Even while her mind wandered, Thea's hands didn't stop.
She kept chanting, steadily drawing back the loose energy swirling through the cabin.
Absorbing it straight into her body wasn't an option — that power was too violent, unrefined and unstable. She wasn't suicidal.
"Captain, Miss Queen has stabilized the energy source. We're in the clear," Gideon announced, its tone returning from urgent to its usual calm neutrality.
"Yeah, well, I still can't see a damn thing! It's all white out there!" Rip Hunter's nerves were hanging by a thread.
If he'd known this was how it'd turn out, he'd rather eat a time core than let Thea board his ship.
She was the very definition of trouble magnet.
Thea, meanwhile, was busy etching a magic array across the deck.
Such an immense burst of energy demanded something equally high-level to contain it — and all of this knowledge had come as a "bonus package" from Arthas during their fusion. She was figuring it out as she went.
Progress was… predictably slow.
"Don't panic! Almost done!" she called back.
God knew when she'd actually finish — but telling the truth would've made them panic harder. Sometimes hope was better than honesty.
Thankfully, as time passed and she completed a few basic contraction circles, some of the energy bled harmlessly into the atmosphere.
The rest, she drew back inside herself a little at a time.
At last, the Legends felt themselves returning from "heavenly radiance" to the ordinary world.
That was when the difference in each person's power level became painfully clear.
Sitting closest to Thea were Professor Stein and Jax — and being Firestorm's two halves, their resistance to heat and radiation was absurdly high.
When the light faded, both men simply rubbed their eyes and sat up, good as new.
Kendra Saunders, the ever-dazed Hawk-girl, wasn't exactly a powerhouse, but she had once been a priestess of Horus.
Maybe she'd absorbed a few divine leftovers in those old temple days, because her resistance to weird conditions was remarkable.
Blinking around in confusion, she still had no idea what had just happened.
The rest weren't so lucky.
Ray Palmer had his Atom suit on standby; the instant things went wrong, he'd snapped it on.
Thermal filters, ionic stabilizers, polarized lenses — all systems online.
Among the "normal" humans, he recovered the fastest.
Those without tech or powers, though, were toast.
Sara Lance and Rip Hunter, farther from the blast, were disoriented but stable.
The Central City duo, however, had been sitting just one seat away from ground zero — and paid for it.
Heat Wave, built like a tank, had the natural advantage of a pyromaniac; he was drenched in sweat but still conscious, glaring at Thea with wide, half-terrified eyes.
His partner… wasn't so lucky.
Captain Cold—who, frankly, wasn't built for extreme anything—looked half-dead.
This was the guy who wore a parka in July; his body chemistry screamed "fragile."
Now he'd taken the full brunt of an energy wave with no radiation, no blast shock, but enough raw force to cook steel.
His breathing was shallow, his pupils rolled white, his usual icy composure gone completely.
"Gideon! Prep the med bay, now!"
Heat Wave didn't even bother arguing anymore.
He scooped his partner up and barreled down the corridor toward the infirmary.
Thea wanted to say, "Hey, I've got healing spells—one zap and he's fine,"
but considering she'd just nearly nuked their ship, she decided silence was the better PR strategy.
Head down, she went back to drawing circles — well, arrays.
"Whew."
Five circles later, the raging energy was finally contained.
A bit of purification, and she'd be able to reuse it later.
Finishing her work, Thea stood and gave the team a sheepish bow.
She'd caused enough chaos to owe them at least an apology.
Thankfully, being Oliver Queen's sister came with perks.
Rip Hunter still looked like he'd swallowed a lemon, but he grudgingly accepted her apology.
Heat Wave was off tending to his partner.
The rest—heroes all—had hearts big enough to forgive. Or maybe they were just used to disasters.
After all, Barry Allen once reset the entire timeline and people still had him over for dinner.
If a villain had pulled something like that, the fighting would've started five minutes ago.
But being on the "Justice" side came with infinite tolerance.
As long as you were in the club, everyone was very… understanding.
It also helped that Thea's energy looked like sunlight.
"Light attribute"—the friend of justice.
Such was the Western world's narrow little logic: light equals good, dark equals evil.
If Superman spent his nights lying in a graveyard absorbing ghost energy, he could save the world every morning and they'd still call him a menace.
People loved judging the universe by their own bias—if it fit their idea of good, it was good. Otherwise, it must be evil.
Thea didn't comment.
As long as she was the one benefiting, she had no reason to correct them.
"Sooo… Thea," Sara Lance said, squinting at her, "what's with your outfit? And your hair?"
Everyone turned—and blinked.
Her red Kevlar suit was gone.
In its place stood something completely different: an armor of gold and crimson.
The shoulder guards gleamed like molten sunlight, lined with red silk beneath and etched with shifting runes.
On each shoulder, two tiny crossed swords glimmered like emblems.
Golden bracers, breastplate—every piece regal, radiant, commanding.
Her lower half was wrapped in a red battle skirt trimmed with gold leaf plates, moving like a phoenix's tail.
The Legends stared.
On a ship full of futuristic tech, Thea looked like she'd stepped straight out of a myth.
The contrast was… jarring.
They didn't need to say it out loud—Seriously? Full fantasy armor? On a time ship?
Of course Thea noticed.
According to Arthas, this rather flashy armor came "free of charge."
Automatic appearance during fusion, automatic disappearance after defusion.
Oh, and the unicorn had one more helpful suggestion:
"Since we've fused, shouldn't we merge our names too? How about—'Thearsas'?"
Thea spat her drink all over her inner consciousness.
"The hell we will! My name sounds fine as it is! 'Thearsas'? What's next, Sylvanas? You trying to curse me early or what?!"
She refused, flatly, absolutely, once and for all.