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Chapter 12: The Seed That Still Grows
The fire was out.
But Jax couldn’t shake the cold.
They’d barely survived the assault. Two operatives escaped with blood on their boots and encrypted comms still live. And now Mercer-02 was staring into the dark like it whispered answers in code.
“He said your name,” the boy murmured. “But not the way you say it.”
Jax turned, blood still drying on his knuckles. “Whose voice was it?”
Mercer-02’s answer was barely a whisper.
> “The original Mercer.”
Sienna froze mid-step.
“There is no original,” she said carefully. “You were modeled after Jax. He is the original.”
The boy blinked slowly. “That’s what they told us. But in my dreams, the voice keeps saying… ‘I was born in the black, before names had shape.’”
Pierce leaned back from the ter
