by Saless
Chapter 81

Mike nodded, "Yeah. He always told me that it was kids at school that had been beating Sarah up, but it was actually him all along. She did have some trouble with the kids at school, but not nearly that much."

Mary Kinsley sat back with a sigh. "So you're telling me that my husband beat my son, who has always felt like a girl, and now she has the ability to change her gender magically at will? she said.

"Not exactly." Jill said. "Sarah's always felt like a girl, but what started things was her ability to open portals to other worlds…" From there she went on to explain everything that had happened since Sarah discovered that ability, including the Magician's Answer and their guess that she'd be able to change genders at will now she'd finally changed back.

"And you're okay with this Erica?" Mary asked.

"I wasn't at first, but I've discovered that I actually prefer Sarah as a girl. Came as a bit of shock to me, as you can imagine." Erica replied.

"I guess so. Did…did I really threaten to have George rape her?" she asked fearfully.

"I'm afraid so. We all thought you were as bad as your husband, but I guess you were having one of those episodes he mentioned. That memory is one of the main reasons that Sarah fought being a girl for so long." Erica said.

"My poor girl!" Mary cried out, burying her face in her arms as her shoulders shook with her tears. Jill sat next to her and tried to comfort her.

"Mom?" Sarah said weakly. Mary ran to Sarah's side and held her hand.

"I'm here baby! Can you ever forgive me?" she blubbered.

Sarah frowned, "I thought you'd hate me."

Mary shook her head emphatically, "No, honey, I'd never hate you! I don't remember what you do, but I didn't know what I was doing when I did it. I take medicine that keeps that from happening anymore. I hope someday you can forgive me!"

"Medicine?" Sarah asked, confused.

"Yeah Sarah, looks like your mother isn't so bad after all." Erica said.

"My voice…" Sarah said, still not fully awake.

"Yeah, you changed back. Can you change at will now like we thought?" Erica said.

"Let me see…" Sarah said. She concentrated, and suddenly her clothes fit much better! "Oh, thank goodness!" she breathed in relief.

Erica grabbed her and hugged her in glee. "I'm so happy you were able to change back!" she exclaimed.

"You…you are?" Sarah said.

"I told you I liked you better as a girl. It's still a little weird for me that I do, but I do." Erica replied.

"Good, because I'm never going to change back again!" Sarah said firmly.

"You…you're really a girl, aren't you?" Mary said in wonder.

"Yes Mom, I really am. You really don't remember finding me wearing girls clothes?" Sarah said.

"No dear, I don't. I really had no idea." Mary replied.

Erica filled Sarah in on what had happened while she was unconscious through their bond. "Dad's never going to accept me, is he?" Sarah said sadly.

"It doesn't look like it. I think you're better off without him." Mike said.

"What are you going to do, Mrs. Kinsley?" Jill asked.

"Please call me Mary. I'm not sure what I'm going to do, this has all happened so fast! I just can't believe that George would beat his own child like that!" Mary said.

"Would you like to know what you missed?" Jill asked.

Mary frowned, "What do you mean?"

"I can show you Sarah's memories, if you want and she'll let me." Jill replied.

"It's fine with me." Sarah said.

"Well, okay, but could you leave out the memory of me? I don't really want to see that." Mary said.

Jill and Sarah agreed and Jill showed Mary Sarah's memories of being beaten by her father. She was sobbing by the time Jill was done. Sarah held her hesitantly, but when Mary threw herself into her embrace and cried on her shoulder she held her more firmly. "It's not your fault Mom, you didn't know." Sarah said.

"You're the one who should hate me! You had such a horrible time and I just made it worse!" Mary sobbed.

"I couldn't hate you, Mom!" Sarah replied with tears in her eyes.

They cried on each other's shoulders for a while. The others looked on with smiles on their faces, as this was a better outcome than any of them had expected.

"So…" Mary said when they had calmed themselves enough to speak and pulled apart, "you can open portals to other worlds?"

"Want to see?" Sarah asked.

"Yes," Mary said, "I think I would. It's hard to get my head around all of this, maybe seeing more of it would help."

"How about I show you where we've stashed all the stuff we've collected from other worlds? It's very similar to our world, except there's nothing living there anymore. But that means we can safely show you some of our abilities without worrying about being seen." Sarah suggested.

Mary shrugged, "Okay, sounds like a good idea. But don't you need a book or something for that?"

In answer Sarah opened a portal next to the couch. "Apparently not, when it's somewhere familiar." she said.

"Whoa, when did you find out that?" Mike exclaimed.

"Just now." Sarah replied.

"Shall we?" Erica said, gesturing at the portal. The others shrugged or nodded and they all followed Mary and Sarah through the portal. Mary looked around in wonder as they passed from her living room to the street outside the empty store where they stored all their equipment.

"It's really real…" Mary breathed in awe. She squeaked in surprise when Vash suddenly became visible and flew up on her shoulder.

Hello, my name is Gorvashnik, but they all call me Vash. he said.

Once she got over her surprise she said, "Wow, you really are cute, aren't you?"

So I've been told. Vash said in an offhand way as he cleaned his paws.

"So what would you like to see first Mom?" Sarah asked.

"Oh, well, Jill said that Mike can change into animals and things that he's seen?" Mary said.

Mike nodded and took his naga form. Then he slithered a few dozen feet away before shifting to his dragon forms and then through T-rex, wolf, and his smaller animal forms. "I don't know all that many yet." Mike said with an apologetic shrug once he'd regained human form.

"Wow! And your clothes don't even get damaged! Where do they go when you do that?" Mary said.

Mike shrugged, "We don't know. Just part of the ability, I guess."

Mary shook her head in wonder, "And Tiffany has that shadow ability we already saw, right?" Tiffany nodded. "Okay, and Jill, you can sense other people's thoughts and emotions. And Sarah opens these portals and can change her own gender, apparently. That just leaves Erica?"

"There's other things that Sarah can do. All I can do is not be affected by magic or psionics. So Jill can't read my thoughts and Sarah's magic doesn't do anything to me." Erica said.

"Yeah, like this." Sarah said, and fired off a magical blast at Erica. Erica threw her hands up in surprise, but the blast dissipated harmlessly. "Sorry, I guess I should have warned you first." Sarah said sheepishly when she saw the scowl on Erica's face.

"Yes, you should have!" Erica grumbled.

"What would that thing do to somebody who wasn't immune to magic?" Mary asked.

"Why don't you use that building down the street for a demonstration, Sarah?" Jill suggested. Sarah nodded and fired off another blast identical to the last at a building that stood apart from the rest several buildings down from where they stood. It blasted through the wall and out the roof, sending bits of wood and roofing tile flying through the air.

Mary's hand went to her mouth as she said, "Oh my, that would have killed someone, wouldn't it?"

"Probably," Sarah agreed, "I've never used it against someone. In fact, other than practice, I've only used it on a lock." She then fired a fireball at the building, which hit the outside and exploded, blowing a large smoldering hole in the side of the building. Debris, some of it smoldering or aflame, rained down on the street. The building was far enough away from everything else that nothing besides it was damaged.

Mary gaped at the damage Sarah did and Jill said, "Sarah, hit the base of the building with a magical blast ten times stronger than the last one, would you?" Sarah shrugged and did so. The larger, more intense blue magical blast hit the base of the building and dirt, rock, concrete, and wood went flying up in the air as an even larger hole was blasted through the front of the building. That entire section of the building sagged and then collapsed. "Sarah can make blasts much more powerful than that, of either type." Jill said to an astonished Mary.

"And you were afraid of your father?!" Mary exclaimed. "I think it's him that should have been afraid of you!"

"I wouldn't do that to Dad!" Sarah protested.

"See Tiffany, she can't hate anybody!" Erica said with a grin. Tiffany could only nod in agreement.