Null Protocol || Ramattra x Reader

Chapter Twelve

Her hand stilled, eyes flitting up to his unreadable expression. "Is there no way you can return my toolkit and letter to my family? They ain't done nothing wrong, surely you can-"

"Waste my time on a human?" he cut her off, his lack of sympathy making her flinch. He inspected her arm to make sure his scarf was secure before winding the tails around her neck and knotting them so her arm was in a makeshift cast. "So you do not further injure yourself," he explained briskly at her confused look.

Her gaze dropped to her lap. "You're just gonna slow me down." With only one arm, she'd move even slower affixing his Nemesis upgrades, and since she was already running on fumes with no supply of food or water and a steadily dropping body temperature, she was at her wit's end. "Why bother when I ain't gonna be here in a couple days?"

"Your kind lacks spine when you assume you are done for, you give up when you still have a fleeting chance, and you lose hope so easily it is laughable. But take heart, human, for your time in this world is not yet through." He tapped the bottom of her chin with his metal fingers, forcing her head up. "Keep your head held high. You are not beaten yet." She didn't expect to get a pep talk from him, and while it inspired her more than she expected, she couldn't understand why he was lifting her spirits at all.

"You're mighty confusing," she mumbled, resting her head back against the cool wall behind her. He chuckled, getting to his feet to walk over to the ice boulder. He reached through the hole with her water bottle to scoop up some snow – she hadn't even seen him snag it out of her lap – and he tossed it back to her before crouching down to examine the arms sticking out of the ice. The legs were trapped completely under the boulder, likely broken to pieces from the weight on top of them, but the arms were at the edge, so in theory, he could pry them out.

"Leaving you in such a state would slow our progress," Ramattra spoke as he cocked his head at the boulder in thought. "Hope rallies your people together and inspires them to keep fighting – even when the situation appears bleak. If you have already given up, you will fall, but if you continue to fight, you will last much longer than you previously assumed." There was something rather mystical about the power of belief, as things like the placebo effect had a way of improving situations that it logically had no business effecting, and she wondered if he was improving her spirits to encourage her body's ability to heal. Either that or he just wanted her in a better mood, but that didn't help him escape the cave. "Giving up means the fight has already been lost, and you are not so easily beaten."

"I can see why you're the leader of Null Sector. You got a killer rousing speech." He could feel (Y/n)'s smile without having to turn around.

"I would not be an effective leader if I could not rally others to my side."

"I figure I made the right decision helping you." He paused, glancing back at her with a questioning tilt of his head. "You're someone very much worth keeping alive. Before? I ain't too sure. But now I am." She more readily accepted his good qualities than he did hers, but while he still wasn't sure how she could think that when he was going to kill her, he dipped his head in acknowledgment all the same.

She inspected her arm in thought before shrugging her long-sleeve shirt on again, struggling with one arm locked in a scarf cast. He tch'd, not hesitating to help her, and the two of them sat nearly face to face with how close he leaned to unwind the scarf from her neck. She flinched as the scarf tugged on her open wound and he slowed down to be more gentle, then helped her shirt over her head while she held her arms up. He slid the fabric down her sides, metal fingers brushing against her skin, and it prickled under his touch, the chill of his touch making her shiver. He adjusted it so it was snug around her body, and when he was done, he met her (e/c) eyes.