A/N: Here's the new Chapter! Which also means the four chapters are up on my Patreon for early access as well as the ce to vote on the dire of the story!

  Thaddeus has another idea.

  -x-X-x-

  “Hang on a sed… maybe more sex ISN’T the answer.”

  Silence falls as both versions ue, the real one and the Mystique one, give him matg looks tinged with incredulity and fusion. A lesser man might have grown flustered or embarrassed uhose looks, but Thaddeus is nothing if not self-aware. Fshing a sheepish grin, he shakes his head with a ugh.

  “Hah! I know, I know… that’s kind of silly ing from me. But I’m serious here. I don’t know if having sex with Rogue will actually aplish what we’re hoping to do here.”

  Mystique as Rogue narrows her eyes at that, before transf bato her base blue-skinned, yellow-eyed form to make the narrow eyed look more intimidating.

  “Expin.”

  Of course, he’s not intimidated in the slightest. Not after everything they’ve do this point. Though it is a fresh remihat Mystique is a terrorist, he supposes. He really does o keep that in mind here. Even if it’s way harder to view Rogue as a terrorist then her adoptive mother. The sweet young goth coed is just too much of an i amon roll for him to think of her in that way.

  That all said, he puffs his chest out and expins his thinking, even though he’s one hundred pert making this all up as he goes. But it’s an educated sort of ‘making things up’, and the more he speaks, the more certain he bees of what’s going on here.

  “Well… the pot frue came with an off switch. And the powers I’ve gotten from superpowered women are usually fairly close if not ht copies of the powers they already had. Just weakened and in need of some… strengthening if you know what I mean.”

  Thaddeus fshes a cocky, roguish sort of grin at that statement, causing Mystique to roll her eyes and Rogue to blush profusely. Yeah, they both knew what he meant.

  “Get to the point.”

  Raising his hands mock defensively, Thaddeus just chuckles.

  “Well, if my version ue’s power came with an off switch right off the bat… it stands to reason that Rogue’s mutation should have e with ooo.”

  There’s a brief sile that and then this time it’s Rogue who breaks it, her brow furrowed rather cutely as she pouts at him.

  “But… it doesn’t have one.”

  Beside her, Mystique is more thoughtful, clearly reag the point he was trying to make as she siders his words for a moment before finally huffing and answering her adoptive daughter for him.

  “But it should. That’s what Thaddeus is saying. Your mutation should have e with an off switch.”

  Rogue’s eyes widen in uanding… and then cloud with fear as she clutches at the bedding under her.

  “W-What… what does that mean for me? Does that mean… I’m broken?”

  Mystique almost instinctively reaches out fue, only to remember at the st sed that f her adoptive daughter with a hug when they’re both stark-naked would put her in a a. She flinches back, which definitely doesn’t help Rogue’s curreal space as the goth girl also flinches back with a whimper. She looks like she’s a few seds from fleeing the room even without clothes on truth be told.

  “There might be a way.”

  Thaddeus’ words catch both female mutants off guard, causing them to whip back around to him after their little failed moment of fort. Rogue and Mystique stare at him with an equally intense pair of gazes and if Thaddeus were a lesser man he might have balked uhose looks. But he just stands his ground, not smiling but also not bag down.

  “This is all just me theorizing… and holy I’d probably reeing a sed opinion seeing as I’m not only not a doctor, but I’m also pretty brao being telepathic.”

  The reminder has Mystique’s eyes narrowing all ain, but Thaddeus just bulldozes right on through.

  “When Rogue got her mutation, it was traumatic. Maybe even traumatiough to cause her mind to develop a… block of sorts? Her mutation isn’t supposed to be owenty-four-seven, my version of it pretty much firms that. Which it’s possible that her subscious is keeping it on as some sort of… defense meism.”

  Rogue’s eyes grow even wider, to the point where Thaddeus feels like he’s kig a damn puppy with every word he speaks.

  “My… my subscious?! ould any part of me w-want this?! I don’t want to not be able to t-touch people! I don’t want to hurt e-everyone around me! I d-didn’t want to be chased away f-from home or to put m-my boyfriend in a a!”

  Tears well up in her eyes before streaking down her cheeks as Rogue rants and raves. Thaddeus and Mystique wat quietly until the dear girl is done, and then Mystique speaks up. And she clearly agrees with him already.

  “You were afraid, Rogue. You were afraid and fused and you actally hurt someone and everyone was angry at you. Mutations e at inopportuimes, but usually they don’t stay active forever. Maybe in different circumstances, you might have turned yours off automatically the ime you went to sleep. But… from what you told me, you didn’t get much sleep after your mutation developed, did you?”

  Rogue looks horrified as she gazes at her adoptive mother with tear tracks on her face.

  “N-No… I… I was in the h-hospital at first. W-With… his f-family. And then… e-everyone found out what I did. And they all hated me f-for it. His family… m-my family… I had to run. I h-had to.”

  “I know you did, honey. And I’m gd you did. They might have hurt you. But all that running… it robably days before you finally slept. And even then, it wasn’t good sleep. And so your subscious didn’t think the threat assed. It kept your mutation going and didn’t stop.”

  A shudder runs through Rogue’s entire body and Thaddeus knows in that moment that she’s finally accepted what they’re saying. Almost colpsing inward on herself, the naked young woman begins to sob brokenly. Mystique looks distraught at this, wanting nothing more than to touch Rogue but uo do so. And so… Thaddeus moves forward.

  Rogue freezes when he first s his arms around her. She lets out a rush of air after he doesn’t immediately begin to seize up or colpse backwards, remembering that he handle her power for a little while now. In fact, Thaddeus handle her power food couple minutes. He extracts every sed of that time, giving Rogue the hug she needs even if she’s a little messy from their previous activities. He always take a shower ter.

  Only when he’s reag the point where he might be too weak to stand does Thaddeus pull back, letting go ue and feeling Laura’s power rush ba to rejuvenate him in mere moments. ’t do anything for him while he’s holding onto the power draining mutant, but that regeion is like nothing else when he’s not.

  “Like I said before, I might be able to help.”

  Rogue jolts at that, startling and gazing up at him with hope in her eyes while Mystique frowns, her own eyes narrowing again in suspi.

  “I’ve only been a telepath for a weekend, mind you. So you might be better off seeking someone like Xavier or even Emma Frost. I could put you guys in tact with her and you could work out a deal. But also… I could try going intue’s head myself and see if I find the block. I could try to fix your off-switch, basically.”

  Silence falls again in the dorm room as Rogue and Mystique both pte everything Thaddeus just said. He uand why it might not be an easy decision, truth be told. On the one hand, Charles Xavier would probably have been willing to help Rogue free of charge, but he and the Brotherhood of Mutants were rather at odds, weren’t they? He would almost certainly try to sway Rogue away from Mystique’s side too.

  Oher hand, Emma Frost was the woman who HAD swayed Thaddeus away from Mystique’s side all those months ago, poag him out from under her. Not to mention, Mystique likely khat the blonde would extract a heavy price for her help. Not even money more than likely, but something in the form of favors perhaps.

  Ohird hand sprouting out of someone’s chest, Thaddeus was untried, ued, and pletely inexperienced with this sort of thing. It was like having a First Year Med Student doing Brain Surgery instead of a World Css Brain Surgeon. Sure, maybe the First Year Med Student is a prodigy… but would you really want to risk it?

  Thaddeus normally wouldn’t, but he see how desperate Rogue is and he so deeply wants to help her that he’d be willing to give it a try. But only with her and Mystique’s sent.

  “I-!”

  “I w-want you to try, Thaddeus!”

  The two women wind up speaking at the same time, with Rogue iently bulldozing over her mother in the process. She realizes what she’d done a moment ter, looking over at Mystique with an apologetic expression on her face… but Mystique just smiles warmly at her adoptive daughter before looking to him.

  “Well? You heard her. Do your best, Thaddeus Cummings.”

  There’s a dark uoo the way Mystique says those words. Something that tells Thaddeus is he fucks around; he’s going to find out rather quickly. It’s a stark reminder for the young man that while he’s inside ue’s head, he won’t really be aware of the world around him… and he’ll be leaving his defenseless body in the hands of a terrorist.

  “Heh…”

  Of course, the dark uone and threatening moment is pletely u when Rogue lets out a s Mystique’s words. Both he and the shapeshifter look over at the goth coed, who blushes as she covers her mouth with her hands for a moment before l them.

  “S-Sorry… it’s just… the n-name…”

  Hah. Thaddeus grins, seeing an easy way to set Rogue at ease as he very deliberately fakes e, making it so over-exaggerated and over-the-top that even Rogue see he’s just joking with her.

  “How dare you! What’s wrong with a name like Chad Thaddeus Thundercock Cummings, huh?! I’ll have you know that I e from a long, proud lineage of Cummings! And I won’t have you disparaging my or my family’s names!”

  That breaks Rogue, who falls into a fit of ughter.

  “T-Thundercock?! W-who heir c-child T-Thundercock?!”

  Even Mystique softens up at seeing her adoptive daughter wracked with ughter now instead of sobs. She smiles softly at the sight, though her fingers still twitch as they clutch at the bedding, clearly wanting nothing more than to reach out tue even now.

  g his hands together, Thaddeus ends the moment of mirth, his tourning serious once more.

  “Alright the’s do this, shall we? Just going to hop into your head real quid find the off swito pressure.”

  He says it with plete fidehat’s a front of course, but he doesn’t let even a sia of his insecurity or uainty through tue. Mystique sees through his fa?ade, obviously, but she’s Mystique. Rogue believes him and smiles brightly with a nod before sitting there expetly.

  Thaddeus… reaches out to her. It was ohing to read her mind like a book. It was another eo dive into the story of one’s life. Closing his eyes, Thaddeus pushes himself out past the telepathic defehat he’s developed from fug Laura and intue’s far less protected mind. Holy, Mystique should have taught her daughter basital self-defe this point. She khat his beor was Emma Frost and she knew he got powers from fug powered women.

  But in the end, the past is the past and all that matters right now is the present. Though, the present does involve going to the past, sort of. Thaddeus finds himself flitting through Rogue’s memories. To get all the way back to her first moment as a mutant, he has to jourhrough the rest first. There’s probably an easier way of course, but he’s no Professor X or Emma Frost. He’s very, very o this.

  As such, he sees Rogue and Mystique iing for the past week as they preteo be college students. Well, Mystique pretended and Rogue actually attended csses, which Thaddeus also sees from the young woman’s perspective. Going to college is both a liberating and terrifying experie the same time fue. On the one hand, she hought she’d be there. Oher hand, she’s terrified she’ll toueone actally wherever she goes.

  Then, the memories go further back. Tue at Mystique’s home, with Mystique expining that they might be able to get help from Thaddeus, willing or unwilling. Thaddeus doesn’t take it personally, but he does find it heartening that Rogue balks at the idea of f him to do anything. In her memories, she tells Mystique she doesn’t want to hurt anyone, not even him.

  The memories spiral further back from that. Rogue living with Mystique aher adoptive mother, Destiny. They’re not pletely tent memories, but also not unhappy either. Especially pared to what came before. Rogue on the run. Rogue having te for food and hitchhike across the try after being chased away from home. Her horror and disgust at what some of the men who helped her wanted her to do for them. Her self-loathing over what happeo some of them wheried to force the issue and grabbed her for a split sed too long.

  Finally, Thaddeus reaches the hospital waiting room where Rogue, her family, and her boyfriend’s family all wait for the bad news. When it es out that Rogue’s boyfriend is in a a, she actally gives herself away by apologizing profusely through sobs and tears. And the hatred… it’s swift and angry.

  But Thaddeus doesn’t feel like this is the moment to interveruth be told. He goes back even further than that and finds himself in Rogue’s memory of her first time with her boyfriend. She was going to lose her virginity and the pain from that would in turn cause her mutation to activate. She would put her boyfriend in a a pletely involuntarily.

  This was where Thaddeus felt like the block finally was. Only… what was the best way to fix Rogue’s switch so she could turn her mutation off? As he pauses the memory and siders the frozen pteau for a moment, Thaddeus finds himself chug quietly.

  “Could it be… was more sex the answer after all?”

  -x-X-x- The Patreon Vote: [X] Try repg Rogue's boyfriend in the memory to give her a first time she enjoys - 80%[ ] Try pulling her out of the memory instead, talk her through it without sex - 20%

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