I am so sorry guys. Sometimes (i.e. when I remember I write fanfiction) I hate life. It gets in the way of everything! Including . . . well life! Hmmf. I've just got a new boyfriend who I love to pieces and am having so much fun with at the moment. Plus I've been ill and on holiday, not a good combination, so have had very little time to write this. Right, sorry about splitting this debate, this is a carry on from chapter 5, with Alec suggesting ideas. I couldn't get it all in one chapter, it just didn't work. So here you are guys.
Disclaimer: She hasn't rang yet to tell me she's donating the Mortal Instruments to me yet, so I still don't own them :D
Flashback.
"May I open an idea to the table?" Alec piped in, much to everyone's surprise.
"Go ahead, Mr. Lightwood."
"As most of the Council members know, I have travelled round the world talking to different groups of Shadow hunters and trying to help them solve their demon or Minion problems. Jace and Clary have been doing the same. I then did some research into the other groups who don't have anywhere close to as many problems, who haven't called out for help. And I can definitively say that it is down to the Downworlders. The successful camps integrate Downworlders into them, they don't exclude them, they treat them as equals. The camps that we have to constantly go to and help are the ones that push out the Warlocks, the Fairies, the Vampires, and the Werewolves. These Shadowhunters think that they're better than the Downworlders, that they don't need their help, when in fact they need their help now more than ever. The Shadow hunters of the London Institute have a different problem. The Downworlders aren't there to help them. There are two werewolf packs that live in the area that help when they can, but they do not live in the Institute. They are separate from it. This means that in an emergency they can't get there anywhere near as fast, sometimes they don't even hear about attacks. This is the issue I want to solve and here is the solution that I would like to purpose to put into effect. I think that we should integrate the Downworlders into the system, make them part of the solution, instead of part of the problem, not something that we need to manage, or something that gets in the way. We need the Downworlders if we want to win this war. I propose that we try this with Rome or Paris. We set up another Institute, built and maintained by both Shadow hunters and Downworlders." Alec stopped and looked at the faces of his fellow Shadow hunters. What he saw unnerved him.
All of them were staring at him like he had gone mad. One of the Italian Shadow hunters, the man who had cast an opposing vote with the two elderly council members and one of the Shadow hunters at the London Institute, spoke up.
"You want us to work with those beasts?"
"They are not beasts, they are people. Allies." Alec scowled at the Shadow hunter who had spoken. "We need Warlocks for portals. Without them it would take days, if not weeks, for us to get anywhere without Valentine finding us. The werewolves are an unstoppable force that is capable of destroying anything in their path. The vampires are brilliant at sneaking and slipping into Minion bases and retrieving valuable information. And all the Minions are terrified by the fairies. They appear, they destroy, then they vanish. You cannot argue with the fact that they are an invaluable asset that we can't afford to tarnish."
"You expect us, the great Shadow hunters, to work with trash, like vampires?"
"How dare you call these-" Alec was cut off by a council member raising his hand to silence him.
"Thank you, Mr. Lightwood. Mr. Rangehole, would you care to explain your inappropriate outburst?" The council member looked sternly at the Italian Shadow hunter.
The Shadow hunter- a Sirius Rangehole- stood up and walked to the head of the table, where the council was seated and turned to face the collective.
"For years I've lived and hunted out of the London Institute, for a good 30 years, and I have never asked or needed help from Downworlders. I have never sunk so low to ask for their help. We have managed to hunt and control demons all on our own. We have never needed them to help us. They have only ever got in the way, made our lives more difficult. We have to police them and make sure they don't fuck up our work. They ruin everything."
There was silence ringing round the room. In this Alec stood up.
"May I speak, council?"
"You may, Mr. Lightwood."
"I cannot stand here and deny that Downworlders have caused us problems. They have, but we in turn cause them problems. We force them to conform to a set of rules that we define. We don't allow them to do certain practices that we consider wrong, yet we do as we please, they do not set rules on us. Downworlders are not the same as us, but they are extremely similar. We are not a perfect set of beings that have a divine right to rule over, what you called, lesser beings. We have automatically assumed that position of authority, but I believe that we should share it. We can only speak for the Shadow hunters. We cannot stand here and say that we fully understand Downworlders, I cannot fathom how Mr. Bane does anything that he does, so how can I hope to police him? I think that it takes a Downworlder to police a Downworlder."
"By that do you mean that you don't know how to control your pet?"
"How dare you!" Alec yelled at him and turned to the council for support.
One of the council members stood and spoke up. "That is an inappropriate way to refer to a High Warlock, Mr. Rangehole. You will treat our guest with respect, the Council personally invited him and so you will treat him as you would a high member of the Clave."
Alec nodded his thanks to her, and then smiled at Magnus, who was sitting in his seat next to Alec's. "My thanks to the Council. I am well aware that not everyone shares my view. As I'm sure you all know, Magnus is my partner, which most people do not approve of, I know, and thus makes me biased in this issue, in favor of the Downworlders. But I believe that we can use this to our advantage. Magnus is a highly influential Downworlder, they would follow him, and this idea is both of ours, so he wants to help. We can turn this war around with their help. We could win! There are thousands of them, possibly millions of them, they have the numbers to turn this war around, and that's not even taking into account their abilities. They have amazing gifts that exceed anything that we can do. Why not use that to our advantage? Why not use that to crush Valentine?" Alec looked round at the gathered Shadow hunters.
"So let me get this straight," Rangehole spoke up, "you want us to work with these . . . Downworlders"- he almost spat the word at Alec- "to win the war. But what happens then, assuming the war is won?"
Alec looked at him for a few moments before answering. "We continue to work with them to destroy demons."
"You mean destroy, virtually, their own kind?"
"Downworlders are not demons. They have been created with great connections and influence by demons and Angels, but then so were we; Jonathan Shadow hunter first begged the Angel Raziel to mix his blood with his so he could destroy demons and help mundanes."
There were a few murmurs of agreement before the female council member, who had spoken up for Alec before, stood up and said; "Thank you, both Mr. Lightwood and Mr. Rangehole. The council will consider everything that has been said in our decision."
Everyone who wasn't already standing stood, and Sirius moved to stand behind his original chair, as the council got up and left through a door at the back of the room.
Alec led the other people out of the room through another door and then waited for Magnus to come out. Magnus and the other Warlock, Jeffery, came out last, as were the rules of the council meeting . Jeffery smiled at Alec, before setting off towards the front door of the house. Alec looked quizzically after him before turning to Magnus.
"He doesn't stay because he hated being treated like filth by the Shadow hunters." Magnus explained.
Alec smiled and took his hand. "Well, we're about to change that, now aren't we?"
"I hope so, hun. But I wouldn't-" He was cut off as Sirius spoke over him.
"Ha! You actually believe that you have a chance of making this idea work? Ha! Oh, that's a good one!" Sirius grinned at them toothily before continuing. "The council will never allow scum like Downworlders to form an Institute with us. They will see these bottom dwellers for what they really are. Worthless. Pests. Trash." He laughed again and turned to walk away from them.
What he then didn't see was Alec's fist soaring through the air towards him. He sensed something seconds before it landed and he turned his head to see what. Alec's fist connected with his nose a moment later and it snapped with a loud, satisfying crack. Blood immediately started pouring out of his nose and he yelled, hoping backwards away from Alec.
Several Shadow hunters ran towards them after hearing the commotion. Sirius was still yelling through his hands that were cupped to his face.
"That bastard! He broke my nose! He broke my nose!"
The other Shadow hunters, after understanding what had happened, laughed and put away the weapons they had drawn out of instinct. Some even congratulated him.
"Nice, throw there, squirt," one of the larger ones said, clapping his hand on Alec's shoulder. "Been wanting to do that myself for quite a while."
Alec grinned at him then walked away with Magnus, Sirius glaring at them the whole time. They walked comfortably in silence until they got to their room where Magnus stopped and said, "Three seconds, my love. I just need to go do something."
Alec looked puzzled for a second, before smiling and kissed Magnus lightly on the cheek. "Ok, hun. I'm just going to stay here. Maybe read or something." He smiled again and slipped through the door into their room.
Magnus smiled and turned away, heading off to find Jeffery.
-Time Jump-
Clary sighed and rolled over in bed, expecting to feel the warm resistance of her husband. What she actually found was a cold side of the bed where Jace should have been.
Clary sat up, a little confused and saw no Jace anywhere in their room. She sighed again, this time much more grumpily, and tugged the covers back, pulling herself out of bed. Clothes were thrown on and a glass of water was downed before she dared look in the mirror.
Her hair was a horrific tangled mess that strongly resembled something like a rat's nest. Clary grumbled to herself as she dragged a brush through her hair, once again gaining a respectable look. Clary flicked her fingers at the make-up that was sat in a box on top of one of the tables, thinking how Isabelle would cringe at the thought of her going out with no make-up on, and set off to find Jace.
Clary though she must have wondered the corridors for half an hour before someone told her that they'd just seen him heading down to the training rooms. Clary began walking in that direction, diverting slightly to pass by the kitchen to pick up an apple. She passed many fellow Shadow hunters and Downworlders alike, and smiled to herself at what the war had given them. Unity. For the most part the war had brought them all together and made them look passed their differences to work together against Valentine.
Clary reached the training room and saw a group of people huddled outside. Clary glanced at them before trying to make her way passed them.
"Wait! Hey, you're Carissa Lightwood, aren't you?" One man spoke up, reaching out and taking hold of her wrist as Clary passed them.
Clary nodded and snatched her wrist out of the man's grasp.
"Your husband is in there. You think you could get him to leave? He's trashing the place and we can't train in there with him."
Clary's brow furrowed and she pushed the door open and stepped inside the training room.
The room was a large circular room, with one flat wall with mirrors running down it. The roof was domed and several bars were bracketed in to allow people to practice acrobatic skills. Usually three punch bags were set up in one area and weights in the other. The floor in the center of the room was covered in mats to allow for combat training.
But now, as Clary looked in on it, the place was a mess. The bars had been ripped out of the walls leaving crumbling holes. The mats had been thrown and torn apart all over the room and two of the punch bags had been beaten to the ground. Jace was standing with his back to Clary, destroying the last punch bag.
He froze as he heard the door click behind her and yelled across the room, not even bothering to check who it was, "I thought I told you all to get out or I'd tare all of you to pieces!"
"Jace?" Clary's voice shook slightly as she took in what he'd done, and how angry he was.
Jace spun round at the sound of her voice then looked away, shame burning his throat. "Clary . . . I- I'm sorry," he stammered out.
Clary's expression softened and she walked over, reaching up and wrapping her arms around his neck. "Tell me what's wrong."
Jace sighed. "I don't know. I'm not sleeping well, I'm hardly ever hungry. I just . . . I dunno. I just feel so angry all the time, and I don't want you to see me like this so I came here." He gestured round the room, never once looking her in the eye.
Clary slipped her hand into his and tugged him across the room. "Come on, we'll go back to our room and curl up together in bed. You love it when we do that. I'll even throw in a free back rub." She grinned at him and he returned it, following her across the trashed room.
"Clary?"
"Yeah?"
"What we going to do about the training room?"
Clary shrugged. "Meh. One from the angry mob outside will sort it out." She grinned again and leaned in to kiss him.
I am so sorry guys for the wait my brain has not been working properly all summer. I have the next couple of chapters practically ready though so I'm hoping to get those up in the next week as well :) sorry my faithful followers.
