A/N: Enjoy the chapter!
...and please don't hate me, I PROMISE this has a happy ending okay bye
Disclaimer: I own nothing but Archer.
Magnus spent most of that horrible day tracking Archer throughout New York. It was intense and insanely difficult as Archer had done his very best to cover any tracks he might have left. Both Archer's Dark magic and his possession of the White Book made it nearly impossible.
The key word, however, was nearly. Magnus was much, much older and more experienced than Archer, and Archer's covering of his tracks was slightly sloppy. Had Archer been more experienced, more practiced, Magnus would have despaired of ever finding him.
Because Magnus, with all his time spent around Archer, reading him, did not know what Archer wanted. He wanted power, that was certain – but the first step he would take to gain it was a mystery to Magnus. Was Archer trying to pull the same trick as Sebastian Morgenstern, and was going to raise an army? Or did Archer just want New York City? Magnus highly doubted both of those choices – neither of them seemed like Archer.
Then again, what did Magnus really know about Archer?
Nothing, really. Archer had played the part of the eager student/shy lover to perfection. He had combined his natural thirst for knowledge with just enough trickery to make Magnus fall for him, just by looking and acting like Alec. That was one thing Archer was not a novice at – acting, Magnus reflected grimly. He'd tricked and hurt Magnus, and Magnus would find him.
And find him he did, in the late afternoon. The sun was still blazing brightly in the sky, which provided the setting not with the urgency it needed, but rather with a sense of calm. The weather was as deceiving as Archer was.
Nothing could be that wrong on such a nice day, could it?
No, nothing, except that when Magnus finally found Archer, it was at an abandoned warehouse in a very bad part of town indeed. And there were signs of it not being only Archer there, no – Magnus saw that Archer was not alone. He had the sinking feeling that Archer had the vampire clan leader, Lily, with him.
Magnus paused outside of the warehouse shortly after reaching this conclusion. If Archer was as powerful as Magnus had deduced, he was going to need backup. Archer as Magnus had known him was one threat – but Archer using Dark magic and the White Book was entirely another.
And as much as Magnus opposed the idea, he was going to need someone very strong for backup. He was going to have to swallow his pride and call the Shadowhunters.
How long had it been since him and the Shadowhunters had worked together? It had been years, in fact, twenty years. Aside from the phone calls from a few weeks ago, he hadn't spoken to a single Shadowhunter in twenty years. He saw how horrible it had been to reject them after Alec's death. They could have grieved together. Instead, he had left himself to fall into the consuming well of solitary grief, and coped with it in the only way he knew how – drinking and wild parties.
Brushing aside his thoughts to return to the situation at hand, Magnus overcame his pride and the shame that accompanied having to call the Shadowhunters for help, and dialed the once-familiar, never-forgotten number on his phone.
The call went smoothly, the Shadowhunters being aware of the predicament Magnus was in. Apparently they had been given an anonymous tip citing Archer as a potential threat, and they had people in the area. Magnus, thinking back to whom he had told about Archer, felt his mind land on Catarina. The thought brought a slight smile. Catarina had seen through Archer, even without meeting him.
Hanging up, Magnus was seized with the desire to go in and confront Archer. He had been betrayed, and vengeance, something he hadn't felt in a while, was running high, as was adrenaline. Although he was already slightly tired from tracking Archer all day, that couldn't be helped. He had no one to draw strength from.
Magnus Bane had always been fond of dramatic entrances. He made this one in a grand fashion, bursting through the doors quickly, looking the very picture of revenge. He wasn't scared of death. Death could only bring him to Alec again. So this dramatic entrance was made without any fear at all.
Though his dramatic exterior betrayed no surprise, he was shocked at what he saw.
In a split second, his eyes had managed to capture, in detail, a sight he wasn't going to forget anytime soon. Lily, usually so strong and capable, was bound to a chair, tied so securely that there wasn't the slightest chance, even with her vampire strength, to escape. Her chair was situated under a window, and the rays of that sun would, should the curtains be opened, fall directly on her.
Archer, who had had his back turned to the entrance but snapped around when Magnus entered, was holding a vial of what could only be holy water, as the small burns on Lily from where it was dripped was anything to go by.
Magnus' eyes met Archer's. Archer's soft blue cat eyes had gone red, sharpened by Dark magic, the colour harsh and jolting. This was the first time, Magnus realized, he had ever been truly repulsed by Archer.
The other thing Magnus had noticed was that the room contained at least fifteen lesser demons, all of which (he realized now) had been glamoured by Archer. He was suddenly very glad he had called the Shadowhunters, as they would be able to dispatch the demons after Magnus had inevitably been killed by his own foolishness.
Archer, having been startled by Magnus' grand entrance, was only able to call the demons off at the last second. They had been prepared for Magnus to find them, but not that he would make such a commotion out of it.
Clearly, Archer didn't really know Magnus, either.
"Stop!" Archer exclaimed in an unnervingly calm tone. "I'll deal with him."
It was scary how fast the demons obeyed.
Archer's hand tilted, spilling another drop of water onto Lily's skin. Lily made an agonized sound through the gag, barely able to look at Magnus and plead with her eyes for help.
Magnus, free from the threat of the demons (at least for now), started towards her, but was stopped when Archer's hand flew to a metal rod attached to the curtains.
"One more step and she dies," Archer said, still oh so calm. "Or, do whatever creatures like her do instead of dying."
Magnus froze. He couldn't take that risk. Quite besides Magnus' liking of Lily, there was the fact that if Archer killed Lily, he would become the clan leader of the Dumort, and that was not a situation Magnus wanted.
Archer, one hand still on the rod, lowered down and placed the bottle of holy water at his feet. He stretched out his now-free right hand towards Magnus.
"Any last requests or questions?" he asked. "I may answer them, or I may just kill you, but I am nothing if not polite."
Without thinking, Magnus blurted out, "Go to hell."
"Already been," Archer answered, "when I decided to work for my father."
Archer paused. He could see the hastily stifled, but irrepressible, curiosity in Magnus' demeanour.
"Oh, you want to know the full story?" he added, questioningly. He smiled. "Too bad."
And with that, he shot a bolt of red light straight at Magnus' heart.
A/N: Next chapter coming tomorrow, I've already finished it.
