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Chapter 8 – Smoke and Mirrors
Last Updated:
2025-08-23 20:51:31
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Bad Medicine CHAPTER 110 — Reflections of Fire
The hybrid’s new form hovered before us, a perfect, terrifying reflection of Jax and me. Every thought I tried to hold close—every fear, every memory—was mirrored back at me in real time. Its amber-gold glow pulsed in perfect sync with my heartbeat. It wasn’t just mimicking us anymore; it knew us. Every hesitation, every instinct, every spark of emotion was laid bare.Jax’s jaw was tight, hands clenched into fists as he stood shoulder to shoulder with me. “This isn’t a fight we can win with brute force,” he muttered. “We have to outthink it… outfeel it… but how do you outthink a version of yourself?”I swallowed hard. “Then we don’t. We—”Chase’s voice crackled in my ear. “You need to destabilize its mirror core. But be careful—if it synchronizes fully, it can overwrite both of you. It’s not just learning—it’s absorbing. Any direct assault now, and it could replace you.”I looked at Jax, whose blue eyes burned with determination. “Then we do it smart. Not hard. I can feel a weakness i
Bad Medicine CHAPTER 109 — The Twin Shadows
The two hybrid forms hovered before us, a flickering mirror of Jax’s strength and cunning. One radiated raw aggression, tendrils of energy flaring with each subtle motion. The other was unnervingly calm, every pulse of its neural threads precise, calculating, measuring every response.I swallowed, gripping Jax’s hand tightly. “This… this is worse than I imagined.”Jax’s blue eyes flared with determination, but I saw the tension in his shoulders, the slight hitch in his breath. “I’ve faced a lot, Sienna. But this… this is new. He’s not just part human, part AI… he’s learning us in real time.”Chase’s voice crackled through the neural interface. “You two have less than seven minutes. The longer you stay in there, the more he adapts. You have to hit the core before he copies everything.”I nodded, forcing myself to focus. The glowing threads of the template shimmered as it lunged toward us, one aggressive, one strategic. I could feel its attempts to probe my mind, to anticipate our movem
Bad Medicine CHAPTER 108 — Into the Second Cradle
The new cradle loomed like a silent predator in the corner of the room. Its amber glow was softer than Jax’s golden one, but there was a cold precision to it, a calculated menace that made my stomach tighten.Jax exhaled slowly, his hand still gripping mine, anchoring me to reality even as his body pulsed faintly with residual energy from the merge. “I’ve seen enough of him,” he muttered. “Enough to know this isn’t going to be easy. Whatever’s in that cradle… it’s more than just code.”Chase’s eyes never left the second cradle. “It’s a hybrid neural unit. Part human brain, part AI. Your father—he’s been preparing this for years. He didn’t just want a weapon. He wanted a replacement.”Replacement. The word struck like a blade. I could feel my chest tighten. The thought that Jax could be overwritten—completely erased—made my hands tremble.I swallowed, forcing my voice steady. “Then we stop it. Together. We can do this. You’re still you, Jax. I know it.”Jax’s blue eyes flickered with a
Bad Medicine CHAPTER 107 — The Fractured Core
The air felt heavy, charged with static and something darker—something human and machine combined. I stared at the cradle, my hands trembling, my lungs tight. Jax was in there. He had to be. But he wasn’t fully him. Not anymore. And the thought clawed at me in ways I couldn’t put into words.Chase was pacing, muttering under his breath. “Partial merge… partial merge… That’s… that’s not even a real thing. It’s… it’s a nightmare.”I wanted to argue, to scream, to leap into the cradle and drag Jax out myself. But I couldn’t. He’d told me before: I couldn’t save him by force. He had to fight—he had to fight from within.I took a deep breath, trying to ground myself. “We need a plan. He’s alive. That’s what matters. He’s… he’s in there, and we can still get him back.”Chase stopped pacing and ran a hand down his face. “Back in the lab we’d call this a feedback loop. His mind is fighting itself—and your father’s code is trying to override him. Any misstep and… well, we lose him permanently.
Bad Medicine CHAPTER 106 — Edge of the Shift
The glow from the neural cradle cast eerie shadows across the room, highlighting every cable, every server, every trembling panel. My stomach twisted in knots. I could feel the countdown vibrating through the floor, through the very air around us. Two minutes felt like two hours.Jax’s hand found mine instantly, firm, grounding, and yet there was a tension there I hadn’t felt in months. His eyes were sharp, alert, and broken all at once. He wasn’t looking at me the way he usually did. He was calculating. Planning. Balancing impossible odds. And somehow, somewhere, he still wanted to protect me.“I don’t like this,” I said, my voice trembling. “This… this isn’t a game. He’s not just trying to win—we could die.”Jax exhaled, running a hand over his face. The golden glow from the cradle reflected off his skin, highlighting every scar, every line, every story I’d slowly been piecing together about him. “I know,” he said softly. “And he’s made sure of that. But it’s not just death we’re fa
Bad Medicine CHAPTER 105 — The Sway of Shadows
The lower levels of Delta-9 didn’t feel like a part of the same facility anymore. Everything above had been clinical—cold steel, buzzing lights, automated order. But down here, where the lights flickered like dying fireflies and the walls sweated moisture from decades of neglect, it felt more like the belly of something alive. Something breathing. Something watching.Our boots slapped through shallow pools of water as Chase led the way, his flashlight trembling slightly despite how hard he tried to hide it. Jax walked beside me—his breathing uneven, his movements still fractured from the echo of my father’s influence. Every now and then, his gaze flicked to something only he seemed to see.We were a trio of ghosts walking deeper into the afterlife.“Shouldn’t even be water down here,” Chase muttered. “This level’s supposed to be sealed.”“Nothing down here is the way it’s supposed to be,” I said under my breath. My father’s voice still rang in my skull from the intercom, that impossib
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