So, I figure I'm too kind of a FF'er because I update ALL the time and I'm barely getting any feedback back from you guys, and I cook and I clean and I take out the trash…Agh, I'm so annoying. I'm betting none of you guys even read this! How rude! How about this: if I get at least twenty more reviews for this story (any chapter, not just this), I'll continue it. Or else I won't post up any more updates. Muahahaha, I'm evil. But you have to understand from my perspective that I get a little disappointed when I work so damn hard on this story and barely anyone comments on it…it's disheartening and I start to see no point in writing it and posting it online if no one even bothers writing back. I really feed off your feedback as a whole even if it's just "oh cool, I like this chapter" (even though short reviews like that kind of annoy me because of how brief they are) and without them, well, what's the point?

Songs:

Mannequin by Katy Perry (I really feel like this is Clary's thought process of Jace just in general, but more so now than ever because of his hot then coldness.)

The Bird and The Worm by The Used (for Jace's "enlightenment")

The Death and Resurrection Show by Killing Joke (for Clary's "dream" scene)

Much to Clary's surprise, Jace did show up to dinner with his family. She observed him from afar, just over Simon's shoulder and tried to see if anything was off–and at first, everything seemed normal; he was cracking jokes, throwing little grains of rice at Jonathan and earning himself a snappy comeback from their father every now and then. But then when Jace looked up at her, actually making eye contact with her, his amber eyes didn't light up the way she anticipated them to. No, her stare was returned by one cool and calculating, which only reduced her to feeling like a microorganism he was simply observing through a microscope.

So of course, later that night when she went out to sleep on the balcony, she wasn't surprised to not hear a single noise from the balcony below her–the final blow that truly hit her below the waist, KO'ing her just like in Mortal Kombat. With a dull ache in her chest, Clary plopped down into her makeshift bed and silently let the tears that threatened to spill all day pour out, trailing down from the corner of her eye to the dip of her nose, where they did their leap of faith only to meet their demise on her pillow.

The dream she had that night didn't alleviate her pain a bit; in it, she was standing in a dark room with a single spotlight shining down on her. Then, not a few feet away did another spotlight shine down on a head full of blond curly locks, her favorite blond curly locks, and without thinking twice, she ran to Jace. But the second before she could fling herself at him, another spotlight shone down a few feet to her left and Clary stared as another Jace stood in its halo of light. None of the were looking up, so the light didn't touch their faces and as Clary started to doubt which Jace was real and which wasn't, another spotlight appeared a few feet behind the other Jaces, followed a second later by three more spotlights until an entire army of Jaces were before her, none of them flinching or lifting up their faces to reveal to her their true identities.

"Clary," they all chanted in a monotonous voice that froze her to her very core. "Clary…Claarrryyy…"

"CLARY!"

Clary bolted upright, only to collide with something that felt hard, like a thick human skull. "OW!" she cried at the same time the person she must've bumped into cried out. Instantly, she recognized it was Simon by the way he whined and when she opened one eyelid, her guess was confirmed. That, and, she realized in shock, that it was already morning. How could it be morning if I just fell asleep?

"You were grumbling in your sleep," Simon groaned as he pulled up Clary's feet, held them in the air while he situated himself on the second chair before placing her feet back on his lap. "Something about 'which one is which'? Do I even want to know?"

"I don't even want to know," Clary mumbled while she rubbed the tender spot on her forehead where she had collided with Simon. "I have a question, though: have you noticed that Jace has been acting…out of character?"

Simon rubbed his hand along his stubbly jaw, a sign he was deep in thought, before sighing and shrugging. "I mean, he's never not into character–and by that I mean he's always so quirky, typically an ass, but with his own quirks, so I can't be a good judge on that matter. But if you mean have I noticed him avoiding you lately, then yes, I have."

Clary let out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding in. "Okay good. So I'm not the only one who noticed."

"Why do you ask?"

Clary shot him a dubious look. "Did you not just hear what I said? He's been acting weird. And I have no clue why. I mean, if I was a bad kisser or something, he would've made it obvious from the start, but that's not it. And he even promised to go to the gym with me two days ago for yesterday right after the excursion he said he was signed up for! You've got to admit that's a little suspicious."

"I'm not saying it isn't," Simon agreed. "Did you go talk to him?"

"I tried," Clary frowned, recalling the little episode he had when he saw her. "Let's just say it didn't end too well. He had some kind of epileptic seizure–or at least that's what his brother told me when he was trying to wrestle him down to take his medicine–but it looked more like the time I spilled water on your computer…sorry about that, by the way."

Simon froze. "Wait…like a glitch? Not really a twitch?"

"Mhm," Clary nodded. "It was really weird. And the entire time he was super jerky, not really smooth and badass like he always is."

"Not smooth nor badass," Simon echoed, falling back into that deep contemplative face of his. "Hmm, that is suspicious. Maybe he got kidnapped and was replaced with a robot or something."

"Simon!" Clary gasped, slapping him on the arm but smiling despite her tone. She had to admit, it did seem far-fetched to even entertain the idea…but something about it felt right, as weird as it sounded. "You may be onto something."

He quirked an eyebrow. "Are you insinuating that at this point, you're willing to take that as a legitimate excuse rather than believe that a boy just isn't interested in you?"

Clary hesitated. Okay, it was beyond far-fetched, but she just couldn't shake that rising feeling in her gut that told her that she was on the right path. "Well, maybe not a robot…but he isn't himself. Look, you would notice if Izzy started acting weird, right? That something was completely off about her. That's how I feel about Jace and sure, maybe I'm being irrational, but…you've got to trust me on this one, okay?"

Simon pondered this for a second before shaking his head, pulling her feet off of his lap and standing up. Holding his hand out for her, he shrugged. "Whatever you say, boss."

"I don't understand," Jace whispered hoarsely. "An experiment? For what?"

"I haven't much time to explain it all," his father replied. "Just know that I had absolutely no idea what was going on when I could've prevented it and had I known, I would've never in a million years wished this upon anyone, not even my greatest enemy."

"Dad," Jace implored. "Please, just tell me!" He so badly wanted to know, needed to know who–or worse comes to worst, what–he was. He had to know that he had a reason to exist and just what that reason was.

A sigh. "I had a good friend long ago," he explained. "We grew up together like brothers, really. Sometimes, we were even convinced ourselves that we were twins because of our proximity birthday-wise, height-wise, even appearance-wise. No one would've guessed we weren't related just by looking at us alone. The only difference between us was our eye color, since my eyes were green and his were black–the color of the midnight sky.

"Ever since I could remember, my best friend always seemed to be the leader out of the two and I used to think it was because he was a few months older than me. But then as we got older, I realized that wasn't just the reason. It was because he was charismatic and knew exactly what he wanted, and would certainly do anything to get what he wanted."

Jace winced, those words sounding all too familiar except they were coming out of his own father's mouth instead of Jonathan's. "It got to the point where I actually had to warn him a few times that maybe this time he was pushing the envelope, but that would only elicit a laugh from him. 'It's never enough until you get what you want,' he would always say, 'and even then, I'm never satisfied.' If only I knew back then just how devoted he was to those very words…"

"So sorry to interrupt your little reverie," Jace intercepted. "But how does this have anything to do with me? You might want to hurry up since our 'kidnappers' might come back any second now."

"Ah, yes," his father chuckled ruefully. "I tend to get a little carried away. During our time at Idris Academy, Jace had started to obsess over this theory that maybe we weren't alone in the Universe. That out there, there are other alien creatures much more advanced than us that won't even look twice at us because to them, we're inferior. But he felt that with our rapid technological advances, we might soon become a threat for dominance over the Universe and well, that didn't sit well with him."

"So you're saying your friend is a nut job," Jace prompted.

"Not…quite." The hesitance in his own father's voice made Jace tense. For all the years Jace had known his father, he never knew the man to be any less sure of himself than any other self-righteous man. "He had a point. If you think about it, it's pretty naïve to think we're the only life out there in the Universe, on a tiny lone planet, especially if you consider that we know more about the Universe than what lurks under the surface of our own oceans–and that's something you'd think we'd be able to control since it's on our own planet, no?"

"I guess," Jace shrugged. "But again, how does this have anything to do with me?"

"Patience is a virtue," his father lightly chided. "One day while I was over my friend's house, he suggested we try to open a Portal to try and communicate with aliens–mind you, I'm a man of logic and he was a man of charisma, so finding the right words to say to get me to do something was no task for him.

"One thing led to the next, and before I knew it, we somehow managed to summon up a creature inside of a pentagram. But it was no 'alien' as he had promised; no, it was a creature I never anticipated to see, never thought I'd ever see in this lifetime or the next had I never known my friend. It was a creature with papery skin like seaweed and two mouths full of serrated teeth like a chainsaw. I truly never knew fear until the moment I gazed into that creature's black empty eye sockets, nor had I ever seen my friend looked more delighted in his life."

"Are you sure he didn't drug you or something?" Jace's tone seemed light enough, but he was serious. A creature they summoned through a Portal with skin like seaweed and two mouths with serrated teeth? How crazy high did a person have to be to see something he'd expect to only see in one of those nerdy comic books that Simon read? But while Jace couldn't see his father's face, the earnest conviction in his father's voice was enough to convince Jace to give his father a chance to explain himself. And besides, Jace had a gut feeling that maybe his father wasn't lying after all; that maybe, just maybe, he was speaking the truth…

"That is only the beginning of your origin," his father sighed morosely. "I have much more to tell you, but–"

"But he cannot," another voice, this one as steely as it was unfamiliar. "Simply because if he breathed another word of your so-called 'origin', I just might have to kill him. No offense, Stephen."

Jace couldn't see anything since there was no light pouring through anywhere, but sucked in a breath when he felt someone breathing down his neck. Jace counted to three before trying to wrap his handcuffed wrists around the person behind him and snarled in pain when he felt something sharp jab into his hip.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," a voice–this one vaguely familiar–growled into his ear. "Or else a certain pretty little redhead just might have to deal with the repercussions later."

"Jonathan," Jace gasped, realizing who was behind him. Jace tried to spin around to face his brother and howled in pain when the dagger bit deeper into his skin, drawing blood. "How-how could you?"

Jace heard something whistle through the air and closed his eyes instinctively since it was all he could do and felt his stomach clench when he heard someone cry out in pain. Then, very softly that his ears barely picked it up, he heard his father breathe two last words: "Why, Valentine?"

"I hate rain," Izzy complained, yanking out a few of Clary's hairs in the process as she ran a comb through it. "Why. Won't. It. Ever. Stop?"

"Okay, Izzy?" Clary interrupted. "I know I said I'll give you permission to fix my hair, but by that I didn't mean make me bald."

"Although that would be pretty awesome if you were," Simon added gleefully, rolling onto his stomach and cupping his face with both of his hands as he stared at the two girls sitting on the other bed next to him. "I could totally see you looking like a bad ass with no hair. You'd look like Stone Cold Steve Austin!"

"Or a cancer patient," Alec snorted from the spare foldaway bed mounted on the wall above the sofa. He was laying down with a knee tucked up that was acting like a stand as he lazily flipped through a magazine. "Either way, I don't think it'd be a very good look on Clary." Turning his head to the wall opposite him that was lined with mirrors, he smiled apologetically at Clary once he caught her eye. "No offense."

"None taken," she smiled back, even though it felt forced on her face. She'd only agree to letting Izzy pamper her because as of recent with Jace's personality one-eighty, Clary was starting to not only feel like a piece of dirt, but was starting to look like one too. The purplish bruises underneath her eyes were clueing everyone in on her lack of sleep–something she shook off as "struggling to adjust with all the time changes"–and her skin seemed to be getting paler instead of tanner, despite Izzy's best attempts at tying Clary to a lounge chair to gain some color.

"Don't worry," Izzy had said at the time Clary agreed to the whole makeover, "I'll make you look so hot, Jace won't be able to take his hands off of you!" Clary sure hoped so, because if not, well, Clary couldn't imagine going through another rejection, didn't want to go through another heartbreak again.

And despite how much it hurt to have her own hair yanked out, Clary loved the feeling of Izzy's slim fingers running through her damp hair, massaging her scalp while fixing her hair up. Closing her eyes for just a second, Clary felt her consciousness slowly slip away as she finally relaxed her entire body…

Images like bursts of sparks flickered through her mind–one of two blond boys messing around in a green field; another of the same two boys much older still wrestling about only this time, they were wearing school uniforms; the last image of the two boys, one with a horrified look fixed on his face while the other beamed in delight. The last image horrified her, because standing before both boys was a creature so beyond her wildest imaginations, it stole her breath away.

Suddenly, she felt her entire frame vibrate as she fell into the memory–her lungs, chest and appendages searing with pain similar to one she could only imagine enduring while being shoved into a confined space then suddenly being released, giving her body no time to adjust to any situation.

"Valentine Morgenstern," the creature hissed through one of its mouths. Clary collapsed a few feet behind the boys but felt no pain as she landed on the ground. "What is it you demand of me?"

"Arakiel," one of the boys breathed, taking a step forward. Clary kept her eyes trained on him and immediately recognized that posture, the arrogance that rolled off of him in waves. "It has been quite some time since I have last seen you."

The creature–Arakiel–waved his hand dismissively. "A month to you humans is not even a bat of the eye for us immortals." Immortals? Did he just seriously say that? Clary couldn't believe her ears; how could something so…hideous be immortal?

"Yes, I am aware of that," Valentine chuckled. "But I would just like to check up on Celine, please."

Clary watched as the creature's mouths curled into a malicious grin and fought to keep the bile from rising up her throat. "Ah, this is Herondale then?"

"Va-Valentine," the other boy–who, Clary realized, was no older than nineteen at most–stammered. "Wh-what is that? And why does it kn-know my name? And why does it know Celine? Valentine, what in the Angel's name is going on?"

The creature frowned. "Angel? You dare utter that word in front of me?"

"He didn't mean that," Valentine added hastily before turning his glare to the other boy. "Stephen, this is what I've been talking to you about. I've found a way to mix demon blood with human's blood for my plan!"

Stephen stared at Valentine for a second, confusion on his face until it dawned on him and his face became a mask of rage. "You…you wouldn't."

At this, Valentine said nothing, which only enraged Stephen even more. "By the Angel, you promised you wouldn't bring her into this! Goddammit, Valentine, have a soul! She's pregnant and–" Just when Clary couldn't think his eyes could get any wider, they practically bulged out of his head. "Is this…is this the reason you brought her into this? Because of the child? Because of my child?"

"Well it's not like I had any other choice!" Valentine laughed, but it wasn't a pleasant sound at all. In fact, it reminded Clary of the feral noise a lion emitted moments before it struck its prey. "I have no wife to provide me with a child and it doesn't work on adults. Believe me, if it did, I wouldn't have stooped so low to accept Celine's request."

"Her request?" Stephen seethed. Even though Clary was at a safe distance away, she shrunk back away from the red-faced man. "Her request? She requested for you to change her baby into some sort of…some sort of…"

"Demon?" the creature offered, looking beyond bored if it was capable of that.

Stephen shot the creature a nasty look before snapping his attention back to Valentine. "I-I can't believe you. After all of this, you still go against my wishes and–"

"And what?" Valentine roared. "You know just as well as I do that any other person would've done the same! Any man would stoop as low to defend the very thing he's worked his entire life towards, even if it means sacrificing a life for an experiment. I sacrificed my entire life for this very moment and may God strike me down if I ever take a step back to consider 'the repercussions'. You can have another child, Stephen, but for me? I have nothing, absolutely nothing going for me if I luck out. I've worked too damn hard to throw this all away for you and one day you'll thank me for this."

"Clary?" Izzy shouted, panic rising in her throat as she held her friend's head in between her legs. "Clary, are you there? Clary!"

Izzy reached her hand back to slap her awake when she felt a jolt run through Clary's body and watched as her eyelids fluttered open a second later. "Oh thank God," Izzy gasped, pulling Clary up and hugging her tightly against her body. "I thought you passed out on me or something. Don't ever do something like that ever again."

But Clary was barely registering what Izzy was saying; her mind was reeling with the echo of Valentine's words. What did he mean by "I have nothing, absolutely nothing going for me if I luck out"? And besides that, what exactly had she just witnessed? It certainly didn't feel like a dream and something gave her the idea that it wasn't just a typical nightmare…so, what was it?

"Clary?" Simon asked hesitantly. "Um, are you okay?"

Shaking her head, Clary shot up from the bed and allowed her instincts to take over as the words blurted out of her mouth, "We have to find Jace. Right now. All of us."

Cliffie! God, I hate reading them because I want to read more, but I sure as anything LOVE writing them!

Jace *to Clary*: Nice of you to decide to show up.

Clary: It's not my fault! How am I supposed to know what the heck happened to you? And besides, "you" were technically there, just not "you".

Jace: Wait, huh? How am I in two places at once and how do I suddenly have a twin? He better not be as good-looking as me or I might have to seriously hurt someone.

Simon: So, uh, I think I might know how this is all possible.

*All eyes on Simon*

Simon: I can't tell you, obviously. *Points at me* She won't let me!

Me: Good boy.

Jace: Meow.

Me: …What? This is getting too weird…please rate and review and such!

Clary: Meoooowwwrrrr.

Izzy: Quack!

Max: Mooooo….

Simon: Woof, woof!

Alec: Baaaaahhh…

Me: Ahhhh, Farmville is stalking me!