Ramattra wakes to an...odd feeling. Many, in fact. The air passing through his vents is colder than it should be, nearly tickling him. His chest rises and falls with each cycle. His oil pump no longer beats at a rhythmic swish swish swish, but rather a buh bump buh bump buh bump.

He tries to reach into his databanks, to call on the codes of his inner workings for a possible solution, but nothing is given to him. His codes aren't even there.

It's alarming enough to force Ramattra into full awareness. Mostly. A lingering fog clings to his mind as his ocular lenses open, blurring the images he sees in front of him.

Ramattra gasps when the image is of a massive blue Fox. He sits up quickly on instinct, his hand reaching for his staff-

His middle finger hits the ground hard, directly in the tip, and he cries out from the pain that shoots up his hand. He only has time for a quick glance at his injury, but a glance is enough.

Instead of black digits and silver joints, Ramattra sees only dark flesh. The fox is forgotten as he stares dumbfounded at his own limb.

The flesh is not only on his hand, but all the way up his arm and leading into his robes. He pulls them aside just to make sure, then is surprised when his other hand matches. He fleshes them, feels the way his palm gives under pressure.

Human. Ramattra is...is human.

"Ram?"

Kiriko's voice comes from the fox. He tears his gaze away to examine the creature before him. A thick blue coat, elegant eyes, and Japanese markings blended through the tufts of her fur. It should not be Kiriko, but it is.

A beautiful creature. Beauty...True beauty...

"The potion!" Ramattra realizes all too late. "It...worked."

Ramattra expects to be angry, to seethe at the very idea of being human...but he isn't. While not explicitly said, he suspected this may happen; and now that it has, it's as if a weight lifts off his shoulders. He is human. A being he once resented, before he met Hana. Now, it will be the very thing that allows him to keep her love.

Ironic.

"Look at me! Just look at me!" Kiriko shouts with a twist of her body. Ramattra is not sure if it's in distress or excitement. "I've never been cuter! Ooh, just look at my ears! And my tail! It's so fluffy!" She dances in front of a nearby puddle, her paws splashing as she giggles at her own reflection.

After a moment of hesitation, Ramattra looks too.

He does not recognize himself, but the features are strikingly similar. As if he were observing a twin. His face matches his hands in color, framed by long, dark hair that stretches well past his shoulders. It's lighter than his cords were, but the design is very similar -as if only the texture of them changed and nothing else. His features are sharp, from his furrowed brows to his hooked nose.

The biggest surprise comes in the appearance of ears past his hair and the familiar nine dots on his forehead. How...strange. Ramattra cannot much say whether he thinks himself turned beautiful, but perhaps Hana will appreciate it. He hopes she does, or this was all for nothing.

"You don't seem to dislike the potion now, Kiriko." The cat has gone unchanged, aside from his smug tone. As is to be expected, considering he never drank from the vial.

Now, Genji seems far more normal as a talking cat-ninja compared to him and Kiriko.

"I can admit when I'm wrong." Kiriko makes an odd gesture with her shoulders. If she were in her natural form, it would likely have been a shrug. Like this? She simply shuffles to the side.

Genji ignores her to turn to Ramattra, the now empty vial in his paws. "I think we forgot to read this part of the conditions. It says, 'To make this potion's effects permanent, taker must obtain his true love's kiss by midnight'. I'm not sure how we missed that."

"Midnight?" Ramattra scoffs. "Why would must it always be- nevermind. If this is the condition then I must adhere to it."

Ramattra stands, his staff once again in hand. His flesh hand, that can feel the cool wood and metal. The textures are new to his skin and he finds himself idly rubbing along the softened ridges.

No, he must focus. Should things work as he plans, there will be a lifetime to explore what new things his body can do. For now, he must return to the palace and prove to Hana's parents that he can be exactly what she needs.

So, the three of them start off on the trail they walked before, changed as they are. Already, Ramattra plans what to say to Hana. Excluding the bit when they stole from her fairy godmother.

The people of Busan stare as Ramattra walks down their streets, but their expressions no longer hold disgust. No, they light up with awe and interest. For some, jealousy. No one has looked at him in such a way. He tries not to let the feeling shift his focus, but with both companions reveling in the attention, Ramattra finds himself waving at a few of the onlookers. They see him and they like it.

He can only imagine Hana's reaction, if these common folk are anything to judge by.

Once at the palace, Ramattra makes to walk up the front steps, only to be stopped by a guard. "You! State your business!" He demands, his weapon held out in warning.

"I am here to see my wife, Princess Hana."

The guard stiffens. "Apologizes! Right this way!" He gestured them in.

Halfway towards the large, wooden door, a scream carries out from the inner building. A scream unmistakable.

"Hana!" The three of them rush into the palace blindly. Ramattra calls out as he searches vaguely familiar halls and doorways, each seeming to pull him further into the maze of empty rooms. At some point, Kiriko and Genji are lost to him. It is he alone who pushes into yet another bedroom in hopes of finding her at last.

"Hana, where-" He stops. A cloaked figure stands in front of the doorway and Ramattra's heart leaps -a sensation almost like electricity coursing through his circuts. It falls again when he notices the cloak is hovering above the floor.

The fabric falls away as Moira turns to face him, her smile twisted and cruel. "Looking for someone?" She mocks, her claw-like fingernails clicking against her wand.

Ramattra's grip tightens on his staff. "Where is Hana." He demands. His human voice holds less weight, a weakness of his organic vocal cords. They waver, showing his anxieties. His fear.

"You need only look." She points out the window she floats beside, her gaze turned down toward something. Hesitantly, Ramattra steps forward to look as well.

Like his heart has turned back to metal, the organ sinks in his chest with a painful weight. Ramattra watches an omnic Hana stand in the arms of someone else. Another human with blonde hair and pedals circling his back like a peacock's feathers. He stands tall, nearly as tall as Ramattra, with the same tiny waist Hana always complimented him on.

He is all Ramattra is but more. A real human, one her parents seem to approve of.

"Oh, how sad." Moira continues in his ear. "She's already moved on. Strange how it only took a day."

Ramattra turns on the witch. "What trickery is this?! Hana would never-"

"Never what? Leave you for someone else? Or fulfill her duty, no matter the cost? Face it, Omnic, you were never going to work. She knew it, her parents knew it. You are the only one who refused to accept it."

He shakes his head, his stubborn will still desperate to find some flaw, some way this could be wrong. "She-she's an omnic again! How can that be if she were moving on? The potion-"

"The potion," Moira snarls, "is now an added problem for her to solve. She didn't ask you to go snooping about my factory, nor did she agree to the terms. Honestly, her parents may be forced to lock her away again, if the spell remains."

"No! They could never!" But they might. Ramattra knows as well as anyone.

Moira floats across the room, her wand flicking absently. "Not if she has a prince. And now she does! Did you see the flowers Niran gave her? They're bio-engineered to bloom whenever she's near. Did you ever give her flowers?"

He didn't.

"Did you treat her like the princess she is?"

Ramattra looks away, only to catch another glimpse of the pair. They're leaving hand-in-hand.

Happy. Happier than she made her a few nights ago, when she hid in her room to cry because of the mess he caused with her father.

"Oh, I know it hurts." A nearly gentle hand grips his shoulder. "But this is for the best. By midnight, Hana will be human again and she will live her life as she deserves. A handsome husband and a kingdom to inherit. Will you really deprive her of that out of selfish greed?"

"...No. I will not."

That man is not Ramattra. At least, he's not the Ramattra Hana knew.

He waves at the crowd with winks and kisses, his smile only widening by the roar of fans. This man is selfish and vain and nothing like the person she fell in love with. It's hard to believe something as trivial as beauty could turn him into...this. But Hana has seen it happen before.

She just thought he was different.

"Hana?" Reinhardt calls as he steps into the room. His head barely clears the doorframe and the two cups of tea look miniature in his hands, but he somehow seems smaller than he used to. Maybe it's because she's used to a little girl's memory of her father. The little girl she was before years in a tower.

"Hey, Dad." She greets him with a sigh. Immediately, Reinhardt's smile falls.

He sets the cups down and settles in beside her as best he can. "What's wrong, Dear? You're about to attend a ball!"

"Him!" Hana groans in frustration. Her voicebox doesn't quite do it justice, which only makes her irritation worsen. "He's acting like a completely different person! I-" She scoffs. "I don't even recognize him anymore!"

Reinhardt frowns down at the same man. "I...I'm sorry, Hana. Perhaps I should have given him a chance instead of charging in for once. Your mother was right."

Hana nods slowly. "I just wanted to see you again. And for you to see omnics aren't what you think they are."

For a moment, her father stares at her. His eyes grow wet and his beard twitches. Hana knows what she looks like to him, all metal and wires. She's a machine. An object with no feelings. She is not his daughter-

"I was wrong," Reinhardt says at last. "I was wrong about omnics. And for locking you away. I am so sorry, Hana."

Before she knows it, Hana is being pulled into a bear hug. She startles, then laughter bursts from her unmoving face. She hugs him back, careful not to pinch his skin in her joints. "That's all I wanted." What would her younger self think, hearing these words? Would she cry like Hana wants to now? Or would she insist that there is nothing to love, so long as she is metal?

Would she have ever loved herself if someone else didn't first?

They break apart. Through the high of emotion, Hana feels her wires jump with electric charges. Her oil pump works to try and even out her intake of air. A mechanical system cooling her down, just like her human body would.

Hana reaches for her cup of tea, eager to get something into her system, but Reinhardt's hand shoots out to swipe the cup first. "That one is mine!" He shouts, holding it close to his chest protectively. "It has my, uh, medications. Here," He offers the other.

Hana takes it with an eye roll he cannot see. "Thanks for this. It means the world to me."

Reinhardt's expression is hidden as he drinks.

I laughed so hard when I realizes Lifeweaver would make the perfect Charming. And yes, Reinhardt and Ana are Hana's parents! They just seemed to fit.