CHAPTER 207— THE EGG AND THE CHILD
Logan moved like a ghost through the tunnels, low to the ground, every muscle strung tight. The stink of Brood clung to the air like rot and copper, but one scent cut through it all.
Kitty.
Not the faint, fleeting trace of her passing. No. This was fresher. Close.
'Almost there, kid. Just hold on a little longer.'
His senses flared in rhythm: nose pulling him down the right path, ears twitching at the faint scuttles above the ceiling plates, his night vision peeling back the shadows as though it were broad daylight. He didn't need to think. His body was its own compass.
And finally, after what felt like an eternity of hunting, he reached it. A chamber lined with pulsating organic walls, reeking of acid and meat. And in the center of it—an egg.
Not just any egg.
The smell told him before his eyes confirmed.
Kitty.
He stalked closer, jaw clenched, heart hammering. The damn thing was taller than he was, slimed over with veiny cords, pulsing in sick rhythm. Her scent was trapped inside. Not faint, not fading. Alive.
Logan let out a breath that rattled through his teeth.
"Not today, darlin'," he muttered.
One claw slid free with a metallic SNIKT, gleaming in the foul green light. With one clean slash he ripped the egg wide open. Goo burst outward in wet strings, and a small form tumbled forward.
Kitty.
Still, silent.
Logan caught her before she hit the floor. Her weight was feather-light in his arms, but to him it was the weight of the whole world.
'Thank God… thank God I made it before the change…'
He cradled her, checking her breath. Shallow, but steady. Her skin was clammy with slime. No insect plating, no claws or mandibles. Still Kitty.
But then something twisted inside his head, sharp and searing. A memory of the freeloader. That damned parasite that had been riding him earlier, trying to claim him. He remembered the pounding headaches every time he tried to use his thermal sight. Like his brain was being fried from the inside. But that thing was gone now—slayed by him.
And so when he blinked and let his vision shift into infrared, the world exploded in heat.
There.
Kitty's body lit up bright against the cold slime of the chamber. Her chest rose and fell—good. But attached to her heart, small and wriggling, was a blotch of ugly, writhing warmth. The loach. Feeding like it owned her.
The sight made his claws twitch out instinctively, SNIKT SNIKT, before his mind caught up. His arms tensed, aching to drive the blades through that bug right then and there.
But Kitty stirred.
Her eyes fluttered open, wide and brown, confused as a newborn.
"Wh… Logan?"
He froze. Claws hovered an inch from her chest. His breath came hard and heavy, and he forced them back with a ragged growl.
"Easy, kid. Easy. You're safe."
Her gaze darted around the chamber, nose wrinkling as the stench hit her. Then panic crashed over her face.
"The last thing I remember—I was at the banquet. We were laughing, I think, and then—ahhh—" She gasped, clutching her head. "We were attacked, weren't we? Where… where are we?"
Logan set her gently down, crouching so she could see his eyes.
"This is where the bastards dragged us after. Their nest. Don't waste your breath askin' how or why. We're still breathin', and that's all that matters."
Kitty shivered, hugging herself. She was still slimed head to toe, a mess of green ichor and egg fluid. She looked like a drowned kitten pulled out of a sewer, but her spirit flickered bright even through the fear.
"We… we have to help the others, right? The team…"
"That's the plan," Logan said, voice low but steady. "We find 'em, we get 'em out. I'll fill you in when we're all together."
He didn't tell her about the thing latched onto her heart. Didn't tell her that every second it stayed there was a death sentence. That was a truth too heavy for her right now.
Instead he pulled her up to her feet.
"On me, kid. Stick close, do what I say. And no phasin' through anything unless I give the nod. Don't want you droppin' into a pit full of bugs by mistake."
Kitty gave a weak nod. Her lips trembled, but she swallowed it down. "Okay, Logan. I trust you."
Those words cut deeper than any claw. Trust. That's what this was all about. And here he was, already hiding the worst truth from her.
'Forgive me, kid. You'll know soon enough. Too soon.'
Together they pushed deeper into the hive. The walls pulsed with sick light, wet and alive. Every step stuck to the slime-slick ground. Kitty wrinkled her nose.
"This is worse than biology class. Way worse."
Logan grunted. "Don't knock biology. Least in class the dissected frogs ain't tryin' to dissect you back."
That wrung a nervous laugh from her, short and shaky but real. He counted that as a win.
As they moved, Logan flicked his senses wide. The hearing sphere rippled outward. He caught the faint drip-drip of fluid, the scuttle of claws along distant walls, the slow, steady heartbeats of creatures nesting deeper inside. None close enough yet to matter.
Smell confirmed it—Kitty's trail had been pulled through here, and so had others. Scott. Ororo. Kurt. Their scents were tangled in the muck.
"We're on the right track," he muttered. "Just keep movin'."
Kitty hugged herself tighter. Her eyes darted to him. "Logan… are we gonna make it out?"
He hesitated. That was a dangerous question.
But he couldn't tell her no.
"Yeah, kid. We'll make it. That's a promise."
And though his voice stayed firm, his thoughts whispered different.
'Even if it kills me to make it true.'