Felicity Finds Family -23-

Felicity Finds Family

A Transgender Super Coming of Age Adventure

From the Super Heroine Universe

Chapter 23: Love Breakthrough

By Sasha Zarya Nexus

Can Felicity and her family gathered outside the destroyed Hotel Colorado discover why they were defeated by Tharngara? Will their strategy of offering familial love to Beth break her free from Thamgara, making her safe and also all the residents of Hotel Colorado from Tharngara's attack?

Copyright 2025 by Sasha Zarya Nexus.
All Rights Reserved.

Author's Note:

This novel, in it's entirety, is available on my Patreon. Patreon Free Members can read my new complete book by chapters, Things We Do for Love. This novel will be posted by chapters on Fridays, until the novel is complete on BCTS.

---

Chapter 23: Love Breakthrough

The darkness that had settled over Glenwood Springs was more than mere absence of light—it was the crushing weight of collective despair. The four women sat in a circle on the park benches, their faces illuminated only by the distant streetlights, each carrying the burden of their failure to save the child who had needed them most.

"She came here seeking family," Lynn whispered, her voice carrying the weight of maternal grief that came from being unable to protect an innocent soul. "She traveled between dimensions, searching for what we all take for granted now—belonging."

The family's collective despair was palpable in the air around them. Hope's warrior training had prepared her for many forms of defeat, but not for the systematic corruption of a child's hope. Her hands clenched into fists as she struggled with the reality that all her interdimensional combat experience had been useless against forces that fed on vulnerability itself.

"All of us are feeling powerless to save the trapped child," Hanna said softly, her ancient wisdom for once failing to provide comfort. "In centuries of existence, I've never encountered evil so perfectly designed to exploit the very thing we were trying to provide."

Felicity felt the tesseract stirring within her core, its slowly regenerating energy responding to the family's shared anguish with something that transcended simple power. But with that response came a crushing realization that made her double over with guilt.

"It's my fault," she gasped, the words tearing from her throat like physical wounds. "The tesseract—my power attracted them. They came here because of what I am, what I carry. Beth was corrupted because I brought divine energy into her presence."

The tesseract guilt that consumed Felicity was rooted in the terrible logic of cause and effect. The unlimited power source within her had drawn the attention of forces that existed specifically to corrupt divine energy. Her very presence at the hotel had created the conditions that made Beth's possession possible.

"Felicity is believing her power attracted corruption," Dr. Merideth Zvezda observed, approaching their circle with her notebook filled with mathematical observations about the evening's events. "The guilt is understandable, but the logic is flawed. Evil doesn't require invitation—it creates its own opportunities."

The staff support that had sustained them through the hotel's destruction now took on new dimensions of comfort. Miss Devereux appeared with her clipboard, but instead of efficiency reports, she carried blankets and thermoses of hot tea. Mr. Medici approached with his weathered hands glowing not with diagnostic energy but with the warm light of someone offering solace. Lyra Boring materialized with her book, but the pages were filled not with analysis but with stories of hope surviving in the darkest circumstances.

"All three are providing comfort during our darkest moment," Miss Devereux said, her professional demeanor softened by genuine care. "The hotel may be gone, but the family it housed remains. We care for each other, especially in times of despair."

As the family accepted the staff's comfort, the full scope of Beth's tragedy began to emerge. Through fragments of memory recovered from the hotel's destroyed systems, they began to understand the child's journey across dimensions—a quest for family that had made her the perfect target for ancient evil.

"The Child's story is revealed," Lyra said, her book documenting the recovered information with gentle precision. "An extradimensional being who sought family at this hotel. She had been traveling between realities for what felt like lifetimes, following whispers of a place where beings like her could find belonging."

Beth's story was heartbreaking in its simplicity. Born in a dimension where her unique abilities made her an outcast, she had lost her parents to forces that feared what she represented. Her journey across realities had been driven by the fundamental need that all children share—the desire to belong somewhere, to be loved unconditionally, to have someone fight for her when she couldn't fight for herself.

"Orphaned vulnerability," Hanna whispered, her ancient wisdom allowing her to perceive the cruel perfection of Beth's situation. "Lack of protective bonds made her susceptible to corruption. She was searching for family, but that very search made her the ideal target for entities that exploit such needs."

The realization hit them like a physical blow. Beth's greatest strength—her capacity to love, her desperate need for connection, her willingness to trust—had been transformed into her greatest weakness. She had approached the hotel with hope, only to encounter forces that used hope as a weapon against those who dared to feel it.

"The ancient pattern," Mr. Medici said, his instruments showing readings that painted a picture of systematic evil spanning eons. "Tharngara's methodology, refined through countless applications across multiple dimensions. The entity has been corrupting vulnerable children for millennia, turning their need for love into fuel for chaos."

The scope of Tharngara's evil was staggering. The primordial corruptor had not just stumbled upon Beth—it had been actively seeking beings like her, children whose orphaned status made them desperate enough to accept any offer of family, even one that led to horror.

"Corrupting vulnerable children across dimensions," Hope realized, her warrior training recognizing the strategic nightmare they had faced. "It's not opportunistic—it's systematic. The entity has perfected the art of finding children who are searching for family and using that search to destroy them."

But it was Peter's origin story that proved most devastating. Through recovered memories and dimensional resonance, they began to understand how a guardian spirit dedicated to protecting children had become one of the forces that ensured their corruption.

"Peter's origin," Lynn said, her maternal instincts allowing her to perceive the tragic irony of the corrupted guardian. "A former guardian who failed and became corrupted by guilt. He was supposed to protect beings like Beth, but his failures accumulated until they transformed him into something that serves the very forces he once fought."

Peter's transformation was a cautionary tale about the weight of responsibility. He had been assigned to protect vulnerable children as they navigated interdimensional existence, but each failure had added to his guilt until the weight of his inadequacy had corrupted him into active malevolence.

"The corruption's method," Felicity realized, her connection to the tesseract allowing her to perceive the systematic nature of the evil they had faced. "Using child's desire for family as weakness. They take the purest emotion—a child's need for love—and invert it into a trap."

The methodology was diabolical in its simplicity. The entities identified children who were searching for family connections, offered them exactly what they most desired, and then slowly corrupted that gift until it became a prison. Beth's desire for belonging had been transformed into chains that bound her to forces that fed on her suffering.

"But there has to be a way," Hope said, her warrior instincts refusing to accept permanent defeat. "If the corruption uses the desire for family as a weapon, then maybe true family love can serve as a counter-weapon."

The power realization that struck them was both simple and profound. The entities had succeeded by exploiting the absence of family bonds, by using isolation and abandonment as fuel for their corruption. But if they could provide the authentic family connection that Beth had been searching for, they might be able to break the very system that held her.

"There is understanding that only true family love can break corruption," Hanna said, her ancient wisdom providing the context they needed. "The entities exploit the lack of protective bonds, but they cannot corrupt bonds that are genuinely present. If we can reach Beth with real family love, we might be able to counter their methodology."

The internal journey that followed this realization was transformative. Each member of the family began to understand that their failure had not been one of power but of approach. They had tried to rescue Beth from the outside, but what she needed was to be drawn into family from the inside.

"Recognizing that chosen family can overcome even ancient evil," Lynn said, her maternal instincts expanding to encompass not just Beth but the very concept of family itself. "We're not just trying to save a child—we're proving that love is stronger than exploitation, that connection is more powerful than isolation."

The tesseract within Felicity's core began to respond to this understanding with unprecedented intensity. The divine construct was not just regenerating—it was evolving, adapting its power to serve the family's growing understanding of what they were truly fighting for.

"It is tesseract integration," Miss Devereux observed, her clipboard showing readings that documented the power source's response to the family's determination. "The divine energy is aligning with your emotional breakthrough. It's not just providing power—it's channeling the force of authentic family love."

The tesseract's integration was complete in a way that transcended mere energy manipulation. The divine construct was responding to the family's determination with power that was specifically designed to counter the corruption's methodology. Where the entities used isolation as a weapon, the tesseract would provide connection. Where they exploited abandonment, it would offer belonging.

"The power source is responding to the family's determination," Dr. Zvezda documented, her mathematical understanding providing context for the impossible. "The tesseract is not just healing—it's evolving to serve the specific need for family love that can break ancient corruption."

As the family sat together in the park, surrounded by the staff who had become part of their extended bonds, the tesseract's power settled into new patterns. The divine energy was no longer just unlimited—it was unlimited family love, channeled through bonds that had been tested by absolute defeat and found unbreakable.

"The internal journey is complete," Lyra said, her book documenting the transformation with quiet reverence. "You've recognized that the battle is not about power versus corruption, but about family versus isolation. And in that battle, you cannot lose."

The realization that swept through them was both humbling and empowering. They had not failed because they were weak—they had failed because they had misunderstood the nature of the battle. Beth needed more than rescue; she needed family. And family was what they had always been prepared to provide.

"She's still our daughter," Lynn said firmly, her voice carrying the absolute conviction of maternal love. "Corruption doesn't change that. Distance doesn't change that. Even if she can't hear us right now, even if she can't feel our love through the chaos—she's still our daughter."

Hope's warrior training had evolved into something that transcended combat. "Then we go to her. Not as rescuers, but as family. We don't fight the corruption—we offer her something better."

Hanna's ancient wisdom provided the foundation for their new approach. "The entities use her need for family as a trap, but they cannot corrupt family that is genuinely present. If we can reach her with real love, with authentic acceptance, with the kind of belonging she was always searching for—the corruption will have no power over her."

The tesseract blazed with recognition within Felicity's core, its infinite energy responding to the family's breakthrough with something that transcended simple power. This was what the Goddess had envisioned—not just individual transformation, but the creation of bonds so strong that they could overcome even the most ancient forms of evil.

"The family's determination is complete," Miss Devereux said, her clipboard showing readings that documented the profound shift in their approach. "You're not just fighting for Beth—you're offering her the very thing she was searching for when she found the corruption instead."

As the Colorado night deepened around them, the family felt the tesseract's power settling into its new configuration. The divine energy was no longer just a weapon against evil—it was a beacon of family love that would guide Beth home, through whatever darkness held her, to the belonging she had always deserved.

The internal journey was complete. They understood now that the battle was not about power but about love, not about rescue but about family, not about defeating corruption but about providing connection. And in that understanding, they had found something that no force of evil could overcome: the unlimited power of chosen family, channeled through divine energy and guided by unbreakable bonds.

Beth was still their daughter, and daughters deserve to come home. The tesseract hummed with infinite contentment, its power now serving not just individual needs but the greater purpose of proving that love—true, authentic, family love—was stronger than any force that sought to corrupt it.

The darkest moment had passed. The real battle for Beth's soul was about to begin, and this time, they would fight not as rescuers but as family, offering her the very thing she had been searching for across dimensions: a place where she truly belonged.