The man slammed into the ground with a heavy thud and stopped moving. The crowd around him froze in shock for a heartbeat before panic erupted. Countless voices rose at once, rambling incoherently in fear.
Thea had been explaining temple architecture to Diana—how the exterior would use the old design, how Amazon sculptors would decorate the inner hall—when the incident unfolded right before her eyes. She was left momentarily stunned.
Oh, come on…
Her neck stiffened. In the entire DC universe, there were only two well-known circus tragedies. One belonged to Dick Grayson's family—the famed Flying Graysons—whose parents had both fallen to their deaths, leading Batman to take him in.
And the other… was this one, right here.
Boston Brand—later known to the world as "Deadman."
Thea glanced at the floating spirit drifting above the stage. Red bodysuit, pale face—it matched the memory perfectly. Very few normal people manifested visible spirits after death; only those with unusually strong spiritual potential, like high-level mages, occasionally did so. But this man had been intensely focused at the moment of death, and with his natural talent for spiritual force, the circumstances allowed his soul to appear clearly.
But in her recollection, Boston Brand only became what he became because some "death goddess" chose him after his murder.
So where was that goddess now?
Not far away, Boston Brand's spirit drifted sluggishly near the stage, fraying at the edges. And with every person who hurried across the area, his form dispersed just a little faster.
Is that so-called death goddess even real? If she is, which pantheon does she belong to? Earthly? Alien? From this universe or some previous one?
The more Thea compared her memories to reality, the more uncertain she became. Watching Boston Brand nearly fade away, she finally made her decision.
She lifted a pale, jade-like finger and aimed it at his collapsing spirit.
Sinestro might surpass her in raw willpower, but in understanding and manipulating energy, Thea vastly outclassed any Lantern. Pouring divine power into someone in this condition would only cause his spirit to burst instantly. The proper method was to ignite power from within his own soul. And what emotion could awaken deeper potential than fear?
She wrapped a thread of pure fear with her magic and shot it straight into Boston Brand's spirit.
His dim eyes abruptly sharpened into raw terror. A scream tore from him—silent to the living but painfully clear to Thea and Diana.
But even Thea had underestimated the force of pure fear. A normal human might collapse from it. Boston Brand, now a spirit with heightened focus and without a physical brain to buffer the shock, took the full brunt of a soul-piercing wave. His spirit convulsed violently, distorting the air around him. He bolted away in blind panic, twisting unnaturally, and Thea barely caught a glimpse of his form mutating—changing into some new, unknown state—before he vanished completely.
"What just happened?" Thea murmured, turning to Diana.
"He seemed to shift from a spirit into… something else. I can't quite tell." Diana's realm was tied to physical combat; in arcane matters, she wasn't even as knowledgeable as Thea.
"That's what I thought too… some completely new transformation."
With Diana's confirmation, Thea found herself more convinced. She had always wondered: among millions of the dead—many with strong spirits—why had Boston Brand alone become something between life and death?
She suddenly remembered another detail: Boston Brand had told many people about his encounter with a mysterious death goddess… but in all the following years, no one else had ever seen such a being. Not once.
Wait.
Was that "goddess" actually… me?
A chilling wave of causality crawled over her skin. Ludendorff living until 1937… Steve Trevor unwittingly spreading the Spanish Flu… All the historical events she had influenced—yet the timeline still aligned with the history she remembered.
Did I really cause all of this?
"What are you thinking?" Diana's voice broke through her spiraling thoughts.
Too complicated. Too many threads.
Thea wasn't telling her.
"Ah—I'm trying to figure out who the murderer is! I'm… deducing!"
Diana shot her a gorgeous, exasperated look.
"Stop pretending. Your Eye of Horus can identify truth from falsehood. My Lasso of Truth forces people to speak honestly. Why do you need deduction?"
Thea nearly wanted to cover her face. Diana was absolutely right. Together, their abilities were the perfect investigative team. Even the cleverest criminal wouldn't stand a chance. Holmes would faint. Conan would retire.
Muttering under her breath, Thea activated the Eye of Horus. Instantly, the image of a balding, lanky old man flashed before her eyes. The Eye—not bound by science in the slightest—declared him the murderer.
Murderer found.
But exposing him without revealing herself? She didn't want people she knew in Star City to notice her. Just as she was thinking, a familiar crowd arrived—and her eyes lit up.
With a gesture, she cast invisibility over herself and Diana and slipped into the crowd to watch.
"Everyone out! Don't contaminate the scene!"
The loud voice belonged to Captain Lance of the Star City Police Department—Laurel's father and a longtime acquaintance of Thea.
Among the male officers, one figure stood out—a young woman in a sharp police uniform and white gloves: Shado, the girl Thea had rescued from Purgatory Island.
After the forensic technician finished his initial assessment, Shado began her own work as medical examiner.
"The victim is a twenty-eight-year-old male. Height approximately one eighty-three. Cause of death: fatal fall from a high altitude…"
Detective Lance had handled cases like this before. He quickly noticed that the acrobat's rope had been partially sawed beforehand, causing his mid-air fall. This wasn't something an outsider could have done. He immediately issued orders:
"Bring all of them in!"
Years of funding from Thea had given the Star City Police Department ample resources and a team full of strong, energetic young officers. With so little crime in a peaceful city, they rushed in eagerly at the command.
Thea still had so much to talk about with Diana; she didn't want to waste any more time on the police procedure.
She stepped beside Shado and quietly cast a sound-dampening barrier.
"Shado, it's me—Thea. Don't turn around. I'm invisible."
Having seen Thea's methods before, Shado didn't react. She simply continued her examination with full professionalism.
"That bald, lanky man over there is the killer. Point him out—I'll make him confess."
Of course, Thea had no such spell prepared. Any magic would take time to cast.
But she didn't need anything.
With Diana's Lasso of Truth, lying simply wasn't an option.