I can't tell him any of this because…" Only he was not given the chance to voice it fully.

Honey Lemon raised a finger forestalling the rest of Hiro's protest. "We know why you've decided not to tell him anything and even though we don't entirely agree with you, we've decided to respect your decision. For now, at least. We're doing a lot of things Tadashi would disagree with. He's really big on following the rules which sometimes works against him but he has a big heart and is right more often than most of us would care to admit but I digress. According to him, you nearly died in that showcase fire." Honey Lemon paused for effect, the fire and conviction in her eyes piercing Hiro right to the core. "He somehow managed to find out that you were presenting at the SFIT showcase. Probably from your Aunt. This likely drove him to rush over to campus only to arrive to a scene that was probably straight out of some kind of nightmare."

Did you also dream about a fire at the SFIT showcase?

Honey Lemon's words hit home. More that she would ever realize because Hiro knew Tadashi had been having dreams about the showcase fire and that really bothered Hiro. He didn't want Tadashi to remember. Not the fire, not the pain and most of all not the agony of dying over and over again. One mentally unstable Hamada was more than enough after all.

"He probably spent some time frantically searching for you. When he couldn't find you, he assumed you were still trapped inside the burning building. He then ran in to rescue you and you know what happened after that. If Baymax hadn't told us which way the two of you were headed, we never would have gotten to the two of you in time."

Never would have gotten to the two of you in time…

Amber flames flared to life in his mind, flickering, dancing and taunting him with their presence. Wispy tendrils of agony reached out and latched onto his skin, ravenous and unforgiving in their bid to devour his very essence. They stripped him bare, tearing through skin, muscle and bone but none of that mattered because the physical pain couldn't begin to compare to the emotional and mental strain. He was dying, drowning in agony and despair as he fought to retain what little sanity he still had left. He'd failed. He'd failed to save his brother again and again and that failure was causing his brother pain. If only he'd gotten things right the first time, if only he'd run into that building instead of Tadashi, if only he hadn't wasted a year of his life bot fighting… if only he didn't exist…

"Breathe." A familiar voice filtered into his panic stricken mind, its tone calm and collected. "Long and slow. In through your nose." Hiro breathed in, air rushing into his lungs, filling them to capacity as he subconsciously began to follow the gentle instructions that were being directed at him. "Now count to three." One… two… three… whoosh. His breathe escaped him through parted lips a mere moment before he was given the instruction to do so. "And breathe out through your mouth." He knew this routine. Had done it countless times before and the sheer familiarity of it grounded and stabilized him once more.

He was in Baymax's arms, surrounded by their familiar gentle strength and it took him a moment to realize that he was slumped against the healthcare companion's chest. "Thanks Baymax." He whispered, gathering his senses.

"You are my patient. Your well being is my primary concern." Baymax's response soothed him, giving him the strength to stand. Pushing against the healthcare companion's armor, Hiro regained his feet and turned to face the rest of the gang once more, squaring his shoulders in determination only to pause in reaction to the horror he could see spread across Honey Lemon's features.

"I'm sorry." Honey Lemon whispered. "Oh Hiro, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean…"

And this time it was Hiro's turn to silence her. "It's okay, Honey." He licked his lips and made his way to her side. "It's complicated but…" He leaned in and wrapped his arms around her waist, embracing her in a bid to comfort both her and himself. "You are not wrong. I need to give Tadashi time to deal with all of this."

"I think…" Honey Lemon paused and he could feel the nervous tension in her body. "I think he's not the only one that needs time to deal with all of this." The words escaped her in a rush and she too offered comfort, lightly returning Hiro's embrace.

Hiro allowed himself a moment, reveling in the warmth of her arms and the affection she was offering him before squaring his shoulders once more and withdrawing. As unexpected and touching as the moment was they really didn't have the time for it. "Okay, now that we've got that out of the way…" He cleared his throat, shifting awkwardly while his mind scurried to work past the unexpected confrontation and focus back onto the task at hand. "We have a mission to accomplish." Hiro turned to face the entrance to the secret lab located on Akuma island only to blink in surprise at the chaos that met his gaze. The ground was sliced, charred and covered in a myriad of colorful goo forming a very distinct and very familiar circle.

"Um… we encountered a Pigeon." Wasabi volunteered awkwardly, interpreting Hiro's silence as a question.

"I see." Hiro replied, fighting really hard to keep his expression bland only to lose to the smile that made its way to his lips. Some things, it seemed, really didn't change.

"We, uh… fought it off." Wasabi continued to volunteer information. "We can't… uh… have it contaminating the crime scene right? It's very unhygienic."

The smile continued to spread, transforming into an all-out grin. "Unhygienic? I see…" Hiro continued his tacit agreement enjoying the sight of Wasabi awkwardly trying to explain their way out of the situation far too much to give him an easy way out of the conversation. Unfortunately, Gogo was not of the same opinion.

"Oh just tell him the damned bird scared us and move on with it." She growled, marching past everyone to make her way over towards the door. "So, genius," She directed her next statement at Hiro. "How do we get in here?"

A flicker of regret coursed through him when Gogo ended the awkward moment but didn't linger long as his attention was once more brought back to the task at hand highlighting a very important question that he really didn't want to face. Why was he letting himself get distracted so easily?

The regret was quickly followed by a sudden rush of anxiety that flooded in to answer his unspoken question mere moments after it occurred to him. He was scared. Hiro was terrified to enter that building. The uncertainty of what could possibly await them there was eating away at his core because he knew it couldn't possibly be the same. There was no way it was going to be the same, right? Not after the drastic change saving Tadashi's life must have had on his current timeline?

He licked dry lips, rested his palms on the door and took a deep breath, gathering the courage to set the next scene into motion. "Wasabi gets to use his lasers to cut through the door."

"I do?" Wasabi squeaked, looking like a deer caught in headlights when everyone turned to face him.

"You do." Hiro confirmed before taking a deep breath and stepping away from the door once more. He fell silent, his body taught as he continued to fight the fear and anxiety that threatened to overwhelm him and waited… waiting for his words to sink in and for Wasabi to gather the courage to do what he needed to do.

Surprisingly, he didn't have to wait very long. Drawing on the inner courage Hiro already knew he possessed, Wasabi stepped forward and sliced through the door. The blade cut through the metal with ease and the scent of molten metal quickly filled the air in reaction to the awkward circle Wasabi was cutting into the door and its frame. It was perfectly imperfect. The tool Wasabi had worked so hard on proved its efficiency while at the same time advertising Wasabi's lack of art skills and it had to be driving Wasabi crazy. The circle was far from perfect and barely even resembled a round object but it was sufficient, a single re-adjustment effectively granting them access onto government property they probably should not be trespassing on.

Note to self… don't let Wasabi know we're trespassing on the grounds of a major secret government experiment.

"Six intrepid friends led by Fred, their leader, Fred." As expected, Fred began to sing only a few steps into the oppressive silence that dominated the facility, his voice softly echoing softly through the space around them.

"Fred's angels. Hmm, hmm, hmm. Fred's angels. Hmm, hmm, hmm." Hiro joined him, the lyrics deeply ingrained into his mind. Fred turned to him and beamed like a maniac, not even surprised that Hiro already knew the words to a song he was basically inventing on the spot. "Harnessing the power of the sun with the ancient amulet they found in the attic." Their combined voice slowly got louder, the excitement in Fred's tone an interesting compliment to the nostalgia in Hiro's. "Hmm, hmm, hmm. The amulet is green. Hmm, hmm, hmm. It's probably an emerald…"

"When did the two of you have time to come up with that stupid song?" Gogo growled, cutting the song off in the exact same place Wasabi had all those timelines ago. "If you have enough time to invent theme songs, maybe you should focus on something more constructive instead."

"I'll have you know that I just invented this song right now!" Fred retorted, puffing his chest out defensively. "And it's not stupid! It's ingenious. It takes a special kind of genius to be able to invent such awesome lyrics basically on the spot!"

"Really?" Gogo's reply was skeptic. "Then how does the shrimp know the lyrics to your so called 'improvised'" She threw air quotes in for good measure, "song?"

"I thought that much was obvious!" Fred continued, not even phased by Gogo's question. "Hiro's a time traveler. He must have heard me invent it in one of the other timelines he's lived through! Right?" He turned to Hiro, seeking confirmation.

Hiro gave him a wan smile and chose to neither confirm nor deny the statement. They had, after all, had this conversation before and if the gang still didn't believe him after all the evidence he had displayed to support his claims, additional arguments were unlikely to make a difference.

"Hiro?" His name was rolling off of Honey Lemon's tongue once more, her Latino accent lending it an interesting sound and that where she left it, leaving the rest of her question unspoken.

He should ignore it; pretend he didn't notice or didn't understand only he couldn't. He understood her unspoken question and even though he knew he was probably wasting his breath trying to fight a cause he had already fought before; he couldn't help but react. "I think the evidence should speak for itself." He whispered, turning to walk into the lab space that had held project silent sparrow, the confidence with which he moved a clear indication that he was already intimately acquainted with the space.

His heart fell when his response was met with silence and his mind was so distracted by the conversation that it took him a few moments to register what his eyes were telling him.

Gone.

Hiro stumbled to a halt, his figure small in the vacant space that surrounded him. The remaining portal that had not been damaged by the failed teleportation experiment was already gone!

"Damn it, Callaghan!" Hiro threw his head back and yelled, the expletive echoing through the vast empty lab space. "Why?!"

And with those bitter words he filled the space, with grief, rage and sheer desperation, the emotions so thick, their very presence was felt by everyone.

"Hiro…" His name rolled off of Honey Lemon's tongue.

"Hiro…" Her Latino accent lent it an interesting accent.

"Hiro, I've been meaning to ask." Only this time she did not leave her question unspoken. "What does Callaghan have to do with all of this?"

- BH6 - BH6 - BH6 –

A/N: And I shall leave it here because this is where this chapter wants to end… I must say, Hiro is in a very weird head-space at the moment. Maybe it's contagious and he caught it from me? I mean, it had to go somewhere right?

SweetWritingIsMyLife: I know right? That was also my favorite part... Especially the Hi..oh part where he realizes it half way through saying his brother's name band the 'oh' part still sounds close to the 'ro' part of the name XD.

Interviner: Yeah, it was good to write Aunt Cass again... even if it was only for a single guest cameo appearance. She really is a breath of fresh air. I also love Hiro venting his frustration! XD. I hope the beginning and the end of this chapter satisfied your need for a little Hiro madness.

Rizarora: Thank you so much XD. This story really affects me emotionally when I write and I am glad to see readers are enjoying it. I am glad you are enjoying Yuri on Ice. I must say, the show has managed to surprise me a few times. It's a lot more in your face with its innuendos than I expected it to be and I love it! I wanted Cheer Danshi and enjoyed it was well but am not really a big fan of Starmyu. It follows the traditional 'idol' formula too much to grab my interest. XD

14fox: The possibility is not very high so we should consider ourselves special to have been part of the freak occurrence :P. Which you appear to be trying to replicate. Sadly, I have not reached chapter 77777 yet so we can't have 7 of these. There is nothing with being a nerd. I've been a nerd all my life and I LOVE it. Keeps life interesting! Especially when half your life is in your head. (Tries to silence the additional voices that are adding their two cents to this conversation and fails. hehe...) I have a friend who is a total Marvel fan. Drives me crazy sometimes but you gotta love them. I like you am more into books, anime, art and dance. I agree that Aunt Cass is AWESOME. I like how she manages to change her nephews' perspectives so easily without realizing she is doing so which made it fun to add her to the story. As for the virus... what virus? * Acts innocent * Enjoy the song * Insert evil grin here *

Kitty Chesire: Sorry about the lack of email address. I forgot that this website likes to automatically remove that kind of information from the story. I understand why they do it but it drives me crazy because I am not posting viruses! I have posted the email address on my profile page so you can retrieve it from there. PM refers to private messages that users can send each other from this site. In order to do this, you need to have a fanfiction account. It allows the users to send messages directly to each other and kind of works like an email only its specific to this website.

You won't be able to read Yuri on Ice. It is not a manga. It is an anime. I tried looking for the manga after it was released but it appears to have been created without one. But if you want to read manga online you can do it on mangafox. I have a crappy iPhone too and it works on mine XD.

P.S: I have not checked out the rest of Three Day's Grace songs yet as I have not had time. I am a bit swamped with work and dance exam preparation but will look into it as soon as I get a breather. I'm glad you liked the ONE OK ROCK recommendation. They are my favorite band! Yes, I have heard of Gravity Falls. No I am not a fan. My brother watched an episode on my PC and I immediately wanted to purge my PC to remove all traces of it :P

P.P.S: I'm glad you are reading my other story too. I hope you enjoy it! Aunt Cass appreciates the help with the dishes :P

Taurus: YAY! * Dances around the confetti in glee. * Celebration! Especially since this story is actually longer than my first one! HUGS. Tadashi was not pulling on Hiro's hair. He was only clenching his fingers around it in order to clutch it but he may have inadvertently pulled a little... Hiro apparently sleeps like a log XD XD XD.

P.S: It's not actually anime logic there. It all depends on how hard he hit his face. It is possible to only black out for a moment and continue the routine. Not fun but possible.

P.P.S: Yeah, still haven't watched Twin Spirit Detectives but I have downloaded it. I have, however, also downloaded and binge watched ALL of Soul Contract! What on earth did you do to me WOMAN?! I stayed up till two in the morning! TWO! On a WORK DAY! It was awesome and I want MOOOOORE. I also tracked down the manga. There are over 150 chapters but they have only translated 7 * I'm crying... crying I tell you! * And strangely enough watching the anime in Chinese was not weird for me. Probably because I have watched several Chinese and Korean series in the past so I'm already used to the sound of the language.

P.P.P.S: Thanks for the recommendation. I have listened to the song and I agree, the lyrics do work well with Big Hero 6 but I do not actually like the song and am of the opinion the girl that's singing either needs to get some voice lessons or needs to quit singing altogether. She sounds a bit off key to me. Glad I was able to convert you over to ONE OK ROCK though!

Morgan K'Treva: Thanks. I'm glad you are still enjoying this piece.

SharKohen: Yup, turns out that Aunt Cass is crazy wise... and ironically she is not even trying all that hard. She really loves her big boys and will do anything for them! She doesn't know about BH6 at the moment and I am not sure if she will find out yet. I'm currently leaning towards no.

Tsuki no Shijima: Hiro is trying really hard not to break down in front of Tadashi at this stage. It isn't working very well but he's trying. He really wants to sort out this thing with Callaghan so he can stop worrying about Tadashi's life being in danger.

Lacila: That's because in my opinion Aunt Cass is smarter than she lets on. She just chooses to let her nephews make their own mistake with the intent of interfering only when absolutely necessary. Like when they get arrested for instance. I also loved how she schooled Tadashi. She managed to do it with so much finesse. It's what makes her so special. As for the stove incident... Tadashi would like to offer up an explanation...

Tadashi: That's because Hiro was sick and really wanted chocolate cookies. I went to the café only to find out Aunt Cass's batch was sold out and she wasn't home to bake anymore. I figured it couldn't be that hard and decided to… ect.

Cringey Claire: Thanks XD.

justsomeone: I like all versions of Hiro. Naughty, broken, silly, cheeky, sad, happy... I could go on and on. * HUGS HIRO CLOSE * He knows it's bad to keep all the pressure inside but he doesn't really know who he can share things with at the moment. Every time he tries people don't really believe him and he's reached the point where he's not even sure trying to convince them is worth the effort anymore. I enjoyed writing the conversation between Tadashi and Aunt Cass. It was an interesting chapter that really served to highlight that Tadashi and Hiro are a lot more alike than either of them realizes. Both are impulsive, deadly loyal to their family and friends and ready to give up their lives for what they believe in. Ironically both of them are also struggling with nightmares and memories of fire as well. P.S: YAY! ANOTHER fan! Three readers converted to ONE OK ROCK in one foul swoop! * Insert evil laugh here *