AN: Another fairly long chapter. I really enjoy writing Jace's POV. That's why his chapters are always longer. But I won't keep you from reading any longer. :D

Disclaimer: Yes, yes, no I'm not Cassandra Clare. Sheesh.


Jace:

Maybe it was just my nature to be cynical, but so far I hadn't found a single attractive thing about LA.

The airport sucked, it was dirty and under horrible construction. There was no real public transport system, and the Metro was confusing as hell. I was at Union Station, running around frantically. I was on a mission: the find the Gold Line. I shoved some random guy out of my way, and ran into yet another unmarked hallway.

Unlike LAX, Union Station was actually pretty nice, but it was a total disaster in terms of signing. Pushing my way through the a crowd, I finally found a sign. It pointed me towards some stairs.

I run up them, probably knocking over several people in the process. I was dying to get on this train. One left in about two minutes, and then there was a half hour break. I had to be on it.

I got to the platform just as the train was pulling in. I waited impatiently while people got off, and then shoved through the crowd onto the Metro Train. I snagged a seat.

People piled onto the train, and I suddenly felt like a jerk when I saw a pregnant woman looking for a seat. I stood up and let her have mine, which resulted in me standing when the train left the station.

Luckily, as a New Yorker, I was pretty experienced in the art of standing on the subway. I laughed to myself as everyone jerked all over the train as it stopped and started. I was watching as one guy knocked over like half the train as it pulled into the first station. Chinatown, I read, I was looking for Allen. But as I looked out at the platform, I saw a girl. She was small, with red hair and obviously a figment of my imagination. Because Clary wasn't standing on the platform.

Once I saw that, I couldn't get her out of my head. I swear as I stood on that train every moment of my life since I'd met Clary passed through my head. Lincoln. The moment I saw her in Pandemonium, how I really saw her, how she was so instantly beautiful. Clary laughing on that couch with Simon. Clary looking at me in the alley like she wasn't sure what to make of me. Heritage Square. Clary at the Bone City, face full of pain. My need to help her, to do anything to make it stop. Southwest Museum. The look on her face at Renwick's, when Valentine had told us we were siblings. How it had all seemed like a horrible joke to me, how it couldn't be true because I love her so, so much. Highland Park. The kiss at the Seelie Court, when I realized that becoming her brother had made difference really to either of us. How I'd wanted to hold her closer, kiss her longer, even though Isabelle and Simon were watching. Mission. Her face after she's realized what the rune did on the boat. How powerful she'd been and yet still seemed so fragile. Her horrible pain when she'd thought Simon was going to die and how all I'd wanted was to take her into my arms and make the pain stop. Fillmore. How devastated I'd been when I'd known she was asking me just to be her brother. But all I ever wanted was to please her, and so I'd consented. Del Mar. The horror I'd felt when she'd shown up in Idris. How broken she'd looked after I'd yelled at her. How I'd felt like I'd just gone against nature, and I couldn't stand to hurt her. Memorial Park. That day at the Wayland Manor. How I'd just wanted to keep going and going, I never wanted to let her go, to stop kissing her, to be away from her, ever. That night we'd spent together, and even though all we did was sleep, how perfect it was for me. Lake. When she'd told me that I wasn't her brother. That final night in Idris, with the fireworks and then perfection of knowing that I could have Clary. That Clary and I could finally be together, and just getting to hold her hand while everyone else was there.

Allen.

I got off of the train. The platform of the Allen station was right in the middle of freeway, which was a little disorienting. I followed the cement down to some stairs, and walked quickly down, underneath the freeway.

In NYC, I would have just stuck out my finger and five cabs would have flocked to me, seeing as I was the only person there. But here, there were no cabs to even hail. For a minute, I just stood on the street corner, looking lost, but then I felt someone tap on my shoulder.

"Excuse me," a voice said. I turned around. It was a girl, maybe 15 years old. She had short, dark brown hair and was dressed in a karate gi. "Are you okay?"

I looked at her. "Yeah, fine."

"You sure? You look kinda lost."

I gave in. "I need to a hail a cab."

She laughed. "You're not going to get one," she said. "cabs don't just drive around here. You're from New York, huh?"

I nodded.

"Well, don't worry, Mr. New Yorker," she said. "I'll call a cab for you." She pulled out a cell phone and scrolled through her contacts. Finally, she selected one and called. "Hello, I'd like to order a cab." "Yes." "For now, please." "The Allen Street Metro Station." "Um… hold on a moment."

She turned back to me. "Where do you need to go?"

Was Jet Propulsion Laboratory a common enough place that she would know where it was? I tried it. "JPL."

She smiled and spoke into the phone. "To JPL please." "Alright thanks." She put the phone back in her pocket. "So," she said to me, "you okay now?"

I nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine, thanks." I wondered briefly if she was checking me out, but she wasn't looking at me like most girls did, she looked at me like she was my friend, and she was sincerely worried about me.

"Okay," she said. "Bye." She waved at me and didn't give a backwards glance as she walked. She reached a guy I hadn't noticed before, but he was dressed in a karate gi as well and looked so like her that they had to be siblings. The two of them turned and headed back into the station like nothing had happened, and she hadn't just saved my sorry butt from sitting there all night.

It made me sad, because I realized it was the kind of thing Clary would have done.

The cab showed up about 20 minutes later. I got in and he took me to JPL. As we drove through the streets, he glanced often at the clock.

"You know," the cabbie told me, "they stop taking visitors after 5 P.M."

"That's okay," I responded. "I'm not really interested in going in. I'm meeting someone there."

In a way it was the truth. I would be meeting Clary there and the two of us would head back to New York.

Half an hour later, the cabbie reached the JPL gates, which were closing just as we got there, at 5 o'clock.

"You sure you want here, kid?"

I bit my lip, unsure. My plan had kind of stopped here. As I thought about what to do, my stomach growled.

"Um… can you take me back to the nearest town?"

The cabbie made a quick u-turn and ended up dropping me off a near-by Subway. I almost fainted when he gave me the bill, it was more than half my money and at least double the price I would have paid for a journey that long a home.

I wandered into the Subway and wondered what to do next. Food, I decided, was the first order or business. I bought a meatball sub to go and a coke. I was starving, I hadn't eaten all day, but somehow I just couldn't make myself eat.

I walked aimlessly into a deserted alleyway on the outskirts of town. Here, I sat against a wall and tried to make a decision. Absentmindedly, I ate my sub. It was delicious. At some point I realized that I was holding my stele. I took this as a signal to myself that it was time to try tracking Clary again. I quickly sketched the rune on my arm, not even thinking of the pain that would inevitably followed, and was fairly surprised when it started.

First an image flashed across my vision. I sign I had seen that day, the one that said "Jet Propulsion Laboratory." A huge green check mark lighted across it. Next, there was a little, almost video, following a small path to the side of the sign. From there, the "camera" walked to a pothole off of the path.

Then all the pieces of me flew back together, taking a surprisingly short amount of time. Their reuniting with my actual body caused me to black out from the pain.

When I woke, my whole felt hot, my heart in particular. I looked around at the darkness of the night. I couldn't travel there tonight, I would have to wait for daylight or risk being over run and captured by demons.

But the one thing I knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, was that tomorrow was the day I had to save Clary.

AN: Just real quick, I wanted to say that all information in this chapter except JPL not taking visitors after 5 is researched and true. Those are all real stops on the Gold Line in order, and that's actually how you get there from Union Station. The Allen street station is actually in the middle of the freeway. And as for those two kids in karate gis, well, I'll just confess that I may know them. Intimately. :)