A/N: They go to Emma.

-x-X-x-

Well, now that he has Pietro's tentative agreement, he has to earn it. There are a lot of paths forward that they could take from here, but only one that he's confident has the highest chance of success.

"We'll employ subtlety, at least at first. And that means I need to place a call of my own."

Stiffening, Pietro throws a look towards Wanda.

"Are you going to call the Hellfire Club? Exactly what will your help cost us? What has your help already cost Wanda?"

That… Thaddeus hums. He can't exactly say it's unfair, depending on what the two know about the Hellfire Club. In the end, he just decides to be honest with them.

"The Black and White Kings are both dead and have yet to be replaced. The Hellfire Club is going through a bit of a restructuring at the moment so take whatever justified prejudices you might have had about the old organization and relax them. Give me a chance to prove that the White Queen and I are better than our cohorts, please."

Thaddeus can tell that convinces Wanda to chill out, but Pietro is just as tense as ever. Huffing, he rolls his eyes.

"If we must make everything transactional, than consider the price already paid."

Pietro's brow furrows at that, before his eyes flicker between Thaddeus and Wanda and the speedster starts to put two and two together, especially when Wanda blushes and averts her gaze.

After all, by now it would be rather obvious that somehow Thaddeus and Rogue both had Wanda's powers. Depending on what Pietro knew about Rogue, he might already understand how she could have gotten Wanda's abilities. But Thaddeus… well, he's probably putting two and two together.

Whatever conclusion he comes to, he ultimately doesn't try to raise a fuss as Thaddeus calls Emma up. It only takes a couple of sentences for the blonde telepath to agree they should all come over. And from there, it only takes a simple use of Illyana's teleportation power to bring all four of them to Emma's office.

Once they're all safely ensconced and no longer in danger of being spied on, Thaddeus explains what he can of what he knows while having Pietro tell the rest of what the speedster was able to uncover. Emma listens quietly the whole way through, not asking any questions, merely taking it all in.

Only after they've brought her completely up to speed does the White Queen of the Hellfire Club speak.

"Our first priority should be locating evidence of this experimentation. Unfortunately, the sort of prison that a man like Magneto would be kept in would have protections against telepaths… for obvious reasons. Even as powerful as you've made me, Thaddeus, anti-psychic technology creates blank spots in my senses."

Pietro makes a noise of frustration in the back of his throat at that, but before the impatient speedster can say anything, Thaddeus cuts him off, the inkling of an idea coming to mind.

"What if they didn't though? What if you could see through that sort of thing?"

Emma raises an eyebrow.

"I don't know if we have the time to make me powerful enough for that, especially when they still work on me even with as powerful as I've become."

Well, Thaddeus was pretty sure they could probably use Limbo if they needed time of all things. Twelve hours of sex in Limbo would only be a few seconds in this world, after all. They could fundamentally hop over to Limbo and become telepathic gods at any time, really.

However… Emma was right that power wasn't what they necessarily needed right now.

"I'm not talking about making you more powerful, Emma. I'm talking about making you unique. We brought Pietro here back to life. How hard can tweaking your telepathy to ignore psychic dampening technology be?"

Emma's eyes widen at that, the air taken from her lungs. Her eyes flicker over to the others for a moment but in the end she disregards their presence, focusing back on him and speaking seriously.

"… That's a lot of trust you'd be putting in me, Thaddeus."

But Thaddeus just scoffs.

"I already trust you, Emma. I feel like we've had this talk a half a dozen times at this point. I've got your back and you've got mine. Always."

For a long moment, the White Queen is silent. When she finally speaks, there's no emotion in her voice, nothing to give away her reaction to his words.

"If you do this for me, you must do this for yourself as well. We are partners, after all. And I really should be kept on a leash, no matter what you believe. I'm only worth trusting because you make me worth trusting, in the end."

Thaddeus snorts in amusement, the mental image of Emma Frost on a leash flashing through his head just for a split second. Sure the idea is a little arousing, but it also just feels weird. More likely, Emma would be the one holding the leash… but then again, Thaddeus would never be caught dead wearing a collar. Their relationship was a strange one, ultimately.

Luckily it's not hard to convince Wanda and Rogue to get onboard with their plan. Even Pietro is all for it if it will help them locate his father. He just doesn't actually have a say because he's not one of the three Reality Warpers present in the room.

In the end… it's almost too easy to tweak his and Emma's telepathic abilities. Maybe if he had to do this alone it would have been harder, but just like with bringing back Pietro, having the other two on board helps a lot. They're force multipliers for one another and if they all had any worse intentions then they did, they could probably rewrite the entirety of Earth any way they wanted, or maybe even further than Earth.

But that wasn't going to happen. Thaddeus certainly wouldn't ever let it happen. No, instead they stick to the simple stuff and after a moment, Emma inhales sharply.

"Oh… oh that's quite a lot. Thaddeus, join me please."

Letting go of Wanda and Rogue's hands, he moves over to Emma's side. She reaches out and takes his hand in her own even though he's pretty sure she definitely doesn't need to for this. A bit of jealousy, perhaps? Either way, it does help to focus him as he follows her 'sight' out into the world. Emma is the most powerful telepath alive at this point bar none, but Thaddeus isn't very far behind her despite being so much more generalized.

Together though... Thaddeus frowns and speaks aloud.

"Magneto is not in the prison he's supposed to be in."

Pietro curses while Wanda gasps. Of course, that's just the tip of the iceberg. Emma goes next, with Thaddeus nodding as he confirms what she's found.

"I've found him. And all of the others. We can see everything now. And they don't know we can see it."

They pull back in unison, returning to the office, though all of that knowledge is still in the back of their mind. Just like that, they know what's really going on. They know who's really behind everything.

"It's not the feds. Not entirely."

Pietro jolts at that, eyes narrowing as he crosses his arms over his chest.

"Then who the hell is it? Who would have access to my father if not the people imprisoning him?"

"It's HYDRA."

Pietro's eyes widen in horror. Wanda's brow furrows in consternation. Rogue finally breaks her silence; head tilted to the side rather cutely in confusion.

"HYDRA? You mean like the Nazis that Captain America fought in World War II?"

Thaddeus nods, Emma sitting placidly behind her desk and letting him carry the conversation forward.

"That's exactly who I mean. Apparently, they're still around. And apparently they've infiltrated the US Government on multiple levels. Not all the way to the top, they don't have complete control yet, but they have enough authority to hide their activities from the people who are supposed to be in charge. Enough authority to take your father… and a whole lot of other mutants and the like besides."

Because it wasn't just Magneto. It was a lot of people, a lot of prisoners, a lot of facilities. In fact, Thaddeus was confident in saying that The Facility HAD been connected to it, because there were plenty more hidden labs just like that and they were all working on the same thing.

For Harkins and The Facility, they'd been creating Predator X, something specifically designed to hunt down mutants and consume them for their powers. But that was just a prototype. In fact, the Sentinels, the mutant hunting robots that had been used a couple times in the past decade… those were just prototypes as well.

Because HYDRA didn't just want to hunt mutants or take down mutants or anything as specific as that. They wanted to take over the entire world and institute their own sense of 'right and wrong'. Their own New World Order. And every single person, be they human or alien, with the power to stop it… was a threat.

At least SHIELD wasn't overly involved in all of this. HYDRA had turned some SHIELD Agents to their side, just as they'd done all over the world even if much of their organization was currently concentrated in the US, but they hadn't subverted more than a tenth of the entire agency.

"What… what do we do? How do we stop them?"

That's Wanda's question. Pietro's is more specific.

"Where is our father? How are we going to get him back?"

Thaddeus frowns, thinking over the problem before glancing to Emma. He hopes she has some sort of solution for him, but much like him… she's struggling with the same moral dilemma at the moment. Or rather, because of him she's struggling with it. According to her, he's the only reason she's as good as she is at this point…

"Well?! Can't you two just handle this yourselves! If you can work around psychic dampeners to find all of this shit, then just use your powers to take control and make them all free their prisoners and off themselves! Or turn themselves in, I don't fucking care!"

And there it was. Pietro had arrived at the beginning of the moral dilemma that Thaddeus and Emma were currently struggling with. Emma breaks her silence, smiling coldly from behind her desk as she starts to walk Pietro and by association Wanda and Rogue through it.

"We could. But where does it end?"

Pietro furrows his brow.

"… It ends when HYDRA is dismantled. It ends when our father and everyone else they've taken is free."

But Emma just shakes her head.

"For you, maybe. For us as well, you'd hope. But let's be honest… that's not where it would end at all. Something so overt… something so direct wouldn't just draw attention and raise eyebrows. It would cause a panic. As soon as they realized that their little technology no longer works, every telepath in the world would be marked for death."

That makes Pietro go pale, but Emma isn't done.

"And as soon as they figured out it was Thaddeus and I, they would come for us directly, with everything they have. Every higher power, every terrified dictator, every ambitious politician. It's the same for your sister if they ever found out just how strong her true powers are. You were shot in the head while you slept for being a minor nuisance to their plans, Pietro. They would stop at nothing to remove threats like us as soon as they knew of the danger."

Sighing dramatically, Emma smirks… though it doesn't reach her eyes.

"Some among the 'heroes' of this planet like to claim they do what they do because to do nothing would be amoral. That the powers they can call upon are MEANT to be used to help people and 'make the world a better place'. You know when those types get really, really quiet? Whenever you ask them if a powerful telepath should operate by the same principles. Because for people like us, doing nothing can be the most moral thing we can do."

Silence meets her words, causing Emma to roll her eyes.

"I suppose together, four of us in this very room COULD take over the world relatively easily, before anyone could even stop us. Strip away that pesky concept of free will with a combination of altering minds as well as reality itself. But is that something you would want? Is that something you would enjoy? Once upon a time, I might have. These days? Conquering the planet sounds like far too much work."

Thaddeus has suspicions about what 'once upon a time' Emma meant. Specifically, before she met him. Had he really had that much of an effect on her? In the end, it didn't matter. He wasn't going to betray Emma for anything. He hoped she never betrayed him either. For now…

"So then what do we do?"

Pietro's question comes quietly. The speedster sounds almost docile, as though he's just realizing the power the rest of the people in the room hold… and how much restraint the entire human race is relying on from the four of them at this point.

Emma hums before refocusing her attention on Thaddeus.

"We can't be seen solving too much of this problem. In fact, we can't be seen solving even the majority of this problem. Luckily for us, my White Knight is an extrovert. He's made so many friends. Now… it's time to reach out to them and give them something to do."

Thaddeus understands immediately what Emma is really saying. Everyone that he's come to know, everyone who's come to know him… she's basically talking about treating them like pawns. Except the game is nothing as simple as Chess and real people's lives are on the line here.

… But at the same time, Thaddeus knows each and every one of them will gladly step up and put their life on the line completely of their own volition. Because unlike him and Emma, they're heroes. And that's what heroes do.

"We'll leak HYDRA's existence piecemeal, get everyone on a different 'head' of the beast so to speak. And by the time it's over, by the time it's all said and done, there won't be enough of the bastards left to grow another head, let alone two."

Emma smiles wickedly and nods in agreement with his words.

"Precisely. We can send the Brotherhood after the laboratory where Magneto is being held specifically. You can carry the information to them, Mister Maximoff."

Pietro jolts but nods sharply.

"Alright. Yeah, I can do that."

"I'll go with him."

Wanda's words cause Pietro to jolt in surprise, even as Thaddeus feels like sagging a little. He'd seen it coming, but that doesn't stop him from being slightly disappointed.

"I didn't bring you back to life to have you get yourself killed again, Pietro. Especially not for our bastard of a father. I'll help you and the Brotherhood save him… but that's it, got it?"

Pietro swallows and nods. Of course…

"Then I'll go with you guys as well."

Rogue too. She smiles apologetically when Thaddeus gives her a wounded look.

"Not permanently, definitely not. I'll go with Wanda to make sure Mystique or Magneto can't try to force her to stay around once we're done."

Pietro immediately protests.

"They wouldn't do that!"

But Rogue shuts him down with a simple glare.

"They won't because I won't let them."

And that was that. Except… was it? Because the question became… who was Thaddeus going to try and go with? Emma wouldn't want to involve herself directly and he respected that decision. But in the same way, he knew he couldn't fully stand aside… and he knew she respected that choice too.

So… who did he team up with in the takedown of HYDRA?

-x-X-x-

The Vote:

[ ] Go with the Brotherhood to free Magneto and ensure Rogue and Wanda keep their autonomy - 4%

[ ] Go with She-Hulk and the Avengers to tackle the worst of HYDRA and make a heroic name for himself - 24%

[ ] Go with Natasha and the other Widows to help their SHIELD 'allies' clean house and tackle the Black Sites - 12%

[ ] Go with his closer-to-home allies like Laura, Cessily, Gwen, Kitty, and Illyana and keep his head down - 12%

[X] Actually, he doesn't need to pick any of those. He'll hang back with Emma and maintain overwatch. They can do little nudges here and there. - 49%

-x-X-x-

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