Summary: Alec is dead and the world burns because of it.


The world was burning, of course it was, Alec was gone.

Jace had always known that Magnus was powerful, you didn't become High Warlock without being powerful, but he hadn't realized just how much the Warlock had loved Alec, still loved Alec even though the other man was gone.

Jace looked away from the window to glance at Clary where she sat next to Isabelle as she panted through her contractions with Catarina, an old friend of Magnus' that had been a nurse before nurses weren't much use, before Valentine and his son, Jonathan had killed Alec.

Simon was getting in the way and had been sent to boil water, not exactly necessary until after the baby was born but it got him out of the way and his nervous twitching out of sight.

Jace sighed and turned back to guarding their hideout, he was sure that Magnus knew exactly where they were, there seemed to be an extra layer of protection around them during the night, or what passed for night now, and when they were especially exhausted after a long day of searching and evacuating survivers to Idris and Alicante.

Even now there seemed to be more protection around their little haven than the Warlocks with them had placed as Izzy brought her little life into the world, she and Simon would go to Idris with the next wave of evacuees when the Warlocks in Idris deemed it safe enough to open one without drawing Magnus' attention.

Alec had been so excited to be an uncle and had dragged Magnus along for the ride, they'd bought furniture and clothes and toys.

After Alec had died, been killed, Magnus had destroyed the loft, too many memories of his love, Izzy had managed to find a little black cat stuffed animal that had beautiful yellow-green cat eyes, and she had known that Alec had picked it out for her child because Magnus would never get something that reminded him of his demon mark. She had kept it tucked against her, the faux fur singed and smelling slightly of smoke while the world burned around them. While the Warlock that had loved her brother burned the world down for taking the man he loved from him.

Demons had crawled out of every hole they had been hiding in thinking that they would be welcomed, only to find a cruel and unyielding Destroyer who had no use for Demons and no patience for them.

Many Shadowhunters had tried to bring Magnus to the Clave for justice, for breaking the Accords but while they had been returned none of them would ever be proper Shadowhunters again.

When Imogen had demanded that Jace and Izzy bring the Warlock in Jace had told her that they had been lucky that Magnus had allowed the Shadowhunters to live and he was not going to risk Izzy and her child, not that Jace thought that Magnus would harm Izzy or her child but Imogen did not need to know that.

They had volunteered to continune the Rescue and Evacuation when the other Institutes had fled behind the wards of Alicante and Idris. Jace knew that if Magnus had wanted he could easily destroy them, but Jace also knew that Magnus wanted to destroy Valentine and Jonathan and anyone that followed them even if he burned the world down in the process, because the one that could pull Magnus back from the fire that burned within him had been taken from him by the very people he would destroy.

The sudden sharp cry of a newborn made Jace turn back to his sister and he let a smile curl on his lips, the first since Alec had been killed, as Izzy cradled her baby against her chest while tears streamed down her cheeks.

"What's her name?" Clary asked quietly as Izzy leaned heavily against her while Simon cooed and wiggled his fingers at his daughter.

"I... I was thinking about naming her after Alec." Izzy whispered, "But Alec always hated the idea of namesakes."

"Amelia means Defender, Alexander means Defender of Men." Catarina said quietly. "And Aleka is a form of Alexander."

"Amelia Lightwood-Lewis." Izzy said trying it out, "Amelia Aleka."

"Alec would like it." Jace said, voice rough from disuse, he hadn't talked much since Alec died.

Izzy looked at him, "Do you want to hold her?"

Jace shook his head, "No. She's safer with you."

"Jace." Izzy started, about to launch into the same speech she'd given him since Alec's death, trying to convince him that it wasn't his fault.

But it was. It was his fault, Alec and him were supposed to go Demon hunting together but Clary had wanted to go to a movie that was only playing that day so Jace had begged Alec to let him go and Alec had, which meant Alec had gone alone and encountered Valentine and Jonathan alone. Jace had been so focused on Clary and their date that he had hardly noticed the burning in his side until it had begun breaking and by then it had been too late.

Clary had helped him out of the theatre and to Alec.

They had found Magnus holding Alec's body tightly, his magic too weak to defend himself if they had been unfriendly, having expended it trying to save Alec.

Alec's phone was still on, showing the first person he had thought of, Magnus' name glowing on the screen.

"Oh, God." Clary had gasped, "Magnus, is he..?"

And Magnus had looked at them and Jace knew that the Warlock that they had known was gone, he had pulled Clary back and pushed her behind him as the Demon wearing Magnus' face stood up, lifting Alec's body with him, the Shadowhunter's head resting against Magnus' shoulder, his arms and legs swinging lifelessly with Magnus' movements. Magnus' eyes glowed in the darkness, not the yellow-green cat eyes that Alec had spent hours waxing poetically about when Izzy had asked about Magnus' eyes one day, but ugly red-orange slitted eyes that looked like fire.

"Magnus?" Clary had said again but Magnus had brushed passed them and was gone, Jace had held Clary back to keep her from following.

When he and Clary had told Izzy she had insisted on checking up on him at the loft the next day and they had found the loft destroyed and Magnus no where to be found.

Alec's body had been placed gently in his bed at the Institute, the bed lengthened and widened to fit the tall man, the sheets golden silk, if Jace hadn't felt their Parabatai bond break and shatter he might have thought Alec was sleeping. Under Alec's folded hands was a red Omamori charm and white lilies filled the room around the bed along with a few bright red roses placed around Alec on the bed.

Izzy had sobbed, her legs folding under her weight as she fell to the floor.

"Izzy, are you alright?" Simon had asked.

Izzy had shaken her head.

"What do the flowers mean?" Clary had asked.

"The lilies mean Devotion but they are funeral flowers, the red roses mean romantic love." Izzy whispered, "Magnus brought Alec home."

"No, he brought him here." Jace whispered, "Magnus was Alec's home, like Alec was Magnus', home is gone for both of them now."

Jace turned away from the group and looked out the window, there was a red glow in the distance and he could almost smell the smoke from the fires and he wondered if Valentine had known what he was unleashing when he killed Alec Lightwood.

Meanwhile the world burned and buildings crumbled into dust and ash and at the center, a being surrounded by darkness and red fire stood, his clothing was white, pristine and stylish, his black hair streaked with white, with a single red rose paired with a white lily pinned to the laple of his white suit and his eyes surrounded by smudged black eyeliner burned red-orange, like the fire that consumed him and the world.

He'd always known he'd burn the world down for Alexander, he just hadn't thought the end would come so soon.


Author's note: This was inspired by a line in my previous work in this fandom, this is not, however, a sequel to that work.

Also as a show of respect for Alec's culture I feel that Magnus would wear white in mourning since white is the color of mourning for Shadowhunters.