Disclaimer: I do not own TMI!
Okay, time displacement. Luke and the rest have settled in and heard everything when one night, Jace is kidnapped. When he wakes up, he finds that Jonathan has taken him hostage to lure out Nicki, because he heard from Amber that Clary is now dead (which she obviously isn't).
Jace cried out in pain as Jonathan laid the red hot metal on his skin, leaving behind ugly, blackened flesh. Jonathan laughed cruelly, placing the hated metal back on his skin, straight from the fire. Jace writhed against his shackles, trying not to scream. Valentine had done horrible things to him, but he had never done anything quite like this.
Jonathan, abruptly bored with this kind of torture, threw the bar on the floor. He then pulled a whip similar to Izzy's, but night black, off his weapons belt. He lashed it at Jace, where it struck the angry and blackened skin, making Jace howl. He was in so much pain his head was spinning. Repeatedly the whip struck the damaged skin, causing blood to flow down Jace in rivers. He eventually passed out, and Jonathan left him to recover, just enough so that he could torture him some more.
Amber was waiting in the next room, smiling seductively.
Isabelle banged on the door of Clary's apartment, the last place on her list of, places Clary might be, and found it empty. She swore. Trying the knob, she pushed the door open, and sitting on the coffee table, in plain sight, was a note.
This is my fight. If I die, then I'll take him with me.
Clary
Isabelle swore again and took off in the direction of the Pack House.
Nice choice of evil lair brother. It has all the qualities, rot, smell, and damp. Oh, and don't forget the dried blood and demon goo. Clary thought to herself as she crept along the gangway, trying to avoid making the metal clang. She could smell demons up ahead, and her fingers curled around her dagger. She cursed Jonathan for having her sword- he'd taken it from Valentine's hideout after her father had made it for her. A true Morgenstern sword and she hoped that if she saw it, she'd know how to wield it.
She ducked through a rotten door, and came face to face with around twenty demons. Well, it's time to send them to the hell they came from. She drew her dagger, snarling. The demon nearest her flung itself at her, and she dispatched it with one movement of her arms.
To the other demons, she curled her free hand at them, the international hand signal for bring it on, sucker! They threw themselves at her, trying to slash or bite her to pieces. But before they could, they met the wrong end of her dagger. One came up behind her, picking her up by her shirt and throwing her across the room. She tasted blood in her mouth as she landed at the bottom of the wall, but she got back to her feet and threw herself at them, crazy with adrenaline and ready to do anything to get Jace back.
Plunging her dagger into the last of them, she wiped the blood from her face and assessed how badly injured she was. Nothing sprained, nothing dislocated, nothing broken. A few minor scratches and a head injury, but nothing serious enough to deserve the time it took to draw a healing rune. She straightened out her gear and followed her nose.
There were more demons up ahead, so Clary crawled up a rusting ladder onto the gangway above. Peering over the side, she decided her decision was a good one. There was at least fifty down there, huge, horrible monsters that even Jace wouldn't have been able to deal with on his own. She made an extra effort to be silent as she passed overhead, keeping one eye on the demons below.
A scream rang out across the building. Shocked, Clary stumbled, and the metal clanged. The demons looked up, seeing her. She swore, and pulled a Seraph Blade this time.
Twenty minutes later, she was pinned under the last demon, moments from death, when it was struck by some kind of invisible force. Clary stood, her ankle screaming and blood pooling around her feet. With what felt like the last of her strength, she let her blade fly, striking the demon square in the chest.
Looking up at the gangway she had jumped from, she saw Amber leaning grimly against the railings. She was wearing a tight black cocktail dress, her eyes ringed with black like a panda, her lips dark and set in a fierce expression. Clary nodded her head slightly at her, and she flicked her hand lazily to the right. Clary saw the door, and the demon crouched in front of it. Sighing, she picked up her Seraph Blade and be headed the thing, continuing silently through the door beyond.
She was limping slightly as she approached the edge of a section of floor. In the centre, it had given away after years of rust. Lying down on her stomach, Clary spread her weight out evenly, and peered over the edge.
Below her, Jonathan was playing idly with a wicked looking knife, the kind that had huge teeth and looked capable of killing anything it came across. He crossed the room, and from where Clary was lying, she could just make out what he was saying.
"I'm disappointed. I would have thought that Nicholas would have come in honour of his sister. But, I've had you here for days and there's still no sign. That's too bad for you, you know. If they had come sooner, you would have been dead by now, and not having to suffer this torture. Not that I'm not enjoying it, but I'd much rather have anyone who is so adamant about their views dead, rather than trying to kill me every five seconds." One of the wolves in the darkness behind Jonathan growled, a low throaty sound that Jace knew meant it was laughing.
"Perhaps he is planning how best to dispose of you, seeing as I already have." Jace retorted, and Jonathan pressed the knife he'd been holding against his neck. Jace felt a trickle of blood run down his chest.
The wolves began snarling, springing to their feet. They had no definite leader, which meant anyone that could act like they were in charge, they tended to obey. In a pack leader's absence, Jonathan was that authority, and he told them to quiet down. However, instead of obeying him like they usually did, they continued their out of tune symphony. He spun around, anger glinting in his eyes.
"Shut up or I'll rethink letting you worthless mutts live!" he yelled, and the wolves quietened. But they were all looking up, at the hole in the ceiling above, sniffing the air. One of his demons had probably strayed too close. Jonathan sighed, letting the breath escape through his clenched teeth.
Turning back to Jace, knife in hand, Jonathan prepared to drag it down the length of Jace's torso, but was interrupted by a scream from the metal above them.
Forty or fifty demons followed a single figure off the edge. Doing a neat flip, the figure landed on her feet, whistled, and the wolves leapt into action. The wolves may have originally been Jonathan's, but now they belonged to someone else. One of the largest demons threw itself at the tiny figure, who seemed a little worse for wear. The demon nearly tore at their shoulder, but they moved at the last minute, and the demon screamed as a knife plunged into its ribcage. Once the wolves had dealt with the rest of the demons, they ran, escaping Jonathan finally.
The tiny figure turned to face them, her face and clothes covered in blood, her weight bearing on one ankle more than the other, her blonde hair matted and her blue eyes shining. If Jace hadn't of recognised the dagger she'd plunged into the demons neck, he would have never know that the battered Shadowhunter in front of him was Clary.
"Some clever moves Shadowhunter. You must have realised those wolves listen to anyone with a bit of authority." Jonathan was impressed. "However, clever moves will get you only so far. Up against someone like me, you would stand no chance." Clary chuckled.
"I must say, this is a rather impressive horde you've managed to summon. The second group were really something. I nearly didn't make it. But, strangely, I survived. Though, I would have expected a lair fancier than this. This place screams low life, not world dominance crazed super villain." Clary brushed back a strand of hair that was stuck to her face. "And I personally wouldn't have let me in. I'm just brilliant when it comes to wrecking plans of world domination. I'd say it's in my blood, but the last super villain I dispatched was my own father." She sighed. Angel, she was good at accents. She genuinely sounded like she was from England.
"I think you'll find I'm a lot more dangerous than your father. After all, I am Jonathan Christopher Morgenstern." He was puffing his chest out and strutting like a peacock.
"Yeah, and I'm Scars. Queen of wolves." She said it sarcastically.
"Scars is a pathetic wolf who thinks she can raise an army against me. But she's missing all the key components now."
"Hmm. You're lucky I have a good grasp on my temper Jonathan. Wouldn't want to see Amber's precious boy toy dead now, would we?" Jace was confused. But then again, Clary never told him anything about what she was planning with his siblings.
"You're well read Shadowhunter. But not skilled or talented in any way that would make you a danger to me." He was very arrogant. He had obviously inherited that trait from Valentine. Clary grinned. With a lazy flick of his wrist, Jonathan sent her flying. Wandering over to Jace, he lazily used the tip of his knife to draw a pattern on Jace's shoulder. That was until...
Clary landed on her feet in the shadows, her bad ankle nearly healed. She'd smelt Lucas, and guessed he'd come for the same reason as her.
"Get away from my brother!"
The boy had a shock of brown hair, and glowing blue eyes, the exact same shade as Luke and Amatis. That made him Jace's brother; Lucas Herondale. He had a beautiful sword strapped to his back, and numerous blades and other weapons stuffed through the loops in his belt. His eyes smouldered with controlled rage, and his mouth was grim.
Clary appeared beside him, an arrogant smirk on her lips that Jace could only vaguely remember seeing before... the first time they had slept together. Now was not a good time for that memory to make a reappearance.
Jonathan scowled.
Lucas held his ground when Jonathan put on his I'm going to kill you scowl. Clary wanted to shift and use her wolf vision to see better into the darkest parts of the room, but for now her slightly weaker eyes would have to do. She could see what appeared to be a weapons rack behind a roaring fire, which had a poker lying beside it that probably had inflicted the nasty burns on Jace's torso.
On the weapons rack was what appeared to be a wide array of things, including two swords, one beautiful as it was deadly, and the other grotesque...Morgenstern swords. One of them could be hers.
With a flick of his fingers, Jonathan sent Lucas flying backwards, and he hit the wall with a dull thud. He didn't get up again, apparently unconscious. Jace growled weakly and struggled against his restraints. Jonathan looked ready to throw Clary as well, so she decided it was now or never to make a dart for him.
She felt as if she'd been hit by one of Emma's extra mean sidekicks, and travelled backwards. Her back hit the concrete floor, but she managed to spring back to her feet before her head joined it. Enraged even further, she drew her knife. Moving quickly, she jumped at Jonathan, trying to land the knife. He grabbed her wrist and twisted, making it snap and she dropped the knife, scrambling for his hair or something else she could pull. He threw her, and she had no choice but to land in wolf form.
Landing on all four legs, she winced as her broken wrist became a broken front leg. She bared her teeth at him, snarling. He rolled his eyes, bored. She leapt at him, hoping Valentine had trained him with the same weakness as Jace. Sure enough, she managed to sink her teeth into his neck, but not far because he jammed the knife he was still holding up into her ribs. She yelped and landed heavily.
Amber walked up to Jonathan then, and Jace truly felt betrayed when he saw the way she put her hand on his arm. She whispered something in his ear, and he sighed and stalked off.
As soon as he was out of earshot, Amber let rip.
"Are you two insane? What possessed you to come here Clary? And Lucas? Why did you follow her? This is a death trap! I thought we agreed! No insane missions to rescue Jace until I told you Jonathan had left the building!"
"What were we supposed to do? Sit around another week and wait and see if you could convince him to surface again? Somehow I don't think Jace would like the sound of that idea, would you Jace?" Clary, now back in human form, was clutching a bleeding wound in her side. Her skin was pale, and she looked ready to pass out any second.
"Clary, I think you should sit down. I appreciate the whole, come save Jace idea, but you're bleeding." Clary looked down at her hands as if she hadn't realised she was. Then her eyes rolled back and she fainted. Lucas sighed and went over to her, pulling the various blades she had shoved through her belt out. He also rescued her stele from her jacket pocket, and tossed it into the darkness behind her. Jace squinted, and could make out the faint outline of her projected form.
Jonathan burst in then, throwing a wild punch at Lucas, which he ducked. The two boys grappled for a moment, before Amber hauled Jonathan off Lucas.
"Jonathan, leave him be. He can't hurt you. Luke is just a Shadowhunter. He isn't like you or me. Just let him sleep." She waved her hand, muttering the words that would send Lucas into slumber. Jace recognised them from the thousands of times she'd used them on him when the nightmares had caught him. Nightmares of the day Clary left.
Jonathan relaxed, and kicked Clary's lifeless body, content.
Deep in the shadows, Clary watched Amber's impressive acting. She was right; Jonathan was completely trusting of her. But then again, if Amber was right, Valentine had taught Jonathan that one day Amber would return to complete the ultimate experiment, the half angel, half demon child that was also Nephilim.
Jonathan walked over to the weapons rack and picked up the grotesque Morgenstern sword, balancing it perfectly. Looking at the other sword, a single word resounded in her head. Nanda. Nanda. Nanda.
She tightened her grip on her stele, and pressed it against the wall behind her. The portal opened silently, ready for their escape. She then crept over to the fireplace, praying Jonathan didn't turn around. Weapon less, and vulnerable, she watched him run the blade lightly over Jace's wrists, leaving behind a smear of red. Jace was biting his lip to stop him from letting out any sounds of pain.
Jonathan suddenly whirled around, whilst telling Amber to go. She disappeared, and Jonathan bore down on Clary, who was appearing as Kat. Which was lucky for her, she supposed. Jonathan's hand flashed out and grasped her around the throat. He lifted her off her feet, his dark eyes glinting with black fire. She kicked out, catching him in the right spot. His grip slackened, and she dropped, sweeping his legs.
He recovered, grabbing a fistful of her hair, and smacking her head into the wall. She back kicked him in the gut, spinning around and following through with a fast punch. His nose made a satisfying click, and a fine mist of blood exploded from it. He snarled and flicked his wrist, sending her flying into the heart of the fire.
She was lucky she was projecting. Her projection flickered, and reappeared behind Jace. She quickly drew an unlocking rune on his shackles, and they burst off. He could barely stand, but his anger made him as dangerous as a wild bull.
Jonathan had spun around at the sound of Jace being freed, and was rewarded with a swift series of punches. He kicked out, striking up into Jace's nose, causing him to stumble backwards. Clary drew a healing rune on his arm as he stumbled back into her, and the bands of muscles in his arms tensed.
Jonathan let out a wild roar when he saw the girl he had just thrown in the fire standing behind him, stele in hand. He threw a burst of power at the two of them, striking Jace square in the chest. As he went flying backwards, Clary was knocked to the ground by the arm he'd put out protectively in front of her.
Jonathan was above her in an instant, his sword placed securely over her heart. She could hear Jace groaning behind her, but he made no attempt to get back on his feet. Jonathan drove the sword down and she felt the familiar feeling of something foreign slipping inside her body. But she wasn't real, and she had to remember that, because a projected thought cannot be destroyed by mortal weapons. She tugged at the sword, cutting her hands, and amazingly managed to get Jonathan off balance. Pulling the sword out her chest, she flickered. But she didn't wake back up projected this time.
The quick healing of werewolves meant that her real body was now back in action. Climbing to her feet, she ran for Jace while Jonathan was distracted by her sudden disappearance. He was badly injured- his spine had taken the full force of his flight across the room, leaving him bruised and unable to stand. Amber flashed in beside him, took her brother in her arms and flashed out again with him.
This left Clary alone with Jonathan. He saw her, and charged. They fought, and he managed to rip a bag of silver powder from his belt and throw it at her. She screamed and fell back, scrambling for her weapons and realising Lucas had taken them all-and her stele was halfway across the room where her projected self had fallen.
Flipping over onto her front she ran for Lucas' unconscious form, but an invisible force grabbed her and pulled her back. Jonathan sent her flying into the wall hard and her head made a dull thud as it connected.
She slid down, leaving a smear of blood from her throbbing skull. She looked up at Jonathan, who was standing over her once more, sword in hand, and could only think of one word to say.
"NANDA!"- and something flashed across the room.
Wow! From the shortest chapter to the longest! What is going to happen- and who is going to meet the grisly end. Stay tuned and review!
Bow Wow
Vikki ;)~