Disclaimer: I do not own Big Hero 6.

I needed to post something. I just went through a life shattering experience for the first time in years (not the good kind) and it's shaken me. I don't have a completed chapter for any of my other stories so I decided to finally put this up. Enjoy and please leave a review.

When Death Comes Knocking

Chapter One

Grief

It's all my fault . . .

Tadashi clutched the slightly singed ball cap in his hands, staring blankly at the red box that held his latest creation. He had built it for Hiro because his little brother couldn't seem to keep himself from getting hurt. It had taken him years of research. He'd been planning to show it to the kid . . . but his brother would never get the chance to see it.

Because he was dead. Gone. He wasn't coming back.

If I hadn't pushed him to attend my school this wouldn't have happened.

He hadn't expected it. There was no warning, no last good-by. One moment he was there, standing beside him and the next . . . the next Tadashi realized that he would never see him again, because the fire took him.

Just like it took mom and dad.

The fire had stolen his parents, and now it had ripped his brother from him too, the brother he had promised to protect, all those years ago. The brother he had failed to save.

All my fault.

The hat twisted in his hand, wrinkling and stretching. Then, so suddenly that it made him jump, the strong material ripped. Tadashi stared down at the hat blankly, turning it slowly to see the front, where the logo for his school was now torn in half, ruined.

Just like his school had been ruined.

Tadashi tried to hold it in, he really did, but the sob slipped from him before he could contain it. He blinked tears from his eyes, more sobs forcing their way after the first as he pulled the hat to his chest. Gasping breaths pulled air into his burning lungs only for it to get stolen away again and again.

Doubling over and shoving his head into his pillow Tadashi cried for the first time since his parents died. He cried for his parents, for Hiro, for the life his little brother would never get to have.

He cried until he could cry no more and then fell into an uneasy, exhausted sleep where his dreams tortured him with the image of the smiling face of his brother going up in flames.

I'm so sorry, Hiro.

0~o~0

They laughed as they walked out of the school campus and Tadashi reached out to ruffle his brother's hair.

"Did you see that!?" Hero laughed, dodging out of reach and nearly skipping ahead, "Did you see there faces? They totally weren't expecting that!"

Tadashi smiled fondly. "You were amazing Hiro."

Hiro grinned back at him. "So, where are we going to celebrate?"

Shrugging and shivering ever so slightly as the wind blew past him Tadashi replied, "You might want to tell Aunt Cass first."

"Oh, right! We haven't told her what I've been working on yet! She'll be so excited when I show her . . ." he paused as he touched the top of his head only to find the thin band that had encircled his head was gone. Groaning softly Hiro turned to Tadashi and sighed, "I must have left the nano-transmitter back in the school."

Tadashi laughed and shook his head. "Go grab it. I'll wait right here till you get back."

The grin was back on Hiro's face. "Thank's Tadashi," he chirped and then dashed back toward the entrance.

Tadashi watched him slip through the doors and couldn't help but feel a shiver of fear go up his spine. Most of the people had already left and there were only a few stranglers for now. Shrugging the feeling off he turned as he saw his lab friends making their way toward him.

"That was wicked!" Fred shouted, pumping his fist in the air and drawing strange looks from the people around him, "Hiro completely floored them!"

"Speaking of the squirt," Gogo popped the bubblegum she had been blowing, "where is he?"

Joining his friends as they drifted away from the school slightly and toward the front lawn, just out of sight of the entrance, Tadashi answered, "He went back to grab the controller."

Wasabi nodded knowingly, "Good thinking. You don't want to leave that kind of stuff lying around."

Tadashi laughed and tried to force the foreboding back down again. "I'm sure that wouldn't happen. At a convention like this there are probably lots of guards making sure nothing gets stolen."

Wasabi shrugged. "You never know."

"Hey, guys," Honey Lemon suddenly spoke up, her gaze focused back toward the school, "Why are there people running out of the building."

Fear flooding back, Tadashi shot up from his sitting position on the grass – when had they sat down? – and looked back the way they had come. Sure enough, the last of the people were running from the building and behind them a wall of flames lit up the inside of the school.

"Hiro!" the cry was past Tadashi's mouth before it even made it to his brain and he was already rushing forward. Now that he knew what was happening, he could hear the distinct crackling of fire, oh so familiar. "Hiro, where are you?!"

Please have made it out. Please have made it out already . . .

"Hiro!" he searched the crowed but the distinct thin, black haired boy was nowhere to be seen. Catching a lady that looked vaguely familiar on the arm as she rushed past he quickly gasped out, "Did everyone make it out?"

She shook her head and looked back at the building. "Professor Callaghan is still in there."

"What about a kid, about fourteen years old, black hair, and gave a presentation?"

She shook her head again, turning back to him, "I . . . I don't know . . ."

Letting her go Tadashi dashed to the steps. If there was even a chance that his brother was in that raging inferno he knew that he had to go in. He couldn't leave his brother alone. Not again.

Half way up the staircase Tadashi spotted Hiro staggering forward out of the fire, coughing and pulling his shirt up over his mouth.

"Hiro!" Tadashi ran forward, reaching toward his brother, who was still far from the entrance of building, as if he could pull him the last couple of yards.

The flames flared upward and Hiro's eyes widened as he glanced behind him in fear. Tadashi couldn't see what he was looking at and didn't particularly care as he tried to find a way around the flames.

"Hiro! Can you-" his sentence was broken off by an explosion. In his shock he felt the warm air and fire slam into him, sending him flying backwards. His head hit the pavement with a loud crunch and his vision wavered.

The last thing he saw before everything went black was his cap fluttering to the ground and the building collapsing in on itself.

0~o~0

Tadashi slammed the helmet on his head and kicked off from the curb, roaring away into the night on his motorbike, not seeing the sad gaze of his aunt watching him go.

The bike squealed around the turns at a much faster speed than they should probably be taken but Tadashi didn't care. If he died at that moment he would have actually been grateful, anything that would help him to escape from this world that haunted him with reminders.

Hiro's bed was empty, his workspace too clean. There were no bits and peaces scattered around to pick up and, when Tadashi woke up in the middle of the night, there was no brother willing to listen to him and talk him back to sleep after a nightmare.

Another turn left black skid marks of the faded road.

He just had to get away for a little bit.

Hiro and Cass had been his whole world, ever since his parents died. Friends were great and all but they could only help so much. And now . . . now one of his anchors was gone, just like his parents.

Tadashi let out a yell of anger and jerked his handlebars around another corner, but this time he was going too fast and his bike tipped on its side and started to skid, Tadashi kicking away just in time. The bike slammed into the side of a large, abandoned storage house and shattered the rotting planks.

Groaning, Tadashi rolled onto his back and stared up at the sky. Typical for the city the glow from traffic and other lights blocked out the stars, leaving it a blank canvas of darkness. Once again he felt tears seep out of the corners of his eyes and he closed them, feeling his breath hitch.

This isn't what Hiro would want.

Tadashi knew that, but for the moment he wanted to grieve. He wanted to remember the brother that he loved so much without the regret of creating the events that lead to his death.

If only –

Something rattled and Tadashi jerked upward into a sitting position, grabbing his arm with a hiss as the bruised shoulder was jostled. Glancing around and not seeing anyone, nor recognizing where he was, he struggled to his feet and backed toward his bike.

There was another rattle, this time from behind him, and Tadashi spun around, looking at the hole that his bike had created in the side of the building. From the shadows something moved and his eyes fixed on it, only for him to freeze.

What in the –

A microbot, one that looked exactly like the ones he had helped Hiro create, rolled sluggishly along the ground toward the abandoned building. Breath coming quicker Tadashi reached down and grabbed the lone bot, holding it in his hands as he gazed into the darkness. Biting his lip, he contemplated what to do.

On one hand, these were supposed to have been destroyed . . . on the other, no one but he and Hiro knew how to make them. He had seen Hiro die. So who . . .

From within the darkness there was another shift and Tadashi made his decision as he felt the bot in his hand nudge forward. Darting into the hole and blinking his eyes to adjust he just barely held back a gasp at what he saw.

Microbots. There were hundreds of them popping out of machines and into barrels one by one. What had started as a few garbage cans was now an army. And, behind it all, a tall man stood in completely black clothing. Except for the white mask that hid his face, there was no color against the black, moving, backdrop.

The mask moved, the man behind it looking up, and Tadashi didn't stick around to see what would happen. Grabbing his bike he dove back out of the hole and hopped on. He started it and kicked off just as a black swarm of technology stabbed at the place he had been.

Speeding away, Tadashi only had one thought on his mind.

The fire wasn't and accident . . . someone murdered my brother.

0~o~0

Please review. I'm feeling kind of down on life . . .

(Updated 10/4/2016)