Lilly stared at the little cat-creature. "Th-they...they were keepin' secrets from me!" she said. "They got magic, an' they didn't tell me, an' they won't turn me back inta a boy!"
Tetra sighed. "Lilly," she said, "most magic doesn't work like that. Jenny doesn't have the power to just do anything she wants to do; she has a very specific set of abilities that let her do a very special job. That's what she had to do today. She's one of a few girls whose job it is to protect the world from some very bad enemies, and that's what she was doing just before you showed up. She has the power to do that job - but not any kind of power to change other people. I don't know about Artemis, but I'm sure if she knew how to help you, she would do it."
The squirrel-girl sniffled. "B-but I saw it! Th-they changed that other girl!"
Tetra shook her head. "That wasn't what happened. The other girl was dying...she was kind of coming apart, and Jenny's mom gave her some of her blood. That's why she changed with parts like Muriel has, because the parts of her that had come apart had to be rebuilt with what Muriel gave her. Jenny and Artemis didn't have anything to do with it."
Lilly eyed her warily. "C-cross your heart?"
Tetra smiled and nodded. "Cross my heart."
"Huh." She wiped her eyes, leaving little damp streaks on her fur. "B-but...they didn't tell me..."
Tetra sighed. This poor girl felt lied to, but she knew Jenny hadn't intended for anything like that... "That's...that's kind of my fault," she said. "What Jenny does is dangerous, so I wanted her to keep it a secret, so that it wouldn't cause trouble for her, and so that other people wouldn't have to get dragged into it. That's why I wanted you to stay at school, so that if something went wrong, you wouldn't get hurt. But I didn't mean that it was something you don't get to know because you're not 'in the club,' or something." Strictly speaking, that wasn't exactly true...she did want to keep this secret inside a closed circle of people who had to know...but it wasn't meant as a personal slight on Lilly, and she couldn't think of a succinct way to explain that to a little girl.
Lilly frowned; now she kinda felt mad at the cat-thing. Was it her fault that she was mad at Jenny? Was it even Jenny's fault? She'd said she would tell her, didn't she? And then she'd run off, because she was mad...she didn't want to be mad at Jenny! And...and if the whole thing was 'cause the cat wanted it to be a secret...she started to sob again.
Now Tetra really felt bad. She'd wanted this kept under the radar, but not at the expense of destroying Jenny's relationships... "Look, I'm...I'm sorry," she said. "I didn't mean for it to be like that. And...I do want to say thank you, you did help out after all."
The squirrel-girl sniffed. "Wh-what'd I do?" she asked. "I wasn't even there..."
The cat-girl shrugged. "No, you weren't - but you met up with the other girl, didn't you? I could smell it on you. That means that you delayed her, while we got ready...and it's possible you even played a part in leading her to give in without anything really bad happening."
Lilly stared. "R-really? I...I didn't like her...she was creepy, an' she made me go t' sleep or somethin'...she was mean."
Tetra nodded. "Yeah...but you have to understand, Lilly, she didn't know any better. Those enemies I talked about, they were the ones who made her. They didn't teach her anything except what they wanted her to know to fight with Jenny. I don't think she's really bad, she just doesn't know how to treat people."
She frowned. "She's...she's still creepy."
The cat-girl shrugged. "I guess...but if you could try to be patient with her, she might learn to be nicer to people."
"Oh." Lilly wasn't really convinced, but...well, she herself had gotten mad at Jenny and Artemis over something that wasn't even their fault. Maybe...if she wanted them to forgive her, it would only be fair of her to try and be a little understanding for this other girl...even if she didn't really like her.
Tetra smiled. "I probably should go now," she said. "But I just wanted you to know, Lilly - I know Jenny's your friend, and I think Artemis is, too. They didn't mean to hurt your feelings or lie to you. So...I think you'd all be a lot happier staying friends, okay?"
"O...kay..." It still hurt her to think about, but...well, it did make more sense that they weren't trying to hurt her feelings, or why would they have been friends with her in the first place? But...that meant that...maybe they really couldn't change her back. Maybe...maybe she was stuck like this...stuck as a little girl... She watched the cat-thing jump up to the windowsill and leap gracefully out into the tree. Then she was gone.
Lilly stood up. She felt a little wobbly...crying did that to her. She quietly moved the box she'd used to bar the door, and cautiously stepped out into the hall. Then it was downstairs, where she found her mother waiting on the couch. Mrs. Gordon looked at her daughter with concern. "Hello, dear," she said. "Are you okay? Do you want to talk about it?"
Lilly rushed over to her mother and collapsed into her arms. She was crying again, but...it felt better than before. She still hurt, she was still scared and upset about the idea of being stuck as this, but...at least she didn't feel so betrayed anymore.
Sarah smiled slightly. "Well...thanks, I guess," she said. "But...I don't think I want to go that route."
Matt raised an eyebrow. "Eh? I would've thought that was kind of a big issue for you."
The harpy nodded. "Well, yeah, in the sense that it's kind of a pain in the ass. But I'm managing, and...I dunno. Using a prosthesis would just feel wrong. My body isn't broken, it's just different, and I'm trying to accept that. It's like...well, it's like the clothing thing. I could get someone to dress me, but all I'm really doing then is pretending like nothing's changed. But it doesn't matter how many different layers of make-believe we go through, the truth is that I have changed. I'm not human anymore."
"Uh, oh," he said. "Um, I didn't mean to imply...is that why you and Mrs. Crawford...?"
Sarah nodded. "It's fine," she said. "It's pretty obvious that's not how you meant it. And...yeah, kind of. Mrs. Crawford...I've talked with her, I don't think she means any harm, but she's just kind of stuck on the idea that I shouldn't be doing this. She keeps coming up with 'yeah, but' reasons that must be the real reason behind me not wearing clothes, because God knows it can't be the simple explanation I've given h-" She caught herself. "Uh, sorry...didn't mean to go off on a rant like that..."
"Sider" bit his lip; his brain was trying to come up with something to say about her nudity, now that his attention had been drawn to it, but if he wasn't tactful enough to come up with an appropriate remark (if there was such a thing,) he at least knew when to keep his mouth shut. "Uh, hey, no problem," he said. "I'm...well, I'm a mad scientist; I know from rants. Um, about the prosthetic, if you ever change your mind..."
Sarah shrugged. "Thanks for the thought, but...I kinda don't think I will," she said. "But, look, I'm sure there's a lot of other people who'd love to have something like that, so don't give up on it or anything."
He smiled. "Yeah, I suppose. Thanks."
She nodded. "And, uh...about the whole action-reaction thing...I wasn't trying to say 'don't think badly of me because of my actions.' I'm a big girl, I can handle it, and I guess you might be right...to a certain extent. It's just...it's Tiffany I'm worried about. I think she's been through more crap than she lets on, and I think she put it all off to one side or something, and she's only starting to feel it now that...whatever that first change was...is done with. She doesn't need half the people in the school whispering about her while she's trying to deal with that, even if she did mistreat some of them. Really, it's probably only going to make things worse."
Muriel sighed as she took off her jacket and draped it around the girl. What was she supposed to do here? The obvious course of action, as a police officer, would be to bring her in as a missing person. But that was ridiculous, there wouldn't be anybody looking for her, and if someone were to point out her new resemblance to Muriel, well, there would be some amount of genetic evidence to provide a seeming reason for that, and it'd look like she was trying to dump off a kid on the state welfare system, even though anybody at the station would know that she didn't have any children.
And anyway, it would be a terrible idea to put her in the system to begin with. Right now she hardly even had any basis for interacting with humans, let alone living with them. What foster parents could possibly understand the nature of a child born fully-formed as a human bomb? They would make some (understandable) assumption that her reticence and gracelessness stemmed from a history of abuse, when in fact it was from the abuse of not having a history.
She frowned; that was...did that make any sense? She didn't know. She didn't really understand much of what she was feeling beyond anger at the forces that had used her and then abandoned her and concern for her fate. But if they attempted to counsel her on that assumption, when what she probably really needed was just a basis in human interaction...
...which led her right back to the obvious, crazy idea. But she couldn't just take her in like that. Legally speaking, she wasn't Muriel's child, and while there would be some genetic evidence if she should claim that she was, that would open up a whole can of worms with questions about why Muriel hadn't disclosed her existence before. And anyway, she already had one child to take care of, and unlike Jenny, she couldn't just send this kid off to school during the day, could she? What was she supposed to do here!?
Well, one thing was for sure. Whatever she decided to do, she was going to need some kind of help skirting around the usual workings of the system. Having the girl wind up with guardians who couldn't be prepared for this was just not an option. She took out her cell phone and pulled up the number for the government guy...Hawkins, that was it.
