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

Also, for the ENTIRE month of December, you will get 50% off your first month when signing up to the first Tier of my Patreon! Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Back to Thaddeus!

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Pietro Maximoff's words hang heavy in the air between them. Thaddeus was already frowning, but now he frowns harder at the accusation. The federal government was behind Pietro's assassination? More than that, they were experimenting on Magneto while holding him behind bars?

The sad truth is… Thaddeus can all too easily believe it, especially after his experiences with the Facility and Dr. Adam Harkins. The problem, of course, is that even if he believes it, that means they've just positioned themselves against a very real monolith.

Of course, Pietro takes their silence as full disbelief, his face falling and growing desperate as he clenches his hands into fists at his sides.

"You don't have to believe just me. Ask Mystique, she knows the truth as well."

Now that… that makes Thaddeus blink and both Wanda and Rogue do the same. The other woman that they'd discussed contacting for a second opinion before resurrecting Pietro, only to ultimately decide that none of them wanted anything to do with her. And now Wanda's brother was saying she would vouch for him.

On the one hand, it made sense. Mystique was the leader of the Brotherhood of Mutants from what Thaddeus knew. Magneto was the former leader. So of course she would keep tabs on what was being done to him in prison, presumably.

With a snarl, Wanda suddenly grabs her phone from atop a nearby dresser.

"Fine! I will!"

Thaddeus raises an eyebrow, glancing to Pietro and Rogue as Wanda navigates to her contacts and places a call, bringing the phone next to her ear. Pietro looks worried while Rogue… Rogue looks like she doesn't know what to think.

After a moment, the call picks up and Thaddeus' enhanced hearing lets him pick up on the other side of the conversation.

"Wanda-?"

Mystique barely has a chance to get Wanda's name out before she's spitting a response.

"Mystique. Did you get my brother killed?"

The sound of flesh smacking flesh hits the room as Pietro facepalms. Mystique, meanwhile, is quiet for a moment.

"… I don't know what makes you ask that Wanda, but Pietro's choices were his own and-!"

"Enough! Quit with the obfuscation and give it to me straight! Did you get my brother assassinated by the US fucking government by having him investigate our father's imprisonment?!"

Before Mystique can answer, Pietro blurs forward and outright steals the phone from Wanda's hand. He's much too fast for any of them to really stop him, which is half the reason Thaddeus had used a bit of reality warping to trap him in the dorm room with them in the first place.

Of course, in order to actually speak with Mystique, Pietro has to slow back down to their perception, stopping on the other side of the room and bringing the phone to his lips.

"Mystique, it's Pietro, I-!"

That's as far as he gets though before Wanda growls and uses her own abilities to twist reality and turn back the clock a few seconds. In an instant, Pietro is back where he started, but this time the floor itself has grown all the way up to his thighs, rooting his legs in place. Wanda's phone, meanwhile, is back in her hand.

Pietro jerks forward to try to steal the phone, only to find himself trapped. He doesn't even realize there was a moment where he succeeded, though a shared glance with Rogue tells Thaddeus that she remembers the other few seconds of time just as clearly as he does.

Scowling angrily, Pietro still calls out before Mystique can answer.

"Wanda! Free me this instant!"

Which of course, reaches Mystique on the other end of the call.

"Wha- was that Pietro's voice? What is happening over there, Wanda?"

Growling now, Wanda looks like she's tempted to use her abilities again, this time to gag Pietro as well as trap him. But to her credit, she only considers that for a moment before deciding to show restraint. Thaddeus is honestly a little proud of her for that.

"Ignore that, Mystique. Answer my question or so help me, I will tear what remains of the Brotherhood to the ground today."

Even Pietro goes still at Wanda's threat. Silence reigns for a moment more before Mystique sighs.

"… Your brother came to me with his concerns, Wanda. Not the other way around. All I or the Brotherhood did was provide Pietro with the assistance he needed to investigate what was being done to your father. What he was able to find though… there is evidence that Erik is being harmed and experimented on, I can tell you that much. The Brotherhood has been trying to find out more ever since Pietro was killed."

Once again, Pietro calls out from where he's still trying to free his legs from the floor.

"Does our father still live, Mystique?!"

Wanda scowls but lets the question stand. Though of course, Mystique just has questions of her own at that point.

"… Pietro? Is this some sort of trick? Am I even speaking to Wanda right now?"

Huffing, Wanda glares at the phone.

"There's no trick, Mystique. I brought Pietro back to life. Don't pretend like you haven't been keeping tabs on me. You know where I am right now…"

There's another pause but this time when Mystique speaks up, her tone is distinctly more wary than before.

"You've met Thaddeus Cummings then I see."

Thaddeus is glad the conversation isn't on Speaker Phone, meaning that Pietro can't hear Mystique's side of the call. Wanda smirks as she flicks a glance in his direction for a moment.

"Sure. If 'met' is how we're describing it these days."

"Wanda, you need to be careful. Powers like yours at their full potential… or even beyond it given the forces at work, are dangerous."

The smirk on Wanda's face drops as quickly as it had arrived, reverting right back to her earlier scowling snarl.

"Don't you dare lecture me, Mystique. Not when you could have reined in my brother and kept him from being killed in the first place. Pietro's decisions might be his own, but don't act like you didn't egg him on… I know you too well to believe that for a second."

There's another pause and when Mystique speaks again, her tone has become defensive.

"Wanda, Pietro uncovered the start of something big. Since his death, we haven't been able to find out too much more unfortunately, but what we have found out… it doesn't stop at just your father. The experimentation is more widespread than that. Even your new friend Thaddeus ran into something connected to it recently."

Thaddeus frowns as Wanda looks at him in surprise. What was Mystique talking about? But no, it's obvious isn't it? He was just thinking about the Facility and Dr. Harkins. But then, did that mean that whole secret laboratory was attached to the government all along? Tch, and he'd let Jennifer take Dr. Harkins into custody too. Was the man even still in a cell? He would have no way of knowing…

Still, in the face of Wanda's look, Thaddeus can only shrug and nod without giving away his presence in the room. Of course, this isn't enough for Wanda, who decides she wants answers more than she cares about privacy at this point. Bringing the phone away from her face, she taps a button and clears her throat.

"You're on Speaker now, Mystique. I'm here with my brother, Thaddeus, and Rogue."

Well, if his presence was just going to be outed, Thaddeus might as well get involved in the conversation.

"To be clear, are you saying that Adam Harkins and 'The Facility' were working for the United States Government?"

"… Yes Thaddeus, that's what we've been able to uncover so far. They were one of many private firms funded by the federal government to do scientific research into mutants. However, it doesn't just stop there either. The Facility was focused on mutants and harnessing their mutations, but the program goes further than just our little neck of the woods. We've managed to uncover that there's a focus on studying ALL metahuman entities, no matter what their origins. And no matter what it costs."

Growling, Pietro interrupts again.

"I don't care about any of that. Is my father still alive, Mystique? He already wasn't doing well when I was killed!"

"Pietro… glad to have you back. As far as we've been able to discern, Erik still draws breath, yes. However, I cannot tell you where he's being held at this point. With your death… well, you were the last living family member willing to use your access as a blood relative to arrange visits with him. Keeping tabs without you has been difficult."

Unspoken is the fact that Wanda was still alive but very clearly didn't care enough to go and see her father. The bad blood between her and Magneto was nothing to scoff at from what Thaddeus could see, because even now she didn't seem very enthused about the man. She was happy to have her brother back, but unhappy that there was so much focus on their father.

Pietro, meanwhile, straightens up and then gives his sister a meaningful look before glancing down at his trapped legs.

"Then I need to go. Wanda, please… I need to find him."

Wanda's face scrunches up into something ugly, her eyes filling with tears as she grimaces angrily.

"… Why? Even after dying for him, even after I brought you back… why do you care more about him than you care about me?"

Stiffening, Pietro shakes his head.

"You… that's not fair Wanda. That's not it at all. I love you, sister. I love you with all my heart. But he's still our father and he's being tortured. How can I stand aside?"

"Because he nearly got us both killed! Because his actions hurt innocent people, time and time again! Because he's a terrorist, the entire Brotherhood is, and they bring out the worst in you! In me!"

Thaddeus notices how quiet Mystique is right now, even though the phone call is still connected and still in Speaker. She appears to just be listening at this point, even as Pietro grimaces right back in the face of Wanda's words.

"We aren't terrorists, Wanda. We're merely trying to find a place to belong, to be safe. Look at what they're doing to us even now! Homo Sapiens fear what they can't understand or control. They're taking us and experimenting on us, all for the sake of finding a way to collar us so they can keep us under their yoke! We can't just stand aside and do nothing!"

Wanda scoffs.

"You sound just like him. Us versus Them. It always has to be Us versus Them, doesn't it?"

Pietro's hands clench and unclench from fist to open and back again as he tries to keep his breathing under control.

"So long as 'they' insist on making it that way… yes Wanda. Yes it does."

Her face twisting up again, Wanda just growls and raises her free hand.

"Fine then. I'll just give you what you want and you can be on your way."

Reality starts to twist and Thaddeus can feel what Wanda is trying to do. Namely, she's trying to pick up her father from wherever he's being held and bring him here to the dorm room.

Which… to be fair, is a lot less dangerous to reality itself then bringing someone fully back to life or creating a localized paradox. Really, all she's trying to do is teleport Magneto from one location to the other.

Thaddeus still has to reach out and stop her, however. Not because he doesn't want her to rescue her father necessarily, regardless of Magneto's actions, but because this isn't the time or place to do so. It's definitely not the time or place to reveal themselves as players on the board to the entities currently holding Magneto, whether they're the US government or otherwise.

Wanda's face falls when she feels her attempt fizzling out, her eyes immediately moving to Thaddeus. Sighing, Thaddeus steps forward, reaches out, and speaks a single line to Mystique.

"We'll be in touch, Mystique."

Then, he taps the end call button on the screen Wanda is currently holding between all of them, cutting off whatever Mystique's response might have been. Thaddeus follows this up by embracing Wanda, wrapping his arms around her and hugging her firmly but gently.

For a moment, she freezes and tenses in his arms… but then after a beat, she melts into him, sobbing into his chest. Pietro makes some indignant noises from where he's still caught in the floor, but Thaddeus just ignores him, rubbing soothing circles into Wanda's back as she clings to him for a bit.

Finally, she calms down enough that when she pulls away, he lets her. Though he also takes ahold of her shoulders, looking her in the eye.

"We need to do this right, Wanda. Whatever we do next, we do it right… and I'll have your back the entire way. Alright?"

A little wide eyed, Wanda nevertheless nods.

"A-Alright…"

From behind Thaddeus, Pietro growls.

"What does that even mean? And who the hell even are you? 'No one special' my fucking ass! Even Mystique knew you! Who exactly are you to my sister, you goddamn meathead?!"

Thaddeus doesn't take it personally. Pietro just came back to life and it's obvious tensions are high for him. Still… perhaps he needs to stop playing so nice. Turning away from Wanda after giving her one last nod and smile, Thaddeus suddenly looms over Pietro Maximoff. The speedster stiffens as he looks up to meet his gaze with a set jaw.

"Who am I? I am Thaddeus Cummings. I am the White Knight of the Hellfire Club. I am one of the three people who just resurrected you from the dead. And I am one of the only people willing to help you recover your father so long as we do it the right way. Given the three of us brought you back to life, I should think you at least would do well to hear us out, Pietro Maximoff."

The Hellfire Club mention was admittedly just to flex but judging by Pietro's wide eyes and Wanda's quiet gasp, they both recognize it all the same. Thaddeus has all of a second to wonder if that's a good thing or a bad thing before Pietro finally lowers his gaze, scowling but not nearly as defiant as before.

"Tch… fine. Then what IS the right way to recover my father from his torturers, exactly?"

… Admittedly, that was a good question.

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The Vote:

[X] Get Emma more involved, leverage Hellfire's resources to find out whats happening - 54%

[ ] Contact Fury and SHIELD through Natasha to see if they know anything - 8%

[ ] Contact She-Hulk, this seems like a job for the Avengers - 29%

[ ] Work with Mystique and the Brotherhood, keep things very 'need to know' - 2%

[ ] Actually, they can probably handle this alone with some help from Thaddeus' closest allies - 7%

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