Destiny of The Chosen- Immediate Music

World Without End- Brand X Music

Archangel- Two Steps From Hell

I opened my eyes. The air was ringing around me, and the ground was covered in demons, all of them clawing at their ears, screaming out in pain as the witch hazel burned through their systems. There was only one face I was looking for and when I found it, my breath caught. Hazel was flat on her stomach three feet away from me, curled up on her side. She lifted her dirt-smudged face slowly, her eyes the same light brown color I was used to. What had just happened?

Her eyes caught mine and immediately grew wet, and my heart sank. I started crawling towards her immediately, Shadowhunters and Purified Soldiers still battling across the carnival field. I threw my hand down over hers and dragged her closer to me as she scrambled to her knees before her eyes looked over my shoulder and grew wide.

A huge pair of hands clamped down over my shoulders, dragging me away from her.

"No!" I grunted, gripping Hazel's arm as a Soldier snatched her up from behind. Hazel ducked her head as I kicked at the Soldier's jaw, the one holding me clamping his hand down over my mouth as if it would make me any less furious and ready to fight. Another Soldier came to aid, grabbing my feet and slinging me against the ground, shoving his fist across my face a few good times until I tasted blood.

"Jamie! Jamie!" Hazel was being dragged away from me, two of the Soldiers raising me to my feet. The Shadowhunters and Soldiers had quit fighting, each of the Purified Ones backing up slowly towards the center of the Carnival to form a ring around Hazel, a few other captured Shadowhunters and I.

My Father's eyes grew wide as he saw me, struggling against the hold of two Purified Soldiers as they gripped his shoulders tightly. He stared at me from my right, his eyes wide although we were only a good foot apart.

"Clary!" he called, trying to look over his shoulder. Mom shoved her way through the crowd, a Soldier drawing his blade and pointing it directly at her face when she stood a few feet away from my Father. It was a warning not to come any closer, and she was smart enough to oblige. "He's alive!" Dad called. I wasn't sure what he'd been talking about until Mom's eyes scanned the crowd desperately, glittering when they landed on me.

"Jamie?" she breathed, trying to push past the soldier. He grabbed her roughly, one arm around her chest with his blade pointed directly at her face as my Father struggled, fury brewing across his features. What did he mean I was alive? Of course I was alive.

"What happened?" I asked, looking up at him. He knitted his eyebrows together, his eyes continuously flickering to my Mom as if he couldn't fully concentrate until she was safe.

"You fell from the top of a Ferris Wheel, Jameson," he grunted, straining again. "Hazel and you should both be dead by now. She set the witch hazel off on top of the wheel, did she not?"

"Her skin..." I breathed, trying to get closer to him. "Dad it, it burst into-"

"Quiet!" he hissed, glancing at the Soldiers.

I scanned the crowd for Hazel, wincing when I saw her across the circle the Purified Ones had made. She stood only fifty feet away from me, if I could get free, she was only a sprint away. I could make it. I could get to her. I could save her. She shot me a worried glance, biting her lower lip as the Soldier with his arms around her pressed the blade of a dagger against her throat. And inhuman fury was rising in the pit of my stomach. Everything she was making me feel, made me want to throw up. I wanted to pass out. I wanted to cry. I wanted to save her. I wanted to touch her, and kiss her, and protect her, and it was making me ill because I hated her. The Rune on my chest burned like lava against the skin the more I thought about her.

"Well," A voice boomed through the crowd. It echoed off of the air as if it were made of metal, being transmitted through a loud speaker. "What do we have here?"

Every living creature in the Carnival looked as a tall, sickly skinny figure clothed in a Crimson robe moved to the center of the field. The man pulled his hood back, revealing a pale, thin face with wide lips and a long, sharp nose. His skin was a cluster of wrinkles, his eyes glowing a dull gold, as if there were a dying fire behind his iris'. His voice rang out in a thick, raspy echo. The second his face was revealed, my Dad stiffened next to me. Whoever this man was, he'd seen him before.

"Dominus Creto," A Soldier stepped forward almost meekly, his eyes low as he pushed Hazel into his line of view. At this point all I'd have to do was walk a few steps to grab her. My hand flexed at my side, my Father nudging me and giving me a look as if to say not yet.

Hazel looked on bravely as Creto turned to her, one eyebrow raised. A sick grin spread over his face, a filmy, dark smile hiding behind his lips as he circled her.

"In all my years," he mused, his voice uneven. "So the rumors are true."

"What rumors?" Dad demanded boldly, I took this as a chance to move. I bolted forwards, and the Soldier had his arms around my shoulders in seconds, kicking my calf from behind and dropping me to my knees.

"Jace Lightwood!" Creto exclaimed, grinning again as he walked towards us, careful to stay out of arm's reach. "And...son..I'm presuming?" he asked, glancing at me lazily. Dad clenched his jaw.

"What rumors?" he demanded again.

"A little birdy told me that you've all been hiding her," Creto smiled. He looked like a parent scolding a child. "And we all know that isn't very nice."

"We don't know what you're talking about."

"So it's true?"

"She isn't the one you've been looking for."

"Don't LIE to me," Creto hissed, suddenly furious as he shoved his face into my Father's. Dad winced and recoiled. "You know exactly who she is. You know exactly what she's DONE," he emphasized every word. "She. Is. A. Traitor!"

"She's a child!"

"SHE'S AN ABOMINATION."

Hazel clenched her jaw behind him, still being held by the Soldier as she watched Creto in all of his sickening glory. Her eyes met mine and I raised my eyebrows slightly. 'Are you okay?' I mouthed subtly. Hazel nodded gently, her eyes flickering to the ground at my Mother's feet. I followed her gaze, my eyes catching the Rod of Nathaniel in the hay, the small glittering pole hidden from obvious sight. My eyes went wide. If Hazel went to it now, it could kill her. Only one person had ever been able to use it, and they were born of complete Heavenly Fire. We didn't know what Hazel was. We didn't know her bloodline as thoroughly as we needed to. She could die. She could kill us all. I could come up with a million reasons why her touching that sword was not okay.

But I knew in the bottom of my heart that even if I told her, she'd never listen.

"You," Creto growled, turning on her. Hazel stared at him evenly. She was so brave. "You demon infected parasite-" There were shocked murmurs from the crowd of Shadowhunter families around us. They were stunned. Demons were no longer hated, but still looked down upon in many families, and to have one in the presence of so many Nephilim wasn't a good idea. They all watched Hazel, their brows furrowed. They hadn't sensed any demonic presence. She had no Downworlder marking. I watched as a single question seemed to form in the minds of over a dozen different families. What is she?

"She isn't a full demon!" I blurted out, my Dad shooting me a look. Creto paused in his movements, sending a poisonous look in my direction before dragging his eyes back to her.

"Oh we know," he said, his voice suddenly soft as he advanced on her. "We know all about the mutt that she is." He trailed a few fingers across her face, and being Hazel, she spat at him. The back of his hand came down hard across her face, so forcefully she fell from the Soldiers grip and into the hay. I lunged forward, my Dad catching my arm this time and restraining me along with the soldiers.

"What are you doing?!" I cried, looking back at him. He pulled my ear to his mouth.

"Not yet." he hissed, before throwing me back to my knees, the Soldiers yanking him backwards. I gritted my teeth, watching as a Soldier straddled Hazel's back, his weight causing her to cough as she struggled for air.

"SHE'S NEPHILIM!" Aaron shouted, the blade of a najil pressed tightly to his chest in the background.

"Good," Creto boomed, although you could tell he didn't believe him. "Then this shouldn't hurt a bit."

The Soldier pulled out a black stele, the tip of it glowing as he pressed it against Hazel's skin. Her shoulder blade sizzled upon contact, and the second it touched her she screamed, kicking her feet and straining underneath the large man. Every muscle in my body tightened, my breath coming out quick and shallow as I watched him burn a Rune into her shoulder. She screeched, louder and louder, and we could hear her skin sizzling from where we stood. I couldn't take it anymore. The Rune he was drawing was turning black, her body was rejecting it, it was killing her. Hazel Roberts was in fact a Downworlder, or at least had enough werewolf blood in her body that she could not bear the brunt of a Rune. I knitted my eyebrows together. How had she burned my Rune onto the crook of her elbow, then?

I couldn't take it anymore. Hazel was biting down on her lip so she wouldn't cry, her arms pinned behind her back as she laid there and took the Rune as if she were meant to carry it. That was enough. I roared, ripping a dagger from my Father's boot and slamming it into the Soldier's shin behind me. He wailed, sinking to his knees just in time for me to whirl around and stab the dagger straight into his Adam's apple. I jumped up quickly, slicing the blade up the arm of my Father's attacker. Dad pulled out two Seraph blades, whispering Ezekial's name before tossing me Joseph.

I growled the name, running towards Hazel and tackling the Soldier off of her. She sucked in a large breathe, rolling over onto her back and wincing as her shoulder pressed against the hay. I slammed Joseph into the Soldier's breast bone, staring him dead in the eye and twisting until it cracked. I wouldn't kill him. I'd wound him so brutally he couldn't stand and let him bleed in the hay.

I swung Joseph up in an arc at the Soldier advancing to my right and sliced a clear line across his chest, slamming my foot into his ribs so hard he toppled over, taking two other soldiers with him. I turned, ready to yank Hazel to her feet, but she was gone. She was crawling across the hay, straw clinging to her clothes and hair as she moved numbly through the legs of fighting people.

"Hazel!" I screamed her name but she didn't turn. I made a quick move in an attempt to get into her line of sight, but a Soldier grabbed me by the shoulder and brought his blade down my spine, a stinging pain following suit. I dug my elbow into his chest and kicked back into his shin, snapping it and dragging my elbow across his jaw as he sank to his knees.

Hazel was hypnotized. Her eyes empty and dull, she crawled through the hay before reaching out for something and pausing. She picked something up, standing slowly to her feet as if there wasn't a battle going on all around us.

"Hazel!" I screamed again. She turned to me this time, her face blank as she gripped tightly to the one thing I prayed she would never touch.

The second her fingers closed around the metal, it began to glow. Hazel's eyes flashed a brilliant gold, color boiling in her iris' as the metal gleamed between her fingertips. Creto stared on from the ground, his own eyes wide as the angel carved into the rod began to move it's wings, it's fiery sword falling down upon the demon it battled. Everyone was mesmerized. The rod shot out a brilliant light, growing, stretching until the rod was not five inches, but five and a half feet long. The expanding metal turned a brilliant bronze color, bleeding through the silver as though it were paint. At the fourth foot, a gleaming, silver blade sprouted, reflecting the light so brilliantly it looked like fire.

Hazel stared on at my Father and I, who were both paralyzed along with the rest of the crowd. Hazel's expression changed, one from innocence and confusion to stone. She did not look like the same, fearful girl I'd seen seconds ago. A Purified Soldier to her right was the first to move. And so he was the first to die.

Hazel twirled the rode in her hands as if it had a mind of it's own before slicing it clean through the man's chest. He grunted, dropping to his knees when Hazel had already moved on to her second attacker. She threw the rod up as a distraction, the metal shrinking the second it left her hands, and brought her palm up to another Soldier's nose, snapping it. She dug her elbow into his jaw, her back to him as she caught the rod again, which grew once more, and shoved it into his stomach. Hazel was slicing and cutting and stabbing and twirling like she'd been at the Institute for years instead of days, and after minutes of standing there in awe, every Shadowhunter seemed to be so inspired by her movements that they finally sprang into action.

It was a blood bath, Creto whining on the ground until one of his Soldiers hauled him up by the arms. They were retreating, less and less of them filling the field as they fled back from where they'd come, more and more disappearing by the second. Hazel yanked her blade from the spine of a fallen soldier as Creto paused by the Portal entrance, staring at all of us with a hint of demonic glee playing at his eyes.

"And so the daughter of Heavenly Fire rises," he rasped, staring at her. "You will lose," he said gently, almost pityingly. "And you will die."

He disappeared into the Portal, the slit in the sky seeming to zip itself up behind him, and then the air was still.

"What the HELL was that?" Lucy demanded, staring at Hazel almost accusingly. Hazel lifted her eyes, dropping the rod. It shriveled up back into it's foot-long silver state, Hazel's eyes fading back into a dull light brown, green flecks speckling the iris. She sucked in a deep breath, the torn blouse on her shoulder slipping down her arm.

"Hazel?" I asked gently. She looked like she was going to be sick.

"Oh my God." Mom whispered, staring at Hazel's back. The girl turned, her shoulder facing me as my eyes widened. There, where the Soldier had marked her, was a butchered attempt at an Alliance Rune. Creto had tried to enslave her. The Rune had burned through her skin, turning a charred burgundy color, the edges of it smudged and speckled with blood. Black lines leaked through the surrounding veins like poison.

"Hazel!"

She hit the ground before I could get to her.

So what do you all think so far? I'd love to hear from you!

I'd also like to warn you that the chapters, although keeping their humorous tone, will start to get a little darker. That means people will die, hearts are going to get broken, and there will most definitely be a lot of devestating secrets revealed. So if you're not up for it, I suggest you stop now.

Read & Review please! ;)