A/N: Hello, to those who were previously reading my stories, I'm back to TMI fandom, and hello to the new readers. It's been a while since I've wrote something for TMI and I decided, after re-thinking that I'll try again. The prologue of this story was updated before, but I took it down with thinking that I'm not able to write some more, but now I'm almost at the end of my other story in Polish and I have three weeks break from Uni and my work is lighter as well, so I think I'm capable of getting back in this story.
This story takes some ideas from Days (If you read it, you should catch those things) and a few things from a story that I've been writing in Polish (Tak jest, Panie). It won't be updated very regulary, but I'll try to not make a long breaks. If there'll be some longer break, you'll be informed in an A/N underneath the current chapter or on my twitter or tumblr.
Summary: After the War, almost all downworlders have become slaves for Shadowhunters. But there's a small group of downworlders which remained free and finally decided to act and free their kind. The leader of Rebels sends a spy inside King Valentine's home. Magnus Bane is ought to find out every detail of Valentine's actions and to bring the end to shadowhunters. But what they don't know, is that shadowhunters will have their own little plan for them.
Characters belongs to Cassie Clare, except for OCs.
It is a major AU, so feel warned that there may be things here far from the books.
Enjoy reading.
Prologue
February 17th, 1991.
"From now on, all of you will be my slaves. You will serve me, as the filthy creatures you are. Those who won't willingly submit to me, shall meet the death itself. I am your king and you are my slaves." the black eyed man stated, smirking viciously to himself. Every creature in the room swallowed hard, thinking that this is the end of them, the end of their freedom.
That date changed everything in the world. The whole order was flipped upside down for every single race of creatures. That day Valentine's Circle won the war against the Clave and the Downworlders.
That day the lives of many downworlders came to an end. Those who survived begged to be killed. The survivors became slaves to the shadowhunters. And it was worse than death itself. Every downworlder was marked by a spell created by a warlock working with the shadowhunters. Every supernatural power of every downworlder was binded, so that they would become harmless to their masters, the shadowhunters.
Those proud, half-angels, half-human creatures were worse than any demon in the underworld. They have been using downworlders for everything, as if they are slaves. They are so full of themselves, so sure that the power of ruling the world should lay in their and only their hands. More likely in the hands of Valentine Morgenstern, the leader of the Circle and Uprising. The King in the shadowhunters' world, the man with a heart as dark and cold as hell itself.
Valentine has never let anyone else take charge of the world order. Of course, he has his close workers, his allies, located in each Institute of the world. These men ought to serve him as well, not like slaves, but still. They kept all the downworlders in a tight grip, never letting a rebel to raise. Those who didn't submit or tried to break the rules of the New World Order, were immediately killed by their owner.
But even though Valentine had the whole power in his hands, he didn't know about those downworlders who were living in hiding. They were called 'Rebels' by the rest of the Downworld. There weren't many of them, only those most powerful downworlders who were strong enough to fight the shadowhunters back. Every downworlder dreamed that the Rebels will come and save them from the slavery, from their nightmare.
And the day came at last.
Magnus was walking down the street to his apartment in Brooklyn. The cat-eyed warlock with the spiked hair, colored in each of the rainbow's colors tonight, was looking around him. He had this strange feeling that he was being followed ever since the moment he stepped out of the club in the downtown Manhattan. Of course, he went there disguising himself as a simple mundane teenager trying to avoid the Shadowhunters' radar, as Raphael said once. The 'radar' on downworlders had blonde hair, a charming face and a not so charming attitude. He was the adopted son of the King himself, the ever beloved son, who had always been compared to his older adopted brother, Jonathan, the little devil in a hunter's skin, as Magnus called him once. Bane had the courtesy of meeting both boys, back when they were still small kids. They had been playing in the park with a boy and a girl with black hair, when they spotted Bane. At first, they took him for a fairy and decided that it would be good to kill the filthy faerie, but Magnus was faster than them. In any other circumstances, if they weren't small children, Magnus would have killed them, as it was his duty. Sometimes on his bad days, Magnus regrets that those little monsters escaped him. If he'd done what he'd supposed to then, now the world would be free of the most war-hungry generation of the hunters.
The warlock was almost close to his place when suddenly he smelled the reek of death. A Vampire was close to him. He shivered, not knowing who it was. For all he knew it could be some slave sent by his master to patrol the streets and find free downworlders, or it could be one of his companions from the Rebels. Really, when Magnus heard the name they were called for the first time, he laughed his ass off. Oh yes, they were rebels, rebels who lived in hiding for so many years. The cat-eyed man felt coldness close to his body, he knew it meant that the immortal is near him. He raised his hands up, forming a blue ball of energy between them and in one second he turned on his heels, pushing the ball out of his hands straight onto the vampire.
"Eres un idiota," he heard the familiar voice with a spanish accent. The vampire managed to avoid the attack of energy, letting the ball get past him as he jumped to the side in his super-vampire super-speed. "Who did you think I was?"
"I don't know, one of Valentine's dogs?" Magnus shrugged his arms, turning on his heel to walk into his building. Suddenly he was stopped firmly by a deadly cold hand. He was turned around and met with a serious look of his friend. "What?"
"We must go. Open a portal to Hotel Dumort," he sent Raphael a confused look. "There's a meeting with all of the free downworlders. If you checked your voicemail once in a while, you'd know that it started ten minutes ago. I don't have to remind you that you hold an equally high position as I do. We both are the leaders, Magnus. You can't abandon your own kind."
"Oh, Raphael, you play my heart and soul like a mandoline," he sighed. "I bet that Ragnor taught you that."
"Of course he has," Santiago offered him a cheeky smile, turning to the nearest wall. "Open a portal, because I think I saw the double duet of hunters near the hotel. We don't want to meet them. Of course we'd fight them off, but…"
"But it's too early to make ourselves known to the world, I get it," Magnus murmured the quick spell to open a portal. They waited ten minutes before the blue light started to show on the wall of an old bookstore next to his building. Magnus felt the annoyed stare of Raphael at the back of his head. The vampire did that everytime Bane opened a portal, no matter how many times he told him that portals take time. It's not as easy peasy as most of other creatures think. It needs time and experience like Magnus has, otherwise you could end up in an odd place, maybe even hell itself. Finally, after what it could be hours for the vampire at least, the whole portal showed up. Taught by the experience of landing in strange places, Raphael grabbed Magnus by the elbow and stepped behind him through the magic portal.
They stepped out of it on the back of the main room in the hotel, the one that used to be the dining space when the hotel was still its peak back in the twenties. Back when the world was normal. Many of the downworlders were already here. Magnus spotted ten werewolves from Luke's pack, the local New York pack. Raphael's kin were standing at the corner of the room, avoiding their mortal enemies - the Werewolves. Even though they knew they're equal here, that they were fighting on the same side, vampires never trusted any werewolf, they still treated them as enemies, though not so big as shadowhunters.
"You're finally here, Consul Bane," Luke Garroway spoke to him, bowing his head.
"Really, we should stop with these ridiculous titles. Just Magnus or Magnus Bane, or The High Warlock of Brooklyn, ok?" the werewolf nodded, sitting down on the chair in front of the long, black wooden desk behind which stood two high chairs covered with a red plush cushion. Raphael immediately moved and sat on one chair, and Magnus followed his movements. Once everyone in the room was seated, Raphael's voice boomed through the whole room, gaining the attention of each downworlder there.
"We've gathered tonight to discuss a matter of importance. The representative of each kind is present, correct?" through the whole place went loud 'aye's', before Raphael continued. "Excellent. An important matter was laid here to me and Consul Bane. I was asked, have been multiply over the years, when we will attack the shadowhunters."
"Yes," some female werewolf spoke up from the crowd. "We've been hiding for almost seventeen years. It's about time we got a grip of ourselves and attack those horrible creatures. They enslaved our families, our friends and we're sitting here doing nothing to save them. My twelve year old daughter was captured by them eight years ago, just after her first transformation. I lost my only child that night and my husband, who was killed by Robert Lightwood. I want my child back, that is if she's still alive, if those monsters didn't kill her. And I want revenge, Consuls!"
"They killed my twin brother and enslaved my mother!" another voice was heard in the room.
"We've been hiding for too long! We must attack!"
"Let's attack them!"
"Silence!" Raphael screeched in his high voice. The sound was too unpleasant, especially for werewolves and their sensitive hearing. All downworlders covered their ears for a moment, trying to stop the horrible sound. "My companions of each kind. We will. We will attack them. The days of living hidden have come to an end. On this night, this meeting, I give you my promise that I will bring the end to our hiding life and slavery in the world. We will rescue our brothers, sisters, children. We will. And at the end, we will be the ones ruling the world. Not the Shadowhunters. Those creatures will be sent back to wherever they came from, to their precious heaven filled with Angels. But before that, we will bring hell upon them. Are you with me, my brothers and sisters?"
"Yes!" many voices shouted above each other. A smile came upon Raphael's face as he leaned back on his chair.
Magnus was looking at him in disbelief. How could the vampire promise such thing to those people? Bane knew that it's impossible to just attack them without further preparation. Not when there were about two hundred of the survivors in the whole world, and the warlock guessed that not everybody may be into the fighting. Many of the downworlders adapted into living as mundanes or in hiding.
Raphael stood up from his chair moving his head to the side at Magnus. He gave him a silent sign to follow him. They went straight to the bedroom...Raphael called it the room for his dayrest. Magnus had been here multiple times, of course, only as a friend, nothing more. He was here to help Raphael set up the rules of the new life for the downworlders. They may be free from enslavement, but still some rules had to exist. The vampire pointed at the chair standing near the old, not-working fireplace. Raphael's room was always too cold, so as always Magnus shivered.
"That was brave of you to promise them a war and rescue of the other downworlders. Brave but stupid too. They will eat you alive for breaking this promise, you know that, right?" he asked, looking at the moon, shining with a bright white light.
"My promise wasn't void. I will fight the shadowhunters and I will rescue our kind, Magnus."
"How? There's like two hundred of us, and too many of them. How will you do it? We'll just burst inside the Institute and try to kill as many as we can? You have to admit that's the stupidest thing we can do." Magnus explained, turning to look at Raphael. The vampire was smirking, this was never a good sign. "The moment we attack them, they will kill us, slaughter us."
"They probably would if we just barged inside their sacred home," Santiago sat next to Magnus, on the old wooden desk, which remembered the times of Queen Victoria. A present from Ragnor on their unofficial anniversary. "That's why, firstly, we'll start with small attacks here and there, to give them a brief glimpse of our existence. Then, we will simply find out about their plans towards us, and when they won't suspect anything, we'll start the war."
"And how do you want to find out about their plans? It's not like we can go, knock and ask them nicely about it. Come on, it's ridiculous."
"Have a little faith, my friend," he offered him one of those smiles that looked a bit creepy, like he had some devilish plan in his mind. Magnus was as sure as hell that he won't like that plan. "We will find out about their plans from themselves. They will tell us." Magnus raised an eyebrow in question, clearly confused by the vampire's words. "I will send a spy into the lion's den. Straight into Valentine's home."
"Why do I have this strange feeling that your little plan involves me?"
"Because only you are capable of doing it."
"Doing what?" he asked again, swallowing hard.
"You will become a slave in Valentine's place, you will be a spy in there."
Oh fucking fuck. Magnus thought, after he heard Raphael's words. This won't end well.
A/N: Did you like it?
This was just an introduction. I have a few chapters written already, so the next one should be soon.
Review if you feel like to
Intoxic