Third Person POV
The words did not disappear. CHOICE REQUIRED They did not flicker. They did not fade. They remained on the main display with a kind of stillness that felt heavier than any alarm the system had ever produced. Not urgent. Not aggressive. But absolute. No one moved. The room held itself in a fragile balance, like something vast had narrowed down to a single point. A single decision. A single moment.
Lily felt it first. Not in her thoughts. Not in her body. But somewhere deeper. Like the weight of what stood before them had reached past fear and into something more fundamental. Something that could not be ignored. "This is it," she said quietly. No one corrected her. Because they all knew. Dr Ward's fingers tightened around her tablet, but she did not raise it. She did not try to scan. Did not try to analyze. For once, data would not help her. "This is not a system prompt," she said slowly. "This is a decision point."
