A/N: I haven't edited this yet. I'l do that tomorrw after I sleep on it.

Chapter summary: In which Clary makes contact, Simon does some stalking, the Shadowhunters hunt for answers, Magnus is forced to make a tough decision, and Dot's luck runs out.

4: Pandemonium

The sunlight spilled dimly through the windows lining the wall of Magnus's loft. It was a single golden beam reflected off one of the windows from across the alleyway directly onto her face that woke Clary up. She blinked open her eyes, only to squeeze them shut as soon as the bright light blinded her. Groaning, she shifted to her left so the light no longer shown on her face only to feel the dull edge of her sketchbook dig into her side.

Confused, she opened her eyes again and looked down at her lap. Her sketchbook was open to a page with a half drawn image of a little girl on it that she barely remembered drawing. Then again, she didn't remember falling asleep though. Sitting up, she freed her legs from their bent position, stretching out pleasurably.

A soft hum from next to her drew her attention and Clary glanced over to see little Zoe curled in a ball against the arm of the couch just a foot or so away from her. She smiled and tugged the blanket higher up the young warlock's body before setting her sketchbook aside and standing.

The other warlocks, Elias and Zoe's father Adham, were sitting in the two armchairs across the coffee table from the couch. They both looked like they had fallen asleep while talking. Elias had his cellphone clutched loosely in his hand like a charm. The sight of it reminded Clary of her own phone. She should probably check to see if Simon and Maureen got home okay last night. Clary had run out on them after all.

Yawning, Clary looked around the loft for her messenger bag, pausing when she heard shuffling coming from Magnus's bedroom. Sure enough, Magnus came out dressed in a fresh set of clothes. He wore a deep garnet silk shirt with subtle designs covering the material to give it the faintest texture. The front of the shirt was almost entirely unbuttoned revealing his toned chest and numerous necklaces, the charms clinking against each other rhythmically. Over his shirt, Magnus wore a black jacket with black pants, again with subtle designs decorating the fabric, that hugged his legs flatteringly. His shoes were silvery and reflected the early morning sunlight dully.

It was a testament to his distracted thoughts that Magnus didn't notice Clary's presence immediately. As it was, he only noticed her when she moved, flinching in surprise before relaxing. The move unnerved Clary.

"Hey," she said softly, not wanting to wake the sleeping warlocks. Magnus nodded absently before moving to the kitchen to go through the motions of brewing tea. "Are you alright?" Clary asked, following her uncle.

Magnus sighed and shook his head, setting a mug for himself and one for Clary on the island countertop. "Not particularly, no," he said, his voice soft and morose. "I've sent fire messages to all the warlocks I know of in my domain. I'm not sure if all of them got them, but I tried."

He snapped his fingers and the mugs were suddenly filled with steaming water, a tea bag tag hanging over the rims. Clary jolted at the change, eyes wide. -smoky blue...pulling- Clary shook the weird, intrusive thought away in favor of humming happily and reaching for her own mug. She took a sip and looked back at her uncle, concerned when he made no move for his own mug.

"Were you able to send a message to Dot?" Clary asked when the silence seemed to drag.

Magnus shook his head. "I don't know where she is, so no," he said, finally looping his ringed fingers around the mug's handle. "I can only send fire messages to someone if I know where they are. Alternatively, I could send one to a person's home but seeing as Dot's home isn't somewhere she'll go back to anytime soon..." He shrugged.

"I told my people to spread the word that I'll be at my club this afternoon for an hour if any of them wanted to take me up on my offer of sanctuary in my Lair," he continued after taking a careful sip. "They won't stay here forever, naturally, but they're welcome here until I can send them somewhere safer."

"I'm going with you," Clary said, her tone serious.

Magnus stared at her in mild surprise before smiling and shaking his head. "No," he said.

"Yes I am," Clary said.

"No, you aren't Clarissa," Magnus said, staring at his troublesome niece.

"Yes I am, Magnus Bane," she countered sharply. "You really think I'm going to let the one person who stayed with me through this out of my sight after everything that's happened?"

Magnus opened his mouth to argue, then thought better of it. Instead he bit the inside of his cheek and shook his head, his eyebrows lifting in surrender. "Fine," he said, waving the hand holding his mug. "But you aren't leaving my side and if I tell you to run, you'll do exactly as I say without question." His golden gaze was sharp and would not tolerate Clary attempting to wheedle her way out of this.

Clary pursed her lips in frustration but nodded. She'd gotten her way and Magnus's requirements weren't too ridiculous. Although, if he seriously thought she'd leave him behind for any reason, he was gravely mistaken. She'd let that happen once, she wasn't going to do that again. Ever. But she'd cross that bridge when and if she had to.

"Have you seen my phone?" she asked, changing the subject.

Magnus hummed. "No, but then again I don't usually make a habit of searching through someone else's personal affects," he said. "Even if said person is my niece," he added with a sly wink.

Clary rolled her eyes and walked away from her uncle towards the dark wood and red stained glass doors separating the master suite from the common area of the loft. Her bag still sat where she'd left it on Magnus's bed. Come to think of it, Magnus's bed was exactly as she'd left it. Did Magnus not sleep at all last night?

She glanced over her shoulder back at Magnus, blushing when she realized he'd been watching her. He lifted a perfectly plucked eyebrow at her and she gave him a flat, unimpressed stare. He had the grace to shrug but otherwise appeared unrepentant.

Shaking her head, Clary walked into Magnus's bedroom and pulled her bag towards her. She flipped the flap over so it lay on the comforter and began digging through her bag for her phone. Something crinkled and she paused, forehead creased in confusion. She pulled out the wrapped package and stared at it thoughtfully. She didn't recognize it and had no recollection of putting it in her bag in the first place.

Curious, she carefully ripped the paper off and almost cried again. In her hands was her mother's hand painted deck of Tarot cards. She shuffled through the cards, rubbing her thumb across the textured surfaces. She would find her mother and get to the bottom of what exactly was going on. Like hell she was just going to stand passively and react to everything. She was going to start acting on her own.

Taking a deep breath through her nose to center herself, she tenderly placed the Tarot deck on the bed beside her messenger bag and went back to feeling for her phone. She finally found it and pulled it out, turning it on. Or she tried to turn it on. After several tries, she groaned in frustration. The battery must have died.

She reached back into her bag and pulled out the charger and looked around for a plug. She'd let her phone charge then let Simon know she was alright. Unless Simon called Luke. She froze. What if Simon had contacted Luke? Dear lord above she hoped he hadn't.

She tried turning her phone on after a couple minutes of charging and was relieved when the familiar lock screen appeared. However, her relief became shock when her lock screen was subsequently filled with missed call notifications, voicemail notifications, and a seemingly endless list of text notifications. All from Simon.

She quickly silenced her phone when the almost constant dings began to grate on her nerves. She unlocked her phone and read through Simon's texts, her heart simultaneously plummeting with guilt and fluttering fondness as the texts became steadily more frantic. The voicemails had the same progression from worry to panic. The last text message informed her he would try again to contact her come morning. It also, threatened to contact Luke if she didn't respond.

Looking up to be sure she was still alone in Magnus's room, she shot a brief text to Simon.

/Time: 8:32 AM
To: Simon
From: Clary
I'm ok. Don't tell Luke. Try to call later. Don't worry./

She set her phone down only for it to ding with an incoming text.

/Time: 8:32 AM
To: Clary
From: Simon
Omg r u ok! Where r u? Why'd u leave last night? I called n txted and everything./

Clary huffed.

/Time: 8:33 AM
To: Simon
From: Clary
I'm fine. I'll tell you later. Can't talk now. I'll call later./

"It'd be best if he didn't know where you are."

Clary all but jumped out of her skin, whirling around to see Magnus standing behind her. His neatly styled stubble facial air standing out against his skin in the dimly lit room. His golden eyes glittered eerily.

-golden eyes staring into her soul. Blue phantasmic fire swirling around her, in her head, pulling...something-

Clary blinked. The image fading as quickly as it surfaced. Dismissing it for now, she asked, "Why not?"

"Well for starters, he can't get here," Magnus said, waving his hands in a half shrug. "Only someone with the Sight can see the door to my Lair and my shields will keep most of them out anyway."

"But Simon-"

"Is better off not knowing where you are," Magnus finished, cutting Clary off. "As long as he's not involved, he's safe. Or as safe as he can be." Magnus rolled his eyes.

"You just think he's annoying," Clary said, leveling her uncle with a disappointment stare.

"Obnoxious," Magnus corrected, holding up a finger. "Which I suppose is the same thing so yes. He's annoying." Smiling without any signs of guilt, Magnus turned back to leave his bedroom. He paused at the door and looked at Clary. "He is safer not knowing where you are. I wasn't lying about that."

Reluctantly, Clary nodded. As much as it hurt her, Simon was her best friend. She had to keep him safe. The last thing she wanted was him tangled up in all this insanity like she was.

"Nothing."

Amber eyes stared at the speaker in disbelief. "Nothing," Jace repeated dully.

Hodge shook his head. "Nothing." He turned back to the screen in defeat. "I can't find any attacks like that as far back as I looked," he said.

Jace gripped the back of Isabelle's chair and leaned against it as he tried to make sense of this. "And no records of any missing Shadowhunters?" he asked.

"Nope," Hodge replied. "None." She gestured helplessly. "Look, I'll leave you to it." He patted Jace's shoulder as he passed. "Sorry I couldn't be more help."

Jace nodded to Hodge, never taking his eyes off the screen in front of him. Nothing. They'd been working on this all night and most of the day and they still had nothing to go on.

"This sucks," he grumbled under his breath.

"You're telling me," Isabelle said, settling in her chair.

"We can't dwell on it," Alec said, leaning forward in his seat. "We'll just keep looking. Things have been quiet until now." He spread his hands. "Izzy," he said, drawing his sister's attention, "did Meliorn tell you anything?"

Isabelle Lightwood grinned and Alec fought the urge to roll his eyes. "He told me a lot of things," she teased, rolling his shoulder coyly.

"Stick to the important stuff, Izzy," Jace said, smirking at his parabatai who looked ready to thunk his head on the table.

Isabelle chuckled. "Alright." Her smile drooped. "Something's happening. Meliorn didn't know too much because he doesn't usually rub shoulders with them but," she paused to meet her brother's bright blue eyes seriously, "something's got the warlocks scared. He said he heard through the grapevine that they were getting out of New York as fast as they could."

Jace's eyebrows furrowed. "Why would the warlocks be on the run?" he asked no one in particular.

Isabelle shrugged. "Meliorn didn't know," she admitted. "But he suspects they're being hunted."

"Hunted?" Alec said, sitting up in interest.

Isabelle nodded. "That's all he knows. He only knew that much because whatever happened has the Seelies unnerved."

Alec looked up at Jace who sighed noisily. "The Seelies aren't easily unnerved," the blonde Shadowhunter said, standing up straight. "If something's going on with the warlocks, then the High Warlock should be aware of it. He owns that Pandemonium place, right?" Isabelle nodded. "We can start looking there. We got lucky last time. No sense not trying again. I'd say it's worth looking into at least. Maybe it'll give us a break with this," he waved vaguely at the screen with their blank slate case.

Isabelle nodded thoughtfully. "It might." She smirked. "It would hold off my boredom and who knows. Maybe we'll find your mystery girl."

Jace grinned and flicked his jacket collar flirtatiously. This time, Alec didn't bother hiding his disdain. He rolled his eyes and stood. "I'll be right back," he called, ignoring his siblings' snickers as he went.

The moment Clary stepped through the Portal with Magnus, she froze. She recognized this place. This was where this whole madness began. Right in this VIP room, as a matter of fact. Right by that couch under that screen on that wall.

"Clary!"

Clary blinked when her vision was suddenly filled with Magnus's face. He must have been calling her. "Clary, are you alright?" he asked. His eyes studied her intently, flicking across her face with open concern.

"You own this place?" she demanded, pointing to the screen on the wall.

Magnus leaned back in bewilderment. "Yes, why?"

"This," Clary pointed to the floor by the couch, right where they were standing, "this is where they...those people killed those things. They turned to ash right here! I killed that guy right..."

Magnus's eyes narrowed dangerously as he looked around him. "I didn't see you," he muttered to himself, ignoring the look she shot him. "There were Circle members here." He met Clary cautious gaze with his own. "I kicked them out. Circle members are never welcome here. They kill my guests."

"You mean like those people from before?" Clary demanded, her face pale in the odd lighting.

Magnus tilted his head to the side. "Possibly," he said. "Vampires turn to ash when they're killed, but then again so do demons." He moved to pulled the curtains separating the main dance floor from the VIP section aside. "If it was vampires, then the Circle was probably behind it. But if it was demons, then those Shadowhunters were probably from the Institute."

"The Institute?" Clary asked, stepping up to pull the other curtain back.

"The Shadowhunters' base," Magnus clarified. "There's one here in New York. I try to stay out of their business. Most Shadowhunters don't like Downworlders. We're," his lips twitched in a dark smile as a group of warlocks walked into his club, "beneath them." His voice dripped with disdain and his glittering eyes were narrowed with dislike.

"Beneath them?" Clary asked as the group of warlocks walked across the club floor towards Magnus.

"Let's just say racism is alive and well in the Shadow World," the High Warlock said in a low voice. "This way," he called loudly. "My Lair's on the other side of the Portal. Once you're there, add your shields to mine. It'll help bolster its defenses."

The female warlock leading the group nodded and shed her glamour. The sight was unexpected and Clary fought hard not to stare. The woman had skin that was bright, fire engine red. She led the way through the Portal followed by her posse of four warlocks.

Clary leaned close to Magnus to whisper, "Is that her warlock mark?"

Magnus nodded. "We'll wait here for an hour then leave. I don't like staying here any longer than that."

"What about Dot?" Clary asked.

Magnus glanced at her, quickly looking away. Clary swallowed. Magnus would wait for an hour but no longer. If Dot didn't come, she was on her own. Clary sent up a quick prayer that her friend made it in time.

Dot leaned against a dumpster, struggling to breathe around the stitch in her side. Every breath hurt. She barely had enough magic to do anything besides maybe send a couple fire messages. Thankfully, she wasn't too much farther from Pandemonium. It was only 1:48 in the afternoon so Pandemonium wouldn't open for long while yet. But hopefully Dot could hide out there until it did in the evening. She needed to talk to Magnus.

She had to trust someone. If not Luke, then Magnus was her only other option. She prayed she could get to him before she was caught. The last thing she needed was another turn of bad luck.

Simon checked his phone again then looked up at the building in front of him incredulously. "Really?" he muttered in mild disbelief.

Honestly, this was all too weird. She was still here? Why would Clary leave this place like a bat out of hell only to come back when the place was closed? He scratched his head and checked his phone yet again. Sure enough, Clary's symbol in the Find Friends app stood big and bold practically next to his own right here. He looked back up at the unlit sign above the entrance of the building.

"It's okay Simon," he muttered. "She's probably fine. Just, you know, creeping. Yeah, definitely just creeping. She's an artist. I mean, artists get inspired by all sorts of stuff, right? Creeping isn't all that unusual." He gulped. "I am definitely going to regret this."

Tucking his phone in his pocket, he forced himself to walk towards the closed club Pandemonium, unaware of the three people in black who had walked briskly past him.

Magnus pulled out a small but ornate pocket watch, tapping his foot as the minute hand inched its way closer to two o'clock. He and Clary had been here much too long. He was the High Warlock of Brooklyn and thus it was his duty to protect his people. But he wasn't stupid. He knew the unusual influx of warlocks in one place would attract the Institute's attention. He estimated it would take the Shadowhunters an hour before anything was done to investigate. That deadline was fast approaching.

It just wasn't fast enough to suit him.

Clary was helping as best she could, hustling the arriving warlocks through the Portal. He had counted about a dozen total so far. He hoped any other warlock had been able to get out on his or her own. Clary must have felt his gaze because she looked up and unerringly caught his gaze with her own. He could read the question in her eyes and felt horrible when he shook his head and watched the despair and worry fill her eyes. The hour was almost up and there was still no sign of Dorothea.

The doors to the club banged open and Magnus looked up expecting another group of stragglers, or Dorothea. Instead, he saw a male warlock racing across the empty floor of his club. The warlock cast a terrified glance over his shoulder and Magnus tensed, his senses heightening. He focused on the shadows behind the straggler and saw the unmistakable black clothes and tattooed bodies of Shadowhunters. He did not stop to question whether they were from the Institute or the Circle. He snapped his watch shut and made his way hurriedly to Clary.

"Time to go!" he cried.

Clary's eyes bulged in shock when she saw her uncle racing towards her as fast as he could. He cast a look over his shoulder and she followed his gaze only to stiffen.

"It's them," she breathed.

"Go through the Portal!" Magnus ordered, stepping between his niece and the Shadowhunters.

The command jolted Clary from her shock. She shook her head, eyes narrowed in determination. "Like hell," she snapped. "We have to wait for Dot."

"Dot's not coming Clary. Go," Magnus said, activating his magic, ready to defend himself and his people should the Shadowhunters attack. "I'll be right behind you."

Clary's cheeked flushed with fury. She snagged her uncle's coat sleeve and yanked him back to her startling him. "The last time someone told me that, I never saw her again," she snarled. "I am not. Leaving. You."

Magnus swallowed, feeling a mixture of affection and frustration for his stubborn niece.

"Magnus!" one of the Shadowhunters shouted.

Magnus took up a position between Clary and the Shadowhunters. They were running towards them now. With their enhanced speed, they would clear the open floor in seconds. Luckily, the terrified warlock bolted past Magnus and through the Portal just in time. Magnus spun and pushed himself and Clary through the purple veil right behind the straggler. The instant he felt fresh air on his face, he banished the Portal. The next thing he felt was the cold, hard wood as he thudded to the floor.

He scrambled up, pulling a breathless Clary up after him, straightening his coat self-consciously. He felt the eyes of the many warlock refugees in his Lair staring at them. There was no way he was going to allow himself to appear anything less than magnificent in front of them. He nodded the Elias who was helping ease the gasping warlock who had arrived tailed by the Shadowhunters down onto the couch.

Then he placed a hand on his niece's shoulder, only to find himself yanked into a hug. He stiffened, caught by surprise.

"Don't ever try to send me away without you, Magnus," she commanded. Her voice held the edge of anger but her fingers gripped the back of his coat with the desperation brought on by fear and love. Magnus sighed and hugged her gently. He didn't answer aloud, but he didn't have to.

"Those people," Clary whispered, just soft enough for him to hear, "they were ones who killed those things in your club. It was them."

Magnus narrowed his eyes. The Shadowhunters had been to far away to see if there was a Circle rune on their necks or not. If so, then he was screwed. If not, then he was screwed with a chance of not being screwed. He gave a 70/30 percent chance at best, 90/10 percent chance at worst. Either way he was screwed. It was really just a matter of how badly.

Dot hunched down behind the dumpster. The Mundane Simon may have missed the Shadowhunters walking past him but she hadn't. She briefly debated calling for Simon but that would have caught the Shadowhunters' attention. So instead, she limped down to the sidewalk away from Pandemonium. She would come back later when the Shadowhunters were gone and Magnus opened up for business. Then she'd catch him and beg him for sanctuary and help finding Clary.

She was too tired to hear them coming. Too drained to fight back and they grabbed her from behind and dragged her in a dark corner of the sidewalk. Too weak to scream for help. The last thing she saw was the sun. It would be the last time she ever saw it again.