It's been so long. We've tallied up the votes. We all wanted what was best, and here is it. Your decision. It's Clace. We got more PM's and reviews for them. They were close by the count of 2. It's true that this is an unfair tally though. The label said Jace and Clary, not an OC. But, we can't do anything about it. Enjoy reading this! And Raquel has also been going through her first 'someone has a crush on me' stage. That's why it's taking so long.
"Take him, please." Clary sighed, feeling a hand on her shoulder. The principal of the school, Mr. Starkweather, had come as reinforcements thorugh Magnus, but hadn't made it in time to help out, not that they needed any. He didn't say anything, just went in front of her, and carried Sebastian's corpse away.
"Clary!" Jace called out.
"Jace!" She was just happy to see a different set of eyes. Ones with life in them. Jace held her tight, then looking her once over to see if she was hurt. "I'm fine," she murmured, now realizing that Jace was actually staring at her.
"Oh, sorry. I suppose you want to go off to Argenteus, huh?" Jace actually looked genuinely hurt.
"Yeah," she sighed, then stepped back from his embrace. Once out of reach, she headed for Gent who stood with Izzy, Izzy, who was crying.
"Are you okay? Is Sebastian gone?" Gent asked, checking for bruises or cuts.
"I'm fine. Sebastian's gone, but what happened to Izzy? I've never seen her so…" turning to look at the crying Lightwood for a word to describe her, her eyes lay on the boy who stood in front of her. Dark haired, gray eyed. "Oh…"
"That doesn't look like Sebastian's son." Gent pointed out, his hands on Clary's forearm. Walking closer to the boy, she could see Isabelle's face a lot more clearly- her face teary of mascara.
"Max… Oh, Max…" she heard. Clary gasped slightly, the gray eyed boy looking up from his sister's shoulder.
"How is this possible?" asked Alec from beside Clary, his eyes checking over the boy to see if this was just another one of Sebastian's tricks.
"Sebastian said that he was his son…" Clary thought to herself. "And that there was a rune bonding them both. What if the rune just created a sort of disguise for Max and erased his memory, making him think that Sebastian was his father? Did that make any sense?" Clary thought aloud to herself.
"That actually does. Once you started working on the rune, I saw him flickering from the beast to the kid. It wasn't clear at all, but now it is." Spadix explained, coming from the fog that was starting to disperse.
"So, this really is Max…" Alec practically whispered to himself. He started walking towards the boy, kneeling down next to Izzy so he could force her to let go. Once she did, the boy started to breathe a little better. He wore the clothes he was buried with. White shirt, still clean and smooth as if someone ironed it when he was wearing it, and black pants, with his black converse that never went out of style. His glasses were in his hands as they were buried next to him in the coffin.
"Stop crying, Iz. It doesn't do anyone any good."
"We thought you were… We- We thought you were-"
"You don't have to say it. I missed you too," said Max, his gray eyes turning a shade lighter.
"How? How did you come back?" Jace asked, his hands ruffling the 9 year olds' dark hair.
"It's a long story. That can wait. I just want to go home."
"Yeah, we'll go home. Just give us a couple of minutes, okay?" Alec hoped that Max's attitude hadn't changed at all.
"Sure. But could you hurry up? I want my manga's." The whole group of Shadowhunters chuckled. "Clary, you owe me too. I've been watching over you. As Jace says, "I have been scarred so many times, in so many ways, that I don't have enough words to explain." Clary's face flushed red which earned her quite a lot of stares but were eventually dropped when Jocelyn came up behind Clary and asked for some privacy.
"Why did you come here? You aren't due to visit me until next friday! You have school!"
"Yes well, I didn't want to wait. Actually, no, he didn't want to wait. With Jace around, he said he was afraid he'd lose me so… yeah."
"When is the wedding?" Jocelyn squealed, red hands coming up to her mouth in anticipation.
"I heard Izzy was planning it with Magnus. I don't know the details at all but I'm thinking around… 4 months later? In June." Jocelyn squealed again. Her arms pulled Clary into a tight hug, muttering, "my baby girl is growing up" quite a lot of times.
"I don't mean to interrupt but we need to leave. Police are about to arrive," said Gent as politely as possible. His fingers tapped Clary's shoulder, getting her attention.
"Come on. Luke is going to flip when he sees this." Joeclyn chuckled and walked with the rest of the Shadowhunters to the New York Institute.
"Well, it's been a while," sighed Clary, her eyes roaming the tall ceilings and fancy paintings along the walls.
"How about you go make yourself feel at home and we'll talk about stuff later?" smiled Izzy who spoke to Max. "Your room is just the way you left it."
"THANKS! I KNEW YOU WOULDN'T FORGET ABOUT ME! LOVE YOU GUYS!" yelled the 9 year old boy as he ran up the stairs to his 'territory'
The group all went into the large lounge room where there was a meeting table behind the other half of the room which turned out to be the living room. They all placed themselves on the couches, love seats, and arm chairs. It seemed sweet, but in other words, distracting. Gent and Clary took the love seat; Isabelle, Jace, Simon and Jocelyn took the couch; Alec and Magnus took the second love seat; and Spadix took the single armchair. The group of 4 friends had all decided to stay standing as they weren't the ones who had fully wasted their strength in fending off a monster/beast.
"Before we get into all the Sebastian and the Beast stuff, can I ask, how the fuck Max is alive? Not that I'm not happy about it but, HOW?!" Jace exclaimed, taking off his gear and throwing it behind him to a rack right against the back of the couch.
"We have a theory. As said, Sebastian disguised him, erased his memory, and made him think that he was his son," stated Spadix, cleaning off her weapons from tinges of blood on them.
"But how is he alive. No, how did he get out of his grave? And what did he mean by 'watching over you' because he just sounds like a stalker that way!" Jace snapped. Everyoen thought about it for a while. Silence.
"Ever heard of Guardian Angels?" Gent looked around the room. Glances were exchanged and heads nodded. "It's said in legends that if Raziel sees the soul of a Shadowhunter as of pure heart, he'd be able to watch over his friends and family as a Guardian Angel and help lead their lives in moving on and helping them succeed." Clary looked at her hands, not at the ring, but her hands, just to think.
"Then how did Sebastian get to him?" Isabelle muttered, but through the silence, it was as if she was purposely speaking aloud. Everyone fell silent. Not even Simon could hear the breathing in the room.
"He definitely didn't do this on his own. He'd need some magic or some very powerful runes to cover up his tracks at Max's grave," said Spadix. Gent, Clary, and the rest of the HK Shadowhunters were surprised at her mental observation. She observed clothes, not crime scenes.
"Who doesn't hate Max and want a lot of power? Or, is being controlled or used as servants?" Simon summed up.
Silence.
"Well, demons couldn't possibly get through the wards so they're out of the question… No one has anything against Max so they couldn't have possibly done it out of hatred…" sighed Alec as he thought out loud to fill in the silence.
"Sebastian probably has some sort of warlock or mixed blood creature at his disposal. It would probably be easier if they went together to Max's grave together. If his accomplice is a warlock, traces of magic would be there. But if it were to be a fellow Shadowhunter, there'd be runes," pointed out Jocelyn as she tapped her fingers against her knees.
"I guess there's only on way to find out then…" sighed Kate, her hands gripping her stele. "Now, who's ready to visit our lovely friends, the Silent Bros?"
Damn, it's short. As said, we're sorry for not updating faster. We totally will once Raquel learns that it's not such a big deal and more dramatic things will happen in her life. So, we'll see you guys soon! R&R please?