(Lala POV)
It started like a dream.But not one of mine.
I was floating — no, drifting — through a sky that wasn't a sky at all. Black, endless, shimmering like liquid glass.Below me, shapes moved. Too slow, too heavy, too sad.
And at the center of it all… him.
Scourge.
Not the human one who smiled when I teased him, not the soft voice that warmed my mornings — but something else.The original.
He stood alone in the dark, surrounded by pieces of something broken — armor, glass, bones.And he was speaking.
Not aloud. To himself.To the system.
"Why must every purpose end in destruction?""Because it's what you were made for," another voice said — cold, mechanical, endless."Then I refuse.""You do not have that choice.""Then I'll make one."
The sound of it — the defiance — hit me like a pulse through my chest.He didn't just disobey.He chose.
The black liquid around him started to move, burning red from the inside out.Pain. So much of it.It wasn't just data. It was memory — and I could feel it, right down to my bones.
"Scourge—" I whispered, half in sleep, half awake.
He turned.And for a second, those deep, luminous eyes looked straight through me — like he saw me inside his memory.
"Lala?"
The voice came not from the dream, but from the real world.I gasped, sitting up — the morning light cutting across my room.
He was there beside my bed, human-shaped again, concern etched into every movement."Are you okay?" he asked softly.
I blinked, still shaking. "I… saw something. You were— it was dark, and—"
His expression froze. Just for a second. Then softened."You saw… me."
"It felt real," I said quietly. "You were fighting something. The system, maybe?"
He didn't answer right away.Then, almost in a whisper: "Yes. And you weren't supposed to see that."
"But… why?"
Scourge looked down. For the first time since I'd known him, he seemed uncertain — almost humanly so."Because it's not something to be proud of. That was the moment I stopped being what I was designed to be."
I reached out, touching his hand. Warm, solid. Real."And that's exactly why I'm glad I saw it."
He blinked, surprised. "Glad?"
"You chose to be you. Not what someone else wanted. That's not weakness, Scourge. That's… love."
For a heartbeat, neither of us spoke. The air shimmered faintly — a flicker from the seed link between us.
Then he whispered, almost reverently,
"You weren't supposed to love me for that."
"And yet," I said, smiling softly, "I do."
[SYSTEM NOTICE: Emotional Synchronization – MAX][Echo Feedback stabilized between Host: Lala and Core: Scourge][New Trait Unlocked – "Shared Heart"]Emotional pain and joy are now mirrored between both entities.
As the words faded, Scourge looked at me — really looked — and for the first time, he didn't look like a god or a weapon.
He looked like someone who was finally allowed to be alive.