Null Protocol || Ramattra x Reader

☙Chapter Twenty-Four❧

The omnic shook her head after a beat, blue eye lights twinkling behind her face plate. "I know he left for a stretch and came back with a yellow blanket, claiming it was a 'necessary excursion'." So he did leave the command ship to get it for her – the thought made her stomach feel fuzzy and warm. "You'd think he would've thought of something actually necessary like food if he was taking a trip down to the surface."

"He's busy finding his brother." The excuse came naturally, like all of the girl's excuses for the Ravager's actions, and Laylani touched her glass flower crown in thought.

"He can multitask." That didn't exactly make (Y/n) feel better. "He's able to focus on his plan for omnic 'liberation' while dealing with Talon on the sideline." The way she enunciated 'liberation' made the girl eye her for a moment, and when the omnic met her gaze, she asked about it.

"Do you reckon what he's doing is right?"

Laylani didn't answer right away, tapping her ankles against the counter as her hand idly explored her crown. It was solid and immovable but fragile, and (Y/n) wondered how painful it must've been when they drilled it into her. With how Ramattra described it, the humans forced her to wear a permanent crown against her will, but Laylani didn't seem to mind it, like having a Hawaiian frangipani fixation screwed into her crown was nothing more than a sweet reminder of home. But then, (Y/n) never got the impression Laylani harbored the same resentment as Darius and Ramattra, like her hardships were truly nothing more than her past – a past she was no longer in and thus moved on from.

Laylani rose her optics with a note of humor in her voice. "Having second thoughts about helping a terrorist?" (Y/n) stiffened, reaching up to fiddle with the scarf around her neck – the scarf a terrorist gave to her in order to claim her. She didn't want to imagine what her parents would say about that. The scarf was both sweet and concerning – Ramattra only called it a collar to get Darius off her back, but she had to continue wearing it while knowing the implications of being his pet human. She wasn't going to take it off, but now knowing exactly what Ramattra was doing with all the power at his disposal made the gesture feel tainted with blood. Saving one person made no difference when he killed countless others.

(Y/n) gave up on the rag, tossing it down beside the mangled Nulltrooper and facing her companion with a crease to her brows. "You ain't answered my question."

"My opinion doesn't change what Null Sector does. I've tried pushing Rama from the path he walks – it's no good. I don't have the power to change his mind, so all I can do is make sure no more of our people die." The small omnic tilted her head almost playfully, ignoring (Y/n)'s sigh as she gave up on extracting a straight answer. "Now, are you having second thoughts?"

"I ain't too sure," the mechanic admitted. "After what he did to those poor folks in Toronto..."

"He didn't plan for the Toronto battle to go as poorly as it did. If omnics had simply complied, there wouldn't have been so many casualties." Laylani leaned back and crossed her arms, fingers tapping her bicep rhythmically. "But he shouldn't have used such force anyway. I cautioned him against it, but you know how he is."

"Do you believe in his cause?" The girl suspected she had to – at least in part – but her stance on the entire fiasco in Toronto gave the impression she was more neutral than anything.

"I believe our people shouldn't be harmed on this path to liberation, and if I'm here, I can be sure Rama doesn't overstep that line."

"You're saying he ain't already over it?" Silence was her answer, and she sighed, glancing McCree's way. Ramattra had skill as an engineer, she could see it in how effortlessly the warbot mimicked an Overwatch agent, but he used it to further a goal even he had to realize was misguided. "Do you think he even puts it together?"

"That he's hurting us more than he's helping?" Laylani sighed, slouching on the counter as her hands fell to her lap. "I'm not sure, but what I am sure of is that you're important to finding the solution he's after." She gestured towards the mangled Nulltrooper, of which (Y/n) had made little progress on, and the girl frowned.

"I ain't sure I should be doing this..."

Laylani shrugged like she was simply spitballing ideas. "Then maybe you could suggest an alternative to Rama, see if he'll listen to reason if it's coming from you." But her tone suggested there was more to her words than just what she was saying.

(Y/n) lifted the arm cannon, a weapon engineered into the warbot's frame so it could never part from the sole purpose Ramattra made it for. "I ain't sure he'll like me messing with his bots for an end goal that ain't destruction." Darius chose that moment to walk into the mechanic bay, and her whole body froze up as he stopped with his hand on his pistol, crimson eye lights locked onto the cannon barrel pointed right at Laylani. 

[Hawaiian] wahine = woman/lady