Tadashi had always said that bot fighting was dangerous, but Hiro never listened. He'd gotten off scot-free so far, nothing was going to happen to him. His older brother was just being paranoid.
Tadashi was right, but not for the reason he believed.
Robert Callaghan loved his daughter more than anything. Losing her destroyed him. But now, he has a chance to get back what he lost. It doesn't matter if Hiro doesn't want to be there. He's just like Abigail. He just needs to be convinced, that's all...
Written by Sandfire Kat, Bruises
is a Dark Fic of Big Hero 6 where, instead of Hiro becoming a superhero and creating a super team of friends to stop Yokai, Callaghan kidnapped Hiro to replace his deceased daughter. It's completed as of May 2017, and can be read on Archive of Our Own right here.
Tropes found in this fic include:
- Adaptational Villainy: In canon, Callaghan was still a villain, but his motivations were more understandable/sympathetic, and he clearly showed remorse for his actions. Here, he's a delusional, dangerous man who couldn't accept that his daughter was gone, and tried to force Hiro to look/act like her just to try and start over.
- Anger Born of Worry: Tadashi has this towards Hiro regarding his bot fighting. He worries for a short amount of time that Hiro ran away due to Tadashi constantly nagging him to give up bot fighting.
- Berserk Button: Callaghan reacts very badly whenever Hiro does or says anything to point out that he isn't Abigail.
- Bittersweet Ending: After nearly a year of physical, mental, and emotional abuse at the hands of Robert, Hiro is finally back with his family and starting to move on. He becomes a professor at the university, and is surrounded by friends and family (as well as adoring students) who give him support. But the time he spent as a captive left a mark, and he still has a lot of triggers left over.
- Blind Without 'Em: Because of what Callaghan did to his head, Hiro can't see without wearing glasses. He's forced to wear them for the rest of his life.
- Broken Pedestal: When Tadashi learns that his mentor, the man he idolized, kidnapped his little brother and held him hostage for over a year, he's completely shattered.
- Child Abuse Is a Special Kind of Evil: When Callaghan's actions are made known and he's arrested, everyone is utterly horrified, viewing him as a monster.
- Clothing-Concealed Injury: After he escapes Callaghan, Hiro begins making sure he's always wearing either a hoodie or long sleeves to cover up the horrific scar on his arm.
- Dark Fic: While the film had its dark moments, the tone and ending were ultimately happy. Here, the tone is more realistic and overwhelmingly dark.
- Deadpan Snarker: Hiro is still one like in canon, only because of his situation, he ends up keeping most of his thoughts to himself.
- Defiant Captive: Hiro at first is this, trying to reason with Callaghan about how he'll be in huge legal trouble for what he's done, but that he can avoid that if he lets Hiro go. When that fails, he lashes out in other ways: he tries to escape whenever he can, screams out the window when left alone with a busted one, resisting Callaghan's attempts to brainwash him into being like Abigail, even stabbing himself in the arm in an attempt to get Callaghan to take him to a hospital. Unfortunately, Callaghan is beyond reasoning at this point, punishing Hiro whenever he "acts out" and gaslighting him into thinking that Tadashi never loved him and that Hiro's only safe with Callaghan note . Hiro's eventually forced to go along with it simply to survive.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Hiro gets away from Callaghan, recovers (physically and mentally) from the kidnapping, and goes on to become one of the best professors SFIT's ever seen. Before that, however, he still went through years of PTSD, struggles with reclaiming his identity and recovering from Callaghan's attempt to brainwash him, and even attempted suicide.
- Faux Affably Evil: Callaghan is an... interesting case. He maintains his reputation at SFIT as a Cool Teacher and Tadashi's mentor, and seems genuinely fond of his students. When it comes to Hiro, he's disturbingly nice/friendly when Hiro is "behaving" and an absolute nightmare when Hiro defies him in any way.
- It's All My Fault: After learning what happened, Tadashi blames himself for Hiro's abduction, as he'd told Callaghan about how smart Hiro was, which he believes gave the professor the idea of kidnapping Hiro.
- I Will Punish Your Family For Your Failure: When it becomes clear that threatening to hurt Hiro won't work forever, Callaghan shows him his gun and threatens to kill Tadashi and Cass.
- Loss of Identity: Because Callaghan kept trying to convince Hiro that he was Abigail, Hiro begins losing himself and, after a while, has trouble remembering who he really is. It takes a lot of therapy (and hair dye) before he starts to rebuild himself, and there are some interests of his that are hard for him to get back into as he associates them too much with Abigail.
- Mental Health Recovery Arc: The chapters following Callaghan's arrest and Hiro's rescue are largely this, not just for Hiro but for Tadashi and Cass as they all learn to cope with what Callaghan did.
- Precious Puppy: Nozomi. She's arguably the only good thing that came out of Hiro's situation.
- Replacement Goldfish: Hiro was kidnapped to replace Abigail, with Callaghan forcing him to dress like her, eat her favorite foods, and participate in her favorite activities. If Hiro tried to resist, Callaghan would either hurt him or threaten Cass and Tadashi. After he's rescued, Hiro deconstructs this trope a bit, stating that attempting to replace a loved one is the equivalent of spitting on their memory, something that he points out to Callaghan during the trial (and is seemingly the only thing to get through to the ex-professor).
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: When Hiro goes to speak in court on the final day of Callaghan's trial, he delivers a masterful one that finally seems to get through to Callaghan (as he seems to finally realize how much he's hurt Hiro).
- Scars Are Forever: Hiro is left with two heavy reminders of what happened: his eyes, and his arm. Because Abigail wore glasses, Callaghan beat the kid's head and messed up Hiro's vision to the point he needs glasses to see, which he ends up needing for the rest of his life. The other is his arm, as he intentionally stabbed his forearm in the hopes that Callaghan would take him to the hospital, thus allowing Hiro a chance to escape. It didn't work, and Callaghan treated the stab wound himself, leaving behind a horrific scar that Hiro still had years later.
- Spared by the Adaptation: Because there was never a fire in the expo center, Tadashi was never killed. He went on to become a professor who teaches the same subject as Hiro, which they have a friendly rivalry over.
- Stop, or I Shoot Myself!: Hiro, growing desperate, threatens Callaghan with a knife he grabs from the kitchen table. Callaghan pulls a gun and threatens Hiro's family again. Hiro then turns the knife on himself, knowing that Callaghan doesn't want him dead due to his delusion that Hiro is Abigail. When Callaghan tells him that he's bluffing, Hiro stabs himself in the arm, telling Callaghan to take him to a hospital before he passes out.
- Trauma Button: Hiro is left with a lot of triggers after everything Callaghan put him through, to the point that even hearing the name "Abigail" makes him tense up.
- Traumatic Haircut: Shortly after abducting him, Callaghan cuts Hiro's hair to look like how Abigail wore hers for most of her life. Upon being rescued, Hiro starts dyeing his hair different, wild colors as a form of therapy, as it helps him distance himself from Abigail.
- Villainous Medical Care: Any injury Hiro sustains during his captivity either goes untreated (to the point that he needed surgery on his leg and back before he could start walking normally again) or is treated by Callaghan. This is largely because of Callaghan's delusion that Hiro is Abigail and he refuses to let the kid die (no matter how much pain it causes the teen).
- Would Hurt a Child: Callaghan kidnapping fourteen-year-old Hiro would be bad enough on its own, but he rendered Hiro incapable of fighting back by hitting him with his car. He never treats the injuries Hiro got from the incident, leaving the boy incapable of running or even walking too fast. And that's only the start of the abuse...
