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

Thaddeus has another idea.

-x-X-x-

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

Silence falls as both versions of Rogue, the real one and the Mystique one, give him matching looks tinged with incredulity and confusion. A lesser man might have grown flustered or embarrassed under those looks, but Thaddeus is nothing if not self-aware. Flashing a sheepish grin, he shakes his head with a laugh.

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

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

“Explain.”

Of course, he’s not intimidated in the slightest. Not after everything they’ve done at this point. Though it is a fresh reminder that Mystique is a terrorist, he supposes. He really does need to 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 innocent cinnamon roll for him to think of her in that way.

That all said, he puffs his chest out and explains his thinking, even though he’s one hundred percent 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 becomes of what’s going on here.

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

Thaddeus flashes 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 of Rogue’s power came with an off switch right off the bat… it stands to reason that Rogue’s mutation should have come with one too.”

There’s a brief silence at 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 reaching the point he was trying to make as she considers 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 come with an off switch.”

Rogue’s eyes widen in understanding… 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 for Rogue, only to remember at the last second that comforting her adoptive daughter with a hug when they’re both stark-naked would put her in a coma. She flinches back, which definitely doesn’t help Rogue’s current mental space as the goth girl also flinches back with a whimper. She looks like she’s a few seconds 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 comfort. Rogue and Mystique stare at him with an equally intense pair of gazes and if Thaddeus were a lesser man he might have balked under those looks. But he just stands his ground, not smiling but also not backing down.

“This is all just me theorizing… and honestly I’d probably recommend getting a second opinion seeing as I’m not only not a doctor, but I’m also pretty brand new to being telepathic.”

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

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

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

“My… my subconscious?! W-Why would 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 coma!”

Tears well up in her eyes before streaking down her cheeks as Rogue rants and raves. Thaddeus and Mystique watch on 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 confused and you accidentally hurt someone and everyone was angry at you. Mutations can come at inopportune times, but usually they don’t stay active forever. Maybe in different circumstances, you might have turned yours off automatically the next time 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 glad you did. They might have hurt you. But all that running… it was probably days before you finally slept. And even then, it wasn’t good sleep. And so your subconscious didn’t think the threat was passed. 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 collapsing inward on herself, the naked young woman begins to sob brokenly. Mystique looks distraught at this, wanting nothing more than to touch Rogue but unable to do so. And so… Thaddeus moves forward.

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

Only when he’s reaching the point where he might be too weak to stand does Thaddeus pull back, letting go of Rogue and feeling Laura’s power rush back in to rejuvenate him in mere moments. Can’t do anything for him while he’s holding onto the power draining mutant, but that regeneration 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 suspicion.

“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 contact with her and you could work out a deal. But also… I could try going into Rogue’s head myself and see if I can find the block. I could try to fix your off-switch, basically.”

Silence falls again in the dorm room as Rogue and Mystique both contemplate everything Thaddeus just said. He can understand 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.

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

On the third hand sprouting out of someone’s chest, Thaddeus was untried, untested, and completely inexperienced with this sort of thing. It was like having a First Year Med Student doing Brain Surgery instead of a World Class 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 can 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 consent.

“I-!”

“I w-want you to try, Thaddeus!”

The two women wind up speaking at the same time, with Rogue inadvertently bulldozing over her mother in the process. She realizes what she’d done a moment later, 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 undertone to 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 of Rogue’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 undertone and threatening moment is completely undercut when Rogue lets out a snicker at 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 lowering 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 outrage, making it so over-exaggerated and over-the-top that even Rogue can 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 come 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 laughter.

“T-Thundercock?! W-who names their c-child T-Thundercock?!”

Even Mystique softens up at seeing her adoptive daughter wracked with laughter 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 to Rogue even now.

Clapping his hands together, Thaddeus ends the moment of mirth, his tone turning serious once more.

“Alright then… let’s do this, shall we? Just going to hop into your head real quick and find the off switch. No pressure.”

He says it with complete confidence. That’s a front of course, but he doesn’t let even a single iota of his insecurity or uncertainty through to Rogue. Mystique sees through his façade, obviously, but she’s Mystique. Rogue believes him and smiles brightly with a nod before sitting there expectantly.

Thaddeus… reaches out to her. It was one thing to read her mind like a book. It was another entirely to dive into the story of one’s life. Closing his eyes, Thaddeus pushes himself out past the telepathic defenses that he’s developed from fucking Laura and into Rogue’s far less protected mind. Honestly, Mystique should have taught her daughter basic mental self-defense at this point. She knew that his benefactor was Emma Frost and she knew he got powers from fucking 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 journey through the rest first. There’s probably an easier way of course, but he’s no Professor X or Emma Frost. He’s very, very new to this.

As such, he sees Rogue and Mystique interacting for the past week as they pretended to be college students. Well, Mystique pretended and Rogue actually attended classes, which Thaddeus also sees from the young woman’s perspective. Going to college is both a liberating and terrifying experience at the same time for Rogue. On the one hand, she never thought she’d be there. On the other hand, she’s terrified she’ll touch someone accidentally wherever she goes.

Then, the memories go further back. To Rogue at Mystique’s home, with Mystique explaining 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 forcing 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 and her other adoptive mother, Destiny. They’re not completely content memories, but also not unhappy either. Especially compared to what came before. Rogue on the run. Rogue having to scrounge for food and hitchhike across the country 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 happened to some of them when they tried to force the issue and grabbed her for a split second 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 comes out that Rogue’s boyfriend is in a coma, she accidentally 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 intervene, truth 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 coma completely 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 considers the frozen plateau for a moment, Thaddeus finds himself chuckling quietly.

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

[ ] Try pulling her out of the memory instead, talk her through it without sex - 20%