ILLYRIS | vii.
"LEPRECHAUNS AREN'T REAL."
THE STRANGE CASE OF DR. VEE
AND MS. ILLYRIS
THEA BLINKED DROWSILY as she opened her locker, the ringing of the seventh-period bell fading in her ears— just one more period to go and it was sweet sweet freedom. That was probably the best feeling in the universe. Having overdue physics homework done half-assed during study hall wasn't.
The weight of her physics textbook was a literal burden she was more than ready to reduce to ashes but storing it below an abandoned hoodie would suffice for now. It was strange that Peter Parker's ideas of the excruciating dullness of school in preference to the prospects of hero work... actually made sense. She thought it was the conqueror in her heart or the fire in her blood, crying out for release. Or it could've just been the mediocrity of school that was a sore disappointment she discovered after bingeing the High School Musical movies over and over when she was young.
She knew their little gathering at the coffee shop was far from over. They had to talk more about what to do, what their next step was. Thea weighed both sides when she got home— on one, they're faced with a flying man wearing a wingsuit, armed with henchmen bearing alien weapons. On the other, Peter was a boy wearing a spandex suit and she was... well, Thea didn't know what she was or where her priorities laid yet. She was Theadora Martell the Teenage Student and Rhaenerys Valaryen the Dragonborn all jumbled up in a body that was ticking like a timebomb.
For now, Theadora Martell the Teenage Student had to take over because her focus was on school.
That was better said than done. She hadn't done the homework she missed out on the day before but there were more important things to do like laying sprawled on her bed, clutching both of her dragon eggs like stuffed animals, and staring out the window for five hours. She thought of the vulture guy— a mysterious man so vaguely dangerous, he had gotten under her skin. And she hated it.
She gave a start at a tap on her shoulder, and her shoulders relaxed when Bex chuckled harmlessly.
"At ease, T," her best friend remarked. In her hand was a paper bag that she passed to Thea. "Here's some food. Abuela thinks you're too skinny and we should feed you 'cause you're an orphan."
Thea squinted her eyes, humming disapprovingly at that last part. Bex was really trying to push that "Twisted Twins" thing to the max. She couldn't focus on that thought, not with the tantalizing scent emanating from the bag. It made Thea's mouth water but also brought her to her senses. "Tell her thanks. I completely forgot about making my lunch today."
"Yeah, I figured. It like came to me in a vision or a dream, 'Holy shit, Thea didn't eat, I should swoop in and save the day." Bex mockingly waved her hands but didn't notice the sudden tensing of Thea's shoulders.
She wouldn't consider the word dream a trigger but the only thing that became associated with it was the fire and dragon she saw every night in her sleep. That bequeathed the purple lining under Thea's startlingly blue eyes. There was a certain dullness to them now, like she hadn't slept in ages—which considering her habit to push all her homework to the witching hour—was not totally undeniable.
"I've just... I don't know I've been thinking about things, how different my life is now," Thea explained softly. "I'm like two people in one body and one is so, so different from everything else. It's not an Illyris thing, it's me. I've always been proud of that but no one else can understand my powers or who I am. Obviously, I don't expect them to but it's a thing now. It's tangible."
Bex tilted her head sympathetically. "That's not true."
Thea raised an eyebrow, smiling weakly. "I was kind of lonely growing up, B."
"You weren't lonely! You had me!" Bex argued indignantly.
"I meant before I met you. Besides... Yn gaomā shifang nyke syt nyke daor." Thea watched Bex's eyebrows crease in confusion.
"I don't know what that means but that's probably the point," Bex conceded, catching Thea's agreeing smile. "You're really embracing that double-agent life, huh? It's like the Strange Case of Dr. Vee and Ms. Illyris. Lemme ask you something: Have you ever considered just going by your birth name?"
Thea wore a wavering smile. "I've thought about it. Like, it's just a name and I want to be more in touch with my culture, what could be better? I don't know... it feels a little late now."
"Well, it seems like you've arrived to this gig at the perfect time, huh?" Bex mused. "Is Peter the, uh, 'agent-side' of you?"
"Look, he gets me in some impossible way," Thea explained, holding the straps of her backpack tighter as a soft blush rose to her cheeks. "I've never met someone our age do good things— hero things." Catching the cheeky grin plastered on her friend's face, Thea shoved her arm. "Shut up, it's not like that."
Bex eyed Thea like her bullshit meter was ticking in the red zone. "Alright, alright..." She pointed at her warningly. "But if I see him at our booth at the Coffee Haus, then we'll have a problem."
"Someone's a little afraid," Thea teased, slipping her history book in her backpack. She had an inkling what the day's lesson would be about considering their study in ancient civilizations.
Bex scoffed, her chin held up high. "I'm not afraid of anything... except dudebros and leprechauns."
Thea rolled her eyes, stopping in her path. "Leprechauns aren't real."
"I know what I saw!" Bex fired back, wearing nothing but severity on her face.
"Fine, fine, look, I've got Decathlon practice after school so don't wait up." Thea stopped in front of her history class, wearing a lopsided smile. "It's the last one before Nationals." Her shoulders moved in a small dance and she sang, "Two more days and I'm freaking out."
Bex grinned, walking backward as the passing period bell rang above them, signaling thirty seconds left in the break. "Don't worry. You're gonna carry them."
Thea peered into her classroom. The oddly dramatic and theatrical Mr. Brackett flipped his striped scarf over his shoulder, doing attendance quietly as his students began settling in. Thea walked in quietly, making eye contact with Ned who beckoned her over. Mr. Brackett believed seating charts limited students' freedom and allowed them to sit wherever they wanted, prompting her to take a seat right behind Ned.
"Hey, you guys figure out what that energy core is built on?" she whispered, her eyes darting to her sides cautiously.
"Energy co— oh, the glowy thing," Ned remarked, pulling out his notebook. Thea smirked at the Star Wars-themed stickers that littered the entire front cover to the point where she wasn't sure what color it originally was. He flipped to the very back, handing it discreetly to Thea.
Ned's handwriting was pretty good but it was obvious he was fueled by excitement to write anything legible. She caught a few words— "charging plate" and "alien-human tech combo" even a few "awesome's" here and there.
"These guys are fusing human technology with the alien ones— I mean, imagine how awesome that is?" Ned hissed, struggling to keep his excitement down to a ten rather than a thousand. "And they were here."
Thea's eyes widened. "What do you mean here?"
"The tech salesmen. They were looking for Peter or the glowy thing but they're gone now— I think," Ned said uneasily.
"I think? Seriously?" Thea sighed, folding her arms over her chest apprehensively. "These people don't know the hands that handle these weapons or if they're even stable enough to combine with our tech. It-It's like an energy radiating off of it like a warning beacon and I can feel all of it. We're talking advanced alien machinery, Ned. How can we understand it if even the Avengers can't?"
"Well, that's where you and Peter come in! This is your moment," Ned replied, awe leaking from his voice. "Isn't this your thing? Magic, cool D&D, kinda stuff?"
Oh, Ned, Thea thought, the corner of her lip curving up. "Sorta."
She didn't want to disappoint Ned or take away not even a bit of his excitement. She had to assure herself that this was but a pit-stop in the journey for something she was raised to do. Thea felt awful for even reducing the magnanimity of the flying vulture guy but she believed this a training exercise. She had never formally used her powers— technically, the mantle of Illyris was only three days old. To her surprise, it didn't sound like it. The whole day she heard whispers of her moniker, her alter-ego, the extension of magic beyond Avengers like Thor and Wanda Maximoff. But she could only ponder how long this was going to last until she masters the arcane sorcery flowing through her veins... and then, it was time for the Valaryen name to survive.
She recognized awe, fear, glory, but most of all respect— everything her ancestors had earned and preserved for generations.
Ned was fidgeting with his fingers, bumbling over his words, "So, uh, I— well, I hope you don't think this is like weird or anything but are you going with anyone to homeco—"
"You guys see the new Illyris theory video?"
Ned and Thea's attention snapped over to Jason Ionello who was showing some of his friends his phone. Flash rolled his eyes, rebuffing at the video that rattled off all the different angles and pieces of Thea they dissected from a matter of a day.
"That's all fake news," Flash said in an obnoxious tone. "She's obviously one of the new Avengers."
"Black Widow tell you that on your date?" Thea spoke up, innocently propping her chin on her fist much to Flash's annoyance— which she was satisfied with.
"Alright, historians... let's get down to business," Mr. Brackett's voice resounded over the minimal chatter. He leaned against the front of his desk, his fingers drumming against the wood in excitement. "We're going to subject our minds to the modern history of our country and the democracy that's... well, flailing."
Thea struggled to keep her eyes open, grateful that the angle where her desk was allowed her to doze off for a good fifteen minutes. She scribbled down a few notes about the Sokovia Accords, destruction, and chaos that reigned after Tony Stark had declared himself as Iron Man. The tip of her pen froze on the paper as soon as she heard the words "London" and "Greenflame Massacre." That was the most common, preferred name for what happened nine months before Thea was born.
Mr. Brackett's face was distracted and he used a pointer to gesture to the circle of burnt destruction in the heart of London. "People say you can still see a tinge of green in the sky where the fires burned for weeks. The air smells and feels different. Shadows of victims were burned onto the road, and politicians regarded it as one of the worst crimes of terrorism in the UK."
Because of the Odinforce, Thea wanted to explain but she only caught Ned's sneaky glance thrown behind his shoulder. It was obviously pity but she appreciated his little check-up. She bent down towards her backpack, fishing through the clutter for an orange bottle. Her eyes scanned the label thoughtfully. Each black letter was printed out so perfectly and spaced just right. Some of the words on the edge were smudged from prior sweat but the gist was clear: Thea Valaryen + anxiety = Here's ten milligrams of Lexapro to calm yourself down before you blow up another microwave oven.
No one knew of House Valaryen in the same magnitude as when they wielded magic and dragons hundreds of years ago. The only thing they would remember now is the stench of burning flesh, the screams of men, wails of women and children, and the burnt bits of cement and rock where the Rhaenkeep once stood proud. They would know the trend of craziness that lurked in the blood of each Valaryen since Daerion the Ill first succumbed to it. The same gene that took over her father... or so what they portrayed him as when Odin stabbed him through the heart.
It took every bit of her strength and her priority to keep the Illyris title a secret to not stand up and rebut what the history books chronicled. Instead, Theadora looked Mr. Brackett dead in the eye and closed her book shut.
She would not take notes on lies.
✧✦✧
"ONTO THE NEXT question," Liz announced as she flipped her cards.
Thea's feet tapped restlessly against the floor of the stage. The Lexapro she took in the bathroom helped calm her nerves throughout history. Now, her hand was ready to smash onto the silver bell placed in front of her. Her head turned to her right. Cindy smiled at her before breaking out of her courtesies and eagerly hitting the bell a split second before the others did to spit out the answer to Liz's question. Thea felt bad. Cindy had been texting updates about homecoming but in the chaos of her life, she had forgotten to purchase tickets entirely.
"What was the first colony in Africa to gain independence in 1951?"
Thea's hand hit the bell, blurting out, "Libya!"
Liz looked down at the back of her card and a satisfied smile stretched across her lips. "Correct! Thank you, Thea... glad you're feeling better."
Thea looked down at her Decathlon book. She had scored several more questions but all the while she noticed Peter's absence. It bugged her how he never bothered to text her about the energy core or even the fact that two armed men infiltrated a school. So much for top-notch security. It frightened Thea that he was so close to getting caught. Clear and present, her area of focus was Decathlon. Before practice started, Thea read through her book furiously, absorbing chunks of text from literature to science... until she grew tired and didn't realize she was rereading the same passage over and over again. Her mind kept drifting off to Peter's sudden secrecy.
Thea bounded off the stage as soon as it was time for a quick break. Mr. Harrington insisted as he didn't want anyone falling ill from the pressures of winning two days before. She tucked her book into her olive green backpack, jolting at the sudden footsteps behind her.
"Hey, Thea, it was really nice seeing you today," Liz remarked kindly. She tilted her head, thick waves of black hair draping over her shoulder. "I was worried for a second. After Peter, I wasn't sure if we were going to lose you too."
"Of course not," Thea replied, smiling warmly as she slipped the straps of her backpack over her shoulders. "You've really been pulling through as a leader. I'm sure we'll win."
Liz pressed a hand on her chest, letting out a breathy chuckle of relief. "Wow, I-I really needed to hear that. And make sure you get a good night's sleep, alright?"
Damnit was it that obvious? Thea thought. "After practice, I was gonna head home to read more. I kinda need it."
"Thea, you'll be fine. You're super smart and you don't even have to look at the book," Liz assured, shaking her head.
She nodded gratefully as Liz walked away, ready to lead yet another mock round. Thea felt that awful pressure on her heart. It clicked why Peter wanted to make an impression on Liz. Hell, at some point she almost had a crush on the beautiful senior. Still, it stung in some vague way she couldn't grasp.
Silent, she joined Ned for individual study on the ground. His face lit up at the sight of her, even if she wasn't as pumped to study as he was. Thea sighed and collapsed into the chair next to him.
"Peter text you about anything yet?" she inquired, idly resting her chin on the hard plastic backrest.
"Sorta. Get this," he dramatically spun in his chair to face her, abandoning his practice book, "he told me he shot a tracker at one of the guys. So we can figure out where they're all hiding."
"A tracker?" Thea remarked, nodding slowly in approval as she recalled Tony Stark's affirmation. "That suit really does have everything."
"I know," Ned gushed, his eyes sparkling. "Anyways, we're hoping we can find out where the source of all those weapons are and—"
"Whatcha two dorks talking about?" Flash suddenly questioned, wearing a snobbish smile as he slung an arm over the two teens' chairs. The silver gleam of his wristwatch was fit his name, blinding Thea whose mood soured.
"Nothing, go away," Thea instinctively snapped as she stared straight at Ned, her mind struggling to comprehend what he was saying before someone interrupted.
Flash looked at her indignantly though he shut up and turned away. Ned returned to his reading, leaving Thea to her thoughts and creeping worries. Just two hours beforehand she was wondering what their next steps were gonna be and it seemed like Peter had it all squared away. He didn't seem like the type of guy or person to do it on purpose. After all, he knew what she was capable of and an angry Thea was not a good thing. Regardless, she could only sit there for the remainder of practice and wonder just what Peter Parker was up to.
"Okay, children of the corn, our last practice is over!" Mr. Harrington announced, eliciting a round of applause and excited bell-chimes from Abe who cheered happily. He clapped his hands together, itching with his own surge of enthusiasm. "Remember, meet here at eight and remember to bring your team blazers. It's a five-hour bus ride so go to the bathroom before we leave... you can only make that mistake once."
Thea's brows furrowed in disturbed confusion. She definitely didn't want to know what the context of that warning was.
"We are off to Nationals!" Mr. Harrington concluded, throwing his arms up in the air as everyone cheered once again.
Their screams and claps echoing in the large room that became theirs for a brief moment. It was the thrill of a group of teammates united by their sheer determination to win though it sounded like Flash was sucking in all the confidence up for himself. It was everyone except Peter and Thea felt that same twisting pressure settle on her chest again.
The Strange Case of Dr. Vee and Ms. Illyris? More like the Case of Dr. Parker and Mr. Spider-Man.
Thea shut her eyes, her heavy hands joining the applause though it felt empty without Peter who deserved a moment to celebrate himself for who he was and his priorities rather than forcing all his energy into being the Hero of Queens. First and foremost, he was Peter Parker.
And he should be here with us, she thought to herself despite the resounding fervor of team spirit enveloping the room.
____
bex and thea's relationship is literally my favorite thing in the world
ALSO CAN WE TALK ABOUT THE SPIDeRMAN NO WAY HOME TRAILER IM SCREAMING THE "hello peter" LITERALLY TOOK ME OUT ALFRED MOLINA LOOKS SO GOOD HE HASN'T CHANGED SINCE THE SAM RAIMI MOVIES
AND WE'RE GETTING THE SINISTER SIX AH ?!
ALL THIS TIME I THOUGHT DR STRANGE WAS GONNA GIVE IN HIS TWO WEEKS BC OF WANDA SYLVIE AND LOKI BUT HE'S ALSO MESSING WITH THE MULTIVERSE PLEASE
ALSO HES PULLING OFF M A J O R DAD VIBES WHAT A STUD
im gonna be so annoying when this movie comes out i can feel it
- geena