Alex didn't know how long he sat there.

Could have been minutes. Could have been hours.

Time felt... irrelevant. Meaningless.

Like the countdown still pulsing at the edge of his vision.

[4 hours, 13 minutes remaining.]

His breathing had finally steadied... no longer the gasping, desperate gulps of someone drowning, but the hollow, exhausted rhythm of someone who'd barely made it to shore.

His hands had stopped shaking.

Mostly.

The trembling in his fingers persisted... a faint, constant reminder of how close he'd come to crossing a line he could never uncross.

He dropped his hands from his face and stared at them.

These hands had touched her waist. Had felt the silk of her blouse, the warmth of her skin beneath.

These hands had almost...

No.

He clenched them into fists, nails biting into his palms.

You stopped. You stopped before...

But the distinction felt thinner than it should have.

He'd kissed her. Had felt her lips on his, her hands in his hair, her body pressed against him.

The fact that he'd broken away... that he'd run before it went further... didn't erase what had already happened.

Doesn't erase that you were willing to do it.

That you walked into that house knowing exactly what she expected.

That you rationalized it so completely you almost went through with it.

The shame crashed over him again, fresh and suffocating.

***

The doorknob rattled.

Alex's eyes shot open, heart slamming against his ribs.

She's coming in.

Linda was trying the lock. She'd followed him. Was going to open the door and find him sitting here on the floor like a coward, hiding from what he'd done...

"Please," he whispered, voice cracking.

"Please just... give me a minute. I just need a minute."

The rattling stopped.

Silence.

Then...

"Oh, Alex."

His blood turned to ice.

That voice.

Not Linda's gentle, hurt confusion.

This was something else entirely... silk and smoke and ancient amusement, coming not from outside the door but from everywhere, filling the bathroom until he couldn't breathe.

"I don't think a minute is going to be enough."

The air in the bathroom shifted... grew heavier, charged with something electric and dangerous.

When Alex forced himself to look up, she was there.

Lilith.

Not the voice in his head. Not the system interface.

Her.

She stood... or perhaps floated... in the center of the cramped bathroom, taking up no physical space yet somehow dominating every inch of it.

Beautiful in a way that hurt to look at directly. Dangerous in a way that made his enhanced instincts scream predator.

Her eyes glowed faintly in the dim light, fixed on him with an intensity that stripped away every defense.

"Hello, Alex," she purred. "Shall we discuss your cowardice?"

Alex's jaw tightened. "I'm not a coward."

"No?" Lilith tilted her head, studying him like a fascinating specimen.

"Then what do you call running away from a woman who offered herself to you freely? Who wanted you desperately? Who was this close to being yours?"

Her fingers came together, pinched to show a hair's breadth.

"You had everything you needed," she continued, voice sharp now. "The mission was clear. The reward was substantial. The woman was willing... eager, even. All you had to do was take that final step."

She moved closer, and Alex felt her presence like weight pressing down on him.

"But instead?" Her laugh was bitter. "You ran. Locked yourself in a bathroom like a frightened child. Left her confused and hurt, wondering what she did wrong. Tell me, Alex... what would you call that if not cowardice?"

"I call it having a conscience," Alex shot back, forcing himself to meet her eyes despite every instinct screaming to look away.

"A conscience?" Lilith's expression twisted with something between amusement and contempt.

"How noble. How righteous. And how utterly pointless."

She gestured, and suddenly the system interface blazed to life between them... larger than it had ever been, impossible to ignore:

[MISSION: SEDUCE LINDA MORRISON AND MAKE HER YOUR WOMAN]

REWARDS:

- $1,000,000,000

- Next Stage Advancement

- System Level Up

FAILURE PUNISHMENT:

- Complete System Disintegration

- Loss of All Enhancements

- Return to Baseline Human

- Permanent Disconnection

TIME REMAINING: 04:10:00

"Four hours, ten minutes," Lilith said softly.

"That's all you have left to complete this mission. To make a choice that will determine everything."

She circled him slowly, and Alex found himself unable to move, pinned by her presence and the weight of what she was saying.

"Do you know what happens if you don't complete this?" Her voice was almost gentle now. "Everything you've built... gone. Every advantage you've gained... stripped away. All that strength, all that power, all those capabilities that make you more than what Marcus left you..."

She snapped her fingers.

"Vanished."

"Linda is still out there," Lilith continued, her voice taking on a seductive quality. "Sitting in that bedroom. Hurt, confused, but still wanting you. You could go back right now. Apologize. Tell her you panicked, that you weren't ready but you are now. She'd believe you. She wants to believe you."

The image formed in Alex's mind before he could stop it... Linda's face lighting up with hope, with relief, with the desperate gratitude of someone who thought they'd been rejected but suddenly, miraculously, weren't.

"It would be so easy," Lilith whispered. "A few words. A kiss. Let nature take its course. She wants you. You want the power. Everyone gets what they need."

"I don't want the power that badly," Alex said through gritted teeth.

"Don't you?" Lilith's laugh was sharp.

"Then why did you come here tonight? Why did you walk through that door knowing exactly what she expected? Why did you let her lead you to the bedroom, let her kiss you, let it go as far as it did?"

Each question was a blade, cutting through his defenses.

"You wanted to complete the mission," she said flatly. "You tried to complete it. The only thing that stopped you wasn't morality or conscience or any of the pretty lies you're telling yourself now."

She leaned in close, voice dropping to a whisper that somehow filled the entire space.

"What stopped you was weakness. You couldn't go through with it because at your core, you're still that broken boy Marcus destroyed. Still too soft. Still too concerned with being 'good' to do what's necessary."

Her eyes glittered with contempt.

"You had everything you needed to take what was yours. Power. Justification. A willing woman. But you couldn't finish. Because when it came down to it, you're exactly what I thought you were..."

She straightened, dismissive.

"Weak."

"That's not..."

"That's exactly what it was," Lilith cut him off. "And weakness dressed up as morality is still just weakness."

Alex was quiet for a long moment, Lilith's words echoing in the small space.

Then he spoke, voice low but steady:

"You're right."

Lilith's expression shifted... surprise flickering across her features.

"I came here tonight intending to complete the mission," Alex continued.

"I rationalized it. Told myself it was survival, necessity, that everyone would get something out of it. I walked through that door. I let her kiss me. I almost..."

His voice caught, but he pushed through.

"I almost did it. You're absolutely right about that."

"Then what's stopping you now?" Lilith demanded. "You were willing before. You can be willing again. Just go back out there and..."

"And what?" Alex looked up at her, and in his eyes was something she hadn't seen before. Not fear. Not hesitation.

Clarity.

"Complete the mission? Seduce Linda? Make her my woman?" He laughed, but there was no humor in it. "And then what Lilith?"

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