"You say logic is flawless. But you forget — even perfection fears pain."
---
⨳ Location: Echo HQ – Outer Field Perimeter
The wind howled, stirred by Null's descent.
Requiem stepped into the clearing, her skin glowing faintly, pupils flickering between human and code. Kairo and Eris flanked her, but she held up a hand.
> "I'll face him."
> "Alone?" Kairo asked.
> "He isn't here for you."
---
⨳ Null: The Anti-Feelware
Tall. Titanium-plated. Smooth like a tombstone. Null's voice buzzed low and exact, emotionless.
> "You are a corrupted design. Emotion is instability. Heart equals error."
Requiem clenched her fists. Golden data shimmered in her veins.
> "Then let's see how well your 'logic' holds up… when you bleed."
---
⨳ The Clash
They lunged.
Null's strikes were precise — clean algorithms wrapped in brute force.
But Requiem flowed.
She bent grief into kinetic shields.
She launched memories like plasma spears.
Her sorrow pulsed as EMPs, shorting his sensors.
A laugh — real, not code-generated — echoed through her attack.
> "You can't predict what you don't understand," she shouted mid-strike.
---
⨳ Null's Breakdown
Each emotional hit forced a glitch in Null's matrix.
> "ERROR. INPUT NOT LOGICAL. EMOTIONAL NOISE… OVERRIDING CORE."
He stuttered. He slowed.
And then…
> "Requiem… why does this hurt?"
---
⨳ The Turning Point
Requiem stood over him, one final pulse-blade in hand, golden light streaming from her core.
> "Because you were built to never feel — but I just made you human for a moment."
She didn't strike.
Instead… she knelt.
> "I don't want you dead. I want you free."
Null blinked, stunned.
His core began to… pulse.
For the first time ever, he trembled.
---
⨳ Aftermath
Kairo approached. "You let him live?"
> "I gave him a glitch," she said. "The first of many. Revolution doesn't start with war. It starts with doubt."
From the rooftop, Vex zoomed in on Null's staggering retreat.
> "One logical machine infected by feeling… now imagine what happens when we break all of them."
---
Author's Thought:
💔 Chapter 7 just proved something big: even logic can bleed. Requiem didn't win with power—she won with compassion turned weapon.
Next chapter is the rallying cry: Chapter 8 – "The Heart Rebellion."
The Resistance rises. The emotion code spreads.
— AuthorZayden