It's finally here, guys! Sweet Redemption, the sequel to Sweet Revenge! Make sure you read that first else wise you'll be super confused xD

I really hope you like it, I've had some awesome help from JMDeaton, who I am collabing with for this story! Go check out her TMI AU, High School Sweethearts, it's AMAZING! It's all human, so it's a nice breather from the traditional TMI fanfiction following their lives as shadowhunters (:

Don't forget to favorite, follow, and review! Reviews help me write faster ;D

thank you so much 3

xoxo, Em

I've given up
On society
Up on my family
Up on your social disease

I've given up
On the industry
Up on democracy
Done with all your hypocrisy

All of the chaos
And all of the lies
I hate it

I'm wasting here
Can anyone wash it all away
I'm waiting here
For anyone to wash it all away
Wash it all away

Wash It All Away, Five Finger Death Punch

Jace

It's been a week. An entire week since we've heard anything about Clary. In fact, the last we've heard is when Robert came parading into the Institute with an army to take Clary away, as if she was a threat to any of us or to the Clave. But they've finally figured out that she's different than us all. She's stronger, and more powerful. She could take down an adult Shadowhunter without breaking a sweat. She can create new runes, runes that have never been seen by Shadowhunter eyes before. They're magnificent, but the Clave focuses on how they think it's wrong. Abnormal. Different.

So instead of learning about something that they don't know, they try to control it. Control Clary? She's not a doll, she won't sit down and let them do as they please. She may not have been fighting back when they came for her, but she is not going to give in to this accusation. She knows that she is good, pure. She knows that.

And she knows that we'll all come to her aid when she needs it for this trial. Everybody is already buzzing about it, from the Downworld of New York City, to the depths of the Faerie realm where the Seelie Queen is hiding away with her poppets to avoid persecution for breaking the Accords. It's going to be huge.

But where is the news of the trial? Had a date been set in secrecy? No, the Clave loves to make an example of people, they'll want everyone to watch as the Mortal Sword brutally rips the truth out of Clary. It'll bring her to her knees, down to their level. Which is where they want her and all because she is different.

It's something that all of the Downworld can get behind and support. For hundreds of years, they've been persecuted for being different from Shadowhunters. The people who supported us when we went against Valentine, stand alongside us even now. Luke Garroway's pack and Simon Lewis' clan have all of their men and women listening for anything, even the smallest whisper or gossip of where the Morgenstern girl has been taken. They've been greeted with static silence, as well.

Not even Robert will tell us a thing. Maryse is constantly writing another message to send via fire or using the phone to call Jia Penhallow, the Consul. Long before she gained the position of Consul, she was friends with Maryse. Even with a friendship spanning years and years—so long that Alec and Isabelle used to play with Jia's daughter, Aline, when they were still in diapers—Jia was unable to speak of the matter with Maryse. Not even to tell her when the trial is; assuming that there will be a trial.

I can't allow myself to think that they'll strip her of her runes or worse, without a trial. Sed lex dura lex. The law is hard, but it is the law. The Clave follows that motto to a T, so there has to be a trial. Right? I don't know what any of us would do if they decided to bend their precious law and skip over the trial. I don't know what I'd do for that matter.

"Jace!" Isabelle's voice calls along with a knock at the door. I jump off of the bed and race to the door. She sounds frantic. Or excited; you can never tell, with Isabelle.

"What's wrong?" I ask her when her head pops in, black hair spilling over her shoulders like tar.

"Nothing," she gives me a small smile. "We're all so stressed, so let's go train a little."

"Fine," I groan, turning to sit back on the bed and tug on a pair of sneakers.

"Let's go get Jonny!" She grins, turning to rush off into the cavernous hallway. Church is sitting just outside my door, and he rockets off after I stoop down and pet him. It's been too long since I've gotten some kitty love.

"Jonny?" I snort as I follow after her and the gray fluff ball with quick strides. "Jeez, you two move fast," I tease her.

"Oh hush, Jace! It's just a nickname. Like you guys call me Izzy," she bites back harshly, almost defensively.

"Uh huh, sure. If you say so, Izzy."

She stops and turns to whack me square in the chest and glares daggers at me. She's so easily irritated. It's great when comic relief is needed.

"C'mon, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that chemistry," I smirk and watch her out of the corner of my eyes as we walk. She clenches her jaw but keeps walking, completely ignoring me. That's when I know she has a thing forJonny. Oh man I'm going to have to run with this one for as long as possible and tease them enough for both Clary and I. She would have so much fun with this.

"That was a horrible pun." She finally says. I'm not sure, but I think that she has the smallest hint of a smile on the corner of her mouth.

"It was punny," I smile, elbowing her. "Clary would appreciate that joke."

"Clary would also call you an idiot." She elbows me back.

"That too. But she would laugh first."

Izzy and I bicker our way across the Institute amicably, something that makes me feel a whole lot better than I did a few minutes ago. Things just haven't felt right without Clary around, but right now I feel sort of okay. It's been hard, though. I've gotten so used to being around her, and training with her. Bickering with her and making her laugh, and watching the way her eyes sparkle when she does.

And now that she's been arrested, and we don't know where she is, I don't know what to do. What can I even do? I don't have any ties to anybody higher up in the Clave, besides Robert, and he's the one who has spearheaded this entire investigation. I knew when Alec blurted out Clary's last name at dinner and Robert tensed up, that he would have a problem with that. But she is not her father.

She's not cruel, or hell-bent on manipulating others for her gain. She's compassionate and fierce, and so strong. To kill her own father and save so many others from whatever he was planning had to have taken so much out of her, yet she remained stoic. She never broke down completely, while most people would have been crushed to go through with such a thing. I admire that will to just keep going and survive. It's a quality that will get her farther than most.

And that's the reason why I know that she'll be okay. She's a true fighter, and she won't let anybody get her down. Not the Clave, not herself, not any of us. She'll get through this.

We'll all get through this.

Maryse

The New York Institute, my home, has been thrown into utter chaos in the time span of a single week. My children had finally returned from an unauthorized trip to Idris—to take on Valentine and an army of Fey, no less—and not a week later, the polite red head that I've grown fond of seeing at the dinner table is ripped away from us for crimes that she is not guilty of committing. Furthermore, she is taken away by my own husband, who has forsaken his vows to protect the innocent and find the truth where it is always found; he is the Inquisitor, for heaven's sake. It's his duty to protect those wrongfully accused as well as to persecute those who have turned on their own.

While the law is hard but it is the law, it is not a means to witch hunt the innocent. Clarissa Morgenstern is innocent. She is the victim of negligence and loss, and if it were not for her, Valentine could have very well invaded the city of Alicante himself. If it were not for her strong morals and will to uphold her Shadowhunter vows—unlike her father who broke them so carelessly—then many more Nephilim would have died. She has rid our world of one the vilest creature it has seen in more recent centuries.

It's not only my own husband's poor judgement that I mourn, but the betrayal that my entire family feels. It's as if he had no regards for us when he marched in an army of Nephilim and ripped Clary away with barely a goodbye to her friends. It's Max's nightmares of his own father attacking his home and taking away his friend and Isabelle's usually rough demeanor worn haggard and exhausted by losing the only friend that she's ever made besides her siblings.

It's the sleepless nights that Jace spends in the library, pacing the worn stone flooring, waiting for a call on the single landline, or a fire message that he doesn't want to miss. It's Alec's strength being sucked out of his marrow by Jace's constant state of worry. It's my children that worry me.

Their father has betrayed them, in their eyes. My husband has turned on his family, on his wife, to blindly follow orders from the Clave. The realization that he is the head of all of this hurts me. She is not my child, but she makes my children happy; especially Jace, and the way that he was suddenly beginning to smile more often. He's always been the sullen, brooding type. Very cocky, but when he gets stuck up in his head, he gets into these moods. Lately, these moods have dissipated and been replaced by a much kinder, almost more bubbly Jace. It's nothing like I've ever seen with him, but I love the effect that she has, or perhaps I should say had, on him.

If my children are happy and taken care of, then I'm happy as well. But right now, my children are miserable, and that brings me sorrow. Their young hearts should be out on the field, training to their limits and then relaxing, laughing, playinglike normal children should be playing. Instead they are fighting wars that are too much for them to handle, and having their worlds shredded apart by those they believed that they could trust.

There's no going back from this infidelity. It will be forever burned into my mind, the way that Robert so carelessly brought down his hand of judgement with no regards to the young children in the room. He scarred Max with the image of an innocent girl, and friend, being treated like cattle and shipped off for slaughter. He's at such a young and impressionable age, and to have an army of Shadowhunters come knocking at your door and demanding cooperation had to be mortifying for him.

Even Isabelle, my brave little warrior, has been affected by this strike of terror. She's always been so closed off with her emotions, very brusque and very cold to the world around us, and yet I can see it in her eyes that she is sad and lost, unsure of what to do now that Clary is gone.

Alec is hurt by his father's actions, but he sees in Clary what I see; she's a stubborn fighter, and she'll get through the ordeal without a single scratch on her. If anything, he's been happy; not because of Clary's removal from our home, but because of the love and support that Magnus brings him. While I don't understand the love that they share—they're just so different—I support Alec in anything that he does. If that means that he loves a warlock, then so be it. I just want my children happy.

And although I don't know much about Jonathan, he's come to be a familiar face in the Institute, just like his younger sister. He seems to have settled into a much more sullen state than the one I met him in. He was a talker, always conversing with somebody about something, whether it be weapons or the weather. He's such a polite young man and so kind. In the time that he has been here, even though he is in a wheelchair, he always offers to help with his fair share of the work, such as cooking and cleaning the common areas. He's always hanging around Jace too, and when he does, it's like the two pull strength from each other, both feeling the same loss.

I know that Jace however, harbors much more than just friendly feelings for Clary.

That's what affects Jace the most, those feelings that he tries to hide. We've all seen the way that he looked at her when she was in the same room. Always admiring. He's passionate about helping Clary find her way back to us here, but when we hit a wall in our search, it's like he just steps back into what he was before all of this. He's slipping back into his previous demeanor, closed off and brusque. It terrifies me, and I want to do everything that I can do to help, for the sake of my children.

I can even put up with the incessant questions that they ask, repeated daily—sometimes even more than just once a day. Usually I would unravel at the constant stream of repetitive questions that they know I don't yet have an answer to, but I can't find it in myself to become irate with them. They're just anxious, and truth be told, I am anxious too.

The Clave doesn't waste time with trials, especially ones for supposed treason. They like to make an example out of those who have committed a crime, and yet a week has passed. Treason is the highest crime among Shadowhunters, punishable my banishment or even death. It brings me back to the question that has been running on a loop through everybody's mind this past week; where is Clary?

If I want any answers, I'll have to go find them myself.

Isabelle

Jace is such an ass. He's never been the sweet, mild-natured one, so I should expect it from him by now. I don't know why I let what he said get to me, but it does. His teasing in the hallways left my heart beating a little harder than usual, and my cheeks a little pinker than usual.

Even while we were training, he kept dropping hints and innuendos that I would usually laugh at. But not now, because they're hitting a little bit close to home. I do genuinely like spending time around Jonathan. He's so kind and gentle.

So I just hit him, because I've never been good with my words and talking to him would only make things worse. I wish I were able to talk to someone about it, but I can't right now. The only person I'd want to talk to is Clary, and seeing as how she's a bit tied up right now—probably literally, knowing my father and how he holds grudges.

I don't think any of us know what he has against them—or maybe it it has something to do with their parents—but he always acted differently with Clary or Jonathan around; he avoided them for the most part, while she and Jon were staying here after the battle. When they were in the same room, he was always so standoffish and rude. My mother always scolded him for it, and after the first time she told him to behave he just left. Said he had business in Alicante to attend to. But whenever he would come back, he was horrible. Always in a bad mood, always snapping at Alec and I. I want to know why.

Why does he hold such a huge grudge against the people who helped make our world a little bit better? Why want to persecute someone for doing the right thing and using their Angel-given powers for the greater good? Anyone with powers that strong can only come from the Angel himself. I'm sure that Clary was given them for a reason, and she's used them only to help others—and in this last case, to eliminate the radical threat that was her father.

So, why?

I keep running through all the possibilities while on my way to the library to find my mom, because I need to talk to someone about all of this. I know she wonders the same thing that I do—everybody in this Institute does. It's a hopeless loop of unanswered questions that just lead to more questions.

"Mom," I call out as I open the library door. My voice echoes through the massive space, bouncing off of the stain glass windows and bookshelves lined with ancient volumes right back at me. "Mom?"

I walk in and peer around the corner to the sitting area, but find nobody there. Where is she? I walk back towards the door, hoping to find her in the kitchen or living room, but a fluttering piece of paper sitting on her desk catches my eye. It's held down with a spare witchlight that flares up temporarily when I grab the note. It's addressed to all of us—including Jon.

I'm portaling to Alicante for the day to ask around about Clary. I'll be back in the evening. Stay out of trouble please. Love, Mom.

She's going on behalf of all of us, to find the answers that we all needed last week, when we were torn apart. When Clary was taken from us.

The boys will be ecstatic to see this. It even makes me smile a little to think that my mom would do this for us, for Clary. She may be a strict mentor, but she does what she needs for her family's safety and well-being.

I hope that I can be as strong as her in the face of the unknown, some day. For now, I have to suck it up and hope that I can hold myself together.

Jon

"Jon, I can't do this anymore! Just sitting around, doing nothing!"

I'm startled by the outburst, and immediately wheel myself around to face Jace where he sits on one of the library's window seals. He's glaring out of the window with so much hatred, and his face is flushed with frustration. The note left by Maryse is crumpled in his hand tightly.

"I know, Jace. But there's only so much we can do right now. We can't do anything until we figure out where she is and what the Clave plans on doing," I tell him with a shrug.

"Mom's in Alicante trying to sort things out," Isabelle pitches in from her spot perched in an old armchair. She looks exhausted.

"How can you two be so relaxed right now?" He snaps at us both. "Your sister is out there somewhere, alone! Your friend!"

I don't answer for a moment, letting myself think over my words before I let them out with a bitterness to my voice.

Isabelle looks about ready to explode. Yet, she doesn't. She stands up with a slow, relaxed sort of grace, and turns towards me. Her dark eyes meet mine, and I can tell how hard it is for her to hold it all back. I give her a small smile and she glares at Jace before gliding out of the room without another word towards him, as if she just can't bother. It's not like this isn't effecting all of us, and for Jace to assume that he's the only one struggling is extremely ignorant. He's not alone.

"I'm not relaxed, Jace. I'm worried sick about my baby sister. Do not question that. But I am not Clary. I don't rush into something without having a solid plan, and right now, we don't have a plan! We need to know where she is to even begin to formulate something," I tell him.

Jace takes an audible breath, and I watch as his back stills, like he's holding his breath.

I am Jonathan, and I think things through before walking into them. I'm logical and practical, and everything that Clary is not. She's strong and brave, but she also works mainly on instinct. She even tends to be more impulsive than I.

"You're right. I'm sorry," he finally says, his shoulders sagging and his voice dejected. "I'm just—I'm dying over here, Jon."

"I know, man. It's hard. For all of us. Not knowing where she is, or how they're treating her…" I shake my head at the thought of what she could possibly be going through. "But she's strong. Don't forget that. She can do this with or without us. Right now she's going to have to make do without us, until we figure out what the Clave plans on doing with her."

"I feel like it's one big waiting game," he whispers. "Like we're losing."

I think back to what Clary told me before she went with Robert and his men. "Keep working on that project. Maybe Jace can help you, I'm sure he won't mind."

"Do you remember what Clary said before she left?" I ask Jace. He turns towards me and brings his eyebrows together, trying to recollect.

"Something about being back in no time," he says, phrasing it like a question.

"No, not that." I roll my eyes. "About a project. She wanted you to help me with it."

"Oh," he says, his eyes lighting up and a smile spreading across his face. "Yeah, of course! I'll help with whatever you need."

"Good, then. Go grab yourself an overnight bag," I tell him with a knowing smile. "And call your parabatai. We're going to need his boyfriend to help us get where we're going…"