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Hey, what is that at the end? Is it what we have all been waiting for?

Part 3: Time, chapter 12: The flowers of evil.

'' I want to see Magnus.'' said Alec, causing Jace to sigh.

'' Did you listen to what I just said? You'll have to use your power to wake me up.'' he slowly repeated.

'' I was listening andI said that I want to see Magnus.'' he answered glaring at him..

'' You always want to see Magnus, in what does it prove that you've been listening?'' smirked Jace as Alec blushed. The blond was glad that his friend seemed a little bit more like himself even though the infinite sadness was still shinning in his eyes.

'' What I mean is that I don't want to use my powers on you without knowing what will happen. But if I use them in a way I know, like bringing Magnus here... maybe he could help. A-And I need to speak with him.'' he softly whispered the last part, his shoulder falling down under the weight of his remorse.

Just as Jace was about to ask him how Magnus would intrude the dream without Jace's blood, he remembered that, indeed, it already happened before.

The first time Magnus and Alec met in the dreams, he had not been involved at all.

Maybe there existed a deeper connection between the two than Jace suspected. 'The link between a killer and its victim' thought some dark corner of Jace's mind.

Alec stepped back and closed his eyes to concentrate. The shadows of the trees surrounding them started to swirl around the dark-haired blue-eyed boy. It was as if they were longing to touch him, swallow him in their obscurity, but couldn't. Alec frowned, his eyes still close, and his runes changed to shape a specific form.

'Alliance' was the word that came to Jace, and he didn't know how he knew that, but he was sure of its meaning. Just as he was sure that the mark was incomplete and needed a matching other one.

As Jace was about to wonder if it would really work, the marks on Alec's body got bolder and darker.

Then, rain started to fall from the orange sky...

The rain was pouring outside and rhythmically hitting the window, giving the office an ominous sombre appearance. And the fact that her father was sitting at his desk in front of her did nothing to appease her.

'' Luke already told me about the legend. He also said you got obsessed with it-'' said Clary, but got interrupted by her father's sarcastic laugh.

'' He told you that I was obsessed with it? Oh and I suppose he never told you he was as 'obsessed' with it than I was. He was as involved in the Parabatai Project as I.'' declared Valentine, scoffing without any joy.

'' Parabatai Project?'' asked Clary, not wanting her father to see how much what he just said affected her.

Fortunately for her, the cellphone on Valentine's desk chimed, distracting him. He looked at it annoyed, but as he read the message, his annoyance morphed into the smallest of smile, but a smile nonetheless..

The man would have been angry and it would have been less scarier than this victorious smile of his.

Then his black eyes returned to Clary. '' Ah yes, you wanted to know about the Parabatai Project. A grave mistake I most admit. It's merely the project Lucian and I had to make a parabatai: unify a part of Sebastian with a human being.''

'' Unify with another... what?'' exclaimed Clary in disbelief. She knew her father was a bit like a mad scientist, but she never knew that it could go to such an extant.

'' With another human being, didn't you hear? If we are to continue that conversation, why don't you sit down?'' he sighed. As she stubbornly stayed where she stood, he placed his elbows on his desk and joined his hands together. '' Suits yourself. As you know, Sebastian is the being with the greatest magical powers after the High Spirits that annihilated him. After some research, Lucian and I found the place they got killed and brought back remains. We did test drives by unifying two ordinary human beings – one dead to one alive – before we tried with magical-''

'' You what? You... You unified two ordinary person together?''

'' What have I taught you about interrupting, Clarissa.'' hissed Valentine in displease. When she stayed silent, biting her lips to prevent herself from ruining her only chance to know more about what was going on, the man continued. '' Yes, they got unified, that's how you form a parabatai, and it was a success. Though now there seems to be complications...''

He interrupted himself and passed a hand on his eyes as if the ordeal was tiring him.

'' Why did you played with people's life like that?'' interrogated Clary. She was used to her father being excessive in his experiments, but even if he was obsessive, he was rational and wasn't the kind to do experiment for fun. He had to have some kind of goal. '' What was the purpose of the Parabatai Project?'' she asked.

There was a moment of heavy silence, only broken by the grumbling thunder of the raging storm, before he answered. '' To heal your mother's illness.''

The red-head gasped and decided to sit on one of the chair. She felt dizzy by the memory of her mother. The rain drops hitting the window seemed so loud suddenly, she had a headache. She wanted to ask so many things, but couldn't form any words.

'' I thought they were the key... That to make someone parabatai with Sebastian would grant that person enough power to heal Jocelyn. But as I said it was a grave mistake.'' he said in a neutral voice that unnerved the girl.

Clary closed her eyes and remembered that night, five years ago, when her life changed. The dark swirls, the screams, her mother's lifeless body in her father's arms and the pain when the black swirls came for her...

'' Unfortunately it seems the power was uncontrollable. Magic did this to us, remember well.'' cut in Valentine's voice, snapping her out of her memories. '' And that is why I need to erase the error I have done. I need to eliminate Sebastian from this world again.''

Clay's head jerked up at that. '' And who are those who are parabatai with Sebastian?'' she asked, dreading the answer.

The cellphone on the desk chimed again, but it went ignored this time.

In the cold air of the office, the man gave a second smile that sent shivers down her spine. '' You are smarter than this, I know you know.''

'The list...' she comprehended. She thought of Jace, how his dreams were haunted by Alec. Was Alec one of the five person that made Sebastian?

'' And how do you kill Sebastian?'' she slowly asked again.

'' I simply remove it from its host. Take Maia Roberts for example. I am sure she is feeling better without Isabelle Lightwood being a parasite inside her.'' simply answered in annoyance Valentine before getting up. For him the discussion was obviously finished.

'Lightwood? That was Alec's last name.' Clary remembered and her suspicions confirmed.

She stood up too. '' Wait, you can't just remove Alec from Jace!'' she screamed and realized too late her words.

Valentine's gaze was steadily on her. '' Alec? So you know that it is Alexander Lightwood that is in Jace Herondale? But how? No one managed to make connection with Sebastian, they were all showing rejection symptoms...'' he said, stopping himself in mid-sentence. Swiftly, he opened one of his desk's drawer and pulled out a file. He opened it and has probably found what he was searching for since a sinister laugh filled the room.

Then, as abruptly as it had begun, he stopped laughing. '' Oh how wrong was I. In Jace's case it wasn't a rejection, but an acceptance symptom... he is a successful experiment.'' he placed back the file and grabbed his cellphone. '' He needs to be taken care of.'' Valentine coldly stated before heading for the door.

Clary placed herself between the door and him. '' No! Father you can't do this to him, they are as close as brothers-'' she tried to protest.

Her father took her arm, his grip like steel and his eyes cold. '' Why are you protecting him? Do you think what I am doing is wrong? Remember what meddling with magic did to you.'' he said in a dry tone, his black eyes darting toward her left shoulder.

The small gesture brought her back to five years ago on the night that changed everything for her.

The screams, from strangers and from her parents, woke her up.

She went down to the basement to see what was going on, but when she reached it everything was deadly silent. Except for short low angry breathing.

She opened the door and saw a petite red-headed woman in the arms of a strong but so weak looking man. Her mother and father.

And she saw the shadows surrounding them, circling them, forming tall and bold arabesques. They seemed to come from a man that was shimmering a green light...

The last thing she saw were those shadows suddenly stop and come right at her and her father screaming her name.

Blinking away the flashback, Clary knew what he meant, but was still feeling like she couldn't let him do this to Jace.

She felt that if Jace got separated of Alec, he would never be the same again.

'' It is wrong, father. You do not know them. And what happened to me was your fault not Sebastian's.'' she stated dead serious.

Brusquely, he pushed her away from him and she almost fell on the floor. '' I am only trying to protect us, Clarissa, Right way or wrong way, at the end, the result will still be the same, so why not make it easier for all?'' he growled before leaving the room. The door closed behind him in loud noise, echoed by the thunder falling down outside.

Frustrated and confused, she grabbed what she assumed to be Jace's file in Valentine's drawer and headed for Magnus' apartment.

She had to stop lying and tell Jace everything, she decided.

On his knees, the Book of the white wide open in front of him, Magnus just kept staring at the names written in the book that the lightning kept illuminating.

'We had to stop the devastation.' it was written in his own fine cursive letters. 'And if before we could never find him, now all of Ragnor's tracking spell had found the immense source of stolen power. We knew that the power had to come from the one who spirited away so many people.

'When we arrived at the place, we discovered two things. First that we were too late, he had already taken the lives of so many.

'Second, that it wasn't one but five person going under the name of Sebastian, their first victim. Those five person who had stolen the power of the Angel were:

Aline Jia Penhallow

Helen Jesse Blackthorn

Simon Lewis

Isabelle Sophia Lightwood

Alexander Gideon Lightwood'

Magnus kept reading that part again and again, without being able to remove his eyes from the dusty old pages.

Without being able to believe it, even if the memories were crystal clear now.

Rain was falling outside, sliding down the library's window, just as a wild tear was escaping him.

'' Dios mios, maybe I shouldn't have shown it to you.'' grumbled Raphael's voice from the door. He looked a little bit better, but was still incredibly pale and his eyes seemed clearer than Magnus remembered. '' You are doing the same thing as five years ago...'' he sighed.

'' What thing?'' asked Magnus in confusion, '' I am not doing anything.''

Raphael rolled his eyes before he answered. '' Soon after Ragnor died and I got... changed by Morgenstern, you started having dreams and kept having a guilt trip. You wouldn't stop saying that it was all your fault, that you made a mistake and that you killed 'him'. Whoever 'him' was...''

That answer did nothing to help Magnus understand. What was Raphael referring about when he said the Morgenstern changed him? And he only met Alec two years ago, how could he have had a guilt trip three years prior to that?

'' How come I don't remember that part clearly?'' he wondered, mostly to himself.

Yet the Spanish boy had an answer for him. '' Catarina had put you to sleep when we saw that you were depressing over those dreams. You were suppose to wake up only when your heat would be able to handle the remorse you had. She used to check on you every now and then until you disappeared two years ago.''

Two years ago, Magnus was drowning in a lake, dreaming of Alec.

Thinking of his blue-eyed dream, a dreadful feeling settled in his stomach and his heart stopped for a brief moment. 'I need to talk to him, to ask him forgiveness... ' he thought. But how could he even face Alexander, knowing what he had done to him in the past?

'Maybe the past should stay in the past.' whispered some part of Magnus' mind.

His dark thinking got interrupted by a cellphone chiming. It was Raphael and the other one seemed to gain a bit more energy when he saw the message.

'' It's time for you to leave, Magnus. Keep the book, it is yours after all.'' quickly said the boy before he headed for the door. Then he stilled. '' And whatever happens, never let anyone know you are a High Spirit.'' he said as a last sentence and left.

Magnus quickly got up to follow him. '' Wait, I still have questions. And I came here for a purpose too. Where are you-'' he cut himself short when they reached outside and he saw that under the pouring rain stood a man waiting for them. Elegant stance, white hair, black eyes, he knew that man.

Valentine.

Still, Raphael didn't stop. He actually went to greet the man.

'' It was about time you show up. The rejection is getting stronger and stronger.'' he told the man.

But the soulless eyes of said man were set on Magnus standing in the back. '' I have seen you before, who are you?'' The green-eyed one shivered, and not only because of the cold air and freezing water falling over him.

'' Does it matter who he is? You came here to take it away as promised, so do it.'' hissed Raphael. With his black wet hair sticking on his face, he looked whiter and sicker by the seconds and his blood vessels seemed to grow darker again forming strange patterns – like runes – on his skin.

Valentine's lips formed a strange ictus at that. '' You do not get to order me around, you insolent brat.'' he spat. '' And the fact that you are so quick to dismiss him tells me that maybe you do not want me to know who he is. Maybe he is a friend of that dead lover of yours... Ragnor Fell, right?''

'' You do not get to speak his name!'' screeched the Spanish boy. He stepped closer to Valentine, as if trying to intimidated the much larger and taller man. For a moment, Magnus thought about how Maia had started to lose it when the man had endangered her family. He couldn't help but feel like the way Raphael was losing his control over his lover was quite similar to that.

And it was as if Valentine wanted them to lose their cool.

The white-haired man stepped back, not fazed at all by Raphael and got from his jacket pocket a syringe with a yellow liquid in it.

Ignoring Raphael's previous warning about letting people know what he is, he started to summon his blue flames. But instead of feeling the familiar warmth in his chest, a wave of drowsiness hit him.

'What is going on?' he thought trying to fight to stay awake. He concentrated on the sharp bites of the rain. Now was not the time to lose consciousness.

During the time he lost interrogating himself on the sudden tiredness he was feeling, Valentine had stabbed Raphael with the syringe.

Right then, the sky turned an intense burnt orange coloured.

'' No...'' he whispered, but it was barely audible. His vision was starting to blurred. Blinking away the blur, he saw Raphael in Valentine's arm.

Magnus extended one of his arm to attempt to again throw blue blaze at them, but stopped as he saw a strange mark on his forearm.

'Alliance.' his instinct told him that was what the mark meant. Yet he didn't have the time to really think about it.

He looked back up just in time to see an unconscious Raphael lied down in a car's backseats.

He blinked once and he wasn't surrounded by the tall buildings of New York anymore, but black-wooded trees that seemed eternally caught in a blue fire. And in front of him, it wasn't Valentine and Raphael anymore. In front of him stood Jace and Alec.

'Alexander...' he thought, with both a bubbly happiness and an anxious sadness. He was cold from the still on going rain, confused as to why he was here, stressed for Raphael, unnerved by the recent memories he got back and yet all he could think about was Alec.

And the latter whispered a soft:

'' Hello.''