Talent

In the days that followed, Thea used the excuse of her monthly cycle to avoid all responsibilities. It had to be said, that the excuse worked surprisingly well. Everyone she encountered greeted her with warm smiles, each expressing concern as if worried she might suddenly collapse.

As her body's blood production kicked in, and with Selena and Barbara occasionally bringing her nourishing items like chicken soup, Thea regained much of her strength. She could finally take stock of her recent gains.

Actually, she had received the knowledge the night before. It was a strange sensation as if the knowledge had emerged directly from her soul. She didn't need to read or comprehend it; the knowledge came instinctively, like a skill she'd always possessed.

From this knowledge, she understood that every descendant of the Merlyn family, upon successfully awakening, would gain an innate ability, something akin to a spell-like power. This ability required no magic, gestures, or external conditions; as long as she had enough stamina, she could activate it.

Upon inspection, she noticed a silver-white unicorn tattoo on her left shoulder blade. It could appear or vanish at will. This tattoo, she realized, granted her two distinct abilities.

During the day, it took on a 'positive' aspect, continuously absorbing sunlight. When activated, it summoned a unicorn to fight alongside her until she dismissed it. At night, it shifted to a 'negative' aspect, drawing in the moonlight. This allowed her to create a shadowy duplicate of herself with identical abilities.

A unicorn? Thea pondered this for a moment. She glanced around to ensure no one was nearby, then quickly shut the doors and windows tight. Hoping the disturbance wouldn't be too loud, she focused her mind on the tattoo and activated it.

A faint wisp of white smoke appeared, and her eagerly anticipated companion materialized before her.

Thea stared, nonplussed, at the creature, which was barely larger than her hand. Upon closer inspection, it did indeed have a single horn on its forehead. At least it wasn't just some random horse or donkey trying to pass itself off.

The tiny unicorn seemed confused about its surroundings. It wobbled to its feet on Thea's bed, looking around curiously. Realizing it wasn't in a familiar place, it grew nervous, tucking its hooves beneath itself and scanning the room anxiously. When it finally looked up and saw Thea, it relaxed. Its large, expressive eyes blinked at her, and when she didn't react, it licked her hand with its tongue.

It was rather cute, Thea admitted to herself. She couldn't help but stroke its mane, which was incredibly soft, far better than she'd expected. Still, it was clear this little creature wouldn't be much use in combat anytime soon. Was she supposed to defeat enemies by overwhelming them with its cuteness?

Later that night, she tested the duplication ability, and the results were more satisfying.

Unlike clones in Naruto, the one she created was a solid entity. It could attack, speak, and wouldn't vanish into smoke if hit. However, it was still susceptible to fatal injuries. The clone perfectly replicated Thea's fighting skills. The drawback was that her equipment couldn't be duplicated. However, it couldn't replicate her equipment. If an enemy knew this weakness, they could target the real Thea, who carried the weapons, and overwhelm her.

But despite this flaw, it was still a valuable ability that could be used creatively. For example, one could wield a sword while the other used a dagger, confusing the enemy with feints and maneuvers.

Thea had tested this alone in her room. When the skill was active, her stamina drained twice as fast as usual. Previously, her energy consumption might have been a steady one unit; now it was two.

Injuries to the duplicate didn't affect her, meaning it could theoretically fall a hundred times without harming her. However, knowledge or skills the duplicate gained, like reading a book, couldn't transfer back to her. They could only share basic information, a limitation that had its pros and cons.

Enhancing these abilities was straightforward: the 'day' aspect grew stronger with sunlight and the 'night' aspect with moonlight. The unicorn would evolve from its juvenile form into an adult as it absorbed more sunlight, eventually sprouting wings to become a regal variant. Once it matured, Thea could merge with it, gaining most of its abilities and traits.

The nighttime duplicate would become more agile and intelligent with increased moonlight exposure. In time, she might even summon two or three duplicates.

To help her unicorn grow, Thea could proudly claim she was now among those who could strengthen themselves by basking in the sun. She could picture herself adding a lounge chair next to Superman and Supergirl, sunbathing together.

She wondered what talents her ancestors had received. For simplicity, she decided to call this power a "talent."

She felt this cloning talent suited her well. Given her current focus on combat, this skill effectively doubled her fighting strength. If she wasn't afraid of revealing it, excluding technological gear, Batman might not best her in a one-on-one fight.

This brought her thoughts to bloodline purity and the massive blood loss she'd endured. Though the information was sparse, she deduced that it was a process of burning her blood to awaken her ancestral roots. She could now sense two drops of golden blood near her heart. Perhaps because she'd excelled in the trial, the purification had gone into overdrive, producing two drops instead of the usual one.

This also explained her lingering weakness; most people couldn't survive losing fifteen percent of their blood, and she'd lost nearly a third. Looking at the strange fruit-like object Swamp Thing had given her, which resembled a Devil Fruit, she decided against testing it until she was fully recovered.

The scroll that had triggered all this had disintegrated, leaving her with a final, fragmented message. Unlike the clear talent information, this one was disjointed. Piecing it together, she guessed that an ancestor from countless generations ago had been coerced into a secret realm due to a lover's plight. This was followed by a large chunk of incomprehensible information. Finally, the ancestor destroyed a crucial inheritance guide, likely some parchment scroll, and died alone.

What a sad story but Thea felt no sympathy for this ancestor. He was the one who destroyed the trial instructions along the way, making her journey incredibly difficult and forcing her to guess her way through. Others might have faced a 'normal' difficulty trial; hers was definitely 'hell' difficulty.

This troublesome ancestor also served as a warning: she needed to keep some cards hidden. He'd probably flaunted his power too much, drawing the envy of those without bloodlines or talents. If you had something others didn't, and you weren't discreet, trouble followed. History was full of such people, jealous, scheming types who'd stop at nothing to claim what wasn't theirs. If they were patient and cunning, your only hope was a last-second counterattack.

Thinking of people with these characteristics, one name immediately came to mind: Ra's al Ghul, the ninja master tied to Batman and Green Arrow through convoluted relationships. He had no powers, relying instead on the Lazarus Pit to live for eight centuries. He'd surely encountered mutants and aliens aplenty. Thea didn't believe for a second that he wasn't covetous of supernatural abilities.

Furthermore, the more she thought about it, the more suspicious the original Thea's fate seemed. In the Arrow show, Ra's had ambushed her, leaving an unhealable wound that diminished her abilities and forced her out of the Green Arrow team. Why her? Oliver had plenty of key allies—Laurel, Sara, Felicity—yet Ra's targeted Thea. Throughout the series, he only personally acted against her and Oliver. The truth was shrouded in mystery, and perhaps only Ra's himself knew the whole truth.

Malcolm Merlyn's story was equally odd. After his wife's death, he'd traveled to Nanda Parbat, where Ra's immediately took him under his wing. Within two years, he'd risen to second-in-command. With eight centuries of experience, how could Ra's not see Malcolm's ambition? All these clues suggested Ra's knew about ancient bloodlines, perhaps even more than the descendants themselves knew, given how much history can obscure over long periods.

Could his interest in Batman also stem from similar reasons? The Wayne family's lineage stretched back to the Crusades, a history as storied as any.

Her head ached from overthinking. She picked up the dagger she'd found during the trial. Initially, she thought the dark blade was rusted, but after rubbing it, she realized that was just its color. Where the blade met the hilt, a few words were inscribed in runes.

Now a fledgling magic user, Thea combined the knowledge she'd hastily crammed with some online searching. It took a day, but she finally deciphered the words: Black Mist!