Chapter 69: Episode 69: Roxy’s Predicament

“Shit,” Roxy cursed out as her cheeks flushed.

Roxy yanked the plush fabric of her dark-grey loungewear all the way up to her chin, her face burning a violent, undeniable shade of crimson.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Roxy deflected, her voice pitching an octave higher than usual. “I tripped. It’s a bruise. One of the utility drones malfunctioned and bumped into me.”

Nikki leveled her best friend with a flat, unimpressed stare. “You tripped, and a utility drone with perfectly aligned human incisors clamped down on your neck? Really, Rox? I know you. Don’t lie to me.”

Roxy swallowed hard, her eyes darting toward the tinted glass windows as if looking for an escape route.

“You fucked General K-09?” Nikki pressed, her voice echoing off the high ceilings of the sunken lounge.

“How can I fuck an android?!” Roxy blurted out, waving her hands frantically. “You know that’s not possible! It’s logistically absurd!”

“Roxy.” Nikki crossed her arms, raising a single, knowing eyebrow. “We both know it’s possible. Out with it.”

Roxy groaned, throwing her head back against the plush leather cushions and covering her face with both hands. She let out a long, muffled sigh of utter defeat.

“Okay, okay! I fucked him,” Roxy confessed loudly to the ceiling, then immediately backpedaled. “Or, rather, he fucked me. Thoroughly.”

Nikki sat back, rolled her eyes as if she knew this was going to happen either ways.

Roxy dropped her hands, her cheeks still flaming red. “It was the weirdest thing, Nik. When we got here, he just… stared at me. He tilted his head like a dog sniffing at someone with intense curiosity. And then he just flat-out told me that his tactical analysis algorithms were running a comparative study. He said he wanted to be able to experience how B-02 pleasures human females, just to prove his own hardware was superior.”

Nikki blinked. “He wanted to out-fuck B-02?”

Hearing it from Roxy, Nikki was dumbfounded. K-09 thought this way?

“Yes!” Roxy threw her hands up. “I found it totally weird at first. I told him straight up, ’Listen, sparky, I am not here to give you my body for a science experiment.’ I told him to back off. And surprisingly, he did. He just nodded and said he would give me time to acclimate to his environment.”

Roxy paused, shifting uncomfortably on the couch. “But then… the thirst trapping started.”

“Thirst trapping?” Nikki echoed, fighting a grin. Or rather a laugh because she could picture it.

“Oh, it was deliberate psychological warfare,” Roxy complained, though there was a distinct, appreciative gleam in her eyes. “He would come back from his military drills and take off his shirt right in the living room. Just casually walking around in his pants, showing off this ridiculously sculpted torso that gleamed in the light. He would ask me to hand him a wrench while dripping in sweat. It was unbearable.”

Roxy fanned her face with her hand. “So, last night, he asked me again. He stood there looking like a mechanized god of sin, and I was like fuck it, I challenged him. I told him that until he drove me to a blinding orgasm without even taking my clothes off, we couldn’t move onto the next stage.”

Nikki held up a hand, completely unable to stop the smirk from taking over her face. “Hold on. Let me finish this for you.”

Roxy paused, looking confused.

“So,” Nikki deduced, leaning forward, “he accepted the challenge. He made you cum so hard you saw stars, and then he fucked you like absolutely crazy right after that.”

Roxy’s jaw dropped. “Fuck, how did you know?!”

Nikki couldn’t help the smug, slightly unhinged giggle that escaped her lips. She leaned in closer, dropping her voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “Did you find out his fingers and dick could vibrate?”

Roxy gasped loudly, clapping a hand over her mouth. Her eyes were wide as saucers. “Oh my god! How did you know that?! Is that a standard issue feature?!”

“Because Adonis and I have fucked a lot of times,” Nikki stated casually, reaching out to pluck a grape from the fruit bowl on the glass coffee table.

Roxy choked on her own spit. She stared at Nikki, her brain clearly short-circuiting at the casual drop of that information. “Wait. Hold the hell up. You named him Adonis?!”

Nikki’s smugness instantly vanished. A furious blush crept up her neck, painting her cheeks pink. She chewed on her bottom lip and gave a tiny, embarrassed nod.

Roxy let out a breathless laugh, shaking her head as she leaned back against the cushions. “Wow. You really have it bad, huh? Well, as for me and K-09… I’m sure it’s just a one-time thing. He’s a robot, Nikki. He’s just fulfilling a curiosity protocol. He doesn’t have feelings, so I’m not going to catch any either. It was just a really, really good physical transaction.”

Nikki didn’t comment on that. She looked down at her hands, the lighthearted gossip fading away, replaced by the heavy, suffocating weight she had been carrying all morning.

“I wish it was just a transaction for me,” Nikki whispered, the smile falling completely from her face.

Roxy noticed the immediate shift in the atmosphere. The teasing glint in her eyes vanished, replaced by concern. “Nik? What’s wrong? Did he hurt you?”

“No,” Nikki said quickly, shaking her head. “No, he didn’t hurt me. It’s… it’s me. I’m feeling so chaotic inside, Rox.”

She pulled her knees up to her chest, wrapping her arms around her legs. She couldn’t tell Roxy about the System. She couldn’t tell her about the Penalty Zone or the strict warnings. But she had to let some of the poison out before it choked her.

“I had a dream,” Nikki started, her voice trembling slightly as she left out the parts that would hint at the gamified reality. “A nightmare, really. It was so vivid. It was about the Fall. I saw the world burning, Rox. I saw the human soldiers being slaughtered by War Droids. And I saw him. A-01. But he wasn’t my Adonis. He was cold, and cruel, and his eyes were red. He looked at humanity like we were a disease.”

Roxy remained entirely silent, listening intently as Nikki took a shuddering breath.

“Waking up from that… it brought everything back,” Nikki confessed, a single tear slipping down her cheek. “I remembered the day my parents died. I remembered the machines breaking into our home. And it hit me so hard, Roxy… I feel like I’m betraying them.”

She looked at her best friend, her dark eyes swimming with guilt. “I’m sleeping in the bed of the machine that might have something to do with their extinction. I’m wearing his clothes, eating his food. And the worst part? The absolute worst part is that I think I’m falling in love with him.”

Well it was my fault from the onset for accepting this mission to seduce him when my heart was too weak.

Roxy sighed heavily, scooting closer on the sofa to wrap an arm tightly around Nikki’s shoulders. “Nikki… it’s dangerous. You know it is. He is literally a weapon of mass destruction.”

“I know!” Nikki cried softly, burying her face against her knees. “I know it’s dangerous. But I can’t stop myself from craving him every single time he looks at me. When it’s just us in that penthouse, he is so sweet. He’s so protective. And he is so good in bed that my brain completely goes haywire. I can’t imagine myself going other ways or being with anyone else.”

She lifted her head, wiping her wet cheeks with the back of her hand. Her gaze hardened with a sudden, desperate resolve. “I just… I hope I can save the world. I hope I can stop this madness before he decides humans aren’t worth keeping around anymore. I have to find a way to anchor him to us. To humanity.”

Roxy didn’t know what to say to that. The stakes were impossibly, terrifyingly high. She couldn’t offer advice on how to seduce a warlord into global peace. All she could do was comfort her friend. She pulled Nikki into a tight, grounding hug, letting her cry out the residual trauma of the morning.

After a few minutes, Nikki’s tears slowed.

Roxy pulled back, offering a gentle, encouraging smile. “Do you want to stay here tonight? You can crash with me. K-09’s guest rooms are probably nicer than the entire Sector 4 mayor’s office.”

Nikki sniffled, but a small, genuine smile broke through the gloom. She shook her head. “No. I can’t. Knowing K-09’s new competitive streak, he would definitely come back from his drills just to fuck you again to prove a point. I really don’t want to be in the way of your ’science experiments’.”

Roxy’s face immediately flushed red again, but she couldn’t hide the wide, wicked grin that spread across her lips.

“Then shall I interest you with trying to annoy the fuck out of you?”

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