Expect the Unexpected
Chapter 1
Summary: Alec and Clary wake up to an empty Institute with no idea where anyone else is. They soon find out that their friends and loved ones have been scattered and it's a race for the two young Shadowhunters to find and save their friends before they lose someone else. Will they succeed, or will Alec having killed Clary's mother make it too difficult for these two to get along enough to do what needs to be done?
Disclaimer: I don't own Shadowhunters. All recognizable characters and places belong to Cassandra Clare and Freeform. Is set post episode 2x04 "Day of Wrath", so if you have not seen that episode yet, there will be spoilers for it in this story, so please watch that episode before you read.
With a groan, Clary sat up slowly from her bed. Her head was pounding as if she had a hangover, despite not having gone out the night before, so as she sat up, she clutched her head in her hands. When the pounding seemed to subside enough for her to stand up, Clary threw the covers from her body and slid out of bed. Her room seemed unnaturally cold, so instead of heading towards the door like she usually did, Clary padded her way towards the dresser to pull out a sweater. As she slipped her arms into the sleeves, and pulled the material closer to her body, someone started pounding on her door.
"FRAY! OPEN THE DAMN DOOR!"
It was Alec. And if Clary wasn't awake before- which, mind you, she wasn't fully awake yet- Alec's yelling and loud knocking was enough to wake her up. With a roll of her eyes, Clary made her way to the door and flung it open to a desperate looking Alec. That wasn't a look Clary was used to seeing on Alec's face, so when it registered that he was, in fact, worried about something, Clary started to get concerned.
"What's wrong Alec? Is Izzy okay?" Clary asked.
"I don't know. That's the problem. Izzy isn't in her room. Neither is Jace. The whole god damn Institute is empty except for the two of us." Alec said as he strode into Clary's room and started opening and closing all her drawers and looking under her bed, almost as if he was hoping he would find everyone else who was supposed to be in the Institute hiding out there.
"Alec, you aren't making any sense. What do you mean the whole Institute is empty?" Clary asked.
"What the hell do you think I mean Fray!?" Alec retorted. "I mean that no one else is here. They are all gone. Nowhere to be found. Vanished into thin air." He finished with an exasperated sigh of frustration as he threw his hands up in the air.
"You need to calm down Alec, I'm sure there's a logical explanation for all of this." Clary said, despite starting to feel concerned herself.
"A logical explanation? Really Fray? A logical explanation why Izzy and Jace and Lydia and even Raj, as well as everyone else who is usually here, are just all gone? All on the same day? I highly doubt it." Alec snapped.
"Well, have you tried calling Magnus? Maybe Izzy and Jace got an early start on something and they needed his help?" Clary tried to reason.
"I... hadn't thought about that. Damnit. I thought I was getting better. Yeah... I'll call Magnus. You call... you call your Vampire friend." Alec said as he quickly pulled out his phone.
"Simon... you want me to call Simon." Clary stressed.
"Yes Fray, call Simon. He and Izzy have been getting close, he might know where she is." Alec said frantically as he scrolled through his contacts list before stopping on Magnus' number and hitting the call button.
With a roll of her eyes, Clary walked towards her nightstand and unplugged her phone. Unlocking it, Clary was about to click on her contacts icon when a text message blinked across her screen. Narrowing her eyes, Clary slowly opened the text before her eyes went wide and she tossed the phone away from her and onto the bed. When Alec gave her a weird look, Clary just started shaking her head.
"This isn't happening. This isn't happening. This isn't happening AGAIN!" Clary exclaimed in frustration.
"Magnus isn't answering and his phone isn't going to voicemail. What the hell happened? Why didn't you call Simon? And why did you throw your phone onto the bed?" Alec questioned in quick progression.
"I... I had a text... and... just look at who it's from..." Clary said slowly, motioning to her phone.
With his own eye roll, Alec snatched Clary's phone from the bed and what he saw made his eyes go wide as well. It couldn't be real. Not so soon after just getting Jace back. There was no way that Jace was back with Valentine. And to make matters worse, the text had been sent from Jace's phone, and it contained a picture of Jace chained up.
"This can't be real. Jace was just here... LAST NIGHT. There's no way that Valentine got into the Institute and took Jace without somebody knowing about it. It has to be a cruel, cruel joke." Alec said, more to himself than to Clary.
"But why would someone do this as a joke? Everyone here knows what we went through to get him back. No one here is that cruel..." Clary said, her voice starting to raise with hysteria.
"I can't feel him through our Parabati bond." Alec muttered.
"You don't think..." Clary started to ask.
"No. He's not dead, if he was, I would feel like half of me was missing. I don't feel that, so that's the only thing that tells me that Jace is still alive. But Valentine is cunning. He deserted the tanker ship after you and Jace escaped last time, he wouldn't be stupid enough to pull that one again." Alec said, trying to remain calm... well, to get calm.
"Then let's find someone who can help us and get Jace back." Clary said as she turned and started towards her bedroom door.
"What about Izzy? And Lydia?" Alec asked.
"Jace is the first lead we have Alec. That's where we start. We will figure out where the others are and how to get them back as we go." Clary replied determinedly.
Alec had no choice but to follow her. She had a point, no matter how much he hated to admit it, even to himself, and if they were going to get their friends back, they were going to have to start agreeing and working together. Before he left the room, Alec made sure to have both of their phones in his hands. They still needed to call Simon to see if he knew anything, and Alec was going to be continuously trying to reach Magnus until he finally got ahold of his Warlock.
"Fray, wait up!" Alec called as he hurried after her. "You still haven't tried Simon. And I'm sure we could try calling Luke too. He's passing the job of Alpha to someone else, right? Wait... he doesn't know yet... does he?" He asked, his voice ridden with guilt and suddenly he couldn't meet Clary's gaze.
"No Alec, Luke doesn't know that you killed my mother. And thank you for bringing it back up." Clary snapped, and a very small part of her was proud to see the Great Alec Lightwood recoil at her tone.
"Well, well, aren't you a feisty one."
Alec and Clary both spun around at the sound of the other voice. Narrowing his eyes at the other man, Alec instinctively took a half step in front of Clary to block her from Aldertree. Alec didn't know if it was out of habit of doing the same thing with Izzy and Jace and Max, and he was now starting to see Clary as like a younger sister, or if he felt like Aldertree was a threat to Clary, but right now, it didn't matter. Alec didn't like the tone in the other man's voice more than the tone Clary had just used with him about the topic of Jocelyn.
"Where the hell is everyone else?" Clary snapped.
"Gone." Aldertree replied, an unsettling glint in his eye at the single word.
"Gone where?" Alec questioned.
"Why does it matter Alec? You and Clary need not worry about the others any longer. After all, emotions cloud judgement and while Mundanes allow themselves to be led by them, we Shadowhunters learn from a young age how to lead and control our emotions. At least, isn't that what you lectured Clary on when she first came to the Institute?" Aldertree asked as he moved closer, only for Alec and Clary to both take a step back.
"It matters because my sister is missing and my brother was taken by Valentine... again!" Alec snapped.
"Well, that is a shame about Jace, but I assure you, Izzy is just fine in Idris." Aldertree responded with a small smirk.
"What the hell are you doing to Izzy in Idris!?" Clary exclaimed.
"Oh, what would be the fun in me telling you that Clary? I would much rather enjoy you and Alec finding out for yourselves. Oh... and have either of you visited the City of Bones recently? I hear that the Silent Brothers have a new traitor being held there." Aldertree said with another smirk. "She really shouldn't have allowed things to be run the way that they were before I got here." He added before turning and walking away.
Alec waited until Aldertree was gone before turning to look at a horrorstricken Clary. They both knew who Aldertree was talking about. He had sentenced Lydia to the City of Bones. And despite not knowing why she was there, Izzy being in Idris wasn't any better news. Their friends were in more danger than either of them had originally thought, and there was no telling how long they had to save them.
"We need a game plan here Alec. Jace was captured by Valentine; Lydia was sentenced to imprisonment in the City of Bones; and Izzy is in Idris for who knows what reason or reasons. We need to save them." Clary rambled frantically.
"You're right. We do need a game plan. Go get dressed and call Simon. Or Luke. Hell, call them both. We are going to need all of the help that we can get if we are going to have any chance of getting everyone back." Alec said as he got the uneasy feeling that they were being watched.
Glancing over his shoulder, Alec didn't see Aldertree anywhere, but with video surveillance set up throughout the entire Institute, that didn't mean that he wasn't still watching them.