"Not so fast, uncle!"
A young girl's voice rang through the chamber-one that sounded all too familiar in your ears-and Callaghan turned away to face the person who spoke. Your eyes widened as the bully from your school, Trudy, entered the scene, wearing her typical school outfit with a slight smirk on her face.
The shock on your face must have also registered in Hiro's and Melanie's faces as well, though everyone else looked on with confusion.
"Trudy?" Melanie choked out. "What do you want?"
Trudy smiled evilly. "Oh, hello, new girl. Can't believe you actually managed to make friends with these people. You honestly should have joined my side. We could have had much fun-you, me, my uncle, together, destroying this group of nerds who have already lost hope of finding (Y/N). I mean, come on, she already died, didn't she? We already gave her the right treatment to finish her off. Now she's gone and would never come back."
There was dead silence in the room, and you couldn't believe your ears at this lie that Trudy had to spill. You squeezed Hiro's hand harder than ever, for fear that you were going to lose a grip on everything if you let go, or didn't hold tight enough.
"What do you mean, (Y/N)'s dead?" Hiro demanded.
"Come on," Trudy huffed. "Didn't you pass by her cell? Didn't you see that she escaped? Well, she did that out of misery, you fool. She cast herself off the island."
"And how exactly do you know?" Melanie asked.
"I saw with my own eyes."
"You liar!" you screamed, deactivating your invisibility mechanism to reveal yourself to Trudy.
The effect was immediate as you stood there now facing Trudy, a look of hatred and loathing and anger flashing in your eyes. Tense silence filled the chamber now as you stared her down, imagining that if you stared hard enough you could disintegrate her with high-voltage lasers from your eyes.
"No...(Y/N)?" Trudy's look of shock was unfortunately not enough for you to buy it.
"You thought I died," you said, your voice echoing through the chamber. "You thought that I would give up after my parents died. Well, guess what, Trudy. You're wrong. I have friends by my side, unlike you. Why do you want to make my life miserable?"
"Stop being ignorant, (Y/N)," Trudy sneered. "We all know of your father's rivalry with my uncle. Or maybe that would be vice versa." She then activated rocket boosters under her boots-how did she get rocket boosters in a normal outfit she wore everyday?-and joined Callaghan. "See my uncle here?" she asked, pointing to Callaghan. "My uncle, yes, he was the one who put the poison in your father's wine, and he was the one who forced your mom to think dark thoughts. He triggered her. She wasn't so easy to manipulate, but manipulate her we did."
"YOU DRUGGED HER?" you screamed in terror, all confidence now completely shattered away. "WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY MOM?!"
The entire group sensed your fear as you screamed, and huddled closer to you.
"Why is that important?" Trudy asked you.
"I thought my mom gave up on her own accord," you said. "But how did it turn out that YOU were the ones behind all this?!"
"Wasn't I trying to make that obvious at school?" Trudy retorted. "Wasn't I trying to make it obvious that WE were the ones breaking your family apart?" She then approached you so that you two were practically inches away. "I told her everything that you ever did at school since your father died. It was pretty hard, since she refused to believe that you went around not even talking to anyone after your father died. But after a while she noticed. She took herself at a weak side too. She gave up. I'm surprised you didn't."
You gasped. Hiro was right. None of this was your fault. But you didn't expect any of this to be planned out beforehand.
"So that's it, isn't it?" you demanded, anger coursing through your heart like a wolf tearing apart its freshly killed prey. "My parents were murdered because of you?"
Trudy nodded. "Exactly."
What she didn't expect was for you to raise a fist and punch her hard in the face, causing her to fall. Blood spurted out from her nose, and as she tried to get up you levitated a large boulder from the ground and made it hover over her shaking form.
"No! No no no!" she cried, trying to move away, though the boulder kept following her and floating over her. "No! You won't hurt someone like me! I'm way too loved!"
"You mean you were," Melanie corrected her, shooting out a rope from her hand and wrapping it around Trudy's torso, picking her up.
"LET ME GO!" Trudy cried, struggling against her restraints.
"Not if we can help it," Hiro said, finally finding an opening to fight both Trudy and Callaghan. "(Y/N), Melanie, and Gisele, you guys take on Trudy. The rest of us, we'll fight Callaghan."
"What?!" Callaghan's voice sounded muffled through his mask, but the shock that rang through his voice was easy to register. "They've escaped too?"
Tadashi and Gisele deactivated their invisibility mechanisms at the same time, revealing themselves to the opposing team.
"We're never going to be finished with you, Callaghan," Tadashi said bitterly. "I can't believe you. After all this time, after all this time I looked up to you as a role model and idol, you've betrayed each and every one of us. And don't even think I'm here to forgive you for what you did to me and my family."
"The same can be said for me," Melanie said, keeping herself focused on the rope holding on to Trudy. "You almost killed my sister. You almost tore my family apart. But no, we're back together."
"And yet I tore (Y/N)'s family away from her," Callaghan said mockingly. "Ugh, how much she's going to brag about being like her mother and father, so strong and successful! NO! They've been a threat to me, they've been a threat to my reputation, they've been a threat to everything I have ever done in my life!"
"Don't even think I don't know my own history!" you cried. "I know what they did. And I know they have been successful. That's why I love them so much. What I didn't expect was for you to come along!"
"I ordered Mr. Lacitier to have you KILLED!" Callaghan finally shouted. "I ordered him to kill you the very day he moved in, but guess what? He never did. And now, it's my turn to get rid of you."
"That's enough, Robert!"
A different voice rang through the chamber, and every one of you turned to see Mr. Lacitier with Aunt Cass, knives in hand.
Your eyes widened. "Mr. Lacitier? What are you doing here?"
"You were kidnapped, (Y/N)! I was so worried about you!" Mr. Lacitier said to you.
"Were you really?" you asked softly, tears brimming.
Mr. Lacitier nodded. "How could I not care about my colleague's and best friend's daughter? You're something special, (Y/N). I'm not going to let you die under the hands of the person who threatened to wipe off your family entirely."
Gratitude entered your eyes as you gave Mr. Lacitier a heartfelt smile. "Well, I'm honoured. But we'll talk about this later. Right now, we have a villain to worry about."
"About time too!" Aunt Cass cried shrilly. "You were the reason my youngest nephew fell under deep depression? My nephews trusted you! And no thanks to you, one of them is dead!"
"Actually..." Tadashi said, stepping up. "I'm still here."
Shock ran through Aunt Cass's eyes as she saw Tadashi, slightly wounded with the burns but still generally okay in condition. "You...oh my god..."
She ran over to Tadashi and hugged him hard, being very careful with the blade in her hand. "You knucklehead, you!"
"We'll talk about this later," Tadashi promised her. "You and Mr. Lacitier ready to fight?"
"I guess," Mr. Lacitier shrugged. "If knives don't work, we'll use words or something. No biggie."
You smiled and turned to the group. "What do you say we get these murderers out of the way?"
"That sounds like a good plan," Hiro beamed, giving you a tight hug before turning to the rest of the group. "(Y/N) and Melanie, deal with Trudy. The rest of us will deal with Callaghan. But remember to be very careful-especially you, (Y/N). I don't want to lose you."
You smiled reassuringly. "Hey." You retracted your face shield and did the same to Hiro's before giving him a kiss on the cheek. "I'll be alright. But if I do...die..." you choked out the final words. "I...I'll always be here with you."
You placed a hand over Hiro's heart and smiled, Hiro covering your hand with his as he smiled back. Then the rest of the group started to go "awwwwwww."
"Come on!" Mr. Lacitier cried. "Aren't we fighting them or not?"
"You're right," Aunt Cass said. "THIS IS FOR MY NEPHEW!"
"THIS IS FOR (Y/F/N) and (Y/M/N)!" Mr. Lacitier bellowed.
Everyone broke apart and charged, but you and Hiro still remained together for a bit.
"Shall we?" you asked.
Hiro leaned in to you and gave you one final kiss, pouring all the love he had bottled inside into that one single kiss. It moved you, it touched you, it made you heart melt as you looked at him by the time you let go.
"Stay safe," he said to you.
"I promise," you smiled.
Then you parted and joined your respective friends in the battle.
Didn't expect Trudy to come back, eh? Well, there she is, fighting with her uncle!
And I'll be honest when I say that the ending would probably be a bit more epic than I thought. Big Hero 10? Could be possible, right? Oh no don't make me upgrade Aunt Cass and Mr. Lacitier yet, they only have knives with them, remember?
Anyway, whoops why am I typing this in the middle of a lab session? Haha I'll get back to work, I promise. Hope you liked this!
-clara_hamada