In addition to conventional magical attacks, Merlin's Sword itself came with two high-tier spells: one Ice Storm and one Greater Invisibility per day. Thea could cast these spells herself, but releasing them through the sword consumed none of her own magic. In the real world, magic doesn't distinguish between friend and foe, making Ice Storm impractical, while Greater Invisibility was an excellent spell for everyday use and travel.
The sword also possessed an extremely overpowered attribute: it contained a trace of the Law of Luck, subtly and gradually influencing the wielder's fortune.
Thea experimented for a long time without figuring out how it actually worked, but with a "better safe than sorry" mindset, she decided to keep it on her at all times.
In modern society, carrying a nearly one-meter-long sword around every day was obviously impossible. Fortunately, her ancestor was a mage god, not a sword saint—he had already considered this problem for his descendants.
Those with Merlin's bloodline could transform the sword into an accessory. Thea chose a necklace; the cruciform longsword shrank and hung around her neck, looking like a simple cross from a distance.
…
Coordinating with the administrators of the alien cities required little effort on Thea's part. All seven cities were already on the verge of collapse. Three of them had civilizations inferior even to Earth's, roughly equivalent to the Renaissance era. Thea atomized herself along with over a thousand people and entered the cities, unleashing various pieces of black technology and scaring the locals senseless.
Two other cities had civilizations comparable to Earth's, but their populations had dwindled to only a few thousand. Faced with an entire planet, they didn't dare make trouble.
The remaining two cities were more advanced than Earth. They had once developed their own pseudo-artificial intelligences, but these had already been taken over by Brainiac. Just before Thea and her group entered the cities, Brainiac had dismantled the pseudo-AIs completely. Now, seeing a tablet made them tremble, and seeing a laptop sent their blood pressure skyrocketing. Thea unexpectedly harvested a large amount of fear energy from them, showing just how badly Brainiac had traumatized them.
Faora's infiltration went very smoothly. Rewriting a few people's memories was enough. They unanimously believed that Faora, who had crash-landed on their planet, had led them in destroying the pseudo-AI, and they publicly elected her as their representative, successfully securing one committee seat for Thea.
The government seat was confirmed to be held concurrently by Kentucky Senator June Finch. This middle-aged woman was Moira's political ally and the rotating chair of the Anti-Superman Committee. Overall, she was fairly friendly toward Thea.
The military representative was another old acquaintance of Thea's—General Lane.
Three seats for the aliens, one for Thea, one for the government, and one for the military. The remaining seat belonging to A.R.G.U.S. remained undecided for quite some time.
It wasn't until two weeks later, likely due to balancing considerations among multiple parties, that Amanda's appointment was shelved and Steve Trevor was assigned instead.
The government handled funding allocation, A.R.G.U.S. provided black-tech weaponry, the military supplied conventional arms, and Thea took charge of personnel matters.
She showed no hesitation at all and directly promoted her own bodyguard, John Diggle, to the position of military director.
Lyla Michaels naturally hoped for her husband's promotion—what future was there in being a bodyguard for life? Although she was a die-hard supporter of Amanda, that didn't stop her from indirectly leveraging her connections within A.R.G.U.S. to persuade Steve Trevor and secure internal approval.
The military considered Diggle's background in Kandahar special forces, while the government factored in his race. All sides were quite satisfied with the choice.
In the original timeline, Diggle on Team Arrow often looked like a sidekick, but in reality his military qualities were solid. He was a textbook soldier; being a superhero didn't play to his strengths. Now, taking office in high spirits and leading by example, he brought the two thousand initially recruited soldiers into excellent order.
Forging this force into a tightly bound whole would still take time, but with Thea herself and her promoted personnel in the open, and mercenaries controlled by Faora and Deathstroke in the shadows, controlling the committee—or even pushing it further into something like a World Security Council—wouldn't be difficult as the future grew increasingly dire.
Originally expecting to spend the weekend within her jurisdiction, Thea instead received a phone call and immediately flew back to Star City.
She had returned to attend a wedding.
What made it amusing was that it wasn't a wedding between young people, but the marriage of Felicity's biological mother and Laurel's biological father.
When Thea first heard the news, she wasn't particularly surprised. She remembered that in the show, those two had some chemistry, even if it never developed further.
But in this timeline, because Felicity and Laurel had met earlier, their parents had also become acquainted sooner. One husband had gone to prison, one wife had gotten divorced. The two middle-aged individuals unexpectedly hit it off and, in short order, came up with a wedding plan.
Rushing back to the Queen family estate, Moira, as the mayor of Star City, naturally had to attend to congratulate Detective Lance. As a friend of both Felicity and Laurel, Thea also had to be there. Oliver had recently reconnected with Shado, and Thea had even noticed that he seemed to be living in Shado's apartment.
Of course, Oliver's public excuse was that he was taking care of Yao Fei's daughter. Shado was a Star City police officer, so Oliver, as a friend of a police officer, also had reason to attend.
Although the three family members had different reasons, their destination was the same, so they headed to the church together.
There weren't many people at the church entrance—but Thea recognized quite a few of them.
At a glance, she spotted the tall man in a sharp suit with a brooding aura—Bruce Wayne.
"What are you doing here?" Thea asked quietly.
"Detective Lance invited quite a few people from the police system. I count as law enforcement now, too. Besides, I know Laurel and Felicity as well..." Batman said confidently, lowering his voice only at the very end.
Thea took a closer look and saw that it was true. Detective Lance was chatting with Commissioner Gordon, and standing beside them was a tall Black man with a short buzz cut who occasionally spoke up. Judging by his rank, he was also a detective.
"That detective over there—who is he?" Thea asked, realizing she didn't recognize him.
"Joe West, a serious and dedicated detective from Central City," Batman replied solemnly.
Thea immediately understood—Barry Allen's foster father. Detective Lance certainly had a wide social circle.
Leaving Batman with only the back of her head, Thea moved off to the side after spotting Felicity and Barbara.
"Hey—how does it feel to suddenly have a stepfather and an extra sister?" Thea joked as she patted Felicity on the shoulder.
Felicity's expression was hard to read—neither clearly happy nor unhappy. Her mouth hung half-open, and her eyes lacked their usual sparkle. It was obvious the sudden development had caught her off guard. She wouldn't oppose it, but wholeheartedly approving was another matter entirely.
The key issue was that she already knew Detective Lance and Laurel. Suddenly becoming one family left the IT whiz completely unsure what expression she should wear.
Thea watched the scene with a grin. Felicity didn't know that Sara Lance was still alive. During the previous battle at Nanda Parbat, no trace of Sara had been found. Barring any surprises, she had likely been taken away for special training by Talia's sister, Nyssa.
Felicity was a few months younger than Laurel and two years older than Sara Lance. When the three eventually reunited, things would surely become even livelier.