So this story has been re-written three times. I know! I'm sorry guys please put down your seraph blades! Joking, that's cringey. Anyway, to make up for it I've given you the first four chapters all at once. You can't skip them just because you've rea the other versions of this story because I've written the plot slightly different so it will not make sense if you skip. :) IM SO SORRY! I hope you can forgive me.
Love you guys!
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Summary: Five years have passed since the rise and fall of the Dark War and and the dust has finally settled. But when a pint-sized stranger appears seemingly out of nowhere with the baffling indication that she is the daughter of Jace Herondale and Clary Fairchild who originates from four years into the future, another curveball is thrown into the two young Shadowhunters' lives. However, what is even more unsettling for the Nephilim Community is the news the little girl bares of an upcoming war. It seems that they are not as safe as they thought...
Any questions or confusion then please don't hesitate to inbox me or leave it in a comment.
Disclaimer: I do not own The Mortal Instruments, or the Shadowhunters series.
Post City Of Heavenly Fire Compliant. Set before Clary and Jace took over the institute from Robert and Maryse. Meliorn is also alive and wasn't killed by Sebastian.
Chapter Song: Please Don't Go—Barcelona
Now without further adieu, I present you the 'The Nowhere Child'.
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The Nowhere Child
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Chapter One: Haven.
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2016 (four years into the future)
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The streets of Alicante had more or less been reduced to rubble. The sky above had been turned a sickening color, like a purpling bruise, and smoke permeated the barely breathable air. Not a soul was to be seen until a flash of red hair appeared under the dying light of the only standing streetlights. Twenty-four-year-old Clarissa Herondale grunted as she was expelled from the portal, landing ungraciously on her feet. Her head whipped around in paranoia before starting down the street, occasionally tripping over the slabs of concrete and broken glass in a frantic dash for Herondale Manor.
Clinging to fistfuls of Clary's oversized jacket was a small child, no younger than three, her hair was the same vibrant color as her Clary's and it hung loosely on her shoulders in greasy tangles. The little girl was looking over Clary's shoulder, her eyes fixated on the demon towers in the distance as they lit up their red and gold battle colors. The toddler's hiccuping sobs were drowned out by the shrill war sirens that were beginning to hurt her little ears.
A loud rumble, like an earthquake caused Clary to whirl around just in time to witness the demon towers crumple to the ground in a cloud of debris. The sirens stopped too, leaving the frightened mother and child in an eerie silence. The little girl's cries were louder now, along with Clary's hyperventilating. Her eyes widened in terror as she pressed her daughter's head protectively to her chest. She swallowed thickly, tearing her eyes away from the empty space where the towers used to stand and turning on her heel to break into a sprint, mumbling a string of expletives despite the little girl's presence.
Finally, when Herondale manor came into view Clary felt a sentimental ache in her heart. Although it wasn't her permanent home like the house she owned in New York, it automatically became her home whenever she'd come to Idris on Shadowhunting business, her daughter had even taken her first steps here. To see it barely even standing with the roof partially blown off filled her with even more hate for Lilith and what she had done.
"Mommy I 'fraid." The little girl whimpered, pathetically.
"Shhh Emy,"Clary breathed, approaching the front entrance quickly. "You won't be scared for much longer, I promise you."
Clary didn't waste time fumbling with keys, instead she applied a quick rune to the door and had three seconds to drop to her knees and shield both hers and her daughter's faces from the splinters of wood that flew every which way. She grimaced in pain as she found her feet again and entered the manor, trying to ignore the dizzying waves that were crashing over her.
The overwhelming scent of blood, ichor and smoke was enough to make the both of them gag. Clary's heart clenched when they came to walk through into the kitchen entrance. The manor was trashed, to say it didn't look homely anymore would be an understatement. Tables and chairs had been smashed and upturned, antique plates from the cabinets were lying on the floor in bits. Clary blew out a breath and set the little girl on her feet before leaning her weakened body on the kitchen counter tops.
The child shivered, "I feel cold, mommy."
Clary didn't hesitate to shrug the leather jacket off her shoulders, intending to give it to the toddler to stay warm. Unable to resist, she brought the jacket to her nose and wallowed in its scent for the last time. Beneath the stench of war was the scent of soap and sunshine that was so undeniably Jace. She stifled a sob within the fabric, holding her breath. If she, as a twenty-four-year-old adult couldn't be strong, how could she expect her three-year-old to be strong too?
"Come here baby." Clary told the little girl, the child toddled over and Clary draped the jacket over her pint-sized shoulders, it fit the girl like a dress.
"Thas blood mommy!" She gasped, scowling down at her petite little hands which were covered in Clary's blood. Clary glanced down at her abdomen and grimaced at the sight of her blood mixed with stinging venom that seeped relentlessly through her filthy tank top. She quickly snatched the cotton scarf from around her neck and tied it around her waist to slow the blood flow and also to make sure that her daughter didn't have to look at it.
"I'll be all right." Clary assured her child, feebly. She kneeled to her daughter's level, trying not to show the pain she was feeling in her side.
"They comin' for us, mommy?" Asked the toddler, innocently.
"Yes, sweetie. But they won't get to us, I promise." Clary kisses the top of the girl's head, closing her eyes and letting her lips linger for a moment before pulling away. Clary's heart hurt for her. Emy had been born in the middle of a war, had taken her first steps in the midst of a second Endarkened outbreak. She hadn't know anything different, and the fact that being constantly on the run the norm for Emy cut deeper than any blade for Clary.
Since Jace's untimely demise, their little girl had also started asking questions that Clary just could not bear to answer. How was she supposed to tell a a three-year-old that she was never going to see her dad again?
The truth was, she wasn't. Because Clary was going to make sure that her daughter saw Jace again at whatever cost it may be. Here was no place for a child and she'd been putting this off for far too long. Clary even felt selfish for not doing this sooner, all the grief and confusion she could've saved her daughter if she'd have just bucked up much sooner, before the little girl had to witness her own father's murder...
And now she was thinking about it again. The way he'd looked at her before he'd fallen face first into the dirt, an arrow protruding from his back. A sound she'd had no idea she was capable of making ripped through her throat and Clary had just enough time to charge back, snatch her daughter from under her husband's limp body and take one last agonizing look at where Jace was lying before jumping through a portal after Isabelle, Alec, Magnus and Max. Completely broken.
Clary swallowed down the bile burning at the back of her tongue, she hadn't the time to dwell. She rose to her feet with a pained whimper and stumbled her way across the room, the pain in her side increasing by the minute. She wished she'd better prepared herself for this day, but she didn't want to believe that this war was a war that could not be won. Perhaps she'd been naive, but Clary really did have some hope in her heart that Lilith could be taken down like she'd been in 2007 during the much milder Dark War.
Looking around speedily for something of use to accompany Emy on her journey, she grabbed the first thing she laid eyes on, a photo album. It was a little too bulky for her three-year-old to carry so she rummaged through drawers in search of some scrap paper that she could seal it within. Upon finding some, Clary bound the object into a drawing—something she'd had a lot of practice doing over the years—before folding the paper into a thin tube and heading back over to where Emy stood, bemused.
Clary's head was spinning now and her vision was becoming unclear. This time when she went to kneel before her child, her legs buckled beneath her and she thumped to her knees. Solemnly, she took her daughter's cold hands in her own as the wind whistled through the missing high-roof. Clary looked into Emy's eyes, seriously.
Those eyes, just like her father's.
"You're a brave girl, right?" Clary encouraged.
The little girl nodded gingerly, sensing the oddness in her mother's voice.
"Right. I need you to be the bravest you can be right now, do you think you can do that for me?" She was breathless now.
The little girl nodded again, intimidated by Clary's unfamiliar tone.
"It's okay, everything is going be okay now. You're going home." She shoved the tube of paper containing the photo album and a few other things into the jacket pocket and zipped it up tight. "You have to promise me that you'll go through the magic portal okay? Don't you dare resist, do you hear me?"
The toddler's lip began to quiver at the harshness in her mom's voice and Clary's face fell, choking back a sob." Oh God," she sighed, her irritated eyes filling with tears. She pulled Emy into a tight hug and muttered her apologies into her shoulder before pushing her gently away to look into her eyes which were also red from the smoke, "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to scare you, I just want you to get home safely that's all."
"You comin' too, mommy?" Emy whimpered, hopefully.
Clary shook her head regretfully, "You'll enter the portal alone, but someone will be there when you get there. I can't say who it'll be, it could be me or it could be someone else, either way, the nasty Shadowhunters can't hurt you." Her tone was softer now, it might have been from her increasing exhaustion or her cautiousness to not upset her daughter further.
"I not brave, I wan' you to come!" Emy whined anxiously, stomping her foot and rucking up a cloud of debris.
"There's no time to—"
An inhuman hiss echoed in the distance, Clary hauled herself to her feet in an instant, battling the dizzying wave as she rushed to the window above the sink. Clary yanked the shutters closed and pulled out her stele from her weapons belt.
She could see the rune clearly as she closed her eyes and poured every ounce of energy she could muster into the overly practiced rune. If she did not get this right, she and her daughter would be killed.
Two minutes of pure concentration later, a small portal opening pulsed in mid-air until it formed a gaping purple void, its ear-splitting hum drowning out the pleading protests of the little girl. Clary kneeled once again, heaving out shallow breaths as the hum of the portal dizzied her further and the blood continued to pump out of her gash. With a shaking hand, she cupped her daughter's tearstained cheek.
"Peas' mommy, I don' wanna go, peas!" Emy begged, through hiccuping sobs. Her face had turned tomato red with desperation.
Ignoring her heartbreak, Clary focused on the child's eyes, she loved those Herondale eyes so much and she wanted it be the last thing she saw. The gruesome sound of the Endarkeneds' sniffer demons were increasing now. Everything boiled down to this. It was time.
Her hand slipped from Emelie's face, leaving a partial bloodied handprint on her cheek. Without another word, she shoved the little girl backwards as hard as she could. Emelie was taken completely by surprise as she stumbled.
"I love you, Emelie!" Clary shouted.
The group of Endarkened warriors swarmed through the doorway and burst through the windows. Emelie's eyes widened in terror as her mother's screams tore through the air. The little girl's mouth flew open to emit a shriek of her own only for her breath catch in her throat, forcing her to be silent as the portal sucked her in and swirled shut.
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